Food Cravings

Whenever you start to diet, it seems like a red flag goes up in your body, sirens go off, and the internal chaos begins. All you can think about is the food you shouldn’t be eating. 

You’re “good” for a while, sticking to the diet like gum on a sidewalk. A week or more goes by and to “reward” yourself, you end up bingeing on the chocolate, pizza, or chips you’ve been totally avoiding. 

The cycle repeats itself year after year, and before you know it, you actually start convincing yourself those sweatpants and loose dresses are stylish! Well, it doesn’t need to be this way. You CAN get off this roller-coaster!

Food cravings such as these are really common among women. Before we learn ways to control such cravings, first we need to understand what causes the cravings.

As you may have already guessed, there are many different causes for food cravings.

Hormone Imbalance

One of the lesser-known causes of food cravings is hormonal changes and hormone imbalance. An imbalance of your body's hormones (estrogen and progesterone) will lead to a condition known as Estrogen Dominance. Amongst other things, estrogen dominance affects your blood sugar level, and thus it's a cause of food cravings. Click here to find out more on how hormone imbalance affects weight loss.

Low Blood Sugar Levels

Skipping meals and irregular meal-times can also cause food cravings. If too many hours have passed between meals, your blood sugar will drop and this causes your body to crave carbohydrates (as these are the foods that will provide the quickest supply of energy).

Danger of Dieting

Quite often, consuming a bland, monotonous, boring diet causes the most cravings. People who have been in the hospital or on tube feedings for long periods will crave pizza, steak, cookies, ice cream and other flavorful, aromatic, textured foods. This is not surprising. These patients are not deficient in any nutrients. They just need variety, texture and color added to their diets. This is also true for chronic dieters who limit their diets to the same boring foods day in and day out. These people actually may be putting themselves at risk for nutrient deficiencies, but this is not the source of their cravings. The lack of variety and deprivation of desired foods is. In fact, research suggests that people don't crave chocolate for the nutrients but for the sensory appeal. For both groups, the cravings are intensified when around aromas of baking food or when watching food commercials or cooking shows.

This type of craving can perhaps be best described as simply wanting what you can't have.

In an attempt to avoid going off their diets, many dieters literally stuff themselves with carrot and celery sticks, all the while craving ice cream, potato chips and candy. 

But ice cream and the like eventually win. 

Further, such foods win big. Out of guilt, or with the intention that they'll go back on the diet tomorrow and have to forgo "forbidden" foods again, dieters frequently overindulge. When they do return to their diets, the vicious cycle begins again. 

How can you break this cycle? Believe it or not, the answer is simple: Have some of the food which you crave for. Moderation is a key to successful weight management. Don't deprive yourself of your favourite foods, but at the same time, don't go overboard and consume too much.

Forget the carrot sticks and have a reasonable portion of ice cream, if it's ice cream that you really want. In moderation, favorite high-calorie foods can help you stay within a well-balanced diet and achieve a healthy weight.

Stress

For those who seem to crave foods in order to cope with their feelings, eating only small amounts of less-nutritious craved foods, along with a nutritionally balanced snack or meal, may be appropriate. 

However, some experts observe that the more we use certain foods to ease emotionally-laden times, the more we condition ourselves to crave them in the future. For this reason, it is important to put in effort to find other ways to relieve stress.

How can you reduce food cravings?

Use a natural Progesterone cream. Progesterone helps to correct estrogence dominance or your hormone imbalance. And this helps to reduce food cravings and mood swings. Learn more about how progesterone helps with weight loss...

Consume soy protein. Soy is good at preventing insulin fluctuations by leveling insulin levels. Soy protein prevents your blood glucose levels from soaring, thus reducing large insulin secretions that store glucose as fat in your body. Reduced insulin fluctuations also results in fewer "sugar cravings". Learn more about how soy helps with weight loss...

Take Chromium Picolinate supplements. Chromium Picolinate helps to increase insulin sensitivity leading to better utilization of glucose into muscle tissue, rather than converting the excess glucose into fat. Learn more about how chromium picolinate helps with weight loss...

Take L-Carnitine supplements. L-Carnitine gives you more energy with less hunger, as it supports systems involved in fat burning. Learn more about how L-Carnitine helps with weight loss...

Take Garcinia Cambogia supplements. Garcinia Cambogia helps to prevents lipid buildup in fat cells, and it also helps with portion control. Learn more about how Garcinia Cambogia helps with weight loss...

Consume more Fiber. Fiber helps to stabilize blood sugar fluctuations. Low blood sugar levels causes food cravings, so consuming fiber may help to reduce the number of food cravings you experience. Learn more about how fiber helps with weight loss...

Find another way to relieve stress. Instead of giving in to your craving when you feel stressed, a simple trick is to find some other way to give yourself a reward, something that really makes you happy. Some people have found taking a really luxurious bath and pampering themselves with quiet time works. Others find that lying down with a good book to read or just some soothing music helps them to relax. Or it can even be taking a leisurely stroll by the park or some play-time with the family dog. Find what works for you and do it instead of eating. 

Exercise lifts moods. Another method you can also use to combat stress is to do some exercise. Exercise has been proven to have positive, mood-elevating effects. By exercising, you're getting a really good deal because you'll actually benefit 2 different ways -- not only will you feel less stressed, you'll also enjoy the usual benefit of getting more calories burned.

Wait it out. If you are in a situation which does not permit you to do any of the above, another trick you can try is to simply wait 15 minutes. A lot of cravings are actually very short-lived, so by waiting it out, you'll find that the feelings of food cravings will subside or even disappear. So don't be in too much of hurry to give in to your cravings the next time they surface because they may not be around in a while.

Drink water. Sometimes we mistake thirst for hunger or cravings. So don't be too quick to reach out for that extra snack. Drink a glass of water instead and see if you still feel hungry 15 minutes later. In many cases, you may be pleasantly surprised to find that you were just thirsty instead of actually being hungry. This is a really good way of keeping off those unnecessary calories.

Spread out your meals. Instead of eating 3 big regular meals each day, opt to have 5 smaller meals. After you eat, your body releases the hormone insulin, and one of the things which insulin does is to cause your body to store fat. The larger the meal, the more insulin your body releases. But smaller, more frequent meals keep insulin levels lower and more stable. The less insulin you have in your blood, the more fat you burn, and the less you store. Eating small meals throughout the day instead of your standard three may be better for fat burning. 

Choose a healthier substitute. If you want ice cream, spoon up some fat-free and sugar-free ice cream, frozen yogurt, or sorbet.

 

Still got a question on food cravings? Email us at and we'll do our best to answer any questions you have... We're here to help!

 

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Got a question on weight loss for women over 40? Email us at and we'll do our best to answer any questions you have... We're here to help!