If you’re anything like me, you’re a passionate sweet tooth, but you also want to be in fantastic shape. Most people think that the two don’t go hand in hand and well… it may just not be so.
Life is too short not to enjoy good food. It’s one of the biggest pleasures we as humans can experience. The problem with ‘good foods’ is that they are often times extremely calorie dense in small quantities.
The flavor combinations of our favorite foods often times have a drug like effect on our brain and cause us to get hooked. What happens after that? Yeah you know the answer… you just keep eating more and more! When done on a consistent basis, you will see the scale go up significantly and you will notice a flabbier appearance in the mirror… taking you further and further away from your dream physique.
You may be surprised to hear this, but there are no good or bad foods when it comes to gaining or losing weight. Gaining weight and losing weight simply comes down to calories in vs calories out. In order to stay consistent with your diet you need to respect your personal calorie requirements. The problem is that when people have severe cravings, they tend to overeat on calorie dense foods and consume way too many calories than they need on a consistent basis. This is what causes the unwanted weight and fat gain. Unfortunately, in order to lose weight, you need to do the opposite, consistently take in less calories than you need.
Many people have problems sticking to their diets when they try to get beach lean. They keep at it for a couple of days, sometimes with extreme approaches, but then undo all their hard work in those moments of weakness where they eat double as much as they normally would. For some people these splurges aren’t momentarily, they can last up for days or even weeks. Unfortunately, this is what keeps them from achieving the results that they want.
In this article, I will help you to reach your low body fat percentage goals and will share a couple of simple tips on how to keep your cravings under control. These tips will allow you to manage your sweet tooth, make you feel satisfied and will allow you to lose fat easily or maintain a low body fat percentage with ease if you’re already there. You’ll probably be pretty happy because I’ll share a trick with you that will allow you to have your cake and eat it too!
7 TIPS TO MANAGE YOUR CRAVINGS
1 – STAY HYDRATED
Believe it or not, but often times people confuse hunger or cravings for something sweet with what is actually thirst. When you’re dehydrated and thirsty, you’re not always aware of that and instead of drinking water, you grab for food. This may sound ridiculous, but it’s the truth. I often caught myself grabbing for food and sweets when actually, I was just really dehydrated. Dehydration often times causes headaches, feelings of fatigue, feeling lethargic and people think that they need sugar in order to give them a boost.
These days, when I have severe cravings or want to grab something sweet, I first of all drink a glass of water. In many cases, drinking frees me of my cravings because my body actually needed fluids, instead of food.
This is due to the fact that thirst signals can often be pretty weak and people aren’t as aware of their body as they’d like to think. As a result of being in a dehydrated state, they mistake thirst for hunger.
So when you have cravings or have the urges to grab for sweet and calorie dense foods when you feel ‘hungry’ or have an energy dip, try drinking a tall glass of water first and see if your cravings were actually just your body telling you that you need more fluids in order to be hydrated properly.
After doing this a couple of times, you will get to know your body better and will make it a habit of drinking first, before gorging on comfort foods and you will not screw up your diet because of dehydration.
2 – GET ENOUGH QUALITY SLEEP
While intermittent fasting has beneficial effect on the hunger hormone ghrelin, not getting enough sleep has a negative effect on it. Ever wonder why you feel so hungry and crave sugar and fats after pulling an all nightery? Increased ghrelin and cortisol is the answer my friend.
I used to work a job with a 3 shift system and had a hard time shifting from night rhythm to day rhythm (which meant waking up at 4.30 in the morning and not getting enough, some no, sleep). When this happened, I had to fight urges to eat and fighting my sweet tooth all day long. Sometimes I couldn’t handle it anymore and I just gorged everything in sight… I felt disgusting afterwards and if it happened too many times, I saw a significant difference on the scale and in the mirror.
Everyone has a bad night’s sleep from time to time, but definitely try to maintain a consistent sleep routine if you can. This will ensure that you recover properly, your testosterone will be higher, cortisol will be lower and ghrelin and other important hormones will be balanced.
Getting enough quality sleep is one of the best things you can do for your health, building muscle and losing fat and to maintain your youth. The best thing of all is that it’s enjoyable and completely free, so make time to sleep!
3 – FOCUS ON A NUTRITIOUS WHOLE FOOD DIET
I’ve noticed that when I eat nutritious, whole foods packed with vitamins and minerals on a consistent basis, that I experience way less cravings compared to when I’m eating a lot of garbage.
The difference between healthy foods and unhealthy foods is that healthy foods are full of essential micronutrients and the right type of macronutrients to fuel our endocrine system and to deliver all the essential building blocks that our body needs. Simply put, healthy foods are foods that have a positive effect on your health. Unhealthy foods are the opposite, they are void of vitamins and minerals and often times contain fats that have a negative effect on your state of health.
As a general rule of thumb, I try to make sure that 80% of the food I eat come from healthy and nutritious sources. Not only do I feel better, am I more energetic and do I get sick less, my cravings are way absent during these times and if they do occur, they’re way less intense compared to when I’d be eating more garbage foods.
Your body will trigger signals of having more food when it’s not satisfied with the amount of nutrients it has received. When your body is void of essential building blocks, it will ask for more until those needs are met. Therefore, make it a habit of eating at least 80% of your foods from micronutrients dense sources such as fruits, vegetables, meats, eggs, quality dairy products, potatoes and other starchy tubers and quality fats such as avocados, grass fed butter, olive oil, coconut oil, etc.
You will no doubt feel more vibrant and energetic due to a more balanced hormonal profile and your body having received more immune system boosting nutrients. As well will you have less cravings and feel more fulfilled after each meal.
4 – AVOID CRASH DIETING – APPLY A MODERATE CALORIE DEFICIT
One of the biggest reasons why people have such cravings when trying to lose fat is simply because they are severely undereating.
People tend to think in extremes. For a lot of folks, dieting is one of those things where they adopt an either all or nothing approach. They either gorge themselves and let themselves go, or they severely restrict themselves concerning food sources and the amounts they eat.
If you’re going to starve yourself I can already tell you that you’ll fall off the wagon. When you severely restrict your food intake to the point where it’s not healthy anymore and your body is actually going into a state of starvation, you can bet it’s going to do everything in its power to make survive.
The solution: moderation. When going on a fat loss phase it’s crucial to consume less calories than you burn, otherwise you won’t be losing weight and fat. However, the key is to apply a calorie deficit that allows you to still feel fulfilled and energized.
Most people will do fantastic with a 10-20% calorie deficit. It’s enough to kickstart the fat burning process, but not too much that you will feel lethargic. The more fat that you have to lose, the more towards that 20% you should lean. If you’re already pretty lean, let’s say 12% body fat and want to go down to 9%, then lean more towards the 10% calorie deficit.
Once you hit a fat loss plateau, create a new calorie deficit from your new maintenance level and make the size of the deficit appropriate for the amount of body fat that you carry. the higher, the aggressive you can go without negative effects, the lower your body fat percentage, the more careful and diligent you should be with the deficit.
By dieting down with a moderate calorie deficit, you will maintain your energy levels, maintain a good mood, maintain higher testosterone levels and libido and your workouts will be great. Crash dieting will cause you to experience the exact opposite.
Learn to embrace balance and you will be able to keep up your good habits and your results for the rest of your life. Extremes are just that, too extreme and nobody is able to sustain that.
5 – EAT CARBS AND FATS
In the recent decades, the weight loss industry loves demonizing certain macronutrient groups. The biggest victims of these scam diets are carbohydrates and fats.
For commercial reasons, people are led to believe that either carbs or fats as a whole are the culprit in making people overweight. This simply is not true. People are overweight because they eat too many calories as a whole, not because they eat carbohydrates and fats in their diets.
Carbs and fats are actually very important to maintain optimal health and functioning. Carbs are the body’s preferred source of energy and your brain is mainly fueled by glucose. Ever get cloudy in your mind when consistently eating a low carb diet? No surprise there. Your car doesn’t run smooth when you put the wrong fuel in either?
Starchy carbohydrates such as potatoes and other starchy tubers fill up your glycogen stores which cause you to train better, it lowers cortisol levels, raises testosterone levels and are an easy absorbable source of energy for your body.
Micronutrient rich carb sources such as fruits and vegetables are packed with essential vitamins and minerals that your body needs to function optimally. They will raise testosterone levels and boost your immune system.
Fats, especially saturated and mono unsaturated fatty acids are vital for optimal testosterone production as well.
Want to go through life as a castrate of a weaker version of yourself? Avoid all types of carbs and fats!
When depriving your body of carbs and fats, you’re going to have extreme cravings because you’re robbing your body of the primary fuel sources it needs to thrive. So be sure to respect your calorie intake, to eat enough protein (no more than 0.8g per lb of bodyweight is needed) and eat a good mix of carbs and fats in your diet.
6 – IF IT FITS YOUR CALORIES
One of the biggest misconceptions when it comes to nutrition is that there are good foods and bad foods regarding weight loss. Put differently, many people think that there are certain foods that make you fat and that there are certain foods that make you skinny.
This is simply not true. Again, the most important number one factor to manipulate your weight is calories in vs calories out. Sure, regarding your health, foods that are packed with micronutrients are better to boost your health and immune system, but purely to lose weight, it’s all about calories baby.
Believe it or not but in the past, somewhere in 2015, I’ve done an experiment where I got completely shredded by only eating McDonald’s! This sounds crazy, but it’s true. I simply kept track of my daily calorie intake, made sure that I got in enough protein and I supplemented with a multivitamin to get in some micronutrients. The result was that I got down to about 8 percent body fat on 2200 calories per day and about 130g of protein per day.
Do I recommend that you do this? No, but there is a lesson that can be learned from this.
I advise people to eat about 80% of the foods they consume in one day to come from healthy, nutritious food sources that will be beneficial to their health, that are of high quality and that will make them feel satisfied.
However, we are humans and humans aren’t perfect. For this exact reason, I believe in a healthy balance. My weakness is chocolate, caramel popcorn and ice cream of all sorts. Each and every day, I save about 20% of my total calorie intake to give in to my sweet tooth. This makes getting down to and maintaining a low body fat percentage so much more easy and enjoyable.
Finding this balance allows me to enjoy something sweet every day and keeps me from binging. In the past, I used to adopt an extreme approach where everything I ate had to be really ‘clean’. The result was that I didn’t cheat often due to my discipline, but when I cheated, I was like an unstoppable force of nature that devoured everything in sight. I often ended up consuming (and I’m not exaggerating here) 7000 – 10.0000 calories in one day because I was in a ‘F@#k it’ mode and kept eating till I physically couldn’t handle no more food.
These days, I’ve accepted the law of calories in vs calories out and it has changed my life or the better. I maintain a low body fat year round, stay relatively lean while bulking and have an easy time losing fat when I’m cutting because I don’t have any restrictions.
The only necessity for this ‘IIFYC’ approach is a little discipline and self-control. If you for example have eaten 80% of your calories from nutritious foods and you’ve saved those last 20% for let’s say 2 magnum ice cream bars, then you have to be disciplined and stick to only two and not pig out. But since you’ll most likely eat this treat out of desire instead of out of hunger, this won’t be an issue for most people, since the nutritious foods will already have taken care of satiety.
7 – INTERMITTENT FASTING
When it comes to weight loss, it doesn’t really matter whether you eat once per day or if you eat 10 meals per day. What matters is your total calorie intake.
However, I personally do experience less hunger when I practice intermittent fasting. In the beginning you might feel more hungry because your body is trained to be hungry at the traditional meal times during the day, but after 1 or 2 weeks, this “feeling hungry programming” already disappears.
It may sound counterintuitive, but I actually feel less hungry the less frequent I eat. I respect my calories and protein intake for the day, but instead of eating it over 3 to 6 meals, I fast for about 16-18 hours on a daily basis and eat my total calories for the day in 1 to 2 meals. Doing so makes me feel so much more fulfilled after each meal due to the huge portion I get to eat and, I feel way less hungry during the fasting phase.
Since I’m fasting and know I won’t eat anyway, I don’t focus my attention on food either and find myself being more productive by working on my business or taking care of other responsibilities or hobbies that I need to do.
All of this can be explained due to the fact that fasting causes a reduction in ghrelin, which is the hormone responsible for making you feel hungry.
CONCLUSION
Getting lean is pretty easy. It just requires the right information, some discipline and consistency. These tips will make your fat loss journey effortless and enjoyable.
Being in fantastic shape doesn’t require suffering or making your life a living hell. The point of having a great physique is to enhance your life, not to ruin it!
I can guarantee you that if you apply these tips in your own life, you will fall in love with the results you’ll see in the mirror and your mind will blown how effortless that it was.
Balance and flexibility over extremes will always win in the long term.
Kevin Mahjoubi