How to control hunger and suppress cravings

How to suppress your appetite

One of the biggest problems many people face when it comes to losing weight is not having the will power to control their eating habits. Hunger is an important part of anyone’s weight loss journey, if you are not hungry at some part of your day the chances are you will not lose any weight. This urge to eat shouldn’t be gigantic and if it does over power you then it’s likely you are eating the wrong foods.

I’m not going to go into an appetites suppressant which you may have seen advertised. I promote the natural weight loss journeys, there is no such thing as a shortcut!

So what brings on a hunger craving? Usually this is brought on by a lack of food in the stomach and digestive system but how does your body know this? In simplest terms it’s down to volume, if what you have in your stomach occupies little volume then your body naturally wants more. Without including too much more rhetoric, this volume issue is controlled by the type of food and liquid you eat. If you eat lots of fat and food that is dense then it takes up very little volume. This makes you hungry and poses another problem, fat contains a huge amount of calories. So you may be hungry and also have consumed an excess of your daily calorific maintenance, thus resulting in a weight gain!

As you can see fat is an absolute disaster when it comes to hunger cravings and your diet should only contain a bare minimum to begin with.

Water is your best friend, it’s vital for your body, contains no calories but does take up volume! Drinking 3 litres of water a day is going to be one of the best natural appetite suppressants available. It’s going to speed up the rate of fat loss and also keep those cravings to a minimum.

Let’s stay on the topic of volume for a little longer, other foods that occupy a large amount of volume include;

• Whole grain rice cakes – I am going to be honest these taste pretty horrible but if you are forced to snack try these as they will fill you up really quickly. Having low GI carbs as well will also keep your blood sugar levels at a regulated rate which we will come to shortly.
• Wholegrain pasta/rice/bread – These expand nicely in your stomach and again provide a similar function to the rice cakes.
• Vegetables – A dieter should always be eating vegetables with every meal as they provide excellent nutritional goodness with a large array of vitamins, protein and a minimal carbohydrate count.

So make sure your diet contains everything in the bullet points. Before you say, I hate wholegrains I’ll just have white bread/pasta  etc. You CAN’T do this because this is going to affect your bloodsugar levels as wholegrain foods also keep you blood sugar levels more balanced giving you more sustained energy levels.

Should you suppress your hunger with appetite suppressants?

White grains give you energy really quickly, but this then soon gets processed by insulin and your blood sugar drops, you lose energy and your body craves food. If this is before your next scheduled meal you are in trouble. Stick to wholegrain foods for a reason.

It is possible to take substances that don’t conflict with your diet but help reduce hunger cravings the first being caffeine.  Black coffee is a dieters go to drink, when you feel hungry have a black coffee and feel more alert, the caffeine supresses your bodies hunger signals and gives your central nervous system the kick it needs to get on with the day.

The main problem I have with telling you what reduces the feeling of hunger is that it can be over used. Over consumption of any substance isn’t recommended so please only do this once or twice a day. Having 15 cups of coffee a day is not going to help you lose weight.

If at all possible as soon as you feel hungry start to workout, this ignites many metabolic processes of energy release and your digestive system doesn’t crave food anywhere near as much. I personally find eating after any kind of exercise a real struggle.

If you have read this far I am going to give you my own personal advice. It’s not going to be what you want to hear, the truth hurts get used to it! It’s all well and good trying to avoid hardships, take the easy route and not feel uncomfortable. At the end of the day you need to have something to separate yourself from every other average Joe. If you can’t go through the hardship of feeling a little hungry in order to become this physically better specimen then why do you deserve it? Greatness isn’t given, you have to earn it, so when you get hungry look at the positives, you are doing something right and on the path to where you want to be. The question is how much do you want it?

Let me know how I can help you on your weight loss journey in the comments below or on Facebook or Twitter.