How to suppress hunger naturally and easily

The human brain's hunger function is not nearly as specific and advanced as most people think. Because of this, you can feel hungry when you don't actually need any more calories. And since that leads to weight gain, it's good to learn how to turn off that feeling.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. If you feel hungry but your stomach isn't empty and you didn't just get done doing some serious physical activity, then something else is almost always causing the feeling and eating isn’t going to do anything but make you fat. Believe it or not, the #1 cause of late night hunger is actually dehydration. So if you find yourself feeling like you need to eat something more than 2 hours after dinner, try drinking about 12 ounces of water. And don't drink any other liquid than water as it will take longer for your system to filter out anything else in it like sugar. Just drink plain water and wait a half hour and you'll likely not feel hungry anymore. The brain's signal to ingest something is very general and typically you don't feel thirsty until you're really dehydrated so if you're just short on water, your brain will keep sending the signal to get something in your stomach but it can’t specify what. This most often happens at night because water is used during the day to sweat, keep skin moist, breathe, and talk so at the end of the day, people tend to be running a little short and start to feel hungry.
2. If you find yourself feeling the need to eat at other times of that day than at night, you could try drinking water then also but if that doesn’t work, there’s another common cause. You’re likely short on one particular nutrient that your body needs badly so it keeps telling you to eat. This effect was theorized then proven after a man trapped out at sea ate plenty of fatty fish he caught and still felt like he was starving nonstop. It turns out eating nothing but fish meat leaves you severely short on certain vitamins and your brain keeps telling you to eat until you’re not short on it. And believe it or not, that effect is more common in the average person than you might think. People tend to not pay attention to their diets and end up shorting themselves on something important. The easiest way to prevent this is to take an all inclusive multivitamin like Centrum (or the far cheaper generic version of Centrum.) Take it every day in the morning (but not on an empty stomach) and within about 2 days you should stop feeling hungry all the time.
3. If that doesn’t work, you may require more than the normal dose of a particular nutrient. Like for instance if you’re recovering from a decent sized injury like a large cut or burn, you need an excessive amount of vitamin C and protein to rebuild new cells at such an increased rate. Yes you could go to the doctor and pee in a cup and give them some blood and they send it to a lab and tell you what you’re short on but that’s slow and expensive and they’ll try and convince you something else may be the cause. There’s a much easier way using a feature that came standard with your brain. Just imagine you’re eating certain groups of food and whichever you have a serious craving for is what you’re short on. This effect is well known and seriously amplified in pregnant women. If they need more vitamin C for their baby, they’re going to feel like they’ll go crazy if they don’t eat some fruit immediately. So just close your eyes and vividly imagine you’re eating one thing and if that doesn’t seem like what will absolutely hit the spot, move on to the next food. As a basic guideline, here’s a list of things to try. If you have a craving for meat, eggs, or peanut butter that means you’re short on protein or certain amino acids. Fruit means you’re short on some vitamin, usually D or C. There’s too many different important nutrients to make a full list but once you find something that you know you really, really want, eat that instead of just whatever you find in the refrigerator and it will turn the hunger switch off in your brain. There is an obvious exception to that process, which is extremely fatty foods. A fast food burger will probably always feel like just what you want but that's because the body always wants fat. So if a bacon cheeseburger comes to mind, ignore it and move on to something else.
4. There’s another major cause of a feeling of hunger that most people don’t realize: foods with addictive properties. If you have something with caffeine like chocolate or soda regularly and then suddenly don’t, you’ll feel hungry and/or thirsty nonstop. That’s because your body gets used to the stimulant and associates it with food and drink so when you don’t have it, your brain repeatedly sends signals that it wants food and drink. Stay away from caffeine and chocolate for long enough and the feeling will go away then never get back into a steady habit of having it regularly. There are more addictive agents in different foods than you may realize. Licorice even has a subtle addictive property.
5. Once you’ve gone through all those steps to stop hunger, you’re practically guaranteed to stop being hungry all the time. That makes it yet another fantastic way to lose weight (or at least stop gaining weight) by eating.

Tips & Warnings

• Vitamins can be toxic in large amounts, especially fat soluble ones. Don’t just eat a ton of fruit and vegetables in addition to taking vitamins and hope to cover everything you might be short on or you could easily overdose and hurt yourself.