How to Avoid Hunger

How to Avoid Hunger

If you’re trying to lose weight or even simply trying to stay away from junk food, hunger is your enemy. When you get hungry, you get cravings and rarely are these cravings for healthy snacks such as an apple or salad. When you get cravings you usually go for that box of cookies, bag of chips or tub of ice cream. If you can successfully control your hunger, you can better avoid cravings for unhealthy foods that will throw your diet off.

Eat Smaller More Frequent Meals

The first step in controlling hunger is eating smaller and more frequent meals. It may seem counterintuitive, but when you eat before you get hungry, you will actually eat less. This is because if you preempt hunger with a light snack, you’re a lot less likely to get cravings for that slice of pizza the size of your head or that half pound hamburger.

Drink Water

Though drinking water isn’t a magic bullet to losing weight, it does have a few good properties that can help you out. Water is a natural calorie free beverage. Water also does a good job at filling you up. Sipping on water throughout the day will keep your stomach full between meals and keep you from getting hungry.

Once you’re already hungry, go ahead and eat something, don’t use water as a substitute for food, use it as a way to keep yourself from eating and drinking junk.

Eat More Fiber

One of the best ways to stay full is by eating foods that are digested slowly. Foods that contain high amounts of fiber travel through your system slowly and keep you full so you don’t get hungry. Foods high in fiber include vegetables, 100% whole wheat bread and pasta and brown rice. When snacking, concentrate on adding these foods into your diet.

Eat Less Sugar

While fiber can keep you full, foods high in sugar and refined flour will do the opposite, These foods are digested very quickly and won’t leave you full for very longer. Stay away from foods that are filled with empty calories including sodas, fruit juices, chips, pastries and white bread.

The Bottom Line

Whatever your weight goals are, hunger is the enemy. You should be eating often enough to avoid hunger and thereby also avoiding unhealthy eating binges. By eating smaller, more frequent meals, drinking plenty of water and increasing your intake of fiber, you can accomplish this very easily.

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