How to manage hunger
when trying to
lose weight
, medical review by Dr. Michael Tamber, MD
Evidence basedWhat is hunger?
It’s one of our most primal instincts and something we experience multiple times a day. But what is hunger, exactly?
Hunger causes you to seek energy (calories) that your body needs to move, breathe, and perform hundreds of other vital functions. Sometimes it may cause your stomach to rumble or create other sensations that alert you that it’s time to eat.
In modern-day society, it’s common to become hungry about 4 to 5 hours after eating a meal. However, it might happen as soon as a couple of hours or more than 12 hours afterward.
Factors that affect how hungry you become after eating — and how soon it happens — include:
- How many calories you ate
- The macronutrient mix (ratio of protein, carbs, and fat) of your meal
- Your body’s metabolic response
Is it hunger or appetite?
There’s a subtle difference between hunger and appetite. Appetite is a desire to eat, which is often increased by seeing or smelling delicious foods. By contrast, hunger tells your body that it needs food now, from any source that can provide it with energy.
When your stomach is empty, it triggers cells in your digestive tract to release ghrelin. Known as the “hunger hormone,” ghrelin signals your brain to rev up production of stomach acid, priming your body to receive and digest food. Once you’ve eaten, the ghrelin-releasing cells receive a message from your full stomach to stop producing ghrelin, and you no longer feel hungry.
Unfortunately, this system doesn’t always function the way it should. The most extreme example of this is Prader-Willi syndrome. Children with this condition are obese, yet driven to eat constantly due to chronically elevated levels of ghrelin, which keep them hungry.
Ghrelin and opposing “fullness” hormones like GLP-1, PYY and CCK may have played important roles in our evolutionary past. Hunger prompted our hunter-gatherer ancestors to seek food for fuel and nourishment. And since eating is necessary for survival, we seem to have evolved to find it pleasurable as well. So hunger and appetite are intrinsically linked.
There are different levels of hunger, of course. When you haven’t eaten for several hours, you might have a few vague, mildly uncomfortable hunger pangs. If you don’t eat right away because you’re focused on work or another project, hunger may go away temporarily.
On the other hand, going without food for a long time may cause a painful, gnawing feeling in your stomach, along with headaches, dizziness, or other symptoms. Still, certain individuals seem to be able to go much longer than others without getting hungry.
Or, watch a summary of this guide where you’ll learn how to keep hunger at bay so you can achieve weight loss success.
Other reasons you may want to eat
Being hungry isn’t the only thing that makes us want to eat, though. When trying to lose weight, confirming that what you’re feeling is truly hunger before you start eating is key.
There are a number of things that can seem like hunger, but aren’t. These include:
- Eating due to stress: Feeling anxious and in need of a “nervous nibble?” We all tend to eat in response to stress from time to time. However, snacking to calm nerves seems to be especially common in people who struggle with their weight.
- Eating to relieve sadness or loneliness: Similarly, when you’re sad or lonely, you may reach for food to relieve these feelings. This is sometimes called “comfort eating” or “emotional eating.” If you’re an emotional eater, the drive to consume food can be so strong that it may feel like true hunger.
- Eating out of boredom: Feeling bored might prompt you to head to the kitchen and peek in the refrigerator or pantry for inspiration. Although this may momentarily distract you from boredom, it can lead to eating when you aren’t actually hungry.
- Eating out of habit: Sometimes it’s hard to tell if you’re eating according to your routine or in response to genuine hunger. Humans are typically creatures of habit. You may get used to eating certain foods at specific times without actually considering your hunger and appetite.
- Eating in response to external cues: Finally, the appearance of food may lead you to mistake a desire to eat for hunger. Walking past a restaurant with tantalizing sights and aromas, seeing a table of mouth-watering appetizers at a party, and other external cues may persuade you to eat because you start thinking you’re hungry — even if you’ve recently eaten.
What to eat to lower hunger
Intentionally restricting calories to lose weight tends to be counterproductive because it often leads to feelings of hunger and deprivation. This may be one of the main reasons low calorie diets typically fail to produce lasting weight loss.
Fortunately, there’s a much more sustainable, pleasurable, appetite-suppressing way to lose weight. Adopt a low carb lifestyle.
Keep carbs very low
One of the first things you’ll likely notice soon after cutting carbs is that you’re just not very hungry anymore. This may be partly due to having higher blood levels of ketones, the energy compounds made from fat in your liver. When carb intake is very low, your liver ramps up ketone production, creating a state of maximum fat burning called ketosis.
Research has repeatedly confirmed that being in ketosis can be a powerful appetite suppressant during and after weight loss.
In fact, several studies have shown that when people dramatically cut back on carbs but are allowed as much protein and fat as they want, they end up automatically eating less because they’re no longer as hungry.
Learn more about how to follow a keto diet in the guide below.
Prioritize protein at meals
Protein is an impressive nutrient. First, it provides the essential amino acids your body needs to build and maintain muscle.
In fact, consuming a higher-protein diet may help people eat less over the course of a day, without deliberately restricting calories.
To lose weight without feeling hungry or deprived, prioritize foods that provide a lot of protein per calorie – in other words, foods with high protein percentages. A food’s protein percentage tells you how much of its calories, excluding fiber, come from protein.
Choosing foods with high protein percentages can help you feel full, so you naturally end up eating less without going hungry. Check out the best high protein foods for weight loss.
So, how much protein do you need? Generally speaking, it’s best to aim for at least 30 grams per meal, but we encourage you to use our minimum daily protein target chart to find out what your body needs.
Learn more about protein on a low carb or keto diet in the guide below.
Include high-fiber veggies
To reign in hunger, make low carb, fiber-filled vegetables your friends. Not only are they very low in calories and rich in vitamins and minerals, they’re loaded with fiber that can help you feel full and satisfied.
Make sure to always select vegetables that are very low in net carbs to get the combined appetite-suppressing benefits of being in ketosis and fiber. Here’s our visual guide to choosing the best low carb veggies.
Don’t fear fat
Avoiding fat isn’t a good strategy for conquering hunger. In fact, on a low carb or keto diet, most of your calories should come from fat. Fat adds richness and improves the taste of your food, which can help you stick with low carb eating long term.
You don’t have to add a lot of fat to get these effects, though. Just include a tablespoon or two of butter, cream, or oil when preparing your food to enhance its flavor.
Check out our guide to healthy fats on a low carb diet below.
Avoid foods that stimulate appetite
If you cut way back on carbs, you’ll automatically avoid foods that drive appetite and trigger cravings. Foods high in sugar or flour and fat — such as cookies, biscuits, and other baked goods — have been shown to activate the brain’s reward centers in susceptible people.
These highly palatable foods can be difficult to stop eating, making it nearly impossible to have “just one bite.” Also, be aware that even low carb sweeteners can have this effect in some individuals.
Managing hunger with the 4 Rs
When feelings of hunger — or what seems like hunger — arise and you can’t pinpoint the cause, it’s time to visit the 4 Rs: Replenish, Rehydrate, Redirect, and Relax.
- Replenish: First, make sure you’re minimizing carbs and getting enough protein, fat, and fiber at meals. If you’re doing this consistently yet still find yourself getting hungry between meals, consider taking a multivitamin with minerals. Even a high-quality low carb diet may occasionally fall short on some essential nutrients. Although more research is needed, some studies suggest that taking a daily multi might help lower your appetite and make it easier to lose weight.
- Rehydrate: Could your body be telling you that it needs water rather than food? At times it can be hard to distinguish between thirst and hunger.If you had plenty of protein, fat and fiber at your last meal but still feel not quite satisfied, try drinking a glass of water, cup of tea, or another low carb beverage.
- Redirect: When you’ve consumed a nourishing meal but find yourself hungry an hour or so later, try to redirect your focus. Concentrate on getting tasks done at work or around the house. Call a friend to talk or volunteer to help them with a project. In short, do something that distracts you from thinking about food until your next meal.
- Relax: Occasional cravings and hunger pangs are normal. Even though they occur much less often on a keto or low carb diet, they can still happen — whether you’re new to this way of eating or have been following it for a while. Taking the time to analyze these hunger-like feelings may help you identify what’s behind them. But some days you may just want to eat a bit more than others, and that’s okay. Don’t be hard on yourself. Just do your best to feed your body what it needs when you’re truly hungry, enjoy the eating experience, and stop when you’re full.
Summary
Although it may be challenging, you can curb hunger and cravings.
In addition to eating a nutritious low carb diet, learning to distinguish true hunger from wanting to eat for other reasons is key. Try to avoid foods that stimulate your appetite or trigger cravings.
Above all, honor your hunger by feeding your body the nourishment it needs to be healthy, strong, and satisfied.
/ Franziska Spritzler, RD, CDE