Are you interested in learning how to control hunger cravings?
There are few things more difficult than consistently sticking to a long term healthy eating regiment. If you have a goal that involves personal health and weight loss, diets can leave you feeling hungry. Often it’s that very hunger, that makes staying with your food intake plan so hard.
Even if you’re not on a diet, cravings for junk food can derail a healthy eating routine. If you are what you eat, you can’t afford to give in to those cravings. Regularly filling your body with unhealthy foods can lead to big problems down the road.
Seems like a bit of a vicious cycle.
If you’re struggling with cravings, know this – studies show you’re not alone. This is a problem that many people face. However, the good news is – there is a solution.
You can get control of hunger cravings and calorie intake. And once you do, you will be amazed at how it can radically transform your ability to achieve your fitness and weight loss goals.
Today, we’re giving you a list of 19 practical ways to get total control of hunger cravings!
Squash Hunger Cravings with a Protein-rich Breakfast
You can beat your hunger cravings by including more protein in your breakfast, which will help you feel full throughout the day and thus eat less.
One study of obese teenage boys showed that consuming a protein-rich breakfast helped to reduce feelings of hunger significantly.
If you eat a healthy protein-packed breakfast, then that will naturally control your eating behaviors throughout the day and help with weight loss.
How to Control Hunger Cravings – Drink lots of Water
Hunger cravings can be your worst enemy, especially if you are focusing on weight loss.
While doctors recommend that you drink eight glasses of water every day, you can go below or above this level, but don’t go below six.
Drink a lot of water to cleanse your digestive system and make you feel full throughout the day.
Drinking lots of water throughout the day also makes you feel more active and alive of course.
Sounds simple? Well, it is. You can drink more water if you commit your mind to it. Stay hydrated throughout the day and keep insane hunger pangs at bay.
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Control Your Appetite by Getting Enough Sleep
If you think that sleep is a luxury, think again!
If you don’t get adequate sleep, your appetite hormones will soon get out of control.
There is a direct connection between sleep and hunger cravings.
If you are trying to shed excess weight, getting adequate sleep is as crucial as your workout and diet.
However, many people are sleeping for just a few hours nowadays. Approximately 30% of adults in the U.S sleep for less than eight hours, according to a recent study.
Ghrelin hormone is usually released to send a message to your brain when your stomach is empty. Levels of this hormone are high when you are hungry and low after you have eaten.
Leptin hormone, on the other hand, suppresses your hunger cravings by sending fullness signals to the brain.
When you sleep for less than eight hours, your body will release less leptin and more ghrelin; thus, boosting your appetite and increasing hunger pangs. Get enough sleep today and control your food cravings.
Note: Many of our readers report that using a melatonin product greatly aids their sleep cycles.
Free Yourself from Hunger Pangs Through Intermittent Fasting
You might have heard about the positive benefits of intermittent fasting including weight loss, prevention of certain diseases and curbing hunger cravings.
Intermittent fasting is a perfect solution that can help to tame your crazy hunger pangs. But let me say here that fasting is not for the faint-hearted.
Most people eat at regular intervals throughout the day before learning
Watch How to do Intermittent Fasting: Complete Guide
Suppress Your Hunger Cravings by Working Out Before Meals
Do you want to know why you are usually so hungry on your rest days? There are psychological and physical reasons for this phenomenon. When you work out, you create an energy deficit that is filled by the food you eat post-workout. If you don’t consume enough food to fill that deficit, then you are going to feel hungry.
High- intensity workouts suppress your cravings because they promote this kind of post-workout hunger. Working out before your meals help you lean in the direction of replenishing energy you have lost during your workouts. Just make sure you are eating the right foods for your post workout meal!
Note: Make sure to check out our Strength Training for Beginners Guide while you’re here. It’s loaded with great information even seasoned veterans find interesting.
Control Hunger Cravings with a Spinach Extract
Food cravings are often irresistible and uncontrollable. Spinach extract is a diet supplement that helps to tame those insane hunger cravings. Spinach extract slows the digestion of fats and facilitates the release of leptin hormone which suppresses your appetite.
Recent studies have shown that spinach extract reduces chocolate or sugary foods craving by 90%. Over time, this will lead to weight loss. If you consume 5 grams of this extract before meals daily, then it will cut your snacking at night and help you to shed excess weight.
Suppress Your Insane Hunger Cravings with Probiotics
If you are having crazy food cravings, then you need to check on your gut health. Recent research suggests that microbes that are present in your gut could be responsible for your crazy cravings.
So, food cravings aren’t entirely your fault after all! People say, “I have tried to stay away from junk foods for long, but I find myself always returning to them, what might be my problem?” It’s not just a lack of will power on your part.
It’s the lack of little critters in your gut. Getting probiotics into your system could produce some major benefits for you.
Free Yourself from Hunger Cravings with Fiber-rich foods
Eating fiber-rich foods stretches your stomach in such a way that it slows the rate at which it empties, this, in turn, can promote the production of the leptin hormone which signals the brain to feel full.
Also, fiber can also ferment in your stomach which makes you feel full throughout the day.
Boost Your Magnesium
If you are experiencing crazy chocolate cravings, then you might need to check on your magnesium levels. Chocolate cravings can be caused by low magnesium content in your bloodstream while cheese or meat cravings are due to low calcium levels in your body. Insane chocolate cravings might be a sign that you have a magnesium deficiency in your body. Eat more veggies, as they contain a lot of magnesium which can help you curb those crazy cravings.
Squash your Appetite with a Vinegar Solution
Apple cider can have a significant influence on your hunger pangs. Vinegar allows food to stay in the stomach for longer, thus reducing the release of ghrelin hormone which spurs your hunger drive, which means that you will feel full for a longer time.
If you allow yourself to go too hungry, then your hunger cravings will be hard or daunting to resist.
Apple cider vinegar is a great ingredient that you can add to your meal because of its impact on ghrelin.
Acetic acid is the main active ingredient in apple cider vinegar which reduces the release of ghrelin hormone and assists you in curbing your cravings. It’s one of my favorite weapons I have found since learning how to control hunger cravings.
Drink Coffee
Coffee has many health benefits and may assist to reduce your cravings. Recent research shows that coffee minimizes abnormal hunger pangs by 50%. It facilitates the release of PYY peptide hormone which determines the amount of food that each person is likely to consume. Decaffeinated coffee produces the best results in reducing hunger cravings than regular coffee. Its effects can last for more than three hours after you drink it and the easiest to implement of the tips shared in this how to control hunger cravings guide.
Practice Mindful Eating
Under ordinary conditions, your brain will function whether you are hungry or full. But, eating when you are in a hurry or while distracted can cause the mind to skip on these signals. You can solve this problem by concentrating on the foods that are in front of you and eliminate all distractions- a key component of mindful eating.
Mindful eating makes you eat slower and enjoy what you’re consuming more. What this does, in turn, is enhance feelings of fullness when you are finished eating. If you quickly overeat it’s like you’re skipping steps, your brain leaps a chasm and doesn’t tell you that you are as full as you are.
Smell Peppermint to Beat Down Those Cravings
Peppermint can be a tool for you to overcome those insatiable sugar cravings. Inhaling peppermint can directly affect your brain’s satiety center and help you feel full.
Before you eat a meal try inhaling peppermint to reduce your cravings. You can do this any time of day and can be especially effective at halting those sugar cravings.
Watch How to Grow Peppermint from Seeds at Home
Curb Your Food Cravings with Omega-3 Fats
Omega-3 fats especially those found in algae oils and fish stimulate the production of leptin hormone which makes you feel full throughout the day. These fats help to stop hunger cravings for obese and overweight people.
Omega-3 fatty acids found in salmon and walnuts can help reduce hunger pangs that have been bothering you. Omega-3 fatty acids also assist in developing our cognitive functions, learning, and mental health.
Suppress Your Food Cravings with This Miracle Root (Ginger)
Ginger helps your body digest food. Recent studies have shown that ginger root can help to suppress your hunger cravings effortlessly. When you feel a craving for sweet or chocolates, eat some fresh ginger, and that craving will vanish straightaway. Drinking ginger tea can also be just what the dietitian ordered. You can also consume ginger that way.
Tame your Cravings by Learning How to Manage Stress
Eating because you are sad or angry causes your body to release more ghrelin hormone which makes you feel hungry. The overproduction of this hormone can end up being the culprit that makes you run to grab that junk food.
If you have been stressed out lately that could explain why you are experiencing those crazy hunger cravings. Junk foods and stress are good friends, so if you want to tame your desires calm your nerves.
Squash Your Food Cravings with a Dark Chocolate
If you are searching for something sweet to meet your craving, then choose dark chocolate instead of a bar of milk chocolate. The dark chocolate will tame your sugar cravings and return your eating patterns to normal. The bitterness of this chocolate helps to reduce cravings for sweets and milk chocolate. Smelling or eating dark chocolate can help to diminish hunger cravings completely.
Squash your Hunger Cravings by Brushing your Teeth
Go ahead and try this one out. Brush your teeth and see how intense your cravings are afterward. The toothpaste flavor tricks your brain that you ate something and thus keep hunger hormones on hold for some hours because eating after brushing makes your food taste horrible. But you don’t have to keep brushing your teeth throughout the day, do it up to three times maximum in a day. Chewing sugarless gum can help you to control hunger cravings.
Tame your Hunger Hormones by Eating on Small Plates
Minimizing the size of your plate can assist you to reduce your meal portions unconsciously. Interestingly, this can fool even regular eaters. The simple trick of having a smaller plate can be kind of visible smoke and mirrors to your hunger cravings. It fools your brain into thinking that there is less than you need to achieve fullness.
Final Thoughts on How to Control Hunger Cravings
Life would be so easy if we were all designed to crave for veggies or fruits instead of junk foods. Unfortunately, we struggle with sugary treats and French fries every day. Am not saying that there is something wrong with occasional treats, but when it becomes a habit, you will be bracing yourself for serious health problems including unhealthy blood sugar levels, cancer, and hypertension.
Many people also turn to appetite suppressants like this one and this one. If you feel you need that extra bit of help those two products are what I recommend you use.
Certain foods can worsen your hunger cravings while others can help to tame them. You should concentrate more on whole foods because they reduce the urge to eat junk foods. In most cases, these cravings are generally tied to your emotions. Hunger is the primary cause of all these insane cravings. Suppose we eliminated hunger, would cravings still occur? The answer is no. Therefore, suppressing hunger should be one of the effective ways of controlling hunger cravings. You can achieve this by eating meals at the right time and quantities.
Good news! You can learn how to control hunger cravings now! Food cravings can be under your control by employing the practical tips to control hunger cravings discussed above. Take time to select the tips that will work well for you. Your weight management unwanted weight gains will soon become a thing of the past. That bag of chips or candy bars will not call your name again.
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