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How to Fight the Want to Eat

Aug 18, 2011 | By Lauren Whitney
How to Fight the Want to Eat
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Hunger serves a vital purpose: it's your body's signal that you need fuel. However, if you're trying to shed excess fat while fighting frequent hunger pangs, this desire to eat can derail your diet. Learning to separate the true hunger that you feel when you need to eat from the urge to munch due to stress, boredom or an unsatisfying meal will help you lose excess weight without feeling deprived.

Step 1

Record your actual food intake in a weight-loss journal. Underestimating the size and caloric density of your meals could result in pangs of genuine hunger. The USDA recommends eating no fewer than 1,200 calories per day for women and 1,500 calories per day for men unless you're under medical supervision, so ensure that your urge to eat isn't simply physical hunger.

Step 2

Examine your motives for eating once you've eliminated genuine hunger from the list of possibilities. Eating out of boredom, nervousness or tension packs on pounds but does little to relieve your stress in the long term.

Step 3

Develop other means of dealing with stress than through emotional eating. Going for a walk, lifting weights or practicing yoga provides the dual benefits of working off spare calories and relieving tension.

Step 4

Choose a diet plan that you find appealing. If your food fills your stomach, but doesn't satisfy your taste buds, you'll continue to feel the desire to eat even after a full meal if that meal was unappetizing. Tailoring your plan to your palate helps quell the urge to eat.

Step 5

Drink plenty of water, either by itself or in low-calorie drinks. Your body sometimes mistakes thirst for hunger, so drinking a glass of water or a cup of hot tea can assuage the urge to eat. Liquids also take up space in the stomach, giving you a temporary feeling of physical fullness.

Step 6

Change the proportions of macro-nutrients in your meals. In 2008, the "American Journal of Clinical Nutrition" published the results of a study from the Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland. Study participants who ate a lower-carbohydrate, protein-rich diet reported feeling less hunger than those who ate a similarly protein-rich diet with moderate carbohydrates.

Step 7

Eat a more varied diet to stave off boredom and include more essential micronutrients in your plan. The University of San Diego conducted a study in 2010 that compared diets with similar calorie counts, but with differing supplies of micronutrients. One conclusion the researchers reached: "A high micronutrient density diet mitigates the unpleasant aspects of the experience of hunger even though it is lower in calories." Although the researchers note that these results are preliminary and that more research is needed, you can test the results for yourself by eating a broader variety of fruits and vegetables.

Tips and Warnings

  • The hunger you may feel a few hours after eating a satisfying meal isn't an emergency, it's a normal biological response. Learn to see hunger not as something you must immediately assuage, but as a signal to think about planning your next meal. Seek professional advice if your hunger feels out of proportion to your food intake; show your journal to your doctor, counselor or nutritionist to give the professional a clearer picture of your daily diet. Brushing your teeth or chewing gum can quell the urge to eat temporarily.
  • Ignoring mild hunger for a short time is fine, but skipping meals to lose weight can cause you to overeat later. Calorie reduction triggers a desire to eat as levels of the hormone leptin decrease, so extreme diets may actually provoke extreme hunger.

Things You'll Need

  • Journal

References

Article reviewed by Jessica Lyons Last updated on: Aug 18, 2011

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