THE RHYTHMS OF HUNGER

You were born with the instinctive ability to know when your body needs fuel. Unfortunately, many people have lost that important skill and instead eat in response to environmental and emotional cues. These external rules encourage you to ignore or distrust your natural signals.

Learning to manage your eating for life requires you to re-learn to listen to and honor your hunger rhythms. Once you understand the basics of hunger, you’re ready to learn about other nuances that can help you use your personal hunger rhythms to guide your eating.

Hunger Doesn’t Follow a Clock

Hunger doesn’t always follow a clock. If you tell yourself, “I should be hungry; it’s dinnertime” or “I shouldn’t be hungry yet,” then you’re not listening to your body. Hunger comes and goes according to your body’s needs. Hunger is affected by how active you are, what and how much you eat, and many other factors.

Since it’s not always convenient to eat when hunger tells you to, you may need to re-train yourself to be hungry around a particular time. For instance, if you aren’t usually very hungry during your scheduled lunch hour you could either try skipping your mid-morning snack by eating a little more protein at breakfast or just eat less at lunch and be prepared to have a mid-afternoon snack. If you’re usually hungry at four in the afternoon but you want to be hungry for an early dinner with your family, you could plan a light afternoon snack such as a piece of fruit so you won’t be ravenous when you walk in the door. On the other hand, if you’re having a late dinner, you could choose something that will “hold” you over, like a palm full of nuts or cheese and crackers.

The Most Important Meal

Breakfast is an important meal to spark your internal thermostat and give you energy, but some people don’t feel hungry first thing in the morning. It could be that it just takes a little while for your body to wake up. Maybe you ate a big dinner or ate late the night before. Or perhaps you drank several cups of coffee and rushed around all morning getting ready, so your hunger signals were suppressed. Since it’s important to “break the fast,” it’s worth retraining yourself to be hungry in the morning. Cut down on late night eating, getting up a little earlier so you can slow down to eat, or wait an hour or so, then eat a light breakfast.

Preventive Eating

Eating even though you aren’t hungry to prevent feeling hungry later at an inconvenient time is called preventive eating. But hunger cannot be satisfied before it occurs. Think of it like this. If you’re comfortable in a room, you wouldn’t put a heavy coat on now to prevent getting cold in an hour because you’d feel hot and uncomfortable in the meantime. Instead, you’d have a coat with you and put it on when you feel cold; then the coat will do what it is supposed to do—make you warm and keep you comfortable. Hunger works the same way. If you eat now because you’re afraid of being hungry in an hour, you’ll feel full and uncomfortable in the meantime. If you wait to eat until you’re hungry, you’ll feel comfortable and content.

Hunger May Seem Erratic

Hunger comes and goes according to your body’s needs. You may feel hungry frequently one day and rarely the next. For example, many women experience wide fluctuations in their hunger throughout their menstrual cycles due to changing hormone levels. Because of your activity levels and many other factors, you simply don’t need the same type or amount of food at the same time each day. This is contrary to the way most diets are structured and yet another reason why they often fail. You are more likely to “cheat” when your hunger levels didn’t match the rules of whatever diet you are following. This time, become your own expert by learning to understand and trust your body’s signals.

STOP EMOTIONAL EATING BEFORE IT STARTS

15 Ways Turn Off Your Emotions without Turning to Food

Eating is more than something we do to nourish our bodies with vital nutrients. It's also an activity we do out of habit, like nail biting, hair twirling, or finger tapping. And sometimes, we habitually turn to food in response to certain emotions. Whether you feel angry, sad, bored—even excited—food can act as a buffer against these emotions, something 82 percent of you know all too well.

Emotional eaters know that it's easier to stuff down our feelings with each bite. We know that the fleeting "high" we get from food blocks the pain or discomfort of dealing we might be feeling, even if only temporarily. We also know better; in the long run, we still feel bad and we know that we shouldn't eat for purely emotional reasons. But that knowledge isn't enough to stop what feels like an addiction to food and eating. 

So where do you start if you want to stop eating emotionally?

It may be cliché, but the first step is awareness, recognizing that you do eat emotionally—and WHY. Each time you reach for foods (or even feel a craving come on), ask yourself, "Am I really hungry or am I just responding to something else that is happening?" If hunger isn't the reason, it's not always easy to pinpoint the reason why you feel like eating. Tracking your food can help, especially if you note the times you eat and how you were feeling before, during and afterward. By tracking your food (and related notes) more regularly, you could notice trends, like a tendency to overeat on Mondays, for example, and then pinpoint your true feelings from there. Ask yourself what it is about Mondays that leads to overeating (Stress from getting the kids to school? Anger over going to a job you hate?) Notice if you tend to munch in the evenings. Is it out of boredom, loneliness, or an unhappy relationship? Journaling (or blogging), in addition to tracking your food intake, can help you examine the causes of eating episodes so you can pinpoint your feelings.

While emotional eaters soothe themselves with food to avoid feeling and examining uncomfortable emotions, that gratification is temporary—and still painful, just like the emotions you're trying to avoid. But if you learn to recognize the emotional triggers that lead to eating, you can also learn to stop emotional eating before it starts by choose healthier ways to deal with your feelings. Here are some alternatives to eating that can help you deal with three of the most common emotions that can lead to eating.

Stress and Anger

Stress is part of our everyday lives, and it can create the same physiological responses as anger, such as increased heart rate and blood pressure. If you are eating as a response to anger and/or stress, some of these activities will help you calm down and deal with the issue at hand, instead of covering it up with food. 

• Remove yourself from the stressful situation. If you’ve had an altercation with a friend or family member, take some time away from each other to calm down and get your thoughts together. Make a list of what you want to say to the person with whom you’ve had the conflict, and revisit the issue later when you're both calm.

• Take some deep breaths. Deep breathing has been shown to reduce blood pressure and promote feelings of calmness. Try this simple breathing activity any time you need to de-stress.

• Exercise. It's a known stress buster and you may even find that it helps you deal with anger. Go for a short walk outside, hit some tennis balls, or push around some heavy weights at the gym—these are all constructive ways to deal with stress and anger.

•Listen to music. We can all think of some songs that calm us down. Make a special CD or playlist that you can turn to when you need it. Identify this as a trigger of emotional eating.

•Prevent stress from happening again. If mornings are so busy that you're barely able to get out the door on time, put some time-management skills into practice so that you don't have to rush or feel stressed each morning.

Sadness and Loneliness

These two emotions often go hand in hand. Loneliness can result in sadness, and sad people can often become withdrawn. Especially if you're dealing with grief or spending a lot of time alone, it's easy to turn to comfort foods or soothe yourself with foods that you associate with happier memories. Instead, work to replace these uncomfortable emotions with a positive action. Learn to use alternative activities as sources of gratification. Just as you've learned to turn to food for a pick-me-up, you can learn to use other activities in the same way. 

•Exercise. It boosts mood, releases endorphins (feel-good chemicals in the brain), and has even been reported to be more addictive than drugs. Anything you do to get yourself moving will work. Leaving the house for a short bike ride or walk will also help you avoid food temptations at home.

•Play with your pet; animals have unconditional love and promote health and emotional wellness, too. If you don't have a pet, volunteer at a local shelter, which will expose you to both animals and more social interaction to combat your loneliness.

•Write a letter to a friend. Reaching out to friends and family members, even if you haven’t talked to them in awhile, will remind you of all the wonderful people in your life who care about you. Spark up an old friendship!

•Volunteer. People who volunteer feel better about themselves, and it's hard to feel down on yourself when you're helping others.

Boredom

We have hundreds of TV channels, phones that surf the web, online social networks, and movement-sensing video games, but when it comes down to it, we still feel bored in our lives. Eating adds another layer to our entertainment options (like popcorn at a movie) but also becomes an easy thing to do when we don't know what else to do! After all, eating is fun and enjoyable, and it passes the time. Fortunately, many boredom-busting activities don't involve eating. 

•Pay attention to what you consume. Make a new rule that you will not multitask while you eat. That means no chips while on the computer and no ice cream while watching your favorite TV drama. If you're going to eat, you're going to be present and focus on the food you're enjoying to help avoid mindless overeating.

•Develop a new hobby. Even without cash to spare, you can learn to knit, join a local book club, or train for a 5K race. By scheduling these activities regularly, you'll have plenty to do—and practice! Make a list of all the things you ever wanted to learn, from cooking to speaking a new language, and start investigating how to get started.

• Read. We don't spend enough time reading these days, and while you may claim that you don't have the time, everyone has a few minutes here and there. Carry your book, favorite newspaper or magazine with you and steal minutes whenever you have downtime. Set a goal to read just 15 minutes each night, and you may find that stretching longer (and keeping your mind and fingers busy enough that they won't miss eating).

•Play a game. Remember how fun board and card games can be? Some even take hours! Bring out a fun game for your next party or set up a game night with your best friend. If you're by yourself, crossword puzzles are a good alternative.

•Connect with friends and loved ones. Some might argue that we feel so bored during this digital age because we're missing real-life interaction and friendships. After all, if you can post on your friend's Facebook wall or text your brother anytime, why call? Make a point to write letters, send personal emails, make phone calls and meet up with the important people in your life.

With an arsenal of activities you can do besides eating, you're on the right path to stop the emotional eating cycle. You might not be successful every time, but if you accept your mistakes and move forward, continuing to work on your issues by tracking, journaling and distracting yourself in a positive way, you'll overcome your emotional eating problems once and for all. With so many enjoyable experiences in life, food doesn't have to take center stage. Make sure you are taking time to enjoy all of them equally!

COMMON DIET QUESTIONS ANSWERED

Your coworker advises against eating after 8 p.m., a girl from your yoga class swears by the grapefruit diet, and your best friend warns that mixing carbs and protein can pack on the pounds. Sure, you've been hearing diet tips like these from well-meaning people for years, but is there any truth to them? To set the record straight on the most oft-repeated advice, we consulted a team of nutrition experts. They revealed which strategies you should forget and which live up to their get-slim promise.

Q. Will chewing low-cal foods like sugar-free gum and celery help me burn calories?

A. It might, but hardly enough to trigger weight loss. Gum and certain veggies are often called "negative-calorie" foods because they supposedly take more energy for your body to chew or digest than they contain.

The negative-calorie myth was put to the test when researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, asked people to chew sugarless gum at a rate of 100 bites per minute. After calculating the energy expended (about 11 calories per hour), they concluded that a person who chomped on a piece every waking hour of the day for a month would lose less than a pound. As for celery? All that crunching does burn energy, but it amounts to less than the 6-calorie stalk contains. The bottom line: If you really want to shed pounds, give your jaw a rest and start moving your body.

Q. Can coffee really rev up my metabolism?

A. It's true: Java can stoke your calorie-burning furnace—provided you drink it black. A study in the journal Metabolism found that the caffeine in two cups of coffee may cause a 145-pound woman to expend up to 50 extra calories over the next four hours. "Caffeine stimulates your nervous system, signaling the body to release a small amount of energy from its fat stores," says lead researcher Paul Arciero, Ph.D., an associate professor of exercise science at Skidmore College. "But stirring in milk, cream, or sugar can cause your insulin levels to rise, which diminishes that metabolic effect."

Don't try to accelerate the weight loss process by sipping black coffee all day, though. Arciero recommends not exceeding three cups in a day, as too much caffeine can cause anxiety, nausea, and headaches.

Q. Will eating after 8 p.m. make me gain weight?

A. That all depends. Contrary to popular belief, the snack you have before bedtime won't automatically be stored as fat. "The most important factor affecting your weight is how many total calories you eat each day, not what the clock reads when you eat them," says Suzanne Farrell, R.D., a Denver nutritionist and a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. That said, skimping on meals during the day may set you up to overeat at night, which can pack on pounds. A recent study in the Journal of Nutrition found that the less food people ate for breakfast and lunch, the more they ate after sundown-and the higher their total calorie intake for the day.

"Our brain's satiation mechanism—its way of telling us we're ready—tends to become weaker as the day progresses," says John de Castro, Ph.D., lead study author and a professor of psychology at Sam Houston State University. "That means you may have to eat more in the evening in order to feel full." His research suggests that have having a larger breakfast, a moderate-size lunch, and a smaller dinner can help you consume fewer calories and reduce the temptation to nosh at night.

Q. Would eating carbs, fat, and protein separately help me lose weight?

A. No. While the concept of "food combining," or eating certain nutrients at specific times (and excluding others), has fallen in and out of vogue for decades, there are no proven benefits. The theory is that different food types (proteins, fats, starches, sugars, and acidic foods) require their own digestive enzymes in order to be metabolized properly. Some claim that mixing these groups or eating them at the wrong times could cause digestive issues or weight gain. For advocates of this eating style, having orange juice and scrambled eggs at a sitting, or even a turkey sandwich, is forbidden.

To determine if a food-combining diet could confer any health or weight-loss benefits, researchers at University Hospital Geneva in Switzerland put two sets of obese patients on low-calorie diets for six weeks. The first group followed a food-combining plan (eating carbohydrates at one meal and fats and protein at another), while the second ate meals that contained all three nutrients. While both groups took in the same amount of calories, those on the balanced diet actually lost about 3 pounds more than the food-combining group—and lowered their blood pressure to boot.

Q. Will blotting my pizza cut down on calories?

A. It won't soak up all of the fat and calories in your lunch, but it can make a dent. "If you're eating a medium slice of cheese pizza, swabbing it first with a napkin can remove up to 45 calories and 5 grams of fat," says Farrell.

But all the mopping in the world won't help if you're ordering the wrong kind of pie. A report from the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington, D.C., found that stuffed-crust and meat-lovers varieties, which can clock in at 800 calories per slice, contain more than a day's worth of fat and sodium.

If you really want to improve the nutritional profile of your pizza, skip the meat toppings and order your pie with extra veggies—like mushrooms, spinach, or broccoli—and half the cheese (which saves about 80 calories and 6 grams of fat per slice). Switching from deep-dish to thin-crust can also slash up to 200 calories and 6 grams of fat.

Q. Does exercising on an empty stomach burn more fat?

A. Yes, but you might not be able to work out as hard as you would if you'd eaten first. Researchers at the University of Ottawa in Canada asked two groups of people to hit the treadmill in the morning until they'd blasted 400 calories. The joggers who skipped breakfast burned 58 percent more fat than those who had eaten a meal before their run. But pre-workout fasting won't necessarily translate into weight loss. "People incorrectly assume that if you're using fat for fuel, it equates to losing body fat," says Nancy Clark, R.D., a sports nutritionist in West Newton, Massachusetts. "But what affects weight loss most is how many calories you've depleted during your workout and if you've sustained a deficit by the day's end."

It may sound counterintuitive, but having a 150- to 200-calorie snack at least 30 minutes before your sweat session could help you get slimmer in the long run. A study from Pennsylvania State University found that women who had a mini-meal before their workout were able to exercise up to 16 percent longer than those who drank only water beforehand. Plus, says Clark, women who exercise on empty become so ravenous after they finish that they often end up making poor food choices. Eating a banana or a granola bar before lacing up your sneakers can give you the energy you need to crank up the intensity.

Q. Can foods like cabbage soup and grapefruit help me flush fat?

A. Despite long-standing rumors to the contrary, "there's no science proving that any particular food can burn, melt, or flush away fat," says Donald Hensrud, M.D., an associate professor of preventive medicine and nutrition at the Mayo Clinic. "If a woman loses weight on a grapefruit or cabbage soup plan, it's likely because she has cut calories by restricting her intake to a handful of foods."

Hensrud's colleagues at the Mayo Clinic (which is often incorrectly credited with creating both the cabbage soup and grapefruit diets) estimated that people who follow either plan faithfully eat 1,000 to 1,200 calories a day. "You'd almost certainly lose weight eating 1,000 calories of anything, whether it's bananas or potato chips," he says. "But it will be pretty tough to keep the pounds from returning once you return to your normal diet."

11 Things Kids Can Teach You About Weight Loss

The Littlest People Know the Biggest Motivation Secrets

The answers to weight loss success aren’t in the bookstore. You won’t find them in the latest government research labs. Forget about talk radio, late night TV, or a magazine rack full of scantily clad, impossibly thin cover models.

You’ll uncover information and data there, for sure. You’ll find plenty of opinions, ideas and "proven techniques" too. But the REAL answers – the stuff you can use every day – can be found anytime at your local playground.

Everything you need to know about fitness and weight loss, you can learn from kids.

Have you ever watched a child completely engrossed in a project? They have the magical ability to be serious about what they’re doing without taking it too seriously. You can do the same with your weight loss. You can live every day with more focus, and every week with more motivation.

Here’s what every child knows that you may have forgotten. See if you can apply some of these lessons to your daily program:

1.         Everything can be a game. Why slog through the same workout routines in boredom, when you can add a little fun? Make up rules, shoot for personal records, regain your competitive spirit.

2.         Don’t walk when you can run. Every day is full of opportunities to increase your fitness. This rule is closely related to "don’t drive when you can walk."

3.         If you don’t like it, don’t eat it. Once you hit your goal weight, chances are your eating habits won’t stick around long if you hated what you were eating. Healthy eating involves balance and moderation.

4.         Laughter feels good. Kids seem to inherently know that laughter can ease blood pressure, help your brain function, give you energy, and help you reach your goals. Smiling and enjoying yourself can be serious help.

5.         Playtime is important. We get so caught up in work, chores and a host of "have-to's" that we forget to take time for ourselves. Not only does relaxing and regrouping make life worthwhile, it has real health benefits. Most of all, it will help you stay consistent and motivated.

6.         The world should be full of color—especially on your dinner plate! Splash it with as many colors as possible, paint it like a rainbow with food. It’s more fun to look at and chances are you’ll be eating a healthy, balanced meal.

7.         It’s always more fun with friends around. Children tend to gravitate toward other children. It gives them spirit and makes them want to play all day. Working out with other people is almost like having your own little playgroup.

8.         Adventures are found outside, not inside. Every kid knows that the good stuff is in the great outdoors—fresh air, wide open spaces, limitless possibilities. You can’t find those things cooped up in a tiny, stale gym. Open the door and start a new adventure every day.

9.         It’s important to use your imagination. You can be Captain Fantastic or Stupendous Woman any time you want. Give yourself permission to believe in your own super powers and let your mind take you wherever it wants to go.

10.       Anything is possible. No fear, no self-doubts, no negative self talk, no self-criticism, no worries, no destructive anxieties or thoughts of failure. To a child, he/she can do anything. And do you know what? They’re right.

11.       You have your whole life ahead of you. Here’s your chance to do it right.

The answers to weight loss are probably about 3-4 feet tall, and may be closer than you think. When you act more like a kid, suddenly the world opens up. Living a healthy lifestyle becomes something you want to do every day. Start enjoying yourself again!