How to Avoid Hunger Pains

Experiencing hunger pains and trying to starve the fat off your body is probably the worst approach to weight loss! Restrictive or 'crash diets' almost always leads to binge eating, which explains why people who follow 'fad' diets often end up being heavier than before they started the diet.

Furthermore, starvation diets force the body to invoke its 'Anti-Starvation Response', which causes your metabolism to slow down as well as make your body more likely to store body fat.

Whilst intermittent fasting may be beneficial from a weight-loss and health perspective, it is not essential. Plus, logn-term starvation diets may in fact be harmful to your body.

If you are serious about losing weight and keeping it off long-term, then it is best to follow a suitable nutritional plan whereby your body is supplied with all the nutrients it requires every day, you don't feel hunger pains at all and you can even indulge occasionally in so-called 'forbidden foods'.

Hunger pains are a sign of restriction and restriction induces a powerful rebound effect in your body. It is your body's way of adapting to the stress being placed upon it.

If you ever find you are thinking about food often and are constantly feeling hungry, then there may be a number of causes for this:

Your blood sugar level is low

Your body is nutrient-deficient

You are not eating enough

It is important from a weight loss point of view that you never feel hungry because it has some major drawbacks. Your body will be forced to slow its metabolic rate and it will also break down muscle to be used as energy. This, as you know, works against weight loss because muscle burns calories, helps to speed up metabolism, keeps your body functioning well and gives your body shape and tone. Muscle mass must be preserved at all costs and increased slightly if maximum weight loss is desired.

Therefore, maintaining stable blood sugar levels by eating small meals throughout the day may easily achieve this. It also keeps the appetite suppressed, has a protein-sparing effect in the body and maintains the metabolic rate whilst simultaneously helping you achieve weight loss without hunger pains.

If you follow this principle but still feel hungry (which you shouldn't), eat the same type of foods with the same regularity but simply increase the volume of food eaten at each meal. This will easily overcome the hunger pangs you may be experiencing.

It is also important to ensure that each of your meals contains a portion of all 3 macronutrients; carbohydrate, protein and fat. For a comprehensive list of foods containing these macronutrients, get a copy of my e-book, Look Good, Feel Great!