How do I suppress my appetite?

Question

I just can’t seem to stop feeling hungry! Even if I eat a hefty meal, it only fills me up for about fifteen minutes. Does anyone have any advice? Should I consult my doctor and try pills?

Help! My trousers are beginning to not fit anymore!

Answer 1

Only try meds if you are clinically obese, and then with the support of a doctor. All meds need to be part of a controlled healthy lifestyle too, in order to have any lasting benefit - don't get your weight yo-yoing up and down, as this is bad for you too. It's probably worth a trip to the dr, to check there is nothing else affecting you that has an impact on your eating and health.

How to help suppress your appetite?
* Really take a close look at what and how you are eating. Fizzy water contains few calories and can help provide the feeling of fullness.
* Go for wholegrain, unprocessed rice, pastas, bread and other foods. They are far more nutritious and can take a little longer to be digested.
* Make poorer foods less convenient - I keep chocolate and other c##p in the garden shed in winter, so I'm less likely to go out to get it to eat it. Make sure that you have pause/think time before you go stuff yourself again!
* Don't buy stuff that isn't really going to support you to lose weight and stay healthy.
* Aim to lose weight gradually, extreme fast dieting isn't good for us.
* Dieting works best when combined into an overall plan of health, including exercise. Boost your aerobic exercise, and aim to get towards 85% of your maximum heart rate for your age, for a minimum of 20 minutes - this is where fat burning kicks-in.
* Drive less, walk more everywhere. I now don't park so conveniently at supermarkets, meaning I must walk further.
* Always leave something on your plate, don't go for 2nd helpings!
* Eat in one place, where you can focus on eating only, without distractions such as tv, as these help you to lose track of what you've eaten etc.
* Don't overindulge in socalled 'healthy' processed foods, such as crisps with less fat etc.
* Don't aim to be perfect and do allow some treats, just be mindful of how much you're adding to your waist line!


If you don't smoke, don't take up cigarette smoking in the vain hope of losing weight! It's a killer and starves your body and brain of oxygen, plus adds all the other very toxic chemicals too! (Including arsenic). Chewing gum after a meal can also help alot.

There is a good book not long out called 'Mindless Eating' by Brian Wansink, which also looks at how we've been tricked into overeating (think the food co. psychologists using every last known method to get us to eat too much!) - plus how to use the same techniques to reduce the amount that we eat and lose weight. I recommend this and have lost 10llbs since I read it a couple of months ago, and have lost almost 3 stones in a couple of years. It's been hard sometimes, but my 38" waist jeans I bought sometime back were replaced with 31" waist jeans (USA has odd sizes) a few weeks ago, I'm feeling much better.
If support from others is important, ensure people living in your home encourage you. Otherwise, join a club such as weight watchers.

Just some thoughts based on what I know and has helped me. I'm not perfect - who is - but I've kept a sustained effort to rid me of life threatening fat. My joints thank me too.

Good luck! Rob

Answer 2

Well, you probably have a 'clever stomach'. It can't be fooled. What it means is that your brain senses your nutrient uptake rather than your fullness level. I'm the same. When I eat food that has been grown properly (e.g. organic or grown in somebody's garden) then I don't have to eat much to feel satiated. Supermarket veg and other stuffs are lacking nutrients so my stomach/brain thinks that I haven't eaten (even though I've just consumed 650 calories!). There was a programme on tv a few nights ago and they said that in order to get the nutrients from a tomato that was sold in the 1950's you need to eat 9 tomatoes today! That's quite a lot in my opinion! Tomatoes are not exactly calorific but if you are having to do the same with all your foods then soon your waist-line will be expanding. Eat seasonally, only buy vegetables that were grown in the season without any artificial fertiliser, growth hormone, pesticides etc. Same with meat, don't eat chicken (or other meat) that has been pumped with growth hormones. You eat those hormones and soon your thighs will be growing with it! Good luck!

Answer 3

By drinking a pint of water with it. Eat more pasta, a great appetite suppressant as it continues to expand in your stamch and release energy after you've eaten it.

Answer 4

Hunger is supressed when the satiety center in the brain's hypothalamus recieves a signal from the strech receptors in our stomach saying that we are full.

Therefore, if you want to trick your brain into thinking that you are full, I would recomend that you eat healthy, and if this does not make you feel full, then you can drink water, the more the better because this will allow your stomach to strech. When your stomach strech, it does not matter what it is that you are putting in it, it will send that signal to the brain and so you should stop being hungry.

However, if you continue to feel hungry despite of doing the above, perhaps there is something else going on. Are yous till growing? Is it that time of the month? Are you stressed and is your body using food as a coping mechanism? Are you healthy?

There are really many things that one must consider when it comes to dieating, but for the most part, doing the above will work perfectly.

Answer 5

They say chicken and protein gives you the full up feeling for the longest so try that, they also showed that a person with a high calcium intake (loads of milk) absorb exactly half the fats from food that they would otherwise absorb, apparently it turns into a soap like substsance in the stomach and blocks the fat from being absorbed.

Answer 6

it could be that you are eating the wrongs foods. Food with high GI level are metabolised into your body faster, and therefore you feel hungrier sooner. I know if I have something like KFC or McDonalds, even though I feel really full, I am hungry again shortly after. something to do with all the fats and everything.

Your options are see a doctor or dietician/nutirionist.
Buy bigger clothes.

Answer 7

Try the Atkins Diet. Go to your local thrift store and pick up a copy of the book, and learn about protein and carbs. If you stick to proteins you can eat all you want, and you will lose weight and shrink. Your body uses carbohydrates for fuel to burn, and if you eliminate carbohydrates and eat only protiens your body burns its own fat. Dr. Atkins was a cardiologist, and it works. You can eat until you are full as often as you like as long as you eat proteins. Give it a try!

Answer 8

.i have had this problem for many years.it used to be about 1 hour after eating i would feel hungry.if i ignored this i would have have slight discomfort and moments of dizziness so i would eat to ease discomfort.now i am in a bad way with it.In your case it could be a duodenal ulcer as that will give hunger symptoms in early stages but normally some pain that eases by eating.it could be that your stomach is emptying to quickly thus you are feeling hungry.also your stomach could be. becoming distended and as it enlarges it feels empty. get yourself checked out

Answer 9

The best appetite suppresant is WATER! Water is very filling so have a large glass before every meal and you'll see the difference.

Answer 10

Don’t finish every last morsel in your plate, but leave a mouthful or two. This clever little technique means your host doesn’t offer to refill your plate, so you don’t feel tempted to go for seconds.