How To Avoid Hunger On A Diet in 2024
Written by Jonathan Fletcher
Ever been hungry when dieting? How about straight-up HANGRY?
You know, like “DON’T TALK TO ME. DON’T EVEN LOOK AT ME OR I WILL SMACK YOU!” hungry?
If you’re trying to shed some unwanted body fat, you need to be eating less calories than your body needs to maintain your existing weight.
We call that being in a calorie deficit. That deficit of calories is what sets that fat in your belly and thighs free to be burned as energy.
If you’re doing it right, the number on the scale will trend down over time. There are always fluctuations from day to day which is why we have our clients weigh themselves multiple times per week. When you zoom out and look at your average weight, you should see a downward trending line on a graph.
Another sign that you’re in a calorie deficit is that you’re going to be hungry sometimes. Hunger is dictated mostly by your hormones (leptin and ghrelin) but there’s also a psychological aspect to it. If you’re truly doing it right, you will experience times of hunger.
We dieted HARD for about 8 weeks last summer. We got pretty lean and let me tell you, we got HUNGRY. If anyone tells you that you can lose weight without ever being hungry, they may be trying to sell you something unrealistic.
The most important thing with ANY nutrition or fitness plan is that it’s laid out in a way that allows you to stick with it fairly consistently for a long time. Overeating caused by too much hunger has derailed many well intentioned people from being consistent.
When it comes to hunger, it’s good to have some tricks and strategies in your back pocket for those moments of weakness when you want to ravage a bag of tortilla chips or gummy bears.
How To Avoid Hunger On a Diet
Here are some of our top tips that we use with our clients.
Don’t buy the foods that you know will trip you up when you’re hungry. You know the ones I’m talking about. Don’t buy them! Don’t even think about it! Don’t tempt yourself! It’s not worth it. Making that hard choice ONCE in the grocery store is much easier than making it over and over again once the food is in the house. Are we saying those foods are “BAD” and that you can never have them? Of course not. All foods can be part of your overall diet. But buying foods you struggle with is a blatant form of self-sabotage.
Analyze your day and plan accordingly. Chances are that your days are fairly routine. You get hungry at about the same times and you pretty much know where you’ll be when it happens. For YEARS I worked out of my truck most days. To keep from getting caught without good choices available, every morning I’d leave the house with a cooler bag loaded with a mid-morning snack, lunch, and a mid-afternoon snack. It sure was easier to not hit the drive-thru with my own food sitting in the passenger seat. Take a minute and think about the times you tend to get hungry.
Drink a lot of water. It sounds so simple and a little silly, but it just plain works when it comes to hunger. I’m not going to blow smoke and tell you it’s a cure-all, but having a good amount of water in your stomach can curb hunger for about 30 minutes. If you’re a fan of carbonated water like LaCroix, those are very effective too.
Get the most bang for your calorie buck. What does that mean? It means focusing on foods that take longer to eat and take up more room in your stomach for how many calories they contain. Just to give you a visual, here’s what 170 calories of Oatmeal looks like next to 170 calories of Peanut Butter. Which one do you think will take up more space in your stomach and keep you fuller longer?
170 Calories of Oats vs. 170 Calories of Peanut Butter
Some other examples of these high volume / low calorie foods are:
Greens
Potatoes
Popcorn
Pickles
Strawberries
Watermelon
Grapefruit
Broccoli
Bell Pepper
Cucumber
5. Make Protein a priority. This isn’t just for its muscle-building properties either! Foods that are almost 100% protein are really freaking filling and time-consuming to eat. Want to do a test? Get a baked chicken breast. Make it a good serving, like 4-6oz after cooked. Time how long it takes you to eat it. All of that chewing slows you down! Not to mention that the digestion of protein keeps you full longer than carbohydrates and fat.
Other High-Protein foods that are filling are:
Low Fat Cottage Cheese
Low Fat Yogurt (watch for added sugars)
Lean Turkey / Beef
Tilapia / Haddock / Shrimp
Whey Protein
6. Take advantage of low-calorie “Hacks”. Before we get too far into this one let us emphasize the importance of getting MOST of your food from real sources. Not stuff that came out of a lab. We talk about this all of the time on our Podcast. Ok, disclaimer over. Since the biggest part of losing fat is sustaining a calorie deficit, it’s important to be able to somewhat ENJOY your food. Companies realize this and have developed a lot of lower-calorie options that mimic their higher-calorie inspirations.
Lower calorie options to traditional foods:
Yogurt based dressings / sauces like Bolthouse brand salad dressing and G. Hughes BBQ Sauce
Calorie free sweeteners like Stevia
Low / No calorie syrups
Low Fat Peanut Powdered Peanut Butter like PB2
Low calorie Ice Creams like Halo Top and Arctic Zero
Sugar Free Popsicles
Sugar Free Gum
7. Eat bigger meals. This one might be so obvious that you never even thought about it. One of the main things that holds people back from losing weight is snacking. Sometimes it’s driven by boredom, stress, or other environmental triggers. But many times it’s just that you get hungry right after you just ate! If your breakfast is a 200-calorie mini-meal, and your lunch is the size of a child’s meal, you’ll be starving by the time you get home from work, and dive headfirst into the first thing you find in the pantry. Every meal should have a legitimate source of protein, carbs, and fats.
Come to think of it, we wrote a free guide that shows you exactly how we eat, and how to build fast and healthy meals your whole family will love. Click the button below and grab it!
As we said earlier, a huge part of being successful with a diet is dealing with hunger. A little preparation goes a long way. Use these tips, and try planning out your day of eating ahead of time so you don’t get caught without a good choice available.
Remember, there’s a large psychological element to hunger. NOT eating at the first signs of hunger takes mental toughness. Just like physical skills, this is a thing that is improved over time with practice. If you DO eat at the first feelings of hunger every time it hits, you’ll never get better at dealing with the psychological side. You CAN do this!
Let us know if you have any questions!
Jonathan & Blakley