Your Weight Loss Plan: How To Control Your Appetite

Written by: Evelina Hovich on August 21, 2014

A good weight loss plan includes limiting your food intake, but you might still feel hungry after! Discover how natural appetite suppression can help you lose weight and keep it off

with Toronto holistic nutritionist Evelina Hovich!

Have you noticed that the more you try to control what you eat, the hungrier you feel? This is a common occurrence especially with people who are changing their diets. Back in 2004, Dr. Michael T. Murray wrote an article for Total Health called “Key Triggers of an Increased Appetite and a Natural Solution”, and the information is just as relevant today as it was ten years ago. “The urge to eat reflects a very complex system,” he writes, “that has evolved to help humans deal with food shortage.” In our natural human habitat, we don’t have anywhere near as much access to food as we do today. Our ancestors couldn’t just stroll down to the grocery store and pick up a mammoth steak. They had to hunt and forage for it, and would sometimes have to spend a few days or more without eating. The truth is that most of us, especially those who live in the developed world, have no idea what food shortage is like, and hopefully we never will. But our bodies don’t know that, and they behave in much the same way as they did tens of thousands of years ago.

Our bodies are interested in gaining weight, because the excess fat we develop is consumed by our body on the days where we don’t have anything to eat. But since we almost never go a day without eating, we end up continuing to store fat, building layer upon layer until we burn it off through exercise. Or not, and we all know the results of that. So you’re stuck with a situation where your mind is programmed to want to eat the food in front of you, pile on the fat, and only burn it when needed. It’s no wonder so many of us struggle with our weight! But there is hope! There are measures you can take which will help you suppress your appetite, training your stomach to only send hunger signals to your brain when it’s actually hungry. And of course, registered holistic nutritionists love methods related to diet, so these solutions have to do with what you eat. Eat food to suppress your appetite? It may seem counterintuitive, but it’s an integral part of any weight loss plan! Read on to find out.

Drink Some Water!

Sometimes, your stomach sends “thirsty” signals to your brain which are eerily similar to “hungry” signals. So next time you’re feeling hungry, have a glass of water. That might be enough to take care of your “hunger”, and all with zero calories! Water is a natural appetite suppressant. Give it a shot! Odds are, you aren’t getting enough water in your diet anyway, so carry a reusable water bottle with you and drink up!

Drink Some Tea!

Certain herbal teas can also work as appetite suppressants. Yerba matte and red raspberry leaf teas are especially effective for this. They have stimulant qualities which help you feel fuller sooner after eating. They have all sorts of other benefits as well. Yerba matte can help promote cardiovascular health by keeping fat from sticking to your arterial walls, helps with digestion, and has nearly twice the number of antioxidants green tea has. Red raspberry leaf tea, conversely, helps with pregnancy, can help ward off postpartum depression, and helps with male reproductive health. But the mother of all healthy teas is, of course, green tea. Research shows that drinking green tea twice per day helps to both curb your appetite overall and even helps reduce

the formation of fat cells, as a result of the flavonoid epigallocatechin gallate (ECGC). As a result, green tea is an excellent weight loss aid! Keep in mind, though, that green tea does have caffeine in it. Less than coffee does, to be sure, but caffeine does come with risks. It can cause high blood pressure, heart palpitations, behavioral changes and even cardiac arrest, especially in people who are sensitive to caffeine, or who have high blood pressure, arteriolosclerosis, or glucose intolerance. If you have any of the above conditions, or if you have experienced a strong negative reaction to caffeine or other stimulants in the past, be sure to consult a physician, preferably a naturopathic doctor, before adding green tea or green tea extract to your weight loss plan. If you have a caffeine sensitivity, though, you may benefit from BIE therapy, which can help retrain your body not to react to sensitivities. Speak with a qualified holistic nutritionist and BIE practitioner for more information. Other than that, get ready to make friends with your tea kettle!

Eat More Fiber!

Fiber is not only a natural appetite suppressant, it also helps your entire digestive system function better. Some of the best sources of fiber include apples, nuts & seeds, and vegetables with peels & skins, like potatoes or carrots. Two of our new favourite teas, yerba matte and red raspberry leaf, can also provide some fiber in your diet.

Eat A Bunch Of Fat (Seriously!)

It seems counterintuitive, doesn’t it? You want to control your appetite so you can stop eating so much. You want to stop eating so much because you want to lose weight. But what if I told you the best way to lose weight is to eat more fat? It’s true! Strangely enough, you need to eat fat to lose fat. But it has to be the right type of fat! Healthy fats like coconut oil, avocado, or nuts & seeds will help your body feel fuller longer.

Get Up And Move!

Exercise. It’s the best way to control your appetite, boost your metabolism, and really, the best weight loss plan. It’s not just about burning fat either. Exercise affects your hypothalamus, the part of your brain in charge of your appetite, among other things. One of its jobs is to keep you posted on your stomach’s state. If you’re hungry, it lets you know. And if you’re full, it lets you know that too. Your hypothalamus is affected by the levels of certain chemicals in your blood, including glucose, serotonin, dopamine, adrenaline, and others. A study by Zand, Spreen, and LaValle, showed that “physical activity reduces the levels of the hunger-stimulating chemicals that cause the appestat to start the stomach growling for food, and increases the levels of the chemicals that signal to the appestat that the body is humming along at peak efficiency and doesn’t require food”. In other words, you can trick your body into thinking it isn’t hungry by exercising. In fact, you can stave off hunger for up to six hours with exercise.

Supplement!

Here is a list of natural supplements which have been shown to help reduce appetite: Cumin – in addition to helping suppress your appetite, cumin also helps aid digestion, improves immunity, helps with insomnia, and more! Evening Primrose Oil – 500 mg of evening primrose oil in the morning may help suppress your appetite for the entire day! Gamma-Linolenic Acid – This stuff is the active component in flaxseed oil, blackcurrant seed, and the evening primrose oil mentioned above. It helps suppress your appetite by helping control the metabolism of fats.

Gymneva Sylvestre – This herb can reduce or even eliminate the taste of sugar for up to 90 minutes. Doctors have been using it in India for centuries to treat diabetes, and Western doctors are starting to warm up to it too. If you have a sweet tooth, try taking some Gymneva Sylvestre. Jerusalem Artichokes – Inulin, a natural fructose polymer, curbs your appetite by slowing down your carbohydrate metabolism. And it can be found in abundance in Jerusalem artichokes. In his book “The Anti-Aging Manual”, author Joseph B. Marion suggests eating one serving per day, alternating between raw and cooked, or just using the juice rather than the peel.

Help! Help! I’m Being Suppressed!

Following these steps can help you keep your appetite suppressed, one of the best ways to lose weight! Next time we’ll be talking about exercise. Yes, you’re busy. Yes, you’re tired. Yes, you’ve got all the excuses in the book for why you don’t exercise. But your body doesn’t care about that. And the good news is that even the busiest person on the planet can get some exercise in. Stay tuned to discover more!

Thanks for reading! Yours in holistic health and wellness, this is Toronto holistic nutritionist Evelina Hovich.

Evelina Hovich is a certified holistic nutritionist and BIE practitioner in Toronto, Canada. She

has helped her clients optimize their health, and manage a variety of health issues including

digestive problems, weight loss, food and environmental allergies, and more. To discover

more about Evelina's services, read more of her articles, and find out how she can help you,

visit her online: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Google Plus