5 Situations That Can Cause Hunger Pangs

There are certain moments when, without knowing why, your appetite is triggered. In this article, you will discover some of the reasons that can “wake up” hunger and how you can control them.

If you are one of those who strive to control themselves with food but – without knowing exactly how – you end up ingesting more than necessary, it is important that you discover what is the “hidden force” that leads you to open the refrigerator when you should not or to serve yourself more amount of what is necessary on the plate.

Plan to detect what pushes you to eat

Find out the reasons that motivate you to eat more will be much easier if you put this plan into practice:

• First learn to listen to your body to distinguish when you eat because you really are hungry (physiological need to eat that disappears when you are full or sated) or appetite (it is a more instinctive and psychological impulse that leads you to eat even if you have a full stomach).
• Then, reflect with sincerity on the situations in which you usually lose control with food: what time of day, where are you, with whom, or what do you think when you exceed eating. This will be useful to identify your critical moments.
• Find the reasons that push you to ingest more than necessary. Maybe it’s because of nerves, because of the hormones, because of boredom, to repress you more than you should to exceed the weekend…
• And finally, read this article as we’re suggesting what foods are your allies to soothe that uncontrollable appetite.

The most “dangerous” situations

Do you identify your desire to eat ‘more’ with any of these situations? Listen to your body and you will find the solution to retake control.

1. Nerves and stress

Faced with an alien situation but that affects us, women usually respond by eating more. It is a way of looking for emotional stability that we do not find around us.

But keep in mind that most likely you can not fix that problem that concerns you immediately. And what to eat does not solve anything, on the contrary: you will blame yourself and you will feel worse.

When you reach that conclusion, your mind will relax and you will not need to search almost desperately for something (food in this case) to hold on to.

If you can not stop chewing: In this case you are recommended oatmeal or corn (relaxing foods), banana, blue fish, nuts… (rich in tryptophan) and citrus (vitamin C) to combat irritability.

2. The hormones

There are days when you feel a mixture of uneasiness, depression, discomfort, anxiety, dissatisfaction, even sadness. All because of hormones.

If you are of childbearing age, it may happen to you during your period, and if you have entered into menopause it is the lack of estrogen that produces those swings and, what is worse, it makes you fatten easily. But even if it seems impossible to you, you are able to control the situation.

If you can not stop chewing: Opt for a soy drink (rich in phytoestrogens), a plate of asparagus with mushrooms (it carries fiber) or nuts (good fats for your heart).

3. The weekend: emotional reward

There are women who are suppressed with the diet from Monday to Friday to “eat with more joy” over the weekend.

However, to contain yourself during those five days does not mean that your menus are balanced (maybe you do not eat breakfast or simply have a snack) and that, together with the bingeing of the weekend, only makes you gain extra kilos.

It is best to enjoy every moment with food and not go from one extreme to another.

If you can not stop chopping: Take eye-catching but healthy preparations such as fruit skewers, vegetable carpaccios with light sliced cheese…

4. Fatigue and the attempt to have more energy

When you feel exhausted it is easy to raid the refrigerator and end up devouring, for example, a piece of chocolate cake. At that time your goal is to obtain energy immediately and, of course, you do not feel like cooking.

However, the fast-absorbing sugars in cake can immediately trigger glucose levels, but they plummet shortly afterwards. So you do not regain strength, just fat.

What suits you best are dishes that give you vitality all day. And if you do not have time to cook, plan, spend a day preparing the weekly menu and freeze.

If you can not stop chewing: Carrot and beet juices give you strength. Whole grains and nuts provide hydrates that release energy throughout the day and help you fight fatigue.

5. Eating alone every day

The apathy for not having anyone to cook can cause you to end up eating anything: “Why am I going to get into the kitchen?”, Many women think.

Try to change those thoughts for others that involve self-care: make yourself look at your food as if you were preparing it for someone you love very much and remember that your health is at stake.

If you can not stop chewing: Use unique dishes, easy and quick to prepare but balanced, such as vegetable salads combined with legumes, brown rice and a handful of nuts.

Other “temptations” that make you eat more

Common habits such as eating while standing in the kitchen, having a relaxed dinner in front of the TV or avoiding throwing food off the plate can unbalance your diet.

Beware of leftovers

It is always a bad thing to throw away food, so many times you may be tempted to “make the effort” to finish what your children have left or your own plate (too full) to avoid it.

So always moderate the amounts you serve. If you see that you have “fallen short” you can always resort to the crudités as satiating, light and vitaminic accompaniments of that portion of food left over.

Avoid standing food

It is clear that eating while standing or sitting does not increase the calories of food. What is different is your attitude towards food and that influences the scale.

For starters, when you eat standing, you just ingest anything to calm your hunger. It’s as if you can not wait to prepare a “decent” dish. Also, when you eat this way you usually have an extra rush, you chew up faster than you can and you run too fast to finish the menu.

As a therapy, spend a few minutes preparing your meal and do not try anything until you are seated. You will eat more relaxed and with less anxiety.

Try not to dine in front of TV

It is a usual resort at dinner time. The day is over, it is “your moment” and you need to disconnect. So you sit on the sofa watching your favorite show while you savor a succulent menu whose calories you will not burn because you will go straight to bed.

If you “internalize” that the sofa is just to relax (not to eat) you will break this vicious circle.