One of the biggest concerns for people about to start a weight loss program and people trying to reach their goals is hunger. If we could eat healthy and correct size portions and not feel hungry, losing weight would be significantly easier. Many of us enjoy eating healthy foods, but when we are left feeling unsatisfied we go off plan. The physical hunger pangs affect us mentally – we think we need to eat as soon as we feel even a little bit hungry. Fighting these feelings can be some of the hardest moments on our weight loss journey. But often times, over eating and constant snacking are just bad habits we need to break. 

When it comes to weight loss and eating healthy, feeling hungry a couple times a day is normal. This doesn’t mean feeling starving or constantly hungry – your meals and snacks should leave you feeling full for a reasonable amount of time. Meals should leave you feeling satisfied and energized for 3-5 hours and they should never be skipped. Drastically reducing your food intake and going to extremes is never good. Under eating can cause you to feel feeble and frail, can deprive your muscle of the nourishment they need and can also cause you to binge. You should never feel weak or lightheaded, but eating as soon as you feel mild hunger isn’t necessary. Feeling hungry lets you know when it’s time to refuel and it also lets you know that you are balanced.

It can be hard to understand, but mild hunger actually is a good thing because it also indicates that you aren’t over eating. Many of us have been over eaters, either eating huge meals or constantly snacking all day, or both. This is unhealthy for many reasons, and feeling hungry lets us know that we aren’t over eating anymore. Eating meals that leave us feeling stuffed will stretch out our stomachs and make it harder to eat the right portions. It makes it so every time we eat, it feels like we haven’t eaten enough because our stomachs are used to eating more. It takes some time, but soon your stomach will adjust. Your body should be able to digest and use up the food you eat, otherwise you are gaining. That’s why even eating too much of a healthy food isn’t good for weight loss. If you are constantly consuming you can’t lose. 

A healthy and disciplined eating routine will keep you nourished and keep you from over or under eating. Feeding your body clean foods for fuel and staying hydrated is the best thing for your weight loss. You will feel lighter and fitter, and soon it will show on the scale. So next time hunger happens, don’t immediately feed into it. Try and control it and remember it’s one of the challenges of making a healthy change.

~Love to Live Healthy with Josephine Fitzpatrick

Innovation Weight Loss and Fitness

8031 Jericho Tpke Woodbury, NY 11797

469 7th Ave Manhattan, NY 10018

Cutting calories and eating smaller portions are common ways to help you lose weight, but could it also help you live longer? Several studies and some new research has shown that when you cut back, it can cause your body to react in a way that can extend your life. It is worth noting that this is not an extreme – starvation is never healthy or recommended. But many of us eat such large portions and snack too often, which can hurts us when it comes to more than just our weight. 

There are two sides to this concept. The first is that making the change to a healthy lifestyle from an unhealthy lifestyle will medically make you so much healthier is so many ways, thus extending your life. Heart disease, cancer and diabetes are some of the top causes of death of men and women today. Losing weight and adopting healthy eating habits can reduce your risk of developing these diseases. Eating clean and cutting back will put you in a better state of overall health, and has been known to improve cholesterol levels, heart rate, blood pressure, body fat and weight, which will help you live longer. 

The second part of this point of view is that the changes your body goes through when it consumes less calories is good for you. When you consume less, your body increases its rate of “cellular recycling” – a process by which our bodies reuse nutrients in our cells. In a way, it triggers survival mode in our bodies, causing us to use every bit of what we eat and drink. It is a natural process called autophagy, which is defined by the physiological process in our bodies that deals with the destruction of cells. At first glance, this doesn’t sound good. But when you think about it, you realize that it is a perfectly healthy process. For example, our skin is constantly being created and rebuilt, whether that is after we have been injured or just from daily living. Skin cells are constantly lost and rebuilt. The same goes for most of the cells in our body. At some point, almost all of the cells in your body die and are recreated from within. When you eat too much and have fat or toxins built up inside you, your body can’t function and rebuild as well as it could if you were eating clean and smaller portions. Eating healthy also ensures that when your body is creating cells and rebuilding itself, it is using the nutrients you are feeding it. It’s true when they say you are what you eat. 

Again, going to extremes and drastically cutting calories is never good. It can cause you to feel dizzy or depressed, or it can cause memory loss and reduce your bone density. Eating on your weight loss plan provides you with enough nutrients and calories to live healthy, lose weight, and maybe even live longer.

~Love to Live Healthy with Josephine Fitzpatrick

Innovation Weight Loss and Fitness

8031 Jericho Tpke Woodbury, NY 11797

469 7th Ave Manhattan, NY 10018