An apple a day…

…to keep your hunger at bay.

Did you know- dieting can make you feel hungry?! I know- shock horror! But not exactly an exclusive- just a simple reality about weight loss. You will feel hungry from time to time. There is no way round it. Many strategies can help reduce hunger- incorporating plenty of fibre in your diet, avoiding refined carbohydrates, getting plenty of natural sunlight.
But there is nothing that absolutely eliminates it. The bottom line is that if you are going to lose weight, you are going to experience hunger at one time or another. Sorry!

What is key is to recognise that there’s nothing wrong with experiencing hunger from time to time. It’s a normal human response to a decrease in the consumption of calories. The problem that most people encounter when they feel hungry is that it’s some sort of emergency. It feels like they are dying or wasting away, when in fact the body is just signalling that it doesn’t have enough calories to add new fat to the stores it’s already carrying around. Those first feelings of hunger are more of a false alarm than anything to be concerned about.

However, it is when you are feeling these intense hunger pains that you could find yourself tested. As you won’t want to add significant calories to your daily intake, here are a few options you could consider. These are appetite control foods. What these have in common is that they make your stomach feel like it’s full, but in reality they contain almost no calories or carbohydrates. This way, even though your stomach is full, you’re not adding calories to your intake. But your body is temporarily fooled into thinking you’ve just wolfed down a three course meal.

3 top appetite control foods

1. Water. Water is a powerful appetite suppressant and if you drink a large glass when you first start feeling hungry, you’ll find it suppresses your appetite. If you just drink a full glass and have the discipline to wait 10 minutes, you will find that your appetite is either completely gone or dramatically reduced. Give it a try.
2. Green Veg. Another good strategy is to turn to green vegetables such as lettuce, cabbage, bokchoi, and other leafy vegetables. They have so few calories that they don’t really count! It takes almost as many calories for your body to digest as you get out of the foods themselves, yet at the same time they fill your stomach and make you feel full, turning off the hunger signals in your brain.
3. And finally- an easy one. Apples. Yes, apples. Track down the largest Granny Smith or Allington Pippin you can find. Then eat it. You’ll take on some calories and carbs, but it will fill you up for a while, and stop you from eating far more calorie-dense foods.

If you’re really hungry, it’s easy to reach for processed foods (like a bag of crisps) and start munching away. But before you know it you’re 1,000 calories down, and approaching half the total calories you need for the entire day! But try to eat 1,000 calories worth of apples at one sitting…I dare you!

Weight loss takes effort. You will experience moments of intense hunger, but low-calorie, filling foods are an excellent way to get through a difficult time without piling on the pounds.

So to manage those hunger pangs, make sure you have a bag of apples on tap. And water. Erm…on tap.