Cravings are an inevitable part of a weight loss journey. If you reduce the number of calories you are consuming and increase your daily levels of physical activity and start exercising too – it’s completely normal to have the odd carving or two for sure.
One thing I would add, however, is that if you’re craving foods a large proportion of the time, and have incredibly strong cravings/ hunger then you may need to work on one or more of the following areas to ensure that this is reduced as much as possible going forward:
❌ Are you being super restrictive?
It may sound simple but one of the biggest factors could be that you’re being too restrictive in the total amounts of food you’re consuming. You have a much higher likelihood of cravings and hunger pangs when you’re consuming 1300 kcals per day vs 1800 kcals per day for example. For the purpose of weight loss we need to be consuming the correct amount to induce weight-loss of course, but not so low that you’re pulling your hair out every day of the week! The sweet- spot is the Gold standard here!
💭 Be Mindful! Are you really craving that bad?
Or are you just having a quick snicky-snack whilst watching your fave reality TV show? Are you actively THINKING that you’re going to have it? Or are you letting your brain almost sub-consciously lead you to the snack cupboard without any real thought? It’s really important that as many nutrition-related decision we make are made based on your GOALS, and as few as possible based on EMOTIONS or sub-conscious eating. Practice being mindful and bringing what you’re doing to the forefront of your mind and actively ask yourself with each occasion ‘Is this taking me closer to my goals?’
⬇ If you are following a low-carb approach…
…sometimes it doesn’t work for everybody in the sense that you simply end up craving way more carbs, and more sweet ‘quick fix’ type foods and in the end snacking on lots of biscuits, cake chocolate etc… Especially if you are training for longer durations, training intensely, and/or training more frequently. Your carbohydrate stores are more likely to be depleted in this environment leading to more cravings. Sometimes is a great idea to increase your carbohydrate intakes especially in and around training.
🍬 If you’re craving sugar/sweet stuff
INCLUDE IT! Now, this may sound like crazy advice to give, but sometimes being too restrictive on the foods you love can just cause more problems rather than solve them. Let’s say your target is to consume around 1600 kcals per day. Could you maybe have 3x meals of 500 kcals and a 100cal snack each day that you love? That 104cal KitKat is not going to cause you any issues to your results because it’s now factored in AS PART of your recommended intakes, not on top of it! (Try not to have too many sugary snacks on a regular basis, of course, we need to look after those blood-sugar peaks!)
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