Help! I’m hungry! What should I do?

Posted on 3 April, 2019

Short answer: You should eat!

It seems pretty ridiculous to even have a post about this topic, but it just so happens to be one of the most common questions that I get asked in my job as a Registered Nutritionist.

People are usually only worried about being hungry for one reason: they’re weight conscious and they’re worried about breaking their diet

There are a number of scenarios that can go down when you’re dieting to lose weight and you feel hungry:

1. You think about your goals, your overall food intake for the day, make a food choice, eat it and move on with your day.
2. You make a food choice, eat a small amount of it and then move on with your day.
3. You make a food choice, feel out of control, eat it till you feel sick and then continue to spiral out of control with restrictive behaviours, excessive exercise or further overeating.

If you’re number three, then this post has six key dietary strategies for helping you stay in control of your appetite.

Include enough protein

Protein is a key nutrient for many different functions in the body and eating a sufficient amount will help you stay in better control of your appetite. When you include protein with your meal it takes longer to digest and slows down the rate of absorption of carbohydrates.

Filling tip: Add eggs, ricotta, cottage cheese, tuna, greek yoghurt, lean ham, chicken tenderloins to breakfast and lunch and see the difference it makes to your appetite in the afternoon and evening.

Recipe: Healthier Beef Rissoles

Include enough fibre

Fibre is the undigestible part of plant foods and is a key part of helping you feel full. Combining fibre-rich food with protein-rich food is even better.

Fibre is found in all plant foods but the more that food is processed the less fibre it has. A good example of this is wheat. Whole wheat made into wholemeal bread or breakfast cereals still contains the majority of the grain and is a good source of fibre.

Processing the grain into white flour, removes all the fibre and when we eat wheat as white bread, crackers or cake we don’t reap the high fibre benefits.

Fibre is found in vegetables, fruits, beans, lentils, chickpeas, wholegrain products (cereal, bread, pasta, rice), nuts and seeds.

Filling tip: Rather than cutting out carbohydrate-rich foods like bread, pasta, rice, swap them for high fibre options like grainy, wholemeal breads, wholemeal pasta and brown rice.

Recipe: Chocolate Chia Pudding

Include lots of non-starchy vegetables

Vegetables are low in energy and take up lots of volume on your plate and in your stomach. They are a key part of appetite management as well as promoting long term health.

Whenever you add a large garden salad, a cup or two of steamed greens, a handful of snow peas or a serve of carrots sticks you’re increasing the amount of nutrients and food volume that you eat without drastically increasing your energy intake. This is especially important if you’re wanting to lose weight.

Filling tip: Focus on making it your daily goal to include 1-2 cups of vegetables at lunch and dinner: salads, steamed, roasted, blanched, stir-fried… the skies the limit!

Recipe: Steamed Vegetables with Ginger Soy Dressing

Drink plenty of water

You’ll stay better in control of your appetite if you’re well hydrated through the day.

Thirst is a poor indicator of hydration, so reaching for a glass of water as your first drink of choice and drinking regularly throughout the day will ensure you hit your body’s fluid needs. If plain water doesn’t float your boat, I wrote all about no-calorie drinks here.

Recipe: Infused Water Jugs

Get your energy intake right

If you’re regularly getting to the point where you’re so hungry that you eat out-of-control, it’s possible that you’re being too restrictive to begin with.

If you’re restricting your food in a way that’s unsustainable it’s only natural that you’ll get so hungry you’ll want to eat everything in sight. If you want to be consistent with your eating habits every day, you need to think realistically about your energy intake.

My preference when working with clients is to get them to eat as much food as they can and still achieve their goals. If their goal is losing weight, this approach helps me teach them to lose weight in the same way they intend on maintaining it.

Stop with the food rules

In my experience, the more you restrict a food, the more you feel out of control when you’re around that food. At The Healthy Eating Hub, we aim to help you feel back in control.

There are a number of ways that we can do this. The first step is to remove unhelpful food rules! Stop telling yourself you’ll never eat junk food again or that chocolate is a bad food. It’ll only make you want them more.

True food freedom is about removing the rules, making a mindful choice, enjoying every mouthful and then feeling 100% comfortable with your choice, whatever that choice may be.