How To Keep Food Cravings At Bay When Losing Weight

Food cravings. They’re the dieter’s natural enemy. Anyone who’s ever embarked on their own weight loss journey will tell you just how potentially derailing the desire to eat unhealthy foods can be.

Whether you find yourself desiring sugary treats or high-fat savoury snacks, the urge can be seriously distracting. Give in to the temptation too frequently, and you’ll find losing weight to be a tricky task indeed.

There is some consolation in the fact that food cravings are extremely common. In fact, it’s estimated that a full 90% of people experience intense yearnings for specific foods.¹

Just because we crave certain low-nutrient foods, it doesn’t mean we have to take the bait. Even if it is delicious. Food cravings can be kept at bay if you know how…

How To Stop Food Cravings: 10 Simple Ways

1. Swerve diets that are too restrictive

Cravings occur much more in people who are on diets.² It stands to reason – you want what you can’t have.

If you find yourself on a very strict diet that restricts your food intake too much, you may find yourself overcome with the near-constant yearning for certain non-diet-friendly foods and wondering how to stop craving junk food. Avoid this by carefully selecting a diet that, while healthy and promoting weight loss, isn’t overly limiting. That way, you’ll still get the odd tasty treat, and you’ll reduce the chances of yo-yo dieting.

2. Ensure that you’re getting enough calories

While cravings can be emotional responses,³ more often than not, they are a signal from the body that you’re missing a certain nutrient,⁴ or simply that you’re not getting enough calories on board. In other words, you’re hungry.

So don’t restrict your calories to an extreme degree. Settle on a diet that provides you with all the nutrients and calories you need in order to function healthily, but still lose weight. Do that and you should find that the cravings subside. Our guide on how to eat healthy on a budget may be of interest here.

3. Eat little and often

If you avoid becoming too hungry at any point in the day, you should be able to avoid the pangs of hunger that can become directed towards fatty or sugary foods.

One smart way to avoid hunger is by ensuring that you eat very regularly. Of course, it’s not a good idea to eat more than three large meals a day, but grazing will stop you from feeling hungry and should help keep any cravings at bay.

4. Keep your cupboards and fridge free from temptation

Food cravings can be annoying, but it’s the giving in to them that proves troublesome. It’s preferable to stop the temptation at source. If, however, that’s proving tricky – or you simply want a quicker solution – simply remove the bait.

If you ensure that no trigger foods are kept in the house, you can’t buckle and reach for anything unhealthy. What you can do, instead, is go for a healthy snack. That’s if you replace the bad snacks with better ones.

It could pay off in the future and not just with your waistline. Studies have shown that the more you resist the foods you crave, the less you end up craving them.⁵

5. Allow yourself some of your favourite foods

There’s a difference between limiting intake of unhealthy foods and completely eradicating it.

Enjoying a favourite tasty snack on the odd occasion isn’t a failure. Just try not to indulge too frequently. You need to be healthy, but dieting shouldn’t be hugely restricting and joyless. It’s about striking a balance.

The odd treat should assuage any heavy cravings you have too.

6. Try to manage your stress levels

If you suspect that there’s a correlation between your cravings and stress, don’t fret further. Lots of research suggests a link between the two.⁶

If you can find ways to manage and keep a lid on how stressed you are, you should see food cravings tail off. Even more importantly, it can help your overall mental health and life in general.

7. Steer away from food-based rewards

If you’ve always treated or rewarded yourself with unhealthy foods, it can be difficult to break that psychic link. But do try. Disconnect reward and fatty or sugary snacks, and you may well see a drop-off in cravings.

Instead, try to reward yourself with something non-food-related. Incentivise yourself with little gifts or fun activities as a replacement. This is a great way to reduce sugar intake, for example.

8. Chew gum

Chewing gum has been shown to reduce appetite, hunger pangs and food cravings.⁷ At least in the short term, anyway.

9. Keep on top of your sleep health

A lack of sleep can affect your body in many ways. Sleep deprivation can cause untold and unpredictable fluctuations in hormones, which can affect your appetite.⁸

Studies have demonstrated that poor sleep can lead to an increase in not only general hunger levels, but in specific high-calorie food cravings too.⁹

10. Keep hydrated

Thirst is often mistaken for hunger, or even food cravings.¹⁰ If you make sure you’re hydrated at all times, you’ll cut out this potential issue.

Feeling a craving for something? Try drinking a nice large glass of cold ice water. There’s a possibility that the hydration will alleviate the need to eat something less than healthy.