How to lose weight if you constantly want to eat: what to do when you feel hungry

The problem of excess weight every year not only does not lose its relevance, but also becomes more widespread and difficult to solve. Dealing with it is not so easy - the modern rhythm of life forces most of us to prioritize not in favor of our figure and health. A constant obsessive feeling of hunger, a brutal, indomitable appetite, tormenting many overweight people, only aggravates the situation and leads to a dead end, because not everyone knows how to lose weight if you constantly want to eat. We will talk about the causes and ways to solve this problem below.

Why do you always want to eat?

The human body is an intelligent natural system for which food is the main source of energy. A small part of the brain, the hypothalamus, is responsible for controlling energy levels. Every time the brain feels the threat of rapid waste of energy reserves, it turns on a protective mechanism in order to compensate for the false energy deficit: the hypothalamus sends a signal to the body's systems about the need to refresh itself, and in response they synthesize hunger hormones. That’s why we want to eat in various unfavorable conditions for our brain, described further in the text.

Dehydration

The first reason why you constantly want to eat is a simple lack of fluid . The brain's signals about the need to drink are very similar to the feeling of hunger, so often we simply cannot differentiate these two urges to eat food and instead of the required liquid we put the usual solid food in our mouth. The fluid deficit remains unfulfilled: we feel thirsty again, and again we think that we are hungry and once again head to the refrigerator. How to lose weight if you constantly want to eat? Check whether you really want to eat and not drink and learn to understand your body.

Lack of sleep and rest

If you constantly sleep little, the energy balance simply does not have time to be restored, so the brain perceives the next lack of sleep as a signal about the urgent replenishment of energy reserves for the normal functioning of the body and starts the recovery process, the first point of which is gastronomic reinforcement of strength. A false feeling of hunger appears, and we rush to satisfy it with a piece of cake or candy, because what we want most after lack of sleep is sweets. The only correct solution to remove such an obstacle to slimness is to get enough sleep.

Stressful situations

During the next shake-up of the nervous system, an immediate increase in the level of stress hormones occurs in the body, and the brain perceives this as a danger of rapid waste of energy and immediately makes attempts to ensure its maximum production. The person again feels an obsessive appetite and simply begins to eat, forgetting about the desire to lose weight, sweeping away all the food in the house. Constant stress leads to overeating, which in this case is called compulsive and often requires qualified help from a specialist.

The balance of proteins, fats and carbohydrates is disturbed

Another reason why you constantly want to eat is an irrational, unbalanced diet . It is a well-known fact that for a healthy long life and to lose weight you need to eat right, maintaining a balance of substances important for the body - proteins, fats, carbohydrates, but not everyone applies this principle in practice, because they cannot give up their favorite sweet or salty treats in favor of healthy ones porridge, vegetables and fruits. As a result, not only your figure suffers, but also your health. To lose weight, if there is a constant desire to eat, if there is an imbalance of BJU, you should:

Eliminate fast carbohydrates from your usual diet or reduce their amount as much as possible - they contain a lot of calories, but the feeling of fullness passes very quickly.
Include protein in your daily menu in sufficient quantities - it fills you well and relieves you of constant hunger for a long time.
Be sure to include unsaturated fats in your diet - they have a beneficial effect on all body systems, dulling appetite for a long time.
Provide your body with vitamins in order to lose weight efficiently - their lack is also a frequent companion to a constant feeling of hunger.

Don't make a cult out of food! Lifestyle for weight loss.

Stop creating a cult out of food! You will save yourself from a lot of problems and negative consequences if you stop creating a cult out of food, and start looking at it simply as a necessary set of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. It’s better to be puzzled and find a dozen recipes that will help you prepare a dish that is healthy and tasty for you. It is better to avoid processed foods and fast food because you do not know how they were prepared. And in a restaurant, give preference to meat and vegetables.

Stop snacking all the time! Limit yourself to a few meals a day, in which you will consume your daily calorie intake, balanced by protein, fat and carbohydrates. Frequent snacking will not speed up your metabolism, as some authors advise. Our metabolism is the speed and characteristics of chemical reactions in the body, and this is a genetically determined parameter. You will quickly ruin your metabolism with frequent and uncontrolled snacks high in carbohydrates. You will develop metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance.

I admit that someone feels comfortable eating small portions of food throughout the day. During the period of weight loss, I think it’s optimal to take 1 full meal and 1 additional meal depending on how you feel.

There is no need to take breakfast! Moreover, if you gradually (week after week) begin to shift your first meal by 1 hour, you will accustom your body to such a diet. You will get rid of regular insulin spikes and prolong the positive effects of growth hormone, which is produced during night sleep and its deep phase. The body can easily tolerate several hours without food. Give him the opportunity to adapt, do it gradually.

And you can train on an empty stomach, and you don’t need to eat immediately after training (bodybuilders will object here, but they have other tasks, and many continue to live by the myths of the mid-20th century, for example about the “carbohydrate window”).

Get to know your hunger! Overweight people are accustomed to mistaking the slightest discomfort for a feeling of hunger. Due to your metabolic syndrome, any decrease in blood sugar provokes you to eat sweets. But in return, they do not receive energy and a surge of strength, but rather drowsiness, a feeling of fatigue, and a desire to lie down and sleep. These are signs of metabolic syndrome; your hormonal system is not working efficiently. You're just storing fat. By moving your first meals further back in time and completely eliminating snacks, you will not only recognize the feeling of hunger, but will help the body tune in to the process of lipolysis. Week after week, the body will restore its ability to replenish energy reserves from internal fats.

Do not rush to extremes and do not experiment on yourself! You know yourself too poorly, you do not control your condition by regularly getting tested. Any sudden change in environmental factors will certainly lead to stress, and possibly a malfunction of systems. You should not test yourself for endurance and start practicing long-term fasting (with liquid and especially dry) without the supervision of a doctor. You won’t change habits you’ve developed over the years in one week, but you can cause harm to yourself.

Experimentally determine the daily carbohydrate intake that is comfortable enough for yourself. This is the amount of carbohydrates at which you feel sufficiently efficient without fainting or dizziness. Try reducing this amount by 10 grams after a week, then try reducing it by 10 grams. You will find the corridor in which you will be comfortable and find out your individual consumption rate. For carbohydrates, give preference to the so-called. “slow carbohydrates” (porridge, except white rice, quick oatmeal and semolina, legumes, whole grain bread, fruits (except bananas, grapes). They are called “slow” because they supply us with energy longer and more evenly, unlike “ quick" in the form of sweets.

Consider your caloric intake! There are general calorie standards, but they are like the average temperature in a hospital. You can rely on them, but you must learn over time how many calories are enough for you to stay in shape, and how much you need to cut your diet or increase activity to start the fat burning process.

As a conclusion.

Again, while I was writing this article, I realized how much more information remains behind the scenes. Some issues that I outlined in one paragraph deserve a separate article. At a minimum, I would also like to go through various kinds of myths that came from the sports sphere, and have been replicated for several generations in the halls and various public places; others came from dietetics in the 70-80s of the 20th century (for example, about the dangers of cholesterol, which changed the food industry , forcing the release of low-fat products). Myths about fractional nutrition, about the thermic effect of food, “accelerating metabolism”, “burning muscles”, sports supplements, fat burners, “eat breakfast yourself, share lunch with a friend, and give dinner to an enemy” (try to find the author of this statement, everyone will deny ), the need to forcefully drink water, even eating according to blood type (God forgive me). Therefore, wait for the continuation, let’s go through nutrition myths.

You can find all articles on the topic “weight loss” by clicking on the corresponding tag.

Constantly want to eat - health problems

A condition where there is a constant desire to eat is sometimes a sign of certain diseases. An illness directly related to acute addiction to food is bulimia, but the cause of constant obsessive hunger can also be other health problems not related to eating disorders. Constant desire to eat when:

hypoglycemia or low blood sugar;
diabetes mellitus;
diseases of the thyroid gland, especially hypothyroidism;
violations of the regulatory function of the hormonal system;
diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.

Useful video

Watch the video about the causes of constant hunger:

What to do if you feel hungry all the time

Getting rid of the obsessive desire to eat is not easy, but it is quite possible. First you need to realize your problem, and then build a program of action to eliminate the constant feeling of hunger. If you decide to start fighting an excessive appetite in order to lose weight, you must understand that you will have to control yourself very strictly, severely limit something, and give up something completely. If you constantly want to eat due to psychological problems, you need to try to resolve them competently, even going as far as contacting a specialist.

After training

After intense physical activity, the body depletes not only energy reserves, but also liquid reserves, so it tries to quickly replenish them and sends signals that you want to eat. You shouldn’t immediately run to the refrigerator after working out at the gym; it’s better to first normalize your water balance and then start eating. Ideally, dinner after training should be protein-rich, no later than 19-20.00 . If enduring painful hunger is too much for you, you can eat a handful of nuts, dried fruits, an apple or a protein bar.

Before bedtime

With an incorrect diet, many people with an increased sense of appetite constantly want to eat before bed. A tired body does not receive enough of the nutrients it needs throughout the day, so late in the evening stimulates a strong feeling of hunger. If you have a desire to eat, but losing weight is more important to you, you should not follow your desires - a slim figure and snacking before bed are incompatible concepts. To help cope with an obsessive evening appetite:

1 tbsp. warm water with honey;
1 tbsp. skim milk or kefir;
herbal soothing tea.

On a strict diet

A sharp restriction of your diet can do more harm to your figure than good. When the body suddenly reduces its usual daily caloric intake to critically low numbers, it regards this as a great danger to its normal functioning and turns on a protective reflex: it needs more energy, which means it constantly needs to eat more. If you still decide to lose weight on a strict diet, remember how you can tame your constant obsessive appetite:

Don’t forget about water – drink it every time you feel hungry.
Don't skip meals, even if you don't feel like eating.
Try to have breakfast, lunch and dinner at the same time.
Chew all food thoroughly.
Stop eating while doing something interesting.
Find yourself an exciting hobby and devote all your free time to it to distract yourself from constant thoughts about food.

Relationship with food. Food as reward and pleasure.

Surely, many have heard the expression: “you need to eat to live, and not live to eat . Yes, we, like other animals, are capable of enjoying food. Yes, now we don’t need to walk 10-20 kilometers a day to find food. Until recently, people lived from hand to mouth. 97% of our ancestors faced real hunger, and gourmetism was the preserve of 3% of the upper class. It's no joke that once upon a time ice cream was a delicacy for kings, but now anyone can buy themselves a box in a store. My mother, born in 1954, talked about how she tried marshmallows for the first time at school, and how impressed she was. Peasant food is quite simple and rough. All so-called “haute cuisine” came from the aristocratic houses of the old world. Thinness was a sign of poverty, and fatness was a sign of wealth and status. In some regions this tradition is still preserved.

But what are we seeing now? Any city dweller can afford haute cuisine, delicious delicacies at every turn, cooking shows and recipes everywhere, food outlets open every day.

Don't we deserve it, is it worth denying ourselves the pleasure of trying a new dish? What places do tourists rush to visit first? What memories do we rush to share with friends?

Today, food is no longer just a function of satisfying hunger; the industry has turned it into a way to make money and give pleasure.

I don’t encourage you to give up pleasure, especially since I can’t do it, and I myself love to eat delicious food.

But start treating food, first of all as a function , and secondly, as a way of obtaining pleasure. When choosing between “tasty and healthy”, choose “healthy”, and then think about how “tasty” it can be prepared.

A few words about the “healthy food” delivery service

It is a pity for a modern person to spend time understanding culinary issues; he will prefer ready-made food or semi-finished food. This is why “healthy food” delivery services are becoming popular, where they count calories for you, prepare or supply a set of products with a simple recipe. Such a service is not cheap, and people make money from your laziness and lack of skills in counting calories and creating your own diet. And as an analysis of some domestic services shows, they can also deceive, mislead and fail to monitor quality.

Foods that reduce appetite and suppress hunger

A good way to lose weight if you are constantly hungry is to include in your diet foods that can quickly make you feel full, but contain few calories. Yes, they help improve metabolism and lose weight, but to speed up the results, you shouldn’t go to extremes: if you constantly want to eat, you can’t eat only foods from the groups described below, so as not to harm your health, because our body needs a rational, healthy, balanced diet.

Slow carbohydrates

Fast carbohydrates have a detrimental effect on your figure - they contain a lot of calories, but are digested very quickly, which is why they fill you up for a short time. Another thing is slow carbohydrates, the energy value of which is not very high, but they suppress the feeling of hunger for a long time. To lose weight if you are constantly hungry, you need to replace the first group of carbohydrates with the second. Giving up buns and sweets is not easy, but for the sake of a slim figure it is possible. The list of slow carbohydrates is not very large, but there is plenty to choose from. This:

legumes;
cereals and porridges;
durum wheat pasta;
unsweetened fruits and berries;
vegetables;
mushrooms;
whole wheat bread.

Cellulose

A good remedy in the fight against increased appetite is fiber . Once in the stomach, it swells greatly, simulating a feeling of fullness and eliminating the desire to eat for a long time. Be sure to base your menu on foods rich in this valuable substance (most vegetables and fruits), and also purchase a packet of fiber at the pharmacy and eat a teaspoon several times a day some time before meals or every time your appetite awakens.

Protein diet

Proteins are the basis and building material of our muscles, which is why they are so important for the body. They fill you up well and stop hunger pangs for a long time. For this reason, most effective diets are based on protein. If you need to lose weight, but are constantly hungry, you should enrich your menu with protein products (lean meat, fish, eggs, cottage cheese), but cook them without adding seasonings, because hot, bitter, spicy spices whet your appetite even more.

Restoring water balance

The human body is 70% liquid. If you don’t get enough of it, the process of dehydration begins, which is dangerous not only due to excess weight gain, but also serious health problems. To restore your water balance in order to lose weight and maintain it at the required level, you need to remember a few important points:

The body's daily need for water is 25-30 ml per kilogram of weight (from 1.5 to 3 liters), so if you want to lose weight, but you constantly feel hungry, you will have to drink your quota daily.
Alcohol molecules very quickly bind and remove water molecules, causing dehydration, so in order to lose weight, it is better to completely abandon strong alcoholic drinks.
Develop the habit of drinking a glass of water before breakfast, at night, before every meal and every time you feel hungry.

Reducing appetite with folk remedies

A pressing question for many women suffering from excess weight is how to lose weight and eat whatever you want? It’s difficult to answer, because the fight for a slim figure requires an integrated approach. Good auxiliary means for taming increased appetite are folk recipes that have a beneficial effect on the body, prolong the feeling of satiety and stimulate the elimination of toxins. You can overcome obsessive hunger in order to lose weight, if you constantly want to eat, with the help of:

parsley decoction;
peppermint tea;
linseed oil;
apple cider vinegar;
wormwood infusion;
chamomile tea;
pine nuts;
raspberry infusion;
essential oils (inhale).