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Monday, August 5, 2013

An inexplicable urge: still hungry after eating

Have you ever been feeling like that???? Me... honestly yes. It was annoying because I was following my diet (eating right, walking/riding the bicycle at least 10 minutes a day...) but this didn't seem enough to get rid of that feeling of appetite coming up when it shouldn't.
Unless you're suffering from medical problems (diabetes, thyroid disfunction) or stress, in my experience I found five reasons more likely to be the cause of the "strange" hunger and I also found some helpful tricks.

1. It may be that you choose the right food, but that you eat in the wrong moments. "Eating at different times each day can damage the metabolism", says Cyndy Moore, Director of the Department of Nutrition Therapy at the Cleveland Clinic. British researchers have tracked the eating habits of a group of women and found that those who have meals -breakfast, lunch and dinner- always at the same time burn more calories compared to the ones changing their feeding time every day. The solution is therefore to try to do everything possible to eat every day at the same time . In case, you could use some devices (alarm, clock, phone) to alert you with a beep when it is time to enjoy your meal. Remember also that the daily calories intake should be divided in order to have more calories available to be burnt by your body in the morning/early afternoon than in the evening. "Eating so much moderated during the day so to arrive at dinner very hungry, it's a self-defeating strategy, because at night metabolism slows down and you tend to turn into fat what you eat", said Taub-Dix, a dietitian in Long Island.
2.Your breakfast may not be appropriate; indeed it's the most important meal of the day. "It is crucial to combine just the right amount of protein and carbohydrates to ensure to our body the right amount of energy for the whole morning," says Bonnie Taub-Dix again. The solution is to choose for breakfast cereal-based products, like corn flakes, whole grain bread and oat bran, adding fruit, skimmed milk and yogurt.
3. Your diet may be balanced but lacking in flavor. We should adopt a diet that is not making us tired of it, that entices people to eat, otherwise it becomes difficult to follow the regime and lose the established weight, said Lona Sandon, Professor of clinical nutrition at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. The solution in this case is your creativity in the kitchen, trying to liven up the taste of the food you prepare, making your dishes more appealing. To this end, try to use spices and herbs, such as oregano, basil, ginger. Or a dash of balsamic vinegar or lemon or honey, depending on the type of dish.
4. If you're always hungry after a meal, check how long it takes for you to finish. You may be eating so fast that you're not giving your satiety hormones time to kick in - which usually takes around twenty minutes (wow, remember it!!!). One study showed that men who ate ice cream rapidly didn't have the same rise in appetite subduing hormones as those who ate more slowly. Chat, be relaxed and savor every mouthful.
5. Your meals are low in volume, protein, fibre. Protein and high fiber foods cause greater production of appetite suppressing hormones that stop the desire to eat. Adding a little more good fat (monounsaturated and polyunsaturated such as you find in nuts, sunflower/sesame/pumpkin seeds, tuna, salmon, trout...) to your meal helps too. Choose more foods such as broth based soup, watermelon (in Summer) or beets, and vegetables that have a high water content. Keep in your cooler some cherry tomatoes that are a good, healthy snack. These foods are low in calories, but filling - which is what you're looking for to avoid being hungry after eating. Maybe drink a cup of green tea after your meal: many people tried and... it worked.