If you struggle with hunger you need to consider these 12 factors. I bet there are more than a few here you’re not implementing.
1) Food volume.
AKA how much food you can consume per calorie.
As an example you can consume a lot more broccoli compared to rice when calories are matched.
The reason food volume is so important is that the stretching of your stomach signals satiety.
Fibre
Fibre has a strong link to feelings of fullness. It slows digestion, adds bulk to meals, increases chewing and even has a direct hormonal response increasing satiety.
Fibre increases your bodies natural production of GLP-1 (the compound used in weight loss drugs like ozempic)
Viscosity
This means how ‘thick’ something is - it’s not the exact term I would have used but it is what it used in research on food satiety index.
On a practical level I interpret it as avoid liquid calories which are far less satiating.
Viscosity
This means how ‘thick’ something is - it’s not the exact term I would have used but it is what it used in research on food satiety index.
On a practical level I interpret it as avoid liquid calories which which are far less satiating.
Palatability
You won’t like this one, but you are more likely to eat highly palatable foods so minimising these or eating them in situations where they are portion controlled will help to avoid over consumption.
Protein
Although protein is often the first thing people think of when they consider hunger it’s actually less impactful than the factors I just listed. UNLESS you are below recommendations.
Over and above about 100g of protein for women the impact of extra protein on satiety seems to be relatively small.
Variety within meals
Ever notice that you always seem to have room for variety? E.g. when you’re full but then someone offers you dessert? Or if you’re at a buffet and have an abundance of variety
Minimising the variety within the same meal will reduce your calorie consumption.
Snacking
People who snack tend to eat less mindfully and over the course of the day consume more calories. Eat bigger (higher volume) meals and reduce snacking
Eat at the same time of day
Your hunger levels follow a circadian rhythm. This means your body gets used to expecting food around your normal meal times. Having relatively (within an hour or so) set meal times will help you manage hunger and will reduce food noise around meals.
This is also why reducing snacking will help - it will be hard for about a week before your circadian rhythm gets used to it (think of it like your circadian rhythm resetting after jet lag)
Food exposure
Curate your environment as much as possible so that the food you want to eat is the most readily available and the food you don’t want to eat is out of sight. If you live with others who often eat a lot of cake, sweets, chocolate for example then make sure it live in the cupboard - preferably it’s own cupboard so you don’t have to be continuously exposed to it.
Out of sight, out of mind!
Speed
People who eat more slowly consume less. You will also enjoy the food more and be more mindful about what you are consuming. Drinking water with your meals can help you slow down as can considering food volume and paying attention to consciously eating more slowly.
Removing distractions will also help - no more eating in front of the TV or laptop and put that phone down!
Energy balance
If you are in a large deficit you will usually feel higher levels of hunger. This might seem like common sense but it’s actually not that clear cut as very low calorie diets often result in lower hunger levels- probably partly because of ketosis or maybe because your food choices are so limited (see above points on variety and palatability)
Low Carb
I talk about the impact of low carb diets in more detail here.
In relation to hunger people on low carbohydrate diets often report lower levels of hunger which by this point should be unsurprising when you consider - that most low carb diets will have increased food volume & protein and reduced variety & palatability.
I hope this has been useful!
Any questions you can whatsapp me here.
ESG x