How To Manage Your Appetite For Fat Loss

It would be so much easier to lose weight if you weren't hungry all the time, wouldn't it?

And if all those delicious foods didn't look quite so tempting?

Appetite management is probably the key part of fat loss particularly long term.

I'm going to show you how you can manage your appetite and get those cravings under control.

Hi, it's Ivana, helping you get lean and strong at any age.

Hunger And Appetite

People often use the terms hunger and appetite interchangeably.

And of course they're related, but they're not exactly the same thing.

Hunger is a physiological response that's triggered by your body's need for nutrients and energy. It can be physical sensations like gnawing or grumbling in your stomach and sometimes lightheadedness or weakness.

The Hormone Ghrelin

The body releases hormones like ghrelin to stimulate you to eat.

I always think of ghrelin, gremlin. It turns you into a gremlin and you want to eat.

The Psychology Of Appetite

Appetite, on the other hand is much more psychological and subjective it. It refers to your desire or craving for food and it's often driven by emotional cues or emotions rather than an actual physiological need for food.

We can't fully separate the physiological from the psychological. They are closely intertwined. But the way that I like to look at it is if you manage the physiological (the actual hunger) then it makes it a lot easier to deal with with the psychological.

That appetite that you have for food and particularly your favourite treat foods so I'm going to give you some tools to deal with both of those things.

Genetic Differences In Appetite And Hunger

We know that there are genetic and biological influences on our appetite people who are naturally slim tend to have lower appetites more in line with their body size. Whereas people who have been obese for a long time maybe were even obese as children will tend to have appetite that are out of proportion with their body size. So it's definitely harder for some people and we can't overlook that.

Those people who are naturally slim and dismiss obese people by saying they should just work harder are not really being fair. Because for someone who is naturally of a heavier body size it's much much harder for them to fight against those urges. Those urges are much much stronger for the food. The appetite, their desire for food is just much higher naturally.

But I think with the right system of eating and tools over time those things can be managed.

The Psychological Impact Of Food

Have you ever walked by a bakery and felt the desire for a delicious loaf of bread? Yeah most people do. These are natural reactions that we have to pleasant experiences of the past.

The first thing that we want to do in order to manage the physiological need need for food is to make sure that our overall diet is balanced.

Benefits Of Low Carb Diets

Lower carb diets do make it easier to manage the appetite.

My weight went up and down for years I would fight with the last 10 to 20 lbs depending on how strict I could be with myself and then I would eat more and I would put that weight back on so I did consider myself to have a reasonably large appetite. But when I first discovered a lower carb weight of eating it helped me to manage those cravings and then eventually I taught myself that I don't necessarily need all of the carbs that I had been consuming.

Now I don't follow a low carb diet now because I was able to overcome the psychological stuff that was also causing me to overeat. I can eat carbs in reasonable amounts and it's definitely not what anyone would call a low carb diet anymore.

Low Carb Diets As A Temporary Solution

But many people find that starting on a lower carb diet can help quiet those cravings and once you're able to shut them down a little bit you can make choices more effectively eating protein with each meal can help manage those blood sugar responses that often result in cravings later on.

Dealing With Carb Cravings

So for most people about 25 g of protein per meal can help balance things out.

For people who do suffer from carb cravings if they eat a large amount of carbs at one time without protein and a little bit of fat they're probably not as satisfied. And later on they're going to develop cravings for other carbs.

Food Cravings At Night

The most common pattern is in the evening after dinner you're not quite satisfied you're craving something later on.

For the most part the desire to have a dessert or something sweet in the evening, let's say an hour after dinner, is more psychological and it's a habit rather than being physiological.

Because if you've just eaten a relatively satisfying meal. Say you've eaten 500/600 calories you've had your protein, you've had your fat, you're not truly hungry.

That's part of what I try to get people to understand.

Most of us in this first world are lucky enough to not have to experience true hunger very often. I mean it's it's usually only if we're caught somewhere without food that we go periods of time where we are actually genuinely hungry. We've been too busy and something has come up but food is very accessible. It's everywhere. It's easy to consume. That's one of the bigger problems when it comes to fat loss is that food is so easy to get and easy to consume.

Recognizing TRUE Hunger

Part of managing your appetite is just recognizing that this is a psychological desire for food and your body's not telling you it needs this food for sustenance.

Your mind is telling you you want it because you're stressed out and you're tired and this is how you often cope. Super common!

Almost everyone I've ever worked with has issues like this whether they are 10 to 20 lbs overweight or they're lean and trying to put on muscle.

We often eat for reasons that are not hunger and just having awareness of that can be really powerful.

Mindful Eating To Manage Your Appetite

I think it's really valuable to practice something like mindful eating.

A lot of times I've worked with people who are looking to lose fat and manage their appetite and I've just told them that every day at every meal for a week they need to think about why they're eating.

Ask Yourself WHY?

So every time you sit down to a meal or stand up to meal whatever you're doing decide why am I eating?

Why am I eating this particular food?

Why am I eating this much of that food?

And there can be really good reasons.

"Yeah, I'm hungry, it's lunchtime and and this is a good choice. It has protein, it has fat, it has carbs."

But if it's an hour after dinner and you ask yourself why am I eating this bag of chips while I'm sitting watching TV.

Are you hungry?

No.

Does your body need this for nourishment?

No.

So why are you eating it?

"Well I'm tired and potato chips are one of those things that I used to eat when I was a kid when I was feeling a bit sad. Or when I went to birthday parties and it brings me enjoyment."

There's always a reason and sometimes investigating those reasons and taking some time to think about it is part of the way to actually solving that.

Sleep And Appetite

For those of you who don't get enough sleep on a regular basis, you should know that not having enough sleep increases your ghrelin levels and it decreases your leptin levels. That's the hormone that makes you feel full.

So chronically under-sleeping will definitely affect your appetite.

Hunger And Dehydration

You've probably heard before that thirst can be confused with hunger.

I'm not sure that the evidence is very strong that that's true, but a glass of water about half an hour before a meal can help you reduce how much you're consuming during that meal. That could be partially due to the sensation of fullness that you temporarily have before the meal.

In any case many people don't drink enough water so it's a good idea anyway.

How Protein Helps Manage Your Appetite

Having enough total daily protein is really important for managing your appetite.

I generally recommend a minimum of 0.7 g per pound of body weight per day. Some people that I've worked with found that just increasing their protein really help to manage their appetite throughout the day. And ideally spreading it out into multiple meals three or four.

Fat And Appetite Management

Trying to go extremely low fat often isn't a great idea either. Fat contributes to that feeling of satiety and of course the absorption of fat soluble vitamins like A, D, E and K. So some fat is definitely healthy and helps you manage your appetite.

Mind Over Milkshakes Study

Now there's a very interesting study called Mind Over Milkshakes where they show that you can actually control your ghrelin levels by what you believe about a food.

On two separate occasions the participants in the study received a 380 calorie shake but they were told that they were doing market research on particular milk shakes.

They had two separate labels for exactly the same shake.

The first label showed a 620 calorie very indulgent shake like liquid ice cream.

And the second label showed a 140 calorie very sensible diet sort of shake.

In both cases, it was the same shake. 380 calories.

What they found was when people were drinking the shake that they thought was very indulgent and filling their ghrelin levels showed a much steeper decline. So they were more satisfied by that milkshake and their hunger levels were more decreased because they thought that that was a higher calorie item.

We're not completely slaves to ghrelin. It can be managed by how we feel about a food. If we take the time to enjoy a food and see it as more satisfying and hopefully you create a more satisfying meal for yourself then your hunger levels will reduce.

Putting Together More Satisfying Meals

I actually do a little task in my online program, The Lean & Strong Academy, where I ask people to choose their favourite foods, both treat foods and healthy foods.

Try to focus on having more of those things that they really enjoy. If you're eating foods that really satisfy you, your hunger levels are likely to decrease.

Trigger Foods And Your Appetite

Everybody's appetite is related to different things. Many people have trigger foods that are difficult for them to be around because they will just eat all of it.

For me ice cream used to be that I would have two tubs of Ben and Jerry's at a sitting.

But now because I've gone through a process of dealing with the psychological stuff when it comes to food I can have those foods around and I can eat them in small quantities.

Practically everyone that I've worked with has those types of foods that are difficult for them to manage. It may be a case of initially eliminating those all together until you can work through those things psychologically and find the root of why you're using food in this way.

Reducing Hunger And Appetite

Ideally we want to reduce our physiological hunger by having adequate sleep and balanced nutrition and that will help us deal with the psychological side.

For years I struggled with periods of binging on food mostly treat foods like chocolate and ice cream.

This was definitely psychological I was upset because I had undiagnosed digestive issues and I couldn't exercise the way that I wanted to.

I wasn't that healthy person I saw myself as before. And eating all those healthy foods like I was supposed to didn't help me.

So it was very frustrating and I ate lots and lots and lots of treats to try to make myself feel better.

I was never genuinely hungry. I could eat a full dinner and then I would literally go out to the store. (because I didn't keep those treat foods at home).

Then I would go to the store and buy like a bag of chocolate and just eat it all when I got back.

If you're wondering what other lessons I've learned over the years that have helped me stay lean without all the struggle watch this video HERE.

Ivana Chapman