The Ultimate Guide to Managing Food Cravings and Weight Loss

Cravings can be powerful disruptors in your weight-loss journey. They can even derail the most well-planned diet, as they can strike unexpectedly and get you in a battle with your willpower. Understanding how cravings work and learning to manage them is crucial if you want to control your eating and achieve your health goals.

Cravings are an intense desire for a specific foods. Usually your body craves foods high in sugar, fat, or salt, with chocolate being reported by women as their most commonly craved food. Cravings are created by interactions between your brain and body, and your environment.

The more overweight you are, the more likely you are to experience a craving. As you gain weight, that craving is more likely to be for an unhealthy food: a manufactured food that has been designed to be ‘more palatable’ to hit the bliss point.

Following a restrictive diet can cause cravings if you are focussed on what you can’t eat and are feeling deprived.

The Science Behind Cravings

• Neurotransmitters: Cravings often originate in the brain's reward system. When you anticipate a food and when you eat certain foods, your brain releases dopamine, a chemical that makes you feel good. The brain is constantly seeking dopamine hits and you may have a habit of feeding your dopamine reward cycle with food.

• Hormones: Hunger and satiety are driven by the hormones ghrelin and leptin. When they get out of balance, your cravings can become more frequent and intense.

• Emotional Triggers: Stress, boredom, and other emotional states can trigger cravings. Many people turn to food for comfort, associating certain foods with emotional relief. Feeding the emotion becomes a habit. 

• Environmental Cues: Your environment is full of cues to eat: advertisements, time of day, a particular place, the sight and smell of food can trigger cravings. These external factors can make it difficult to stick to your healthy eating plans.

How Cravings Sabotage Your Diet

Cravings are probably the number one cause for giving up on your diet as you are left unfulfilled when you eat whatever it is you were craving. You then end up overeating as you can’t satisfy the craving. Which then develops into all-or-nothing thinking and your intentions for change go out of the window. 

• Overeating: Giving in to cravings often leads to overeating, perhaps even binge eating, so you end up consuming more than you need.

• Nutrient Imbalance: Cravings usually drive you to eat foods that are not very nutritious meaning you fill up on foods your body does not need and can damage your gut health and spike your inflammatory markers.

• Guilt and Shame: Succumbing to cravings can create feelings that negatively impact your wellbeing, causing you to doubt your ability to eat well, reduce your motivation, and trigger thinking loopholes. 

Strategies to Manage and Prevent Cravings

While cravings can be challenging, there are effective strategies to manage and prevent them:

1. Self-awareness

Identify what triggers your cravings. Keeping an eating diary can help you spot patterns and understand what prompts your cravings.

2. Balance Your Diet

Eat a balanced diet with regular meals to stabilise your blood sugar levels and reduce cravings. Include a mix of proteins, healthy fats, and complex carbohydrates to keep you feeling full and satisfied.

3. Find Alternatives

Identify alternatives foods to eat when a craving strikes and make sure they are easier to access that your usual go-to food. Also find alternative activities to eating to satisfy your emotional triggers. 

4. Manage your Routines

Lack of sleep can disrupt hormone levels, increasing hunger and cravings. Aim for 7-9 hours of quality sleep each night to support overall health and reduce cravings. Engage in activities that promote relaxation and a sense of wellbeing. 

5. Plan and Prepare

Choose your recipes and meals for the week and ensure you have the foods in the house to make them. Keep healthy options as snacks so that you’re ready should a craving strike. Plan to avoid your common craving triggers. 

NEXT STEPS TO MANAGE YOUR FOOD CRAVINGS

Cravings are a natural part of the human experience, but they don't have to sabotage your diet. By understanding the underlying causes of cravings and implementing strategies to manage them, you can take control of your eating habits and stay on track with your health goals.

If you’re serious about controlling your cravings, I invite you to take my course - Control your Cravings

You’ll discover how to respond rather than react to your cravings, how to break your craving habits, and how to prevent them in the first place. You’ll get an emergency toolkit to use to manage your cravings in the moment instead of giving in to your cravings.