Hunger is our inbuilt survival instinct but recognizing true hunger pangs when you have not eaten for 6-8 hours is different to the ‘hunger pangs’ we experience throughout the day which causes us to overeat and either gain weight or makes it harder for us to lose pregnancy weight gain and stomach fat.
Our top tips to control the hunger pangs are:
- For your snacks and third meal make sure you eat lots of low calorie, high protein foods with lots of vegetables which will help fight the hunger pangs
- Eat slowly and savour your food so you become satisfied with less food
- Avoid high GI foods which trigger the high and low swings in blood sugar which can cause hunger pangs – steer clear of white processed foods!
- Adopt a routine for your meals – baby’s love routines and so does your body so eat at set times so it is easier to keep hunger at bay
- Drink plenty of water as it helps control hunger
- Serve yourself 10% less than you would normally have – research shows that the 10% extra we have doesn’t make us feel any fuller
- Start getting into salad and eat it with your evening meal as you can have as much as you want and it has very little calories
- Drink green tea as this has been shown to help with hunger pangs
The most important part in hunger pangs in breaking bad habits. We think we are hungry but we are bored, upset, angry, stressed or just craving sugar and if you can teach your body and mind to do something else at these times you will soon teach it to stop craving food when it isn’t hungry.
