How To Deal With Cravings When Losing Weight

One of the worst things about losing is those irresistible cravings! Luckily, you can reduce them but you need to take a good hard looks at your diet first.

The first thing you need to do is to make sure that you are actually getting enough to eat. Many diets are forms of fasting that are actually counterproductive to losing . In order to effectively lose you need to change the way you approach eating throughout the day. Cutting out food in general in hopes that you will lose is not an effective way to diet and can effect your health negatively.

Dieting needs to be done in moderation. The most effective diets reduce total calorie intake and fat intake and increase your protein intake. There are many diets on the market that focus on changing your eating habits. These diets are more effective then starving yourself and binging when you are hungry.

Many of these diets are focused on eating healthy and eating smaller amounts several times during the day rather than eating two or three large meals. The amount of food your body burns is controlled by your metabolism, this works a lot like a furnace. In order to keep your metabolism at a higher rate you need to eat regularly. If you only eat two or three times a day then you may be causing your metabolism to slow down.

Think of your metabolism like your fireplace, if the fireplace has a fire started in it and the fire goes out it is going to be harder to restart this fire than it is to provide the fire with small amounts of wood when the flame gets low. By feeding the fire regularly but not excessively you can maintain a steady fire. Your body’s metabolism functions in a very similar manner.

It is recommended that you eat 5 or 6 small meals a day. Naturally what you eat will affect you as well. Foods that are high in saturated fats, such as fried foods are not healthy for you and should be avoided if you are attempting to lose because they will cause you to eat more calories than you can burn off and not provide any nutritional value for the amount of calories you are eating. The result is that you will find you have cravings because your body is not nutritionally satisfied. You may also want to control the amount of carbohydrates that you consume as well. You should regulate your carbohydrate intake to coincide with the amount of activity you are doing and stay away from foods with refined carbs like white bread and pasta. Stick with whole grains for the carbohydrate portion of your meals.

If you are doing high amounts of cardio exercise such as jogging or walking, then you may need to consume some carbohydrates. You should also increase the amount of protein you consume so that your body will have energy to burn.

If you are dieting properly and you are still feeling cravings then you may need to determine if you are hungry or if it is simply nervous energy. Often drinking a glass of water will satisfy your cravings, you may think you are hungry when you are actually thirsty. It is important to learn to listen to your body; you can learn to differentiate between cravings and hunger. If you are indeed hungry between your small meals then you may want to consider snacking on something healthy such as a carrot or a piece of fruit.

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