Most of us have all been on a diet at some point in our life. Most of us have probably all got to a point within that diet where we feel incredibly hungry, it's almost inevitable. A diet after all (one that restricts calories) is essentially starving our body of enough calories to function optimally.
I’m also sure that once most of us feel that insatiable hunger, a good few of us have caved and stuffed our face full of our favourite food at least once or twice. That’s fine by the way, we are human and most of us aren’t in prep for a competition and don’t have to be strict every second of every day. You shouldn’t feel guilty and you shouldn’t quit if this happens, dieting should be sustainable and be done over a long period of time. Think to yourself, what is one or two meals of ‘bad’ food if you are dieting for over 100 days? Very little in the grand scheme of things.
Thankfully, there are quite a few techniques that can help reduce your hunger, and most of them are easy to implement. Let’s take a look.
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Eat more protein – not only will protein aid with muscle mass and recovery, but protein actually increases how full you are feeling. This helps with reducing the likeliness of you reaching for a snack in between your meals. -
Get buzzed up on coffee – okay, not so much that it's dangerous, but caffeine has been extensively researched in relation to performance and dieting. One of the key findings has been that it can help with suppressing your appetite. Regarding how much caffeine you should be drinking a day, the 400mg mark seems to be safe for most adults, which is around 4-5 cups.
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Stay hydrated and drink before meals – This is one of the best tips I was ever given. I’m fairly good at sipping water throughout the day and remaining hydrated, but what made a massive difference to me was drinking a larger amount of water before a meal. This helped decrease my hunger before my meal and made a smaller meal feel like a much bigger one, which was perfect!
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Sleep enough – by sleeping enough you are regulating all your hormones in your body for the next day. When this doesn’t happen, you are setting yourself up for a day full of increased hunger and appetite.
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Increase your vegetable intake – The majority of vegetables are super low in calories and are packed full of fibre, which is known to increase fullness. Start flooding your plate with an increase of greens and this is a sure way to add substance to your meals.
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Decrease the size of your spoon or fork – this is a little mind trick that has gone a long way for me. By reducing the size of my spoon when I’m eating my oats, not only does it make my meal look bigger, it also makes it last longer. -
Eat your calories – This may sound simple, but what I really mean is don’t drink them. A typical protein shake with 2 scoops is around 200 calories. Although convenient, this could easily be a pretty hefty chicken salad. I know what would satisfy me more.
Nobody likes dieting and at some point, we are all going to experience an increase in hunger. Next time that happens, try using some of the techniques listed above and see if they make a difference.
