10 Natural Ways to Suppress Appetite

In order to lose weight, the first suggestion is always to cut calories.

Unfortunately, it’s inevitable that this will cause your stomach to start rumbling with hunger pangs until you give in and feed it.

This is because your body senses that food is in short supply – even if you’re restricting your intake on purpose – and releases more of the hunger hormone ghrelin to persuade you to eat.

However, with the help of these great tips, you can successfully avoid giving in to your stomach’s protests for food.

1. Eat Regular Small Meals

By eating around five small meals throughout the day, you will avoid feeling overly hungry and won’t resort to unhealthy snacking or binging.

Regular small meals also keep your blood sugar levels steady, which means your metabolism continuously functions at a good rate.

Aim to eat around the same amount of calories for each of your mini-meals to keep your hunger levels satisfied throughout the day.

2. Drink Plenty of Water

It can sometimes be difficult for our brains to know if we are hungry or just thirsty, so it’s often a good idea to have some water and check that you’re not a little dehydrated rather than hungry, especially in hot weather.

Drinking water also fills you up, so your appetite is satisfied without the calories.

You should drink water continuously throughout the day, but one dieting tip is to have a glass around 20 minutes before a meal so that your stomach has a chance to recognize the feeling of fullness, and you should then see yourself eating less at mealtimes.

3. Exercise

A great way to lose weight and suppress appetite is to exercise.

While both aerobic exercise and weight training change your body’s hormone levels in a way that temporarily suppresses appetite, aerobic exercise is more effective because it affects two hormones instead of just one.

Additionally, exercise boosts your metabolic rate, meaning that the food you eat is processed more efficiently into energy to further fuel future exercise.

4. Eat the Right Foods

You may be sticking to a calorie-controlled diet, but it’s more than just a numbers game, as eating empty calories won’t suppress your appetite.

So, to make the most of your calorie allowance, you need to eat cleverly, which means eating the right amounts of fiber, protein, and unsaturated fats.

High-fiber foods help you feel full faster and for longer, so you avoid overindulging at mealtimes, and protein is digested slowly by the body, so it takes longer to convert into body fat than fats or carbs.

Trimming fat from your diet can backfire, too, as the unsaturated fat found in nuts, olive oil, and avocados helps to suppress hunger, but just watch your portions and stick to an ounce of nuts, two tablespoons of peanut butter, or a quarter of an avocado.

5. Get Enough Sleep

A shortage of sleep plays havoc with your body’s hormones, including those which control hunger. Firstly, a lack of sleep lowers levels of leptin in your body, with the result being that you feel hungrier.

Secondly, when we don’t get enough sleep, we become stressed, and our cortisol levels spike.

Cortisol breaks down lean muscle (the type of tissue that helps burn calories more efficiently) and holds onto fat stores in the abdominal region; plus, cortisol increases insulin sensitivity, meaning that your blood sugar levels and, therefore, hunger levels are affected.

Now, you have a great reason to stay in bed a little longer, and you should also keep your stressors away from your bedroom and reserve your sleeping area solely for rest and relaxation.

6. Eat Slowly

It can take around 20 minutes for your brain to realize that you’re full, so rushing through your dinner can mean that you’ve already eaten too much before the message gets through.

The slower you eat, the less likely you are to overindulge; plus, eating slowly is a good way to savor the flavors of the food and ensure that you feel more satisfied.

7. Brush Your Teeth

For a quick fix when you feel like you may want to indulge when you know you shouldn’t, try brushing your teeth or rinsing your mouth with mouthwash.

Most people don’t feel like eating with a minty, fresh mouth, especially since toothpaste makes most foods taste bad.

8. Focus on Smells

Smelling food can trick your brain into thinking that you’ve eaten.

One study found that people who inhaled a peppermint scent every two hours ate 2,700 fewer calories per week than they normally did – that’s nearly a one-pound loss right there!

Smelling banana, green apple, and vanilla had the same effects in other studies, and the more you sniff these fragrances, the more weight you’ll lose, according to research at the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago.

So, display some vanilla candles in your home and some fresh peppermint in your kitchen, and you’ll be less inclined to feel hungry throughout the day.

9. Distract Yourself

Find something else to do for 20-30 minutes, get away from the kitchen, and immerse yourself in something that interests you, as most hunger pangs will pass during that amount of time.

Finding something to do to distract you means you won’t be able to give in to the hunger pangs caused by boredom.

10. Add a Supplement

It is also possible that you need a little extra help to suppress your appetite. PhenQ helps suppress appetite and boost energy.

These tips should give you some extra ideas about keeping your stomach satisfied and your mind occupied, meaning that giving in to your hunger is a thing of the past.

Do you have any tips of your own for how to suppress your appetite? We would love to hear your ideas and feedback, so please comment below!