Controlling Your Appetite
Bariatric surgery and even strict dieting techniques such as following a full-formula liquid diet for 12 weeks can reduce sensations of hunger (the physical desire to eat), but neither weight loss approach can curb appetite (the emotional desire for food or a particular food item).
Research has shown the most people who are significantly overweight have forgotten what it means to be hungry because they generally eat in response to appetite. Some report that they eat so frequently they have not been hungry in years. Overcoming appetite-driven eating is an essential skill if you are to successfully manage your weight in the long term. Learning to eat in response to hunger can make you aware of the instances when your desire for food is appetite-driven, but it won’t stop appetite-induced food cravings.
Emotions such as boredom, anger, stress, or loneliness can stimulate appetite-driven eating.
The best way to overcome appetite-driven eating is to figure out what is driving it and develop skills to address the issue(s) directly rather than treating them with food. However, it can take years to develop the appropriate insights and skills for this approach to succeed. To lose weight and keep if off, you need a more immediate solution.
Separating Hunger from Appetite
The quickest ways to overcome appetite-driven eating are to learn to recognize when you are seeking food out of appetite instead of hunger and implement techniques that can distract you from those cravings. When you feel like eating, ask yourself, ‘Am I truly physically hungry, or do I want food for another reason?’ If you are truly hungry, go ahead and eat a healthy meal or snack that fits with your weight management plan. If you are seeking food for emotional reasons or out of habit, use one or more of these cue management techniques to break the cycle.
Appetite Quelling Skills
Remove tempting foods from your environment. If other members of your household object, ask them to purchase their own snack foods and store them where you are unlikely to encounter them.
Handle food as little as possible. If it is difficult for you to fix meals for yourself without nibbling, have another family member handle the cooking or buy frozen diet meals or ready-to-eat salad mixes and fruit trays.
Change behaviors that you associate with eating. For example, if you always snack while sitting in a lounge chair in front of your TV, sit somewhere else or watch the show only while walking in place. Many successful long-term weight managers report having gotten rid of their lounge chairs altogether since these pieces of furniture were food cues. Similarly, if you have a set of friends you ‘meet to eat,’ suggest other ways to spend your time together.
Get involved in behaviors that are incompatible with eating. This approach works particularly well if you have a specific time of day when you are most prone to appetite-driven eating, but it can also work on short notice if you are creative. Some people report that they start cleaning and others garden or craft; they do anything to keep their hands busy.
Sarah lived alone and found the time after work and before bedtime was when she was most vulnerable to nibbling out of boredom. She always managed her eating episodes well during the early phases of a diet, but slipped back into her old habits when she tried to maintain her weight. Sarah described this pattern to the behaviorist associated with her medical weight management program. Together, they decided Sarah needed a lifestyle change so she took up a couple of hobbies that kept her out of the house in the early evening. At last check, Sarah had successfully maintained her weight for over two years.
Wait out the Urge- Appetite waxes and wanes, so you can wait the urge out if you prepare yourself to do so.
Dr. Brian Alman, author of Keep It Off: Use the Power of Self-Hypnosis to Lose Weight Now teaches people to hum softly to themselves while reviewing positive, previously rehearsed mental images intended to distract them from overeating (learn more about Dr. Alman’s techniques at SelfHypnosis.com).
Dr. Alan Marlatt, an expert in relapse prevention, developed a coping strategy called urge surfing. The idea is that urges, like waves, build gradually to a peak then wane. The goal of urge surfing is for the person feeling the urge to acknowledge, but not act on, an urge, because s/he accepts that urges come in waves and will eventually dissipate.
Practice Improves Performance
As with any other behavior, learning to curb appetite-driven eating takes practice. Be gentle with yourself during the learning process. Accept that you may occasionally slip up. If and when you do, remind yourself that weight control is a process and get yourself back on track as quickly as possible. In the meantime, work on learning more about the factors that motivate you overeat so you can develop behavioral skills to deal with these issues. Overcoming the underlying issues is your best long-term defense against appetite-driven eating.
Hunger is a collection of physical symptoms, beginning with mild, periodic contractions of the stomach called hunger pangs and progressing to a continuous pang, a ‘growling’ noise and perhaps even lightheadedness if not satisfied, that drive a person to seek food. Sensations of hunger typically begin several hours after the last meal. Researchers have suggested that hunger occurs when blood sugar and or liver glycogen fall below an optimal level.
Appetite is the emotional desire to eat. Appetite may be general such as simply wanting to eat whatever food is readily available, or it can be very specific, such as the desire for a particular food item, like chocolate or mashed potatoes. People eat in response to appetite, even when they are very full. A good example of appetite-driven eating is ordering pastry off the dessert cart because its appearance and the waiter’s description piqued your desire, even though you are full from the 3-course meal you finished.