Food cravings are often times responsible for many people’s diet failures.
Food cravings for a variety of reasons.
And while trying to explain them can be helpful to understanding how they contribute to the failure to lose weight… more effective is giving people tools to overcoming food cravings.
For this reason, we’re going to show you 6 easy ways to crush food cravings so you can lose weight fast.
4 Easy Ways To Crush Food Cravings
1. Chew Gum:
One of the easiest ways to get over food cravings is simply by chewing on a piece of gum.
Many times you can trick your body into thinking it’s eaten by chewing on gum, as the physical act of chewing sugar-free gum tricks the brain into believing its full.
In 2015, researchers discovered chewing gum has the power to curb appetite and suppress cravings, which can lead to weight loss.
Chewing calorie-free gum is a wonderful alternative to high-calorie foods which often lead to weight loss.
2 – Drink Water:
Many times hunger is really thirst in disguise. Thus, many people eat when they should really be drinking water and this leads to weight gain.
Multiple studies indicate if a person feels hungry, and decides to drink water as opposed to indulging in food, the cravings subside.
For instance, in 2014, researchers conducted a study to see what would happen to overweight individuals who drank water when they felt hungry as opposed to snacking on food.
Over the course of the day, the subjects drank an extra 1.5 liters of water a day. At the conclusion of the study, the subjects who drank the 1.5 liters of water, ended up with a lower body-fat percentage as well as reported reduced cravings compared to subjects who did not drink 1.5 extra liters of water a day.
Subsequent studies have confirmed these findings.
3- Participate in Exercise:
Not only will exercise increase a person’s metabolic pathway, which can lead to weight gain, but physical exercise also reduces appetite.
In 2015, researchers compared the hunger of overweight individuals who would either sit on a couch for 15 minutes… or walk briskly for 15 minutes.
At the conclusion of each exercise, the overweight individuals reported they were much hungrier when they sat as opposed to when they walked.
The theory is the increase in exercise helps dampen the production of insulin, which balances the body’s hormone hunger (ghrelin) in response.
4 – Eat More Protein:
Jon Johnsons writes:
Increasing the amount of protein in the diet may reduce the number of cravings and keep the body satisfied for longer after eating.
Many people find that eating more protein helps to keep hunger pangs and cravings to a minimum.
Protein may help the body to feel more satisfied for longer.
According to findings published in the research journal Obesity, overweight males who increased their dietary protein intake to represent at least 25 percent of their total calorie intake reported a significant reduction in food cravings.
Protein may be especially helpful at breakfast. Research published in Nutrition Journal studied the effects of eating breakfast on cravings in teenage females who were overweight or obese and who usually skipped breakfast.
They found that eating breakfast resulted in fewer cravings for sweet or savory foods. Those who ate breakfast with a high protein content had fewer cravings for savory foods.
The authors considered the protein content to be high when the meal contained 35 grams of protein from certain sources.
