Hungry All Day? Snacking A Lot? Let’s Fix That.

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confused.jpgThis post may be relevant to you whether you eat Paleo or not. It doesn’t matter if you’re eating grains, sugar, dairy, and legumes or a Paleo diet, you may be suffering from the hungries all day. Here’s what you can do to fix it.

1. Eat more breakfast.

If you’re eating 2 eggs and 1 piece of bacon for breakfast and then wondering why you’re so blasted hungry 1 hour later, it’s because you’re not eating enough food. The first step in curing sugar cravings and hunger throughout the day is to make your breakfast big. Eat 2 eggs and 4 ounces of meat in the morning with some veggies (for an average sized person), all cooked up in some oil–coconut, lard, bacon grease–you know the drill. 1 piece of bacon contains 2 grams of protein, and those eggs only have about 6 grams each. Try to go for about 30 grams of protein in the morning. If you do this, I’m willing to bet that your hunger will decrease throughout the entire day and you won’t have such severe sugar cravings. I see it with my clients all the time, and they lose weight this way too.

2. Eat more protein in your lunch.

I can’t tell you how many people tell me they eat 2 eggs for breakfast and then a couple hard boiled eggs for lunch. Don’t you guys get sick of eggs? :) Eat meat instead. It will help keep you full. Don’t skimp on whatever else you’re eating just because you’re eating more meat, either. What you’re going for is 3 or 4 big-ish meals a day (I’m not talking to you intermittent fasters, so no peanut gallery in the comments, please).

3. Don’t be afraid of fat (or carbs)!

Throw your non-stick pan away. You only have it so you don’t have to use oil, right? Because once upon a time you were told that fat was bad for you. Well, it’s not actually bad for you (google it – I promise you it’s true), especially if you’re not eating trans fats or vegetable oils. Fat makes food taste good and it makes you full for longer, just like protein does. So eat more of it. And don’t be afraid of carbs, either. I wrote a post called “If You’re Craving Carbs, You May Just Need Some Carbs” if you want more info on that.

Did I just tell you to eat more calories at your meals? Yes, I did. But here’s the truth: you’re either going to NOT eat enough protein, fat, and carbs at your munchkin-sized meals and then be hungry throughout the day, snacking on unfulfilling things like nuts and candy… or you’re going to have reasonably sized meals where you take in enough food to fuel you for at least a few hours and not have cravings all day. The latter sounds way better to me. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you’re just not going to eat much today in an effort to lose weight, so you’ll “just have an egg and some lettuce for lunch.”

Fail.

Stop the constant mindless snacking. Eat smarter instead.