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- Eating a large, healthy breakfast every day. One of the easiest ways to manage our feelings of hunger throughout the day is to eat most of our food earlier in the day and taper our meal sizes so dinner is the smallest meal.
- Prioritising protein. Protein helps contain feelings of hunger. This is because protein-rich foods such as lean meats, tofu and beans suppress the appetite-stimulating ghrelin and stimulate another hormone called peptide YY that makes you feel full.
- Filling up with nuts and foods high in good fats and fibre. Nuts often get a bad rap – thanks to the misconception they cause weight gain – but nuts can help us manage our hunger and weight.
- Eating mindfully. When we take time to really be aware of and enjoy the food we’re eating, we slow down and eat far less. A review of 68 studies found eating mindfully helps us better recognise feelings of fullness.
- Overview
- 1. Eat enough protein
- 2. Opt for fiber-rich foods
- 3. Drink plenty of water
- 4. Choose solids foods to tame hunger
- 5. Eat mindfully
- 6. Eat slowly
- 7. Learn which dinnerware works for you
- 8. Exercise regularly
- 9. Get enough sleep
You may be able to reduce hunger by eating foods that keep you fuller for a longer time, such as those high in protein and fiber. Some practices, like mindful eating, may also help.
Hunger and appetite are something each of us knows quite well.
For the most part, we navigate these biological processes continuously throughout the day, even when we don’t realize we’re doing so.
Generally, hunger and appetite are signals from your body that it needs energy or is craving a certain type of food.
While feeling hungry is a normal sign from your body that it’s time to eat again, it’s not fun to constantly feel hungry, especially if you’ve just finished a meal. That may be a sign you’re not eating enough or not eating the right combinations of foods.
If you’re trying to lose weight, living with certain health conditions, or adopting a new meal routine like intermittent fasting, you may be wondering how to reduce feelings of hunger throughout the day.
Adding more protein to your diet can increase feelings of fullness, lower hunger hormone levels, and potentially help you eat less at your next meal.
In a small study including 20 healthy adults with overweight or obesity, those who ate eggs (a high protein food) instead of cereal (a lower protein food) experienced increased feelings of fullness and lowered hunger hormones after breakfast.
Another study including 50 adults with overweight found that drinking a beverage high in protein and fiber 30 minutes prior to eating pizza appeared to reduce feelings of hunger, as well as the amount of pizza the participants ate.
The appetite-suppressing effects of protein aren’t just limited to animal sources like meats and eggs either. Vegetable proteins including beans and peas might be just as useful for keeping you satisfied and moderating your intake.
Getting at least 20–30% of your total calorie intake from protein, or 0.45-0.55 grams per pound (1.0–1.2 grams per kg) of body weight, is sufficient to provide health benefits. Yet, some studies suggest up to 0.55–0.73 grams per pound (1.2–1.6 grams per kg) of body weight.
Still, other studies have found conflicting results when it comes to high protein diets.
A high fiber intake helps fill you up by slowing digestion and influencing the release of fullness hormones that increase satiety and regulate appetite.
In addition, eating fiber helps produce short-chain fatty acids in your gut, which are believed to further promote feelings of fullness.
Viscous fibers like pectin, guar gum, and psyllium thicken when they’re mixed with liquids and might be especially filling. Viscous fibers occur naturally in plant foods but are also commonly used as supplements.
A recent review even reports that viscous, fiber-rich beans, peas, chickpeas, and lentils can increase feelings of fullness by 31%, compared with equivalent meals not based on beans. Fiber-rich whole grains can also help reduce hunger.
Still, the methods of studies examining how dietary fiber intake influences appetite have not always been consistent, and some researchers believe it’s too soon to make generalizations about the relationship between fiber and appetite.
Nevertheless, few negative effects have been linked to high fiber diets. Fiber-rich foods often contain many other beneficial nutrients, including vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and helpful plant compounds.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that drinking water might suppress hunger and promote weight loss for some people. Animal studies have also found that thirst is sometimes confused with hunger.
One small human study found that people who drank 2 glasses of water immediately before a meal ate 22% less than those who didn’t.
Scientists believe that about 17 ounces (500 mL) of water may stretch the stomach and send signals of fullness to the brain. Since water empties from the stomach quickly, this tip may work best when you have water as close to the meal as possible.
Interestingly, starting your meal with a broth-based soup may act in the same way. In an older study, researchers observed that eating a bowl of soup before a meal lowered hunger and reduced total calorie intake from the meal by about 100 calories.
This may not be the case for everyone though. Genetics, the type of soup you eat, and various other factors are all at play. For example, soups with savory umami flavor profiles might be more satiating than others.
While the neurons that regulate your appetite for both water and food are closely related, there’s still much to be learned about how exactly they interact and why drinking water might also satisfy your hunger or appetite for solid foods.
Solid calories and liquid calories may affect your appetite and your brain’s reward system differently.
Two recent research reviews found that solid foods and those with a higher viscosity — or thickness — significantly reduced hunger compared with thin and liquid foods.
In one small study, those who ate a lunch comprising hard foods (white rice and raw vegetables) ate fewer calories at lunch and their next meal compared with those who ate a lunch comprising soft foods (risotto and boiled veggies).
Another study found that people who ate foods with more complex textures ate significantly less food during the meal overall.
Solid foods require more chewing, which might grant more time for the fullness signal to reach the brain. On the other hand, softer foods are quick to consume in large bites and may be easier to overeat.
Another theory as to why solid food help reduce hunger is that the extra chewing time allows solids to stay in contact with your taste buds for longer, which can also promote feelings of fullness.
Under normal conditions, your brain helps your body recognize when you’re hungry or full.
However, eating too quickly or while you’re distracted makes it more difficult for your brain to notice these signals.
One way to solve this problem is to eliminate distractions and focus on the foods in front of you — a key aspect of mindful eating.
As opposed to letting external cues like advertisements or the time of day dictate when you eat, mindful eating is a way of tapping into your internal hunger and satiety cues, such as your thoughts and physical feelings.
Research shows that mindfulness during meals may weaken mood-related cravings and be especially helpful for people susceptible to emotional, impulsive, and reward-driven eating — all of which influence hunger and appetite.
Nevertheless, it appears that mindful eating works best for limiting food cravings and increasing your awareness around food when it’s paired with a healthy diet, regular physical activity, and other behavior-focused therapies.
When your appetite or hunger levels are high, it can be especially easy to eat more than you planned. Slowing the pace at which you eat might be one way to curb the tendency to overeat.
One study found that people who ate faster took bigger bites and ate more calories overall.
Another study found that foods eaten slowly were more satiating than those eaten quickly.
Interestingly, some newer research even suggests that your eating rate can affect your endocrine system, including blood levels of hormones that interact with your digestive system and hunger and satiety cues, such as insulin and pancreatic polypeptide.
SUMMARY
Eating slowly could leave you feeling more satisfied at the end of a meal and reduce your overall calorie intake during a meal.
You might have heard that eating from a smaller plate or using a certain size utensil can help you eat less.
Reducing the size of your dinnerware might also help you unconsciously reduce your meal portions and consume less food without feeling deprived. When you have more on a larger plate, you’re likely to eat more without realizing it.
Some studies have found that eating with a smaller spoon or fork might not affect your appetite directly, but it could help you eat less by slowing your eating rate and causing you to take smaller bites.
Yet, other studies have found conflicting results.
Researchers are beginning to understand that how the size of your dinnerware affects your hunger levels is influenced by a number of personal factors, including your culture, upbringing, and learned behaviors.
The benefits of eating on a smaller plate may have been overstated in the past, but that doesn’t mean this technique isn’t worth trying.
Exercise is thought to reduce the activation of brain regions linked to food cravings, which can result in a lower motivation to eat high calorie foods and a higher motivation to eat low calorie foods.
It also reduces hunger hormone levels while increasing feelings of fullness.
Some research shows that aerobic and resistance exercise are equally effective at influencing hormone levels and meal size after exercise, though it also suggests that higher intensity exercise has greater subsequent effects on appetite.
Overall, exercise appears to have a relatively positive effect on appetite for most people, but it’s important to note that studies have noticed a wide variability in the way individuals and their appetite respond to exercise.
In other words, there’s no guarantee the results will be the same for everyone. However, exercise has many benefits, so it’s a great idea to incorporate movement you enjoy into your day.
SUMMARY
Getting enough quality sleep might also help reduce hunger and protect against weight gain.
Studies show that too little sleep can increase subjective feels of hunger, appetite, and food cravings.
Sleep deprivation can also cause an elevation in ghrelin — a hunger hormone that increases food intake and is a sign that the body is hungry, as well as the appetite-regulating hormone leptin.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), most adults need 7–9 hours of sleep, while 8–12 hours are recommended for children and teens.
SUMMARY
Getting at least 7 hours of sleep per night is likely to reduce your hunger levels throughout the day.
- Being underweight. To evaluate your weight, you may want to start with your body mass index (BMI). The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute provides a chart showing BMIs based on your weight and height.
- Low energy levels. When you don’t get enough calories, you’ll likely feel tired most of the time. On average, people assigned female at birth (AFAB) should eat about 2,000 calories a day for weight maintenance and 1,500 for weight loss.
- Hair loss. If you’re noticing an increased amount of hair accumulating in your hairbrush or shower drain, it may be a sign that you’re not eating enough or that you’re not getting enough important nutrients.
- Changes in hunger cues. Being hungry all the time is one obvious sign that you’re not eating enough food, but it isn’t the only one. Appetite and food cravings can increase in response to drastic calorie restriction.
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