Learning how to curb your appetite is a powerful way to help you lose weight. Eating healthily and exercising regularly will help you beat food cravings. However, there are some common sense strategies which can help you control your appetite rather than letting it control you:

• Distract yourself. If only chocolate will do, it’s a craving not hunger so find ways to distract yourself. Phone a friend, go for a walk or read a book. Cravings typically last ten minutes so recognise that and try to divert your mind and ride it out.
• Eat little and often. Rather than eating two or three large meals, chop up your eating into smaller portions throughout the day. If you don’t leave more than three hours between meals you simply won’t have time to get hungry. The ideal meal plan is to have three balanced meals and two snacks a day. About 28g (1 oz) of either almonds, pecans or walnuts, 123g (4.5 oz) plain yoghurt, or a helping of raw vegetables such as celery, carrots, broccoli or cauliflower florets all make great snacks.
• Brush your teeth early. For whatever reason, when your teeth feel clean you are unlikely to want to eat so if you get a food craving brush your teeth.
• Eat vegetables or soup before the main course. Having soup or an ample serving of vegetables before your main course will fill you up and stop you eating more of the main course.
• Slow down! When you eat fast, you end up ingesting more food before you body has a chance to figure out that it’s satisfied. This strategy sounds simple but it is harder than you think when grabbing a snack or eating on the go has become common place, but if you take time over your meals and really chew your food and taste what you are eating, you’re less likely to overeat. Put your knife and fork down between bites.
• Wait 20 minutes. If you have eaten your meal and want to eat more, wait 15 minutes to see if you are still hungry. Your brain lags behind your stomach by about 15 to 20 minutes when it comes to registering that you are full. You may find that you aren’t hungry after all.
• Go for a walk: When you get a food craving go for a walk. Exercise is a fantastic appetite suppressant. If walking isn’t an option listen to your favourite music; this will take your mind off eating. Simply listening to a few minutes of up beat music has been shown to distract people from hunger pangs.
• Plan or avoid. Vary your usual routine to avoid passing the bakery. If you know you’ll be faced with wedding or birthday cake adjust your other meals to accommodate it.
• Turn off the television or computer: Watching the television or working on the computer while you’re eating is a sure-fire way of expanding your waistline. Your plate might be clean before you realise you’ve eaten a meal.
• Sniff a banana, apple of peppermint: This may sound daft but it works. Research from the Smell and Taste Research foundation in Chicago found that the more frequently people sniffed the less hungry they were. One theory is that sniffing food tricks the brain into thinking you are actually eating.
• Look in the mirror: Hang a mirror opposite your seat at the table. One study found that eating in front of mirrors slashed the amount people ate by nearly a third. It seems that having to look yourself in the eye, reflects back some of your inner standards and goals and reminds you why you need to eat less.
• Get a good night’s sleep. A good night’s sleep is important because lack of sleep disrupts hormones, triggering changing in metabolism and an increase in appetite. Tiredness triggers food cravings so take a power nap for no longer than 20 minutes instead of reaching for the biscuit tin.
• Eat as a family: Try to sit down to dinner as a family. The focus on conversation and the day’s events helps you to eat less, relax and savour your dinner.
• Portion out your snack foods: Don’t eat out of the bag or container: Take the food out of the bag or container and put it in a bowl. That way you can see exactly how much you’re eating. As an example, divide a 282g (10oz) packet of nuts into ten small plastic bags. Make sure you eat only one bag at a sitting, and put the rest away where you can’t see them. The best snack to beat cravings is to eat a handful of nuts (six walnuts, 12 almonds or 20 peanuts) with two glasses of water.
• Destroy temptation. If you’ve succumbed to a craving and start to feel bad while eating it, destroy it. Don’t just throw it away, ruin it or run water over it. You’ll feel a sense of accomplishment that you’ve destroyed your temptation. Don’t worry about the money you are wasting. If the biscuits don’t go down the drain or in the bin they will go straight to your hips.
• Don’t shop on an empty stomach. Shopping when you are hungry is a bad idea as it makes you far more likely to binge on calorie, rich, sugary, fatty foods. Make a list of exactly what you need and stick to it. Buy enough vegetables to last for a week. Avoid the bargain – buying large-sized packages isn’t a bargain if they cost you a new pair of jeans!
• Drink up. Drinking a glass of water before you eat can curb food cravings because you feel fuller. Water can also have a direct impact on energy — you may be reaching for a sugar fix when what you really need to do is rehydrate your body.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 1st, 2007 at 2:40 am and is filed under Weight Loss. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.