How to Reach a Healthy Weight Without Feeling Hungry

First, ditch the diet

Diet culture is toxic and damaging to people’s self-esteem. It leaves you hungry and obsessed with food, which is counterproductive to reaching a healthy weight and enjoying peace of mind.

Reaching a healthy weight is much better if you achieve it by making swaps in your food choices and keeping busy, so you’re not bored and grazing. Instead, you’re full, satisfied, and too busy with other things to think about food.

Dieting is usually plagued by feelings of hunger, failure, and a preoccupation with food. It’s why people often end up putting on more weight when they quit than they lost during the course of the diet. Diets don’t have lasting benefits either.

You need to make permanent changes to your lifestyle instead. Make some food swaps, take up new hobbies, and become immersed in other things. Then, perhaps you’ll lose weight without noticing. I’ve done that a few times!

But to be fair, choosing healthy foods and following certain rules can be very helpful on your new journey into healthy living…

Don’t eat late

I never eat late. I aim to finish my evening meal by 7pm. This is partly because my food takes ages to go down and if I eat later than that, it just sits in my stomach like a big uncomfortable lump and I cannot sleep.

But eating early is good for weight control too, so aim to eat between 5pm and 6pm, if you can. Be finished by 7. Then don’t snack in the evening. You might sleep better too.

Go Easy on the Carbs

I lost weight by accident when I started to deliberately cut down on carbohydrates because I wanted to control my blood sugar levels. If you’re a fan of breads and pastries, you might want to review your portion sizes, because sometimes, too much of a good thing can be too much of a good thing!

I don’t have a lot of grains. In some people, grains can cause digestive discomfort and gut pain. I’ve been known to replace rice with cauliflower, or had a mix of the two in the past. This works well and provides a better mix of healthy nutrients.

Eat loads of greens!

Greens are some of the healthiest foods on the planet and they’re good for weight loss too. Be sure to include greens in your diet. When you think about your meal envisage a bigger portion of salad or vegetables and a smaller portion of pie, pizza, or whatever you’re having with it.

Go easy on potatoes, because it’s the greens that will help with weight loss, not the root vegetables.

Easy on the meat

Remember King Henry VIII of England? He was very fat. This was because he ate masses of meat. He also had gout and lots of other nasty diseases caused by his diet.

I’ve been vegetarian for years and I’d recommend going easy on the meat, because you don’t need a lot for good health. If you eat too much, you’ll end up with more than weight problems.

High meat consumption, especially red and processed meat, is associated with heart disease, diabetes, various cancers including bowel cancer, and all sorts of other degenerative diseases. Vegetables are also a better source of healthy nutrients that can actually prevent disease.

A diet high in green vegetables and salads can also help with weight control and make you feel better.

Replace sweets with healthier alternatives

I gave up sweets years ago, because I had a nasty fungal infection caused by antibiotics. It was hard to give up sweets initially, but the cravings pass once you’ve weaned yourself off them. Then you can enjoy something healthier instead, like fruit, or dried fruit and nut mixes.

Instead of consuming chocolate bars, I now enjoy Nakd Bars, and dried fruit and nuts. I might have a chunk of 90% dark chocolate with my dried fruit, but not the whole bar!

I only have snacks to fill a hole at the end of a meal. I don’t snack during the day. You might think nuts are fatty. This is true. But they’re healthy fats, and in moderation, they’re good for you. Moderation is key.

Replace puddings with big bowls of delicious fruits

I used to have cake. Now I have a big bowl of delicious fruits. This is much better for you than eating chocolate gateau, doughnuts, or sticky toffee pudding.

Focusing on wholefoods means you’re reducing your sugar intake, boosting your immunity and keeping your weight in check. After changing my diet, I found I rarely got infections, and we accidentally cured my husband’s asthma! You can read about that here.

Ditch the sugary drinks

Don’t consume sodas, fizzy drinks or other drinks that are full of sugar. These can add a lot to your weight. I have filtered water with lemon juice or green tea.

The British Government recently introduced a tax on sugary drinks because they contribute so much to weight gain, while having no nutritional value. This is a good move for people’s health because most people consume too much sugar.

Fruit juices are perhaps a worthwhile exception, in moderation, because they are a good source of nutrients. But I’m talking about a small glass a day. Water it down to reduce the sugar hit if you’re diabetic or prediabetic.

Never eat more than you need

Just because there’s food left over doesn’t mean you have to eat it. Put leftovers in the fridge, or freezer, and incorporate them into a meal tomorrow or later in the week.

For lunch, my husband and I normally have a chunk of home made bread, with a huge salad. Today, we had the leftovers from a cauliflower cheese dish which we didn’t finish last night, with the salad.

Don’t deprive yourself of occasional treats

It might sound a bit like a diet, when you’re ditching cakes in favour of a bowl of fruit. But actually, it’s more about adjusting your mindset than going without nice things.

If you want cake, have some cake, but keep portion sizes to a minimum, and focus on healthy eating as a general rule.

It’s not about depriving yourself, but more about getting into some healthier habits, which should hopefully make you feel better and healthier in the long run. You’ll also find you can retrain your pallet, so you’re not craving sweet things.

Lifestyle changes

I did say you need to change your lifestyle, so yes, select healthier foods when you’re at the supermarket. But also, walk to the shops in the first place. Walk everywhere!

I go for walks every day. I often lose weight on holiday, because we spend so much time walking and take a light lunch to eat when we’re out. So we’re keeping busy and we lose weight by accident.

When you keep busy with something that engages both your body and mind, you’re more likely to focus on the task in hand and not think about food. This is how you can lose weight without trying.

Keeping busy is good in so many ways. It focuses your mind on something positive. It’s good for your mental health as well as your physical health.

Find productive hobbies and activities. Volunteer, go walking, join The Ramblers, go to active events that are not focused around food. Because there’s nothing like boredom to bring on the munchies!

Summing up

It definitely helps if you choose healthy foods when you’re doing the weekly shop. Ditch the sugar (or cut right back on buying sugary things), go easy on the carbs, and look for healthy alternatives.

When a recipe says butter, I use olive oil because it’s healthier. I use wholemeal flour regardless of what the recipe says. So think outside the box, choose wholefoods, and don’t be a slave to recipe ingredients. When you start to feel better you won’t want to go back to your old ways.

Take exercise when you can. Walk everywhere. Take the stairs. Try to be active everyday. It all helps.

Also, if none of this helps you, then just aim to be as healthy as you can be and learn to love yourself, just the way you are. Because despite any flaws, we all have strengths and weaknesses and things of which we can be proud.

Focus on things that make you happy, because your mental health is all important — more important than your weight. In fact, working on your mental health will mean you’re less likely to comfort eat or binge. You’re more likely to reach a happy weight if you’re feeling content with your life.

Bonus tip — Keep Busy!

Here’s a Bonus tip from Attila Vágó, which touches on what I’ve said, but stresses its importance: “Be busy. Bored people eat more. Fill your day with activities, find yourself great hobbies and the last thing on your mind will be food. You’ll only eat once hunger actually becomes distracting. I think it deserves to be a stand-alone tip. This is how I maintain weight.”

Good luck and happy new year!