If you’re wondering how to curb your appetite naturally, these 32 real appetite suppressants can help. In fact, as you scan through them the first time you will notice that there are some foods that help suppress the urge for food and and some that increase cravings and appetite.
There’s a multitude of things that cause us to want to eat, some of them are built into our body, and some are outside influences.
Factors that trigger our desire to eat, range from physiological signals like hunger and nutrient deficiencies to external cues such as the sight or smell of food.
And you can add to that, emotional states like stress or boredom, social settings, and even what we consider cultural norms. There’s no end to the things that influence our eating habits, pushing us to eat even when we’re not physically hungry.
While all of these factors play a role, the good news is that you have the power to influence your appetite naturally. Let’s delve into 32 effective strategies that will help you curb cravings and make healthier food choices.
How to Curb My Appetite Naturally?
A new diet seems to come out every week, promising the moon and smaller dress sizes. No matter the diet, they all hinge on somehow eating less calories for weight loss. Even though that is indisputable, it’s almost impossible without learning how to curb your appetite naturally.
1. Get Rid of Stressors
Overeaters and compulsive eaters are known to have stressors. Find yours by keeping a food journal. If you’re serious about curbing your appetite you must discover your stressors and what turns on your appetite unnaturally.
2. Control Hunger Hormones
The two hormones that should control your appetite naturally are ghrelin and leptin. Ghrelin increases your appetite. include plenty of whole grains and proteins from lean meats, vegetables, and beans to control it. Leptin decreases your appetite, and every pound you lose will help increase leptin.
3. Ditch Sugar
Sugar is the most atrocious villain of everything we eat. It’s highly addictive, puts food cravings over the top, and causes moods to swing like rollercoasters. White sugar and all foods made with it should be severely limited or completely erased from your diet. There is really no way to suppress your appetite while ingesting sweets like cake, candy, juice most “health and energy bars” and more.
4. Eat Protein
Eating protein is a good asset for your diet because it can cause you feel full for hours. And the time to start is with breakfast. Making protein a part of breakfast gets your diet started on the right foot. There are weight loss studies that demonstrate that people who eat eggs for breakfast lose as much as 65% more weight than the people eating bagels. (go figure)
5. Slow Down and Chew Your Food
What we need to remember is that simply slowing down to think about what we’re doing and chewing our food will help regulate the ghrelin and digest your food. Chewing food until it becomes liquid starts the digestion process regulates ghrelin, and boost the hormone cholecystokinin.
6. Get Away from Starchy Carbs
Starchy carbs are basically the same as eating that much sugar. And just like sugar, they raise blood sugar levels and create undue cravings for something else to eat — along with creating more fat stores and weight. Opt instead for brown rice, quinoa, brown rice and other whole grain foods. Instead of depending on starchy carbs, learn to see them as a very irregular treat, and you’ll see your appetite fading naturally.
7. Drink Plenty of Water
Make it a lifelong habit to drink water 15-30 minutes before eating anything, even a snack to curb your appetite and stop overeating. Dehydration often disguises itself as hunger and abnormal appetite. Drinking water at the first signs of hunger will help you learn to tell the difference between hunger and dehydration.
8. Eat Cayenne Pepper Every Day
Believe it or not, some spices make excellent natural appetite suppressants. To go along with that, cayenne pepper with high carb foods, helps to increase fat burn. It’s got a lot more flavor than using black pepper, a lot more health benefits and will keep your appetite satisfied longer
9. Brush Your Teeth More
Brushing your teeth is a little-known secret that tricks your brain into thinking you just ate. Few people will crave more food after the taste of toothpaste, so it’s a suppressant in itself. There’s actually another benefit: making it a habit to brush your teeth after every meal and every snack will soon make you aware that you are about to eat something.
10. Stop Skipping Meals
Never skip meals unless you are purposely using intermittent fasting for weight loss. The most frequently skipped meal is breakfast, but it’s best to eat something healthy in the morning. Having even a small breakfast will help keep your hunger hormones and food cravings controlled all day.
11. Regular Exercise
Exercise at a gym, with your own home gym equipment, walking, running, sports, or any regular activity will help reduce hunger and portion sizes. It will help you maintain a healthy weight, eat less, and feel good all the time. Hunger hormones will decrease, leaving you feeling fuller longer.
12. Change Your Inner Dialogue
This is absolutely the best way I know of to eat less, eat less often, and to start losing weight. Change your inner dialogue and it will literally change your mind. Any time you know you are craving food, or want to eat for any reason other than at meal time, say this to yourself: “I only eat at meal time.” Say it in your head, and when you can, say it out loud for even better results.
13. Increase Omega-3 Fats
Omega-3 fats naturally increase leptin hormones which create the feelings of fullness and satisfaction with a meal. I could write you a list of all the foods high in Omega-3 fats, but it would be a long list of cold-water ocean fish. So, just add ocean fish to your diet to stay satisfied and help lose and maintain your best weight.
14. Get Enough Sleep
It doesn’t seem like sleep and appetite would have anything to do with each other, but adequate sleep is vital to appetite control. It takes sleep to help regulate and keep in check the leptin and ghrelin hormones that help us know when to stop eating.
15. Drink Apple Cider Vinegar
Adding apple cider vinegar to your daily diet helps digestion. One tablespoon mixed in a glass of water twice a day will help control your cravings and hunger by keeping food in your stomach and fully processing it. ACV also helps control blood sugar spikes between meals. Most people do better to take it twice a day, rather than 2 tbs at once.
16. Eat Ginger Root
Ginger root has long been seen as a natural help to proper digestion. Most overweight people will see a definite decrease in food cravings when either eating it or drinking ginger tea. It will leave you feeling full and satisfied to keep you out of the cabinets between meals.
17. Check on Your Medications
The truth is though, many medications, no matter your age, can leave you wanting to eat between meals. About the only thing you can do is to check with your doctor, and be vigilant about using every technique in this list to curb your appetite.
18. Turn Off Electronic Devices
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine says that turning off your electronics prior to and during your meals will cut down insulin resistance, and cause you to have less hunger pangs.
19. Change Your Plate Color
I don’t know about you, but I had no idea that blue is a natural appetite suppressant? Turns out it is, along with the fact that orange, red, and yellow plates tend to make you eat even more. If you want to know how to stop raiding the refrigerator, try putting a blue light inside it.
20. Eat More Nuts
Forget peanuts, which aren’t nuts at all, and go for almonds. Almonds are full of protein, unsaturated fat, vitamin E, magnesium, and a lot of antioxidants. What eating a few almonds will do is to trick your stomach into thinking you just ate. Just remember that like everything else, moderation is the key.
21. Drink Coffee
Coffee will leave you full. Not only can it suppress your appetite, but will boost your metabolism to keep you burning calories. However, drinking black coffee is the key. If you lace your coffee with sugar and creamers, then you are defeating the purpose.
22. Use Smaller Plates
As silly as it looks, training yourself to eat off a saucer sized plate will do wonders. Not only will you eat less, but you will also train your brain and stomach not to expect so much. Eating from a small plate is a great way to see your stomach shrink in no time, along with learning feel full sooner.
23. Dim the Lights
Eating under dim lights will help you eat less. Believe it not, Cornell did a study and found that people eat up to 18% less when dimming the lights?
24. Chew More Gum
Because chewing your food long enough sends a message to your brain that you should be full by now, chewing gum does the same thing. When you chew gum, there’s few to no calories, but your brain will think you are eating. So, chewing gum is a great natural way to curb your appetite.
25. Scented Candles
Vanilla, peppermint, banana, and apple scented candles are reported to help deter the munchies. If you are aware of a particular time of the day that your appetite tries to get out of hand, try lighting a candle beforehand.
26. Remember What You Ate Last
It’s been proven, by the University of Birmingham, that simply stopping to remember exactly what you have eaten that day has an effect on your appetite for snacks. It seems that focusing enough on what you are eating and committing it to memory will help you kill the craving for treats.
27. Drink Green Tea
Green teas are excellent for curbing those unwanted food and snack desires. Green tea will enhance metabolism that will also lessen food cravings.
28. Eat More Fiber
If you want to stay satisfied longe, eat more fiber. Fiber keeps your belly at work long and keeps you feeling full. High fiber foods help control blood sugar which tends to decrease hunger and stomach growling. Add high fiber foods and fruits to your diet every day to keep a happy stomach.
29. Solid Food Keeps You Satisfied Longer
According to Healthline.com you’re better off eating solid food when it comes to satisfying your appetite. According to studies, eating solid foods and snacks keep you full longer and eating less at your next meal, that if you drink your snacks.
30. Magnesium supplements
If you have a problem with chocolate cravings, magnesium supplements can help combat them. Along with that, magnesium will improve sleep, help reduce fasting glucose and insulin, and relax you.
31. Creating Distractions
Creating a distraction is a great way to forget you are craving something to eat. Instead of reaching for something to eat, reach for a book, clean a closest, go for a walk, or anything you can think of to distract the urge to eat.
32. Eat Healthy Food for Less Appetite
What about not ignoring your appetite and cravings, and just learn how to feed yourself healthy food. Instead of giving in to sweets and salty snacks keep a supply of raw veggies to munch on.
Conclusion
In summary, you can see from this post that addressing your appetite naturally involves a variety of strategies. Everything from dietary adjustments and lifestyle changes to managing stress and getting enough sleep.
The approaches we listed not only help in controlling hunger but also promote overall health and well-being. For anyone, and especially you, wondering, How can I curb my appetite naturally?, implementing these techniques consistently can change your body and your life.