Weight Loss: Understanding Hunger Signals and Scientifically Controlling Appetite for Easy Fat Reduction

Why Am I So Hungry? The Triggers of Appetite

Do you think it's a joke that seeing or smelling food can make you gain weight?

To some extent, it's true.

For many women, their eating habits are more often triggered by external influences. For example, seeing or smelling food is far more likely to stimulate their appetite than hunger itself. "For some women, it's hard not to eat when surrounded by tempting food," says Bevori Kuwat, director of the taste and smell clinic at the Monal Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. "So when you see a cheesecake with sticky red strawberry juice oozing from it, you feel hungry involuntarily. Similarly, the smell of bacon, fried fish, freshly baked chocolate chips, or cookies with real butter can be irresistibly tempting."

It's not just what we see or smell; internal bodily conditions can also trigger our appetite. For example, a surge in hormones and insulin, the release of specific food-sensing chemicals in your brain, or simply an empty stomach can all stimulate appetite.

Your brain, eyes, nose, taste buds, gut, nerves, and all the chemicals and hormones in your body have a say in when you eat, how much you eat, and even what you eat. Sometimes they all shout at you at the same time that you should eat. Sometimes you may receive mixed messages. For example, your stomach, the chemicals in your brain that act as neurotransmitters, and hormones might tell you something like "eat some fruit," while your eyes, nose, and taste buds crave chocolate and cake. The stomach's neurotransmitters and hormones are more discreet and cautious; generally, they only signal when you're nutritionally deficient, urging you to eat what you truly need. Therefore, when your eyes, nose, and taste buds tell you to eat, you must be especially careful about what you truly need and when to eat.

Controlling Hunger
You can control your hunger by training your brain and stomach. Here's how.

Research shows that once you start eating, you can stop eating as quickly as possible by smelling your food. So eat slowly and take the time to smell what you're eating. Dr. Susan Sforman, Professor of Medical Psychology in the Department of Psychology at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina, says.

Keep a food journal

“Write down any unplanned meals and the context,” says Dr. Knight Gollerken, director of behavioral research at Duke University’s Center for Diet and Health in Durham, North Carolina, and author of the *Duke University Medical Center Journal of Diet and Health*. Then review your food journal so you can start anticipating your cravings and manage them.

Eat breakfast. Researchers at Winterport University in Nashville conducted a 12-week dietary observation study on 52 overweight women. Some ate three meals a day, including breakfast, while others skipped breakfast. The women who ate breakfast tended to eat less high-fat, high-calorie food.

Add appropriate seasonings.

If food tastes good, you'll eat quickly. One way to ensure good flavor without adding large amounts of sugar, salt, or fat is to use enough herbs or warming or sour seasonings. For example, lemon juice, pepper, and red bell pepper, says Kuvat.

Eat inexpensive foods. Some foods fill you up faster and satisfy your hunger more easily than others. The faster a food fills you up, the less you'll eat. These foods include apples, oranges, potatoes, plain pasta, fish, lean steak, and popcorn.

Avoid high-fat foods. A high-fat meal eaten at any time of day seems to tempt you to eat more fatty foods. Dr. Sarah Rebwetz, a behavioral neurophysiologist at Rockefeller University in New York City, says she found that when mice were fed more than 40% fat, they continued to secrete high levels of a neurochemical that stimulated their appetite for fatty foods.