You count calories religiously and hit the gym nearly every day. Despite your commitment, the inevitable happens: a hectic day, looming deadline, or traffic jam disrupts your schedule, and you succumb to food cravings. Use these seven tips for dealing with your food cravings and keep your weight control efforts on track.
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Reduce Stress
We are all familiar with the term “stress eating.” Chronic stress is a common trigger for food cravings. It also increases levels of cortisol, a stress hormone related to obesity.
Alternative medicine experts recommend whole foods to reduce stress on body and mind. A diet low in simple sugars and high in vegetables, fruits, and healthy fats can help your body fight inflammation and may even prevent depression. Add ginger, turmeric, and flaxseed to help your body manage stress.
Morning exercise can be a stress-busting strategy. It releases endorphins and gets your metabolism in gear for the day. Exercise outdoors, if possible—sunlight helps regulate your circadian clock and raises your vitamin D levels.
Replace Unhealthy Food Cravings with a Healthy Alternative
When unhealthy cravings strike, you can satisfy the urge with a healthy substitute for junk food. Have alternative foods on hand so they are readily available when you need them. For a healthy snack, substitute a smoothie for ice cream, popcorn or nuts for potato chips, and sweet potato fries for french fries. If chocolate is your weakness, opt for dark chocolate containing at least 70 percent cacao—it’s filled with flavonoids and other healthy micronutrients!
With a conscious effort to incorporate healthy alternatives, you will develop mindful eating habits and be less prone to compulsive and binge eating. This not only helps with weight loss but leads to a more positive overall relationship with food.
Consume More Proteins
Increasing your protein intake is a good way to reduce between-meal hunger pangs. Protein digests more slowly than other nutrients and does not produce a spike in blood sugar, meaning you will feel full longer. Protein reduces your body’s secretion of hunger hormones while increasing production of satiety hormones.
Adding more protein to your diet brings other benefits. When you cut total calories, protein helps maintain lean muscle mass. Lean muscle is more metabolically active than fat, so protein gives your metabolism a boost too.
Lean meat, legumes, eggs, seeds, and nuts are all excellent sources of protein to add to your diet.
Eat without Overindulging
Hunger signals are your body’s message that you should eat soon. They are easily distinguished from food cravings because they happen right on cue, based on when you last ate and your activity level. If the timing makes sense, you should eat when you start to feel hungry, not after you are famished. If you wait, you risk eating too quickly and overindulging. Try to eat slowly and stop before you feel completely full to avoid getting ahead of your body’s satiety response.
Eating out does not have to mean overindulging. You can enjoy a restaurant meal without compromising your weight loss plan. Most establishments post menus online, so whenever possible, review them early to strategize your order. Drink a glass of water before leaving home to tamp down your appetite, and choose water to accompany your meal. If salad is your go-to, remember to request dressing on the side so you control the serving size. Dessert is not off limits! A light option is best: think fresh fruit or sorbet.
Drink More Water
Water is one of the most essential tools in your fight against food cravings. By drinking plenty of water throughout the day, you increase your satiety without consuming additional calories. Try drinking one cup thirty minutes before a meal, another while eating, and a third cup after the meal for maximum effect. Add a lemon slice for a bit of interest.
Beyond its role in helping you to lose weight, keeping hydrated will enhance your health in almost every aspect: physical performance, brain function, mood, memory, and energy levels. Research in neurobiology has found that your body’s need for water can even manifest in a craving for food, so you can never go wrong by drinking water when cravings hit!
Distance Yourself from What You’re Craving
The easiest way to combat food cravings is to plan ahead. If you are going to be out for the day, pack snacks or small meals so you do not rely on fast food. When shopping for groceries, buy only healthy snacks—if junk is not in the house, you will not be able to eat it. Eat before going to a party where you know tempting unhealthy food will be served.
If a food craving does hit, distract yourself by doing something that physically prevents you from eating: go for a walk, call a friend, or try chewing gum. Drink a glass of water to quell false hunger signals.
Get More Sleep
Of these seven tips to deal with your food cravings, the final recommendation may be the most surprising: get better sleep! Sleep disturbance is associated with failure to lose weight when dieting. This is not just because of midnight snacking—your body needs adequate sleep for proper metabolic regulation. Sleep is a restorative period for all the body’s systems.
Erratic sleep patterns and sleep deprivation can cause hormonal imbalances. Studies show that sleep loss induces fluctuations in hormonal signals for satiety and hunger and produces cravings for unhealthy foods.
To maximize your sleep quality, try to stick to a regular bedtime and rise at the same time each morning. Make sure your room is as quiet and dark as possible. Avoid going to bed hungry or overly full. Caffeine, alcohol, or exercise too near bedtime can interfere with quality sleep.
If you found these seven tips to deal with your food cravings helpful, check out our weight loss program for more tools and advice to make your weight loss journey successful.
Food Cravings. We’ve all had our fair share. 50% of people report experiencing cravings on a regular basis and that’s really no surprise when you consider all the factors that contribute to food cravings.
Food cravings are a temptation to contend with—but there are things you can do to help resist the urge for junk food.
First, let’s look at how cravings work from a neurological standpoint. Food cravings go far beyond willpower. Our brains are actually hardwired to release feel-good hormones even just thinking about eating something indulgent.
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According to Harvard, when we eat foods that are hyperpalatable—meaning they are sweet, salty or rich—the reward region in the brain called the hypothalamus lights up like a Christmas tree and stimulates the release of hunger hormones as well as the “feel-good” hormone dopamine and this combined release of hormones creates the perfect storm for food cravings.
The more you give in to your favorite junk foods, the more you stimulate the reward region in your brain and scientists credit this pattern loop to cravings, addictive food patterns and emotional eating.
With Thanksgiving around the corner, temptation will abound—and between the fatigue of travel and the stress of everyone under one roof—it may lead to over consuming comfort foods. The following strategies can help. Keep them in your back pocket and use them to manage food cravings this Thanksgiving, and over the holidays ahead.
4 Ways to Manage Food Cravings This Thanksgiving:
1. Get enough good calories—and stay hydrated
If you want to keep food cravings at bay, it’s just as important to get enough nutrient-dense calories as it is to not exceed your upper calorie limit.
Studies show that people that severely restrict calories have more food cravings, therefore it’s important to calculate how much you need—right down to your macronutrient mix—and aim to eat within it each day. For help calculating your daily need based on your goals, read this.
You may have also heard that thirst and dehydration can both be confused for hunger—and researchers have found it to be true. In clinical studies, 37% of people mistake thirst for hunger thanks to the empty stomach, gurgling and light headedness that can also accompany dehydration—so be sure you’re getting enough water each day. The Mayo Clinic says the easiest rule of thumb to remember is the 8×8 rule: 8 8-ounce glasses of water each day.
2. Delay and distract
Two proven methods for sidestepping food cravings are to put them off and distract yourself in the process. Harvard says that food cravings could naturally disappear in just five to seven minutes if you put it off just a few minutes at a time while doing something else.
Try replacing tempting foods with other dopamine-releasing activities like taking a walk, watching funny memes, playing with the family pet or listening to music—all things that can be equally enjoyable to do with family members over Thanksgiving.
3. Plan your meals around Thanksgiving thoughtfully
Don’t get us wrong, just because you’re on a weight-loss journey or watching your watch doesn’t mean you can’t indulge a little over the holidays. If you don’t allow yourself a little bit of your favorite Thanksgiving trimmings, you’ll most likely cave and overindulge later on.
Decide which gathering you’re going to allow for indulgences and then plan the rest of your meals that weekend or throughout the holiday week accordingly so that you’re balancing your meals mindfully. In the days surrounding the big meal, focus on plenty of fresh salads, green vegetables, lean proteins and lots of water. Limit sugar, simple carbs, alcohol and unnecessary extras like sauces and condiments in the meals surrounding turkey dinner so that you don’t totally fall off the health bandwagon.
4. Practice mindful eating
In a nutshell, mindful eating is being fully present in the moment while you enjoy a meal. Experts say to eat only when hungry and stop when you’re full—being mindful not to overeat (though it may be tempting). While that’s easier said than done at Thanksgiving, there are a few mindful eating tactics that you can employ to indulge just enough without going totally overboard, feeling uncomfortable afterwards and having to deal with the ugly shame monster. Though the Thanksgiving dinner table is typically a tornado of distractions, try these mindful eating tactics that keep eating in check, according to experts:
- This one should be a no-brainer at Thanksgiving: Express gratitude for the food you eat
- While eating, think of how your food was grown, harvested and prepared in order to get to your plate—imagine your host thoughtfully preparing each dish throughout the day
- Despite many conversations happening at once, try to take note of each bite you take—savoring everything on your plate versus speeding through and going back for seconds
- Take small bites and chew well. Experts say you should chew every bite about 30 times
- Notice how your food looks, tastes and makes you feel while you enjoy it—and afterwards
After your holiday meal, be proud of how you gave yourself space to enjoy some foods your rarely eat and reaffirm your plan to get back on track tomorrow
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