When you are trying to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight, you may have a tendency to cut calories. While this facilitates weight loss, cutting calories too much can cause you to feel hungry and experience cravings. When your cravings become too much, you may start to overeat, which only adds to your waistline instead of taking away pounds. Instead, you can use a diet that helps you control hunger by eating to avoid cravings.
Eat Regularly
Hunger is a desire stimulated when your stomach sends signals to your brain that it is empty. When you do not eat enough filling foods on a regular basis, you feel hungry. To keep this from occurring, you must eat at regular intervals. This starts with refraining from skipping breakfast. Because you do not eat in the six to eight hours while you are asleep, skipping breakfast can further affect your blood sugar, making you more likely to overeat. In addition to eating breakfast, you also should eat a meal every five to six hours with snacks between these meals.
Eat Filling Foods
Certain foods can help you feel full for a longer period of time. Examples include foods that contain protein, such as yogurt, tuna, beans or chicken, which take longer for your body to break down. Foods that are high in water content, such as cauliflower, broccoli, green beans, carrots, vegetable soup, berries or grapes, help to reduce hunger and are low in calories. Adding more of these foods to your diet can help you control hunger.
Reduce Stress
One key item that stimulates hunger can be stress. The more stress in your life, the more likely you are to experience hunger cravings, particularly for sweet or high-fat foods, such as convenience foods, cookies, cakes or pies. To control your hunger, control your stress. Take a walk each day, practice deep breathing exercises or listen to a CD that teaches progressive muscle relaxation techniques. By improving your mental health, you can boost your physical healthy as well.
Splurge Occasionally
Restricting your diet can cause you to feel deprived, which can make the only foods you crave the ones you have restricted. To prevent this from occurring, the best approach is to allow yourself up to three “splurges” a week, according to Health.com. Knowing that you can have access to a treat in your future or that you can have an indulgence when you need it most can help you to resist the urge to stray from your diet.
References
- "Reader's Digest"; 10 Ways to Control Your Cravings; Paula Dranov
- "USA Today"; Curb Cravings Before They Control Diet; Nanci Hellmich and Dawn Blatner, R.D.; January 2006
- Health Services at Columbia University: Still Can't Control Cravings for Sweets; November 2007
- Health.com: 3 Fresh Ways to Control Cravings; Ingela Ratledge
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