Hunger & cravings are the most common reasons people fail to stick to their diet plan. Use our 3 step process to avoid this from happening to you.
Following these steps sets you up for long term weight loss succes.
First take a look at your diet
A decent amount of people are able to lose weight in the short term. But once they hit their goal, or they hit a few weight loss plateaus, they can’t resist the hunger and cravings anymore.
However, there are plenty of people that are able to lose the weight and keep it off. What’s the difference between these two groups of people?
It’s hard to point to exactly one reason this happens but a few can come to mind.
The first one is that some people follow a crazy crash diets. Diets where you almost can’t have anything but a few foods. Most people want some variety in their food choices. Sticking to a diet with 5 different foods is not only unhealthy, it’s not something a lot of people are able to keep up.
And once they fail to stick to that plan, they think their whole weight loss journey is over.
The second reason also has to do with crash diets. It’s following an unhealthy weight loss plan.
Chances are your body gets damaged if you don’t lose weight the right way. For example crash diets can make you stay in an enormous calorie deficit.
The problem is that this can cause your metabolism, the amount of calories you burn each day, to slow down. It’s important to lose weight at a healthy rate.
And this is just one example. Some people do crazy things to lose weight in the short term that can damage long term health and weight loss.
If you want to lose weight and keep it off you need to follow a healthy plan you can keep up.
What is the best diet against hunger & cravings?
People often look for the best diet against hunger and cravings.
It’s true that some macros help reduce hunger more than others but even within these categories the foods are different. To reduce hunger you want to focus on whole foods, foods that are in their natural form. Usually the more processed your food the less it will fill you up.
Cravings are another story.
The first thing you need to know is that the less you eat the foods you are craving, the less you will crave them.
Some people don’t do well eating some kinds of food. They just start going on a spree once they’ve had a little. For these people it can be helpful to just not eat those foods anymore.
Other people might be fine with this. They can just plan in their favorite foods every once in a while.
The message is find a food plan you are able to keep up for an extended period of time. Preferably the rest of your life.
Now you know these things it’s time for the 3 steps to stop hunger and cravings.
1. Recognize “fake” hunger
Humans don’t just get hungry for no reason at all. It’s a sign your body is ready to eat some extra food, hopefully some extra nutrients.
However, there also is a kind of “fake” hunger. This is more your mind playing tricks on you. It might be out of boredom, it might be because you just thought of certain foods. In moments like this it can feel like you absolutely have to eat these unhealthy foods but that’s not the case.
This fake hunger is usually not guiding you towards healthy foods either. The things you think of are probably foods high in sugar. Your body is focused on eating the biggest amount of calories in the shortest amount of time.
How can you deal with the “fake” hunger?
There are two things you can do.
The first thing is filling up your stomach with real food or water. Once you are actually full with food, your mind starts to think more clearly. The most filling kinds of foods have fiber and protein.
So, when you the fake hunger hits you, you need to be aware this might not be real hunger. And if it’s real hunger you solve it with the real food too.
Once you’ve filled yourself up you’ll notice that the cravings and hunger are gone or at least manageable.
To make the chance of this working even bigger, it can be smart to keep meal preps around. This way you have another reason less to go for the unhealthy options.
The second thing you can do to deal with fake hunger is just that, dealing with it. Right now you are probably trained to grab for food as soon as any hunger appears. Your weight loss life will get a lot easier if you learn to be comfortable with a little bit of hunger.
Now, you will probably have to practise this a little. The nice thing about it is that the more you do this, the better you will get.
2. Stay away from highly addictive foods
Another important thing that can help you in the fight against hunger and cravings is staying away from highly addictive foods.
The most addictive foods are usually the ones that mess up weight loss the most. The human body is wired to seek out as many calories as possible to survive. This might’ve been a useful thing in prehistoric times but right now not so much.
It’s interesting what kinds of food some people have gotten used to eating. If they would only eat whole foods for a month they would literally feel sick by eating the addictive foods again.
The foods might taste good for a minute or 10 but after that you will have to deal with all the negative consequences.
A positive point about this is that the taste of other foods can increase a lot.
Normal whole foods can not compete in taste with these sugary foods. Because of this they might not taste that good. But once you stop eating as much of these calorie-spiked foods, all these other foods start tasting better and better.
So remember, the longer you stay away from the bad foods the easier it will become to stay away from them.
3. Tactically plan unhealthy foods
The third step is focused more on the cravings part.
It can be helpful to plan in certain foods every once in a while. By smartly planning the amount and time you will eat these foods you can avoid overeating on them.
Even “bad” food can have a place and time in a healthy diet if it helps you stick to the healthy diet.
You can still lose weight while eating things like pasta, bread and cereal if you balance it out with your other meals.
There is almost always a way to balance your food intake. Whether it takes you a day or a week. Most likely, you can balance it out.
Using strategies like fasting can be a useful for this third step.
The 3 step process
-Step number 1 is to identify the difference between your body’s hunger and your minds hunger.
- Recognize “fake” hunger and deal with it accordingly
- Stay away from highly addictive foods… Most of the time
- Plan in the time and quantity of unhealthy foods
Following this 3 step process will help you achieve long term weight loss.
