Hunger vs. Appetite: The daily weight loss battle by DRFitness Think Thin Tips for Weight Loss
The war of your waistline:
Hunger vs. Appetite is a never-ending daily battle between your body’s need for food and your brain’s desire for flavor! You must win this battle everyday in order to lose weight and to stave off the unhealthy foods. Winning this battle is done in your mind, but the results will be rewarding to your body! You must win these battles consistently in order to win the war of the waistline!
Understand your body:
The first step is to identify which stimulus is causing you to feel hungry, is it your body’s need for food or your brain’s desire for flavor? This is difficult to decipher at first so here is an easy tip that might help you: If your stomach is growling and you have not eaten in more than three hours, it likely is hunger. If you ate a decent meal within three hours, then it likely is appetite that is feeding your desire to eat.
Beware of advertisements:
Advertisements that show pictures of food and describe how delicious they taste are designed to trigger your appetite. Do not let them win your battle! They want your money, that is all! They will use the colors red and yellow which have been proven to trigger hunger in your brain. Can you think of a restaurant whose colors are red and yellow? Yeah, those colors were chosen on purpose!
Do not be fooled by smells:
Have you ever walked into the grocery store and smelled fresh baked bread and immediately felt hungry? Yup, you guessed it, appetite was triggered by the smell of fresh baked goods! Grocery stores figured out that if they add a bakery, the smell would make their patrons hungry and therefore buy more groceries!
Tip: Only go grocery shopping if you have eaten a decent meal in the previous three hours. You will encounter this when you go out to restaurants, to the mall, or walking on city streets, so do not be fooled into eating something when you do not need the extra calories!
Know when you are full:
Learning your body’s level of fullness or satiety is probably the most important to weight loss. I have suffered from the need to eat until I am stuffed! My mother called me “the disposal” when I was growing up because I would eat multiple plates at buffets. I was surely full after the first plate, but I did not want food going to waste or my appetite had taken control and wanted more flavor. I learned to control this over the years and you can too! I use logic to help me by telling myself that one plate is enough calories that my body needs for energy and nutrients. More than one plate will increase fat storage because it is too much energy. You can also try my eight level hunger scale for determining your level of fullness:
- Starving
- Very Hungry
- Hungry
- Slightly Hungry
- Slightly Full
- Full
- Very Full
- Stuffed
Let’s recap: Identify the difference of feeling hunger vs. feeling appetite. Be aware that advertisements are out to empty your wallet by filling you belly with no regard to your weight loss efforts. Smells are also tools to incite unplanned eating and buying so know that appetite is triggered by your senses and do not let it control you! Now that you know what triggers appetite you must control the amount of food you eat. Telling yourself that appetite is at work, not hunger will help you not to overeat. Now let’s win your war of the waistline by winning your daily battles!!! if I can do it, you can too!
