Making sure you don’t overdo your caloric intake is simple math, but sticking to the plan is a real challenge. Feelings of hunger aren’t easy to ignore, but what’s the difference between genuine hunger and cravings? Nutritionist Alan Aragon has the answer and shares three ways to beat your long-term weight management goals.
If you’ve been tracking your caloric intake throughout the day and know you’re in a deficit or reaching your maintenance number, then a stomach ache for a slice of pizza at 9.30pm is the last thing you need, but what about your muscle gains? If your body is telling you to consume food, then ignoring that feeling will lead to muscle loss, right?
Wrong, says Aragon, who has a master’s degree in Human Nutrition and is one of the most trusted evidence-based fitness experts on the internet. Aragon recently took to Instagram to differentiate hunger from craving and explains that craving is rarely about feeding the muscles, but much more often about appeasing the mind.
The difference between hunger for food and craving
“Hunger for food and craving are not the same thing,” he shares. “Hunger can affect the intensity of food cravings, but food cravings are very specific. Thus, hunger can be satisfied by eating almost any food that simply fills the stomach. Cravings, on the other hand, can usually only be satisfied with a certain food or a certain type of food. Whether it’s a sweet dessert type of food or a salty, greasy, crunchy snack.” The message here is that hunger can be satisfied with any food, including healthy ingredients, while cravings usually involve trying to lure you to the dark side and eating those boring, salty, energy-dense foods.
“So, contrary to popular belief, cravings are rarely due to some kind of nutritional deficiency,” Aragon says, and that means giving in to cravings will rarely help your fitness or weight loss goals. But if cravings threaten to derail our health, why do we get them?
“Food cravings are the result of conditioned responses to the environment that reinforce the positive emotions and positive psychological state you associate with a given food,” explains Aragon. “Like watching your favorite TV show and what you unconsciously eat.” Aragon says that cravings likely won’t stop through self-deprivation, however, and that completely abstaining from feel-good snacks could have a rebound effect later on. “So this kind of goes against the narrative that we should avoid food,” he suggests. “Because that will only increase (your) desires.”
Aragon says that the reason people often regain weight after a period of lightness is because they lose their ongoing battle with cravings. Okay, so if food cravings are a fact of life, how can we build a better relationship with them?
How to manage your food cravings
“Instead of thinking about how to completely overcome cravings, I’d rather think about how best to manage the reality of food cravings,” concludes nutritionist Alan Aragon. Here are three sensible steps to manage your desire for a healthier diet.
Plan a diet that satisfies your appetite
“First of all, plan your diet so that it’s a high-saturation diet,” Aragon advises. Aim for meals that are high in protein and fiber, as these will keep you feeling fuller for longer. Aragon says you should aim for whole food or minimally refined meals, as these will be more likely to satisfy your appetite.
Trade for success
Aragon encourages you to take a close look at the foods you usually crave and see what you can replace them with, for example dates are sweet and replace sweet treats. Or maybe you could stick with the same foods you crave, but look for lower-calorie options.
Cut back on snacks, cut back on rebounding
As Aragon explains, cutting out your favorite snacks in the short term could set you up to rebel and gain weight in the long term. Fortunately, you don’t have to completely avoid the foods you crave. “It’s not a big deal, just don’t overdo it,” says Aragon. “Just don’t have it at high frequency all week or month.”
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