First thing’s first: If you are in a phase of fat-loss, where you’re likely to be decreasing your food intake, there are probably going to be times when you're hungry, and that isn't neccessarily a bad thing.
Being hungry doesn't necessarily mean you're losing muscle, or causing yourself any other harm.
With that said, if you're always hungry, you're likely to make poorer food choices, and ultimately end up abandoning your nutrition plan, so it’s something we want to manage effectively.
From an evolutionary perspective, hunger is part of the body’s process of motivating us to seek out food, ultimately so that we can survive.
In the parts of the world where most people reading this will be, there is an abundance of food, so we rarely use hunger as our signal to eat.
When, and how much, we eat is usually determined by things like habit, social convention, desire, and convenience.
On the other hand, when you are aiming to lose fat, you will usually be eating slightly less than the body optimally would like, so there is a certain amount of restriction involved, which can lead to hunger.
With that said, there are a few things we can do to try to limit the amount of hunger we feel, which will likely lead to you being more likely to stick to your nutrition plan over the long term.
1. Eat Enough Food
One possible reason that you're struggling with hunger may be that you’re being too extreme in cutting out food, leading to a constant feeling of restriction, and constant hunger between meals.
This often comes from an impatience, and wanting to make progress as quickly as possible.
A situation like this almost always ends up with a weekend blow-out, undoing a lot of the progress from during the week, leaving you wondering why you haven’t been making progress up to this point.
When you start eating an amount of food that allows you to make steady, predictable progress, whilst still enjoying your food and not starving yourself, then that feeling of needing to eat the house down at the weekend goes away, and you make more progress even with (or likely because of) the less extreme approach.
2. Plan Your Meals
Which of the below options sounds most like you?
1. You go to bed, knowing what you're going to be eating the next day, at what times, and knowing it's going to be exactly what you need to hit your body composition and performance goals.
or
2. You'll worry about it tomorrow, and hopefully be able to get your hands on something decent, but aren't really sure what or when.
I’m sure you’ll agree that it seems obvious which of those are going to get results with your nutrition approach.
But for so many, number 2 is the norm.
Then what happens?
You wait until you're hungry, then go grab the most convenient thing you can find, which often isn't a great choice.
Or, because you feel you can't find anything "healthy", you decide you'll just get something later, or you opt for a protein bar to keep you going.
Ultimately, it's a miserable experience, and you get home and justify eating everything in sight, because you've not eaten all day, or you go out to training hungry and under-fuelled, and have a poor session.
This brings up a deeper point made famous by a former navy seal, Jocko Willink, and that is "discipline = freedom".
It sounds silly at first, but when put into this context, someone who takes option 1 (the more disciplined approach) actually has more freedom to happily go about their day, knowing their nutrition is sorted, because they've been disciplined in planning ahead.
Starting with this might be as simple as making a plan this evening for what you're going to eat tomorrow.
It won't be perfect, but it'll put your mind at ease and you'll be more likely to make better choices.
You can then adapt and change it as the days go on.
3. Alter Your Food Choices
Why are fruits, vegetables, and protein sources praised as the ultimate health foods?
Of course, there are the micronutrients from the fruit and vegetables, and the muscle-building and recovery benefits of the protein.
But more than that, in a world where there is an abundance of hyper-palatable (tasty), calorie-dense foods, these foods can offer more filling/satiating alternatives, which can lead to consuming fewer calories, whilst eating a higher volume of food.
For you, as an athlete, if trying to drop some weight, these micronutrient-, fibre-, and protein-rich foods should be a big part of your diet.
This will help keep you full and satisfied, whilst keeping the diet interesting and allowing you to eat a larger volume of food.
Even if you're trying to increase your calorie intake, you should still aim for adequate intakes of these foods, for their other benefits as mentioned in previous articles.
4. Keep Hydrated
There will be more about hydration in other articles, but amongst the wide range of reasons to keep hydrated is its effect on hunger.
Often, the same symptoms can be seen with dehydration as with hunger (e.g. headache, tiredness, irritability).
So what you perceive as hunger may simply be thirst!
If you mistake this signal, you may end up snacking and adding to your daily food intake, when all you might have needed was a glass of water.
In terms of practical advice, you should aim to drink enough to have regular clear urinations throughout the day.
2.5-3.5L is a good place to aim for, biasing some of that to before and after training.
All fluids (apart from alcoholic drinks) contribute to hydration levels, including tea and coffee, as well as the water found in foods like fruits and vegetables, for example.
5. Get Enough Sleep
Studies have shown that people who hadn't gotten adequate sleep were more hungry and more likely to choose higher-calorie food options.
This obviously isn't ideal for someone trying to reduce their food intake.
Even if you are trying to increase food intake in an attempt to gain muscle, please don't take this as a reason to sleep less.
Studies have also shown the effects of lack of sleep on muscle gain, and the results were not positive, as I’ll go through in other articles.
Finally…
Just because you’re getting your nutrition on point doesn’t mean you should be feeling hungry all the time, and implementing some of these steps may help you reduce the prevalence of hunger, and therefore allow you to enjoy your food, stay on track with your nutrition, and ultimately reach your performance and body composition goals as an athlete.
Article Written By Conor O’Neill
Conor O’Neill is a Nutritionist, Strength & Conditioning coach, Psychologist, and Author.
He has helped 1000+ everyday athletes to pursue excellence in their physique and performance through optimising their nutrition, training, and psychology.
You can find out more about The Everyday Athlete Program by going to everydayathleteprogram.com/coaching.