When trying to lose weight the most difficult situation faced by most of us is the continuous feeling of being hungry. Suddenly the stomach is just not satisfied enough, thereby putting us off the track. Most of it is psychological and partially we can put the blame on our techniques of losing weight. The worst of all being – skipping meals and depriving the body to no extent.
Tips to tame your hunger while losing weight:
1. Never skip meals since it’s the worst damage you can do to your weight loss plans. It not only deprives body from nutrients, puts your body off from normal metabolism and forces you to eat more and wrong foods. Eat small meals at regular intervals of 2-3 hours.
2. Eat slowly and chew your food. If you eat slowly your body will know the portion of the food and also you would enjoy food more thereby feeling satisfied. If you eat in a hurry your body won’t know if it has eaten at all and your taste buds don’t feel satisfied. You end up eating more than required because it takes about 20 minutes after eating for your body to realize that your stomach is full.
3. Make fiber your new best friend because fiber will keep you full for longer and nourish your body at the same time. Blend greens in your smoothie, add more veggies along with greens in your salad, toss beans in your soup or add veggies to your scrambles.
4. Avoid filling yourself up with empty calories. Instead choose foods that are high in water content because they are low in calories as compared to any protein or carbohydrates.
5. Hydrate yourself with water instead of any sweetened drink. Drink plenty and make sure that the hunger pangs are genuine. Often we confuse ourselves with water requirement and hunger pangs.
6. Balanced nutrition is a must if you are trying to lose weight. For this, you need to balance your meal with right proportion of lean protein, complex carbohydrates, good fats, and lots of mineral and vitamins.
7. When you first feel the hunger pangs try to distract yourself with other stuffs. For example involve yourself into some sports or other hobbies or get busy with your work. This will help you think less about food. But don’t starve yourself, only a distraction for some time is required so as to maintain the right intervals between meals.
8. Sleep, sleep and sleep well which nowadays most of us are having trouble with. When we don’t sleep for 7-8 hours our hunger hormones are more activated sending our brains the wrong signal of false hunger due to which we overeat. Remember to eat dinner at least 3-4 hours before you hit the bed.
Health tip of the week
“Tame your hunger with some diligence and lose weight gradually in a sustainable manner”.
I so needed to read this as I try to diet before summer! I’m struggling to avoid sugars, especially in drinks (i am too obsessed with iced tea). But like you said, I am going to start ditching it for water
Really great tips! Skipping meals is the worst because not only do you end up eating more later, you will really mess up your metabolism by doing it.
Hi Gunjan,
I was browsing through your site and found a lot of helpful contents here. Glad you featured this article because I always have problem controlling hunger although I’m making effort to stay fit and healthy as possible. I agree with lack of sleep that helps you gain weight fast. When we lack rest and sleep, we tend to compensate by eating – a lot of eating – and this is true with false hunger. Agree too, with all other points mentioned. Thanks for sharing these tips!
I am happy this article was helpful to you.