So, you’ve finally started your fitness journey. You have a plan. Everything seems to be going right—except you’re hungry… really hungry.
If you are trying to lose weight, you’ve undoubtedly experienced the struggle against hunger before. It also doesn’t help that most of the time, people just tell you it's a discipline issue. While some degree of grit will always be involved in pushing past hunger, there are ways to greatly reduce it.
Maximize Volume, Minimize Calories
In general, healthier food usually has fewer calories and takes up more volume, which will already help manage your hunger. We can take this further, though. The way I like to go about hunger management is to maximize the volume of food I consume while minimizing the calories. Vegetables are a great example of this. A cup of broccoli contains only 30 calories and contains a lot of fiber, so it will take a lot of energy to break this down as well. Adding vegetables to your meals is good regardless because you need those nutrients. Another personal favorite way I like to curb my hunger is oatmeal. If you have a box of 1-minute Quaker oats, take 1 cup of dry oats and follow the instructions. The result: a ridiculous amount of oatmeal for only 300 calories. I’m not joking my stomach hurts after eating this. You also want to drink water while you eat this so the oats soak up more liquid and take up more space in your stomach. Some other great ones are pickles, strawberries, celery, and apples.
Coffee is King
The second approach to hunger management is through consuming natural appetite suppressants. Black coffee (yes, I know it tastes bad) is great for this. I'm not sure why it works, but it does wonders. Dark chocolate is another great one. These carried me through my first weight loss phase. The last one I’ll mention is a little surprising but works nonetheless… Water. Yes, water will make you less hungry, especially if it's carbonated. This is because it takes up space in your stomach and involves using your mouth and other body parts involved with eating, so even though you aren’t eating, it helps minimize that biological drive to eat.
Insta Snack Hacks
Lastly, I’ll recommend you find low-calorie alternatives to your favorite foods. Giving up your favorite sweet treat for life isn’t sustainable. There are many low-calorie recipes on Instagram (one soon to come from me) that will satisfy your cravings but won’t break the caloric bank. I used to follow a low-calorie pizza recipe I found on Instagram. It would make two decent-sized mini pizzas. Super filling. Here’s the kicker: it had only 400 calories and 60g of protein. So, on pizza night, I’d make 4 of these. I’d eat fewer calories than my family members but nearly twice as much food. The secret to this was fat-free cheese. By itself, it's not great, but I couldn't tell the difference with the pepperoni and pizza sauce.
As I said before, this won’t eliminate your hunger entirely. If it did, everyone would be fit. If it was easy, it wouldn’t be worth as much. The great part is you will eventually get used to eating less food. One of my clients recently mentioned this to me. He was going to get one of his usual meals at the dining hall but quickly realized he couldn’t even finish half of it. The further you progress, the easier it gets to stay in control.
I hope these tips were helpful. With me as your coach, you’ll have access to plenty more. Keep going to the gym, keep working towards your goals, and most importantly, Keep Fitness Simple.
-Tom
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