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We want to share 12 diet tips that you can Diet and Lose Weight Without Starving to minimize the amount of hunger that you experience during a fat loss diet and in turn maximize your chances of long term success.
Regardless of what type of dieting method that you employ or how your training plan is specifically structured. Fat loss ultimately comes down to one central thing and that is maintaining a net calorie deficit over time by consistently burning more calories than you consume.
The fact is simple, when your daily caloric expenditure consistently exceeds your caloric intake, your body is going to naturally kick into survival mode and produce feelings of hunger in order to motivate you to eat. Food cravings are the number one reason why most people ultimately fall off track with their fat loss diet and end up failing in the long run.
Although these 12 tips are not going to completely eliminate your hunger altogether, they will make a very significant positive difference when it comes to reducing them down to a more manageable level.
This is the most basic and most obvious tip for you to follow but it’s also the most important. Create too large of a calorie deficit and not only will you lose an excessive amount of lean muscle mass throughout your cutting phase, but you’re going to feel excessively hungry as well.
Think of fat loss as being a marathon rather than a sprint, and focus on creating a small calorie deficit that gradually strips the fat away, while allowing you to maintain your lean muscle mass and while keeping your hunger levels relatively controlled.
A good guideline to follow for this is to employ a calorie deficit of around 15-20% below your maintenance level, and aiming to lose about 1-2 pounds of total body fat per week.
Protein is the most filling of the 3 macronutrients and it also plays an important role in helping you spare lean muscle tissue as you diet down. A good guideline here is around 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight daily from lean high quality sources.
The idea that “dietary fat makes you fat” is one of the biggest myths when it comes to proper fat loss nutrition. Maintaining adequate fat intake is a very important aspect of your overall plan. Not only does a sufficient amount of dietary fat help to keep your testosterone levels from dipping too low throughout your cut, it will also leave you feeling fuller and more satisfied in between meals by slowing down the rate of gastric emptying. For those reasons, we would recommend that you aim to get at least 20% of your total daily calories from healthy source of fat.
Fiber absorbs water as it moves through your digestive tract and essentially gels expands in your stomach to increase feelings of fullness and satiety. Like fat, fiber also slows down the rate of gastric emptying. A good guideline is to consume about 15 grams of fiber for every 1,000 calories you consume.
This somewhat overlaps with the previous point, but vegetables are one of the very best food sources for your fat loss diet because they’re very high in overall volume but extremely low in calories.
Consuming vegetables with several of your meals throughout the day is a great way to help fill yourself up while keeping the total calorie content of your meals down. Not only are vegetables a great tool for reducing hunger, but they’re also incredibly macronutrient dense as well.
The research on meal frequency and its effects on basal metabolic rate are fairly clear. As long as you’re consuming the same overall calorie and macronutrient totals for the day as a whole, the specific way in which you layout those meals doesn’t really have any significant effect on your bottom line fat loss. You want to experiment with different meal plan structures in order to find the one that works best for you in terms of controlling appetite.
So for some people that might mean eating 6 small meals a day, for others it might mean 4 medium sized meals, and for others it might mean 3 larger meals. In addition to that, some people do best by consuming a larger percentage of their calories earlier on in the day with fewer calories later on, while others do better using the exact opposite approach.
Finally, you can also consider trying out the popular “intermittent fasting” protocol by consuming all of your daily calories within an 8 hour “feeding window”, and then fasting for the remaining 16 hours of the day. So just play around with these different variables and see which one works best for you.
So aside from drinking plenty of water throughout the day as a whole, you can also try consuming a couple glasses of water with each meal in order to increase overall feelings of fullness.
As mentioned in the beginning, fat loss ultimately comes down to maintaining a net calorie deficit over time by burning more calories than you consume. You can also create a calorie deficit by consuming less food and by increasing your activity level, or through a combination of both. These variables, reducing calorie intake or increasing calorie expenditure will obviously stimulate your appetite, but the results may be different for each person.
Some people are able to manage their hunger more effectively by creating a larger calorie deficit through their diet and then performing less cardio as a result. While others prefer to consume more calories through their diet but perform a higher amount of cardio in order to create the same overall calorie deficit.
Try experimenting with each of these variables by either consuming fewer calories and exercising a bit less or by consuming more calories and exercising a bit more to see which is best for you.
Performing low intensity longer duration aerobic sessions is fine as part of your overall plan, but keep in mind that these types of sessions tend to have a more powerful appetite-stimulating effect than high intensity, low duration cardio.
You can try mixing in some high intensity interval base cardio into your plan in order to burn additional calories without experiencing a significant increase in appetite.
– 3 Low Impact At-Home HIIT Workouts For You to Try!
Trying to eat clean 24 hours a day is not only completely unnecessary when it comes to maximizing fat loss, but it’s also a great way to ensure that you fail with your diet over the long run.
Completely restricting a particular food item is only going to make you desire it more, increasing the chances of eventually “giving in”, become discouraged, and then potentially binge even further. Eventually throw your entire program off course.
On the other hand, if you simply allow a small percentage of your total daily calories to come from the foods that you crave most right from the outset, your chances of long term success are going to be hugely maximized, and with no negative effect on your fat burning results either.
Remember, fat loss nutrition is all about the big picture, and including a few “cheat foods” here and there is NOT going to magically cause you to gain fat as long as it’s being properly tracked.
A good suggestion here is to follow the basic rule, if 80-90% of your total calories are coming from lean high quality protein, refined carbs and healthy fats. Then the other 10-20% can come from whatever foods you’d like, as long it fits into your overall daily calorie and macro nutrient totals.
Not only does chronic sleep deprivation negatively impact your mental focus, your physical strength, energy levels and motivation, but it also boosts your appetite as well. This is due to a decrease in leptin levels and an increase in ghrelin levels, which are two key hormones that regulate hunger.
Everybody’s individual need for sleep varies quite a bit, so the standard 8 hours a night guideline won’t be applied. Instead, just aim to get enough quality sleep each night so that you feel fully rested, alert and energized throughout the day.
For better sleep tips be sure to check out check out 15 Sleeping Tips For Better Muscle Growth and Recovery
Now this sounds pretty simple but research has shown that eating your meals at a slower, more gradual pace helps you to feel fuller and more satisfied than a smaller volume of food. Your food isn’t going to run away, take your time and enjoy it.
These 12 tips may not completely eliminate your food cravings altogether, but by experimenting you should notice a significant positive effects that will make your diet much easier to stick to over the long term.
Have you ever tried any of these tips or have diet tips of your own that you would like to share? Please do so in the comment section below.
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