How To Lower Your Appetite And Avoid Extra Pounds

Submitted by Loring A. Windblad on December 16, 2009

The first steps to weight loss start with reducing and modulating the amount of food that is consumed. This is sometimes the most difficult part of weight loss since there are so many aspects to why we eat and what we eat. However, the general logic dictates that the quantity of food that is consumed needs to be reduced. This can be done by spreading meals over more sittings or by limiting the food intake in general. Which method takes precedence is a matter that is decided by the psychological constitution of an individual.

One of the first and most important things to remember when you decide to lose weight by reducing the amount you eat is that you need to exercise self control. There will be times when you feel that you have not eaten properly or completely and this is exactly what you should be aiming for. In fact, the simple act of just consuming a lot of water while you are eating is an ingenious yet very simple way of fooling your stomach into a state of fullness.

This may result in a slight case of hunger pangs later on but if you follow a strict regime of mealtimes then you shouldn’t have a problem. This brings one to the problem of controlling one’s appetite.

Appetite is something that is completely controlled by the brain and the emotion of wanting to eat is a mixture of the feedback from the digestive system, the eyes, and the nose.

This simply means that controlling one’s appetite can be really difficult. One of the simplest techniques in this regard is to consume your food really slowly.

This is where having some chatty company during meal times works really well.

When consuming food, the body can be tricked into feeling that it is full if the act of eating extends for more than 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, no matter how much you have eaten, your brain will be fooled into thinking that you were gorging for twenty minutes.

Another technique is to add a lot of bicarbonate in your food. You could do this or simply have a glass of water with baking soda mixed in it. This helps because the soda will react with stomach acids and inflate the stomach to the point of being full. This will immediately stop hunger pangs; however, there is the unwanted side effect of burping that you will have to deal with.