5 Healthy Ways To Stop Hunger

#1: Eat Your Breakfast
Eating breakfast within about 30 minutes of waking up can have a significant impact on how much you eat and how hungry you are the rest of the day. Remember – breakfast stands for “break the fast”, which is what you have essentially been doing since going to bed the night before! By the time you wake, your body has probably gone without food for about 6 to 8 hours, so skipping breakfast will just prolong the time your body has received any fuel. Deciding what to eat is pretty simple – protein like whole eggs and a complex fibrous carb like oatmeal are a great start. Protein provides your muscles with amino acids, while oatmeal provides a source of satiating fiber.

 

#2: Fiber it Up
Keeping your hunger subsided between meals is a lot easier with a diet that is high in fiber. Fiber helps slow down gut digestion, allowing for a slow sustained release of nutrients into the blood stream. The recommended daily intake of fiber in a man’s diet is 38 grams per day. This can be accomplished by eating fiber rich green cruciferous veggies like broccoli, kale, cauliflower and spinach, along with whole grains like oatmeal and non-starchy root veggies like squashes and sweet potatoes. Eating a diet high in fiber not only helps keep blood sugar balanced, it also helps clean out the intestines by reducing toxins and estrogen-like compounds that can have a negative impact on your hormone levels.

 

#3: Eat Regularly
At one time, eating regularly was thought to help increase metabolism, but this is not true. The real benefit of eating regularly is that it helps keep your blood glucose levels balanced. When your blood sugar levels are in-check, cravings and hunger are kept to a minimum. For optimal results, eat 5 to 6 meals daily about 3 hours apart. Be sure that each meal provides a source of satiating protein, fibrous veggies, and at least 2 to 3 of those meals should provide a source of complex carbs like brown rice, quinoa or whole grains.

 

#4: Cut Out Sugar and Alcohol
Sugar raises blood glucose levels and causes a release of insulin, which clears the sugar from the blood to be stored in either fat or muscle. This action results in an immediate drop in blood sugar levels, and subsequent increase in hunger and cravings! Alcohol isn’t much better. Drinking alcohol causes your body to switch from metabolizing food to metabolizing alcohol, ceasing other processes like fat burning and muscle building. It can also have a serious impact on your sugar cravings! Blood sugar levels can drop, since your body can’t metabolize carbs because it is too busy processing alcohol. Cut these two toxins out of your diet if you’re serious about results.

 

#5: Drink More Water
Keeping yourself hydrated is perhaps one of the easiest ways to reduce your appetite and keep hunger in control. Dehydration can often be misinterpreted as hunger. Avoid dehydration altogether by drinking at least 3 to 4 liters of water every day. Drinking plenty of water can also ensure your food is being processed properly, your metabolism is running optimally and those nutrients your muscles need are getting delivered!

~Rachel

Personal Trainer @ Ridge Fitness Missoula

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