“It's really hard to lose weight when I’m hungry all the time!”

I know this struggle well, because this was me…

Not only was I hungry all the damn time but I also suffered from reactive hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) - so to avoid that I was told to eat often “to keep my blood sugar level”.

This made it really hard to lose weight…

And little did I know this was making the problem worse.

When you’re hungry all the time, you think about food all the time…

When you’re thinking about food all the time the cravings set in.

Luckily we can fix this!

The biggest trigger for hunger and cravings is blood sugar imbalances.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

When you eat too many carbs, or eat them too often (especially when they’re not balanced with enough protein and fat) you get that blood sugar spike (sugar high), and then, what goes up must come down and that's when you feel that blood sugar drop.

And that's when hunger cues up…and your energy tends to tank.

When this happens you usually tend to crave carbs because your body is looking for that quick energy fuel.

When you can balance out your blood sugar, and keep it there, you’re not riding that blood sugar roller coaster all day long and it's much easier to get control over your hunger.

And it's not as hard as you might think, but it does take some diet and habit change for most of us.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Here are a few tips on how to do that:

Break your fast (breakfast) - no matter what time of day that is with protein and fat. When You start your day with carby/sugary foods like cereal, bagels, muffins etc. you are going to spike your blood sugar and this just sets you off on the blood sugar rollercoaster from the get-go.

You’ll likely experience more hunger and cravings throughout the day.

If you start your day with protein and fats you will keep your blood sugar stable and feel fuller longer.  You might do eggs and bacon/steak/sausage, or make a frittata or omelet.  Eggs not your thing?  Remember, breakfast doesn’t have to look like breakfast.  You can have chicken, a pork chop, leftovers from dinner the night before - think outside the box and keep it low carb!

Focus on meals rather than snacks.  Instead of falling into that meal-snack-meal-snack routine, when you get hungry have a meal.

Every time you eat (particularly if carbs are included) you will be raising your blood sugar and that means your insulin will rise as well.  Insulin is our fat storage hormone.  When it's elevated that means we are in storage mode (you can’t be in storage mode and burning mode at the same time).

So if you are eating every couple of hours you are raising your blood sugar each time.  Just when it starts to come back down to normal, you have that snack and up it goes again…this means you are essentially in storage mode all day long…the opposite of what you want when weight loss is your goal.

Aim for your meals to keep you satisfied for 4-6 hours.  Then when you get hungry again, have your next meal.  This gives your body some time throughout the day where insulin is not always high.

No naked carbs.  When you do eat carbs, have them with some protein and fat to help blunt the effect on your blood sugar.  For example if you want to have some berries, have them with some full fat yogurt, homemade whipped cream (yum!) or some sliced cheese to help keep your blood sugar from spiking.

I hope this helps!  You really can get control over hunger - I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t experienced it for myself.  If you want some more ideas, tips, and support on your weight loss journey - come join us over at our new Facebook community https://www.facebook.com/groups/thelowcarbsolution - we’d love to have you!