Keep your hunger locked up
Our bodies need food to provide energy, repair damaged tissue and carry out various other functions. However, there are only so many nutrients it can draw from each meal. Big meals provide more than your body can use causing an 'overflow effect'. Eating little and often will give your body the right amount of nutrients and help control your appetite.
High-fibre foods such as apples are naturally satisfying as they take longer to chew – and so give your body extra time to register a feeling of fullness. One study in Brazil found that women who ate three small apples a day as part of a healthy diet lost significantly more weight than those who did not.
Research shows that the colour blue suppresses appetite, whereas yellow, orange and red stimulates our desire to eat. One theory is that humans are instinctively wary of blue foods – very few foods in nature are blue, but some poisonous berries are! Better yet – eat from a small blue plate. Eating from a smaller dish has shown to reduce calorie consumption, even if you go back for another serving.
The best way to start the day is with a bowl of porridge oats. Oats have a low GI which means that their energy is released slowly, keeping blood sugar levels steady and thereby keeping you fuller for longer. Recent studies show that eating just one bowl of oatmeal a day can reduce cholesterol levels by as much as 20 per cent.
A host of new slimming aids have hit the market in recent years, including the appetite suppressant Appestat. Costing £30 for 50 capsules, the seaweed-based ingredients claim to act like a natural gastric band, filling your tummy and sending 'full' messages to your brain. You are recommended to take two tablets with plenty of water half an hour before each meal.
According to recent studies, people who eat two low-calories servings of soup each day are likely to lose 50 per cent more weight than those who eat the same number of calories from snack foods. Soup has been proven to keep people feeling full for longer than the same foods in meal-and-drink form. Try eating a thin vegetable soup or broth before your main meal to take the edge of your hunger or to keep you going throughout the day.
Make sure to pile your plate high with fibre-rich veggies – and eat them before you tuck into the meat or potatoes. Broccoli, cauliflower, spinach and mushrooms are especially high in fibre, and so extra filling - and contain very few calories.
Eat slowly and make a habit of putting down your knife and fork and resting during a meal. It takes 10 minutes for the brain to register that the stomach is full. Serve half the portion size you would have normally, then take a break and drink some water. If you're genuinely still hungry, you can then eat the other half.