Friday, December 20, 2013

Coping With Hunger While On A Weight Loss Plan

One of the biggest problems for most people when trying to lose weight is getting hungry while on a diet. Most will do well for a few weeks then have a bad moment where they give into their cravings and give up. This is followed by a few days of being "off the wagon" where one may or may not get back on the plan. To have a successful outcome, what needs to happen from day one is to have something that is realistic.

Go for a gradual weight loss plan. It's hard to accept this most of the time because of magazine and television ads showing someone lost 20 pounds in 3 days. Most of these are not actually real. Start by cutting a total of 200 or so calories whether you eat less or burn more and that will get you about 20 pounds of weight loss per year. It's difficult to feel hungry when it's just a few hundred calories less than normal.

Exercise more and eat more. It's better to burn off more calories and continue to eat than it is to starve. If you exercise hard and eat well, the chance of giving into cravings is much less.

Have lots of good food to snack on. Get some fresh foods like carrots, celery, apples, bananas, and others to snack on. These won't leave you quite as full and satisfied as most greasy foods but they do help with the addiction of eating for the sake of eating.

Give yourself your cravings within reason. If you love pizza, go get some pizza. Just don't eat thousands of calories worth of it at one sitting. Thirty minutes before the meal have a big bowl full of fresh fruit or vegetables or even oatmeal. Let that settle then go ahead and have your favorite craving. At least this will help mitigate a few hundred calories that would otherwise be pizza.

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