Anyone have any suggestions on how to stop snacking when dieting?

Question

Even when I eat good wholesome foods, low GI foods, I am still feeling hungry. Think it's the psychology of wanting what cant have. Any ideas on how I can take my mind of food?
Only want to lose a stone but finding it soooooooo difficult.

Answer 1

A drink can help relieve the hungar, but that feeling is because your depriving yousrself. When you have a meal, eat some chips (not many), even fried ones, but when you have say a burger or any meat, have it grilled on a lean meat grilling machine, removes most fat without the flavour or the fulfilment. best bit of all fried meat tastes much worse than grilled meat.

Snacking isn't a bad thing and don't believe the rubbish you get told about having a snack every couple hours, as you will have them on top of a meal. Have a meal that fills you up, then do some exercise, you won't feel like it but just a little, it really speeds up your metabolism.

the truth is you need to try all to find what works for you best, but depriving yourself is bad, so is snacking. So make sure you eat enough to fill you up, you won't want a snack then. The human body was designed to take food in large quantities, and still works best on this. It may start with a weight gain but you'll soon adapt and only store what you need, then discard the rest. If you only ever take in a small amount of food it will be stored well in case there isn't another meal coming for a fortnight.

Answer 2

First of all remind yourself why you want to lose weight - what you are moving from and what you want to be.
Go for it with the snacks, but don't make the snacks a treat. Pumpkin seeds may be a great option as they take forever to eat, are healthy and are easy to carry around with you.
The clean your teeth regularly and chewing gum are both good avoidance techniques as well.
Another area that is gaining increasing acceptance now is the milk diet. This works on the theory that subsituting milk as your main calorie source can help you lose weight.
As with any diet though, it's really about lifestyle changes if you want to make it last. Otherwise you just end up putting it all back and more as soon as you return to your usual approach.
At the end of the day (what a dreadful expresssion!), it becomes a question of how much the lighter you matters. Is it more important than the lifestlye that resulted in the you that you want to change? Until it is, you are just putting a patch on.
Good luck!

Answer 3

okay, this may sound bizarre but read on and see what you think.
You mention taking your mind off food, and psychology all in the same breath. This is more than coincidence, - they are so closely linked.
Think of the psychology.... If you lose your purse/wallet the knee-jerk reaction is to search to get it back... This is because our minds are programmed over many years to retrieve something we have lost. Think about it.
When we diet the WORST words we can use are "lose weight". Change this to "reduce weight" - our sub-conscious mind doesn't then yearn for the weight to be returned. This can be a really useful aide to weight management.
Try slimming world too. There are LOADS OF FREE FOODS that you can snack on all day... Enjoy.

Answer 4

Actually snacking while dieting is good.Eating every 2-3 hours speeds the metabolism thus burns more calories. But snack in moderation. Like an apple or banana... some meat and cheese slices. things like that. Not cookies and chips.
For me, taking my mind off food is hard too. The way i do it is i diet pretty much really well all through out the week except 1 day i allow myself the things i would normally deprive myself, again in moderation though.

Answer 5

As a weight watchers gold member, the best advice I can give you is to drink lots of water or tea (different kinds of tea available) or if I feel like I want to snack then i'll focus my mind on something else and soon my mind is off it. Also, you can buy carrot batons from Tesco, which have no calories!

Good luck

Answer 6

This is a tough one, but there are some things you can do which may help you.
I think most of the time we become bored and need to find something to do with our time.
I can only suggest that you find healthy snacks to munch on. I know that you probably crave the crunchiness of something...

You can buy some red or green grapes, wash them, and then freeze them. They're wonderful, cold and crunchy!! Also try munching on celery, carrots, apples and nuts are a plus.. Almonds and walnuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds...

These things will not interfere with your weight loss, but in fact may be an advantage to you........ they will cause your metabolism to kick in and burn even more :)

In moderation, I think this would pacify the cravings and help you out....

Best of Luck !!

Answer 7

I know this might sound silly, but at one time when I was losing weight I brushed my teeth every time I had a craving. The food would taste awful if I gave in. I had clean teeth and didn't eat. I sometimes went for a walk or sat out in backyard for a bit of gardening

Answer 8

I am trying to lose a stone also & i have the same problem! The best thing is to keep yourself busy, if i get bored i eat even when i'm not hungry! the best thing is to snack on raw vegetables, i do a lunch box full of carrot sticks, pepper, cucumber etc and snack on that. it doesn't ruin your diet and its good for you!!

Answer 9

I'm with you. I'm a snacker, too. I'll eat great all day but, come 4 o'clock, I'm ready to mow through a whole box of Cheez-its!! I've found, though, that chewing on a piece of minty gum removes the temptation to nosh (nothing tastes that good when your mouth is all minty!). Also, I try to keep some water handy and drink it whenever I feel like munching.

Answer 10

Give into your snacking but change what you are snacking on. Have small battons of carrots, cauliflower, peppers. You could make a dip mixing low fat yoghurt and mint. Also, I find chewing gum helps. Doctors also think that we fancy a snack when we are in fact thirsty so poor yourself a healthy glass of water. Good luck