Keeping your appetite under control can be a challenge, especially when you're trying to lose weight or during the holidays. Even if you're just trying to maintain a healthy body and avoid excessive weight gain, hunger pangs or a sweet tooth can ruin your plans in a hurry. Luckily, there are some super simple steps you can take to control food cravings...
Drink More WaterThe simplest thing you can do to control food cravings and help with weight loss is to drink more water. Drinking water before meals can stretch your stomach lining enough to send signals to your brain that you're feeling fuller than you really are. That can help you avoid overindulging. And you'd be surprised at how often you may think you're hungry when you're probably just dehydrated.
Plus, drinking water throughout the day can help boost your metabolism, and it can help flush toxins from your body. Water is vital to your health regardless, so it's important to keep your intake high enough for general health, but you can also take advantage of it as an appetite-curbing and weight-controlling tool.
Eat Enough ProteinAdequate protein intake can help immensely with controlling your cravings for sweets and other carbohydrate-dense foods.
Increasing the ratio of protein at each meal will help keep you feeling full and satisfied and can help balance blood sugar levels. Protein makes you feel full by reducing ghrelin, the hormone that makes you feel hungry, and it boosts appetite-suppressing hormones as well.
Bonus: Protein also has a higher thermic effect than either carbohydrates or fats, which means the simple act of digesting protein causes you to burn more calories. And aside from helping control your cravings, when combined with exercise, protein will help you build lean muscle tissue - each pound of new muscle helps you burn approximately 50 more calories per day at rest.
Fill up on FiberDietary fiber goes a long way to making you feel full, and it's great for your overall health, too.
A high-fiber diet is not only ideal to control food cravings, it also works wonders for healthy blood lipid levels (cholesterol), has limited calories compared to the level of fullness it provides, and fiber keeps your digestive tract working properly.
RestRest might seem like an odd way to control your cravings, especially if you consider resting to be a lazy "action," but sleep plays a significant role in appetite control. When you don't get enough sleep, you're much more likely to eat more and to eat foods you might normally shy away from because of a lack of self-control. Conversely, getting enough sleep maintains a healthy hormone balance and helps control hunger throughout the day. Plus, on top of feeling healthy and well-rested, you can't binge on late-night snacks when you're asleep.
These are some of the simplest ways to control your cravings, so here's a quick list of three easy ways to make sure you stick to your appetite-control plan:
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