5 brilliant tips to curb your appetite

Sometimes people are so obsessed with their unbridled hunger that they need nothing but an exorcist to get this demon out of them. Well, this is, of course, in the circle of the joke. But it still turns out to be a pretty good metaphor in this context.

Quite often when visiting a nutritionist or other specialist, people have unreasonably high expectations. They often want to get rid of the great hunger without effort and just deal with the problem like that.

The truth is that regaining balance and curbing appetite sometimes requires effort and patience. The five strategies below are intended precisely to make you feel inner balance and realize how much control you actually have over yourself.

1. Make sport fun

Have you ever worked out hard and then felt like you could eat anything in your path? This is completely normal because you have burned a huge amount of calories.

What can you do? Treat training not as an effort, but simply as fun. For example, people who went for a long walk to lose weight have been proven to consume more calories than people who did the same physical activity, but only for fun.

The results showed that those who took the walk simply as fun consumed between 24 and 30% fewer calories. The same goes for training. When people exercise with the goal of sweating and working out, they feel much hungrier afterward. However, that’s not the case if you’re having fun while burning calories. How?

Very simple – beach volleyball, swimming and dancing are some of the best suggestions for a fun way to lose weight without getting hungry.

2. Get enough sleep

Lack of sleep not only increases hunger significantly, but also makes you more prone to eating junk food. A study by the Texas Southern Medical Center shows that getting good, quality sleep greatly reduces cravings for fatty foods and carbohydrates.

The study shows that with 4.5 hours of sleep, for example, severe uncontrollable hunger is observed in the early afternoon. Reduced sleep duration is also considered one of the causes of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, depression, as well as severely reduced immunity.

3. Drink more water

Studies show that drinking enough water greatly reduces appetite. Try it and see for yourself. People who drink about 7 to 8 glasses of water a day eat about 200 fewer calories on average than those who don’t.

Another study found that people who drank one to two glasses of water before a meal consumed an average of about 75 to 90 fewer calories per serving. The results of a third study showed that two groups of people who were placed on the same dietary food regimen lost different amounts of weight depending on how much water they drank.

Those who drank more water lost 7-8 kilograms in 12 weeks, while those who drank less water lost about 5 kilograms each. German scientists found that when drinking a large glass of water, the metabolism begins to accelerate, reaching its peak after about 30-40 minutes. It took about an hour for the metabolism to reach its previous slower pace.

If for some reason you don’t like to drink water, you can season it with mint leaves, lemon or something else, like a slice of cucumber.

4. Eat on a schedule

Your body likes to eat at the same time every day. When mealtime approaches, the body begins to prepare for food intake.

Try to have the first meal of the day within an hour of waking up, and the rest of the meals spread over 3 to 5 hours. Also, try to take approximately equal amounts of food and, if possible, it should be varied.

Include protein, slow-release carbohydrate (whole wheat bread, oatmeal), fruits and vegetables, and plant-based fats (coconut oil, olive oil). You will see that if you follow these simple rules your body will start working like clockwork and will be hungry at a specific time.

By following a sensible diet you will be less likely to give in to hunger pangs related to boredom or other moods.

5. Learn how to deal with stress

Stress is the number one factor that makes us reach for unhealthy sweets and desserts. Even in English the word for stressed read backwards means “desserts” (stressed <-> desserts).

An observation on monkeys shows that when they are exposed to stress, the animals consume more fatty and caloric food and in smaller time intervals, and their appetite in the evening is quite large. On the other hand, when the monkeys are calm, they eat only during the day and eat more rationally.

An important rule is to learn not to blame and beat yourself up. Accept yourself as you are and be more tolerant. Know that when you push yourself you are more likely to eat chips and chocolate and other temptations as well.

Find ways to feel good. Talk to friends, share your fears, your worries, exercise, paint, meditate, listen to good music and you will find that you need much less food because your mind has discovered other pleasures.

If you follow these little rules, you will soon discover how much better your figure has become and how much less food you need.