Do you ever struggle to stick to a diet because you end up continuously hungry or find yourself thinking about food?
Do you find that shortly into your weight loss journey you end up having high cravings for food which pull you away from fitting into that smaller pair of jeans you like?
If so, don't worry you're not alone, this is a frequent occurrence for people, it's also part of the process when changing your diet, and it will take an adjustment period for this to stop.
However, there are still some ways you can better manage your appetite and cravings so you can get into that smaller pair of jeans.
Appetite doesn't just come from cravings and not eating enough but our hormones also play a large role.
Two main hormones play a vital role in hunger and cravings.
Ghrelin & Leptin.
Now leptin is our best friend when dieting, this hormone plays the role in satiety, signaling to our brain that we're full and satisfied.
Ghrelin not so much, ghrelin is in charge of our hunger, signaling to our brain that we need food and prompting us to search for food by cranking hunger up.
So if your hormones are in control of your hunger is there anything you can do to help fix this?
Luckily for you, there is.
There are a few things you need in place to help shift the scale in your favour.
Start prioritising your sleep, I swear people still think that "sleep is for wimps", the number of people I encounter who don't take their sleep seriously or get much sleep baffles me. Sleep is super important not only for the appetite but for everything to do with health. I'm just going to focus on its importance for our hormones during this article but you can find out others by clicking here. When you don't get enough sleep your body cranks up Ghrelin to make sure you start searching for and consuming food. Often this increases cravings for sweeter, more processed, and high-energy foods aka high-calorie foods. Poor sleep quality and the amount will have you hungrier than you are. Poor amounts of sleep also have unfavorable actions on where your consumed calories go. This results in more calories going to fat rather than muscle.
Consume more protein, protein is highly satiating meaning it fills us up and helps to stretch the stomach more. This is how we ensure that leptin is released to signal the brain that we're full and can stop searching for and consuming more food. Protein also has the highest thermic effect of food rate which is around 25-30%. This means for every 100 kcal you consume of protein you'll burn 25-30 calories just through digestion vs 10-15 for carbs and 1-3 for fats.
Consume more fibrous foods, start eating lots of veggies, whole grains, legumes, and fruits, these again are high in satiety so you'll be pleasing your leptin levels and stomach.
Stay on top of your hydration, drinking plenty of water can again stretch the stomach to fill you up and we often confuse dehydration for hunger. Start drinking first thing in the morning, before and during every meal, and throughout your training sessions. This will not only go towards helping suppress your appetite but it will also ensure your body is healthy and energised.
These 4 tips are golden, not only for suppressing your appetite but also for improving health, yet not many people prioritise or focus on them.
If you start putting these things in place you'll soon start to feel a great difference in not only your appetite but your energy and health too.
If you'd like to know how you can learn more about any of these things don't hesitate to get in touch and I'll happily help you out.
Coach Louis