So weeks, months, or maybe even years after research, you’ve realized that the best way to lose weight is through being in a caloric deficit.
Maybe you’ve also been at a caloric deficit and you’re making good progress on your health goals. Which is freaking awesome!
Now that you know that you need to be at a safe caloric deficit to lose unwanted weight, the question then becomes “how can I do this without dying of starvation”?
There are probably days you feel like giving into your hunger pains and you eat those cookies sitting in the pantry, or you go shopping at a grocery store and destroy a whole “family size” bag of chips…This may or may not have been me.
There’s no need to feel like you’re starving yourself day by day, hour after hour to reach your health goals.
So, I am going to give you 7 Tips on how you can stay full on a caloric deficit so you can comfortably continue to reach your health goals.
- Eat your vegetables
Let’s just get this out of the way now. You need to start eating vegetables if you aren’t already doing so. Why? Well not only is it obviously packed full of nutrients that different parts of your body need, but there are a lot of vegetables that are lower in calories due to a large some of them consisting mainly of fiber (we’ll talk about that in a second) and water.
So, what does that mean for you? Well since they are lower in calorie, you can eat a larger volume of them to fill up your stomach. I’m sure from there you have an idea of what happens, a full stomach means you wont eat anymore.
Vegetables in general also has a large amount of fiber which is very important for the health of your Gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Without a healthy GI tract, your body will not be able to properly break down and use all the nutrients that you may ingest in the small intestine and stomach. This can be very problematic if you just waste those nutrients in your…waste. You’re basically leaving nutrients on the table that you could’ve used.
I say this to my clients all the time, “there are vegetables out there that you like”. Maybe you haven’t had a certain one prepared in a way you like it yet. Depending on how you eat it (boil, roasted, raw, lightly fried, steamed), could bring out different flavors of the vegetable.
An example is carrots. The difference with eating a carrot raw and roasted are almost night and day as roasting the carrot brings out its natural sugars giving it a sweet tasting flavor.
Bottom line, just eat more vegetables.
2. Up your protein
Protein is the most satiating of all of the macronutrients. What does that mean exactly? Well, it basically means out of the three macronutrients (proteins, fats, and carbohydrates) you will likely feel more satisfied after eating protein.
The reason why this is the case is because it takes your body time to digest protein food sources.
Since it takes time to digest, it will be in your stomach longer and will increase the time it takes for you to feel hungry again.
Let’s also be clear when I say protein sources. I don’t mean just animal sources of protein (although I personally think they’re delicious), I also mean plant sources of protein.
This could be plants like: legumes, nuts, seeds, soy, peas, beans, oats, quinoa, rice, broccoli just naming a small selection.
Notice how I put vegetables as the number one tip on this list. You’d be doing two tips in one action. That’s quite the bargain.
Not only is increasing your protein sources going to help you stay full longer, but it also helps with health goals like building muscle and losing fat which are very common and completely attainable goals.
3. Watch what you’re drinking
I’m sure it’s obvious to drink less of the calorie dense drinks like pops, punches, milkshakes, etc.. But you should also watch out for drinks that are considered “healthy” like 100% fruit juices.
I love orange juice so I’m going to use Tropicana 100% juice as an example…sorry Tropicana, it’s because I love you.
As you can see, 8 ounces of this juice is 110 calories. The only problem is, I drink at LEAST 16 ounces whenever I pour a glass and I’m sure I’m not alone. So that’s an extra 220 calories which isn’t that bad in small doses, but liquids like juices aren’t very satiating and don’t take long to digest at all. Meaning I will probably go on to eat or drink more anyway. Not to mention, fruit juices don’t have any fiber since the act of eating a fruit or vegetable will provide you with fiber. So, it would’ve just been better to eat the orange instead of drinking it.
I’m not saying to never enjoy the healthy juices, because I will stay loyal to Tropicana until death do us part, but I am saying don’t rely on that just because it has nutrients that you could’ve gotten from eating the actual food anyway.
4. Don’t eat dangerously low calories
Again, this one sounds obvious, especially since I said “dangerously” but I feel like I’m seeing this more and more.
People who are trying to lose weight figure that all they need to do is to be at a caloric deficit, which is kind of true. However, they are actually missing a key word. “SAFE”! You need to be at a “safe caloric deficit”.
All to often, I see people doing these “crash diets” for super long periods of time and they wonder why they are having trouble losing weight. And during that time, they get very frustrated and quit altogether.
Why isn’t it working? Well basically if your calories are at a super low number like 1000 calories a day, I’m willing to bet that you well below your basal metabolic rate (BMR).
To give the abridged version of what BMR is, it’s basically the amount of calories you need to have just to survive without a major health complication. And by “survive” I mean if you were literally in bed all day doing absolutely nothing. The moment you get out of bed and start doing things like making breakfast, you are already burning more calories than your BMR.
If your caloric intake is lower than what your BMR is, your body will actually try to hold onto the weight as it thinks you’re in the beginning stages of starvation.
To find your BMR, you just need variables like: weight, height, biological sex, and age.
5. Drink your water
Water is clearly a vital nutrient that is needed to sustain life.
You should already be drinking your water anyway, and it is doubly important if you are trying to reach your health goals.
Going back up to the first two tips I made, one of the points I made for both of them was that increasing the intake of proteins and vegetables will satisfy you longer and take up volume in your stomach.
The same can be said about water except it has no calories.
That means if you are planning out your day and have a SAFE amount of calories to be at a deficit, to curb your hunger a little longer you can just drink more water to increase the volume in your stomach.
It’s an effective trick I personally use when I am prepping for competitions as during those times, I am lowering my caloric deficit more and more slowly but surely.
I’m sure you know the vast amount of benefits that water brings to the table so let’s just end this here unless you want to read a book of an article.
6. Time your meals
You can do everything I said from tip 1-5, but if you don’t space out your meals properly, you still are going to have a rough time with hunger pains.
Making sure you space your meals out throughout the day while keeping in mind what foods will keep you satisfied will be your saving grace.
An easy way to better time out your meals is to plan ahead for the week what you think you will be doing each day and eat accordingly. In certain instances that may be through food prepping meals like breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
Another way you can do this is simply by snacking on vegetables throughout the day. This goes back into the first tip with vegetables increasing the volume in your stomach with very little calories so it’s the perfect snack for weight loss.
You could do this with fruits; however, you would just need to be a bit more mindful of the calories each fruit provides as the natural sugars of fruits makes them higher calorically than vegetables in general.
7. Don’t give up on your favorite foods
Wait what?!
After all that, I’m still going to tell you that you should enjoy things like ice cream or pizza?
Well yeah!
The term “diet” gets thrown around a lot these days, and to the average person it probably means “eating nothing but healthy foods and staying away from junk foods” right?
What I am telling you and what you probably already probably knew is that to lose weight you need to be at a caloric deficit.
However, that does not mean you have to give up on your favorite foods. Technically you can still eat pizza all day everyday to lose weight. The only problem is:
- You definitely wouldn’t feel satisfied even though its high calorically
- I’m willing to bet you aren’t getting proper amounts of vitamins and minerals so now we’re heading into damaging different parts of your body…which is not good.
Pick your battles with your calorically dense foods and plan ahead for them on the days you may think you would want to participate in Taco Tuesday (or whatever it is).
Being in a weight loss journey does not mean you have to say goodbye to your favorite foods.
Do you have a better concept on ways you can get through your calorie deficit now?
I hope you found these tips insightful on how you can stay full on a calorie deficit.
I don’t like being hungry and I don’t think I know many people who actually enjoy it.
If you have any questions or would like some more insight, I’d be happy to help!
You can always email me at jdottyfit@gmail.com
Beyond that, if you are looking for some help and guidance on whatever health/fitness journey you would like to go on, you and click HERE to schedule a free consultation where I can provide information via phone (yes I will seriously call you haha) and help you in any way I can.
Looking to hear from you soon.
-Jordan