Strange Phenomenon!

[dominover]

I wonder if somebody could explain this to me.
Recently I started dieting by watching my calories, reading food labels, and being strict with what I eat (and the amount).
I seemed to struggle in the evenings usually around 6pm onwards as my hunger and cravings seemed to rise. I assume this is a rise in the Ghrelin hormone (hunger hormone).

I found it very difficult to fight it despite the fact that I'm a very disciplined person and have dieted in the past. But this time it seemed unreasonably aggressive for whatever reason. Maybe I've been eating too much junk.

Over the last week, I think I found a way to combat those afternoon/evening cravings. I found that eating when I'm not hungry in the afternoon does an amazing job at suppressing this hunger. This seems to be a trick I've never heard of to curb late afternoon and evening cravings. Just pick a spot in the mid to late afternoon and eat before the cravings start. That's at a time when you're not hungry.. It works amazingly.

I should add that it's important to use whole foods when doing this.. I've found that a plate of whole food vegetables seem to work best.

There must be a reason why this works so well. I'm wondering if anyone can shed some light on this?

Thanks

[tracy1976]

It sounds to me like your blood sugar levels are rising and falling sharply, if you're finding that by eating at times before you're hungry is also killing your cravings, not just your hunger.

Do you eat a lot of foods with sugar in them? I find that if I am conscious of that and try to cut added sugars as much as I can for 2 to 3 days, those days are nearly impossibly hard, but then the cravings fade away and I can go back to eating normally without overdoing it on snack cravings. Maybe that's just me.

It's hard to track down specifically what is and is not going on. For all we know, it's the post-holidays having these effects. Shortened days, high stress, cold weather...who knows?

[dominover]

Thanks Tracy!
It's possible that blood sugar levels are rising and falling sharply, probably. Yes, if I eat before my cravings hit, I can suppress my hunger completely. I have been eating a bit of junk recently and my sleep habits aren't good so I'm sure that can contribute.

If I go back years now, I found that if I fight the evening cravings by eating smaller and healthier meals all day I can suppress the weight gain and end up losing weight. So I'm now thinking that if I gain weight from eating when I'm craving foods, then I can lose weight by eating when my cravings aren't there. Ghrehlin (the hunger hourmone) relates to this.

I agree without that system, it's impossible hard as you say. I feel it's a link between circadian rhythm and insulin resistance.

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[Gina]

It's so good that you're getting such good progress dominover . I'm going ot use your afternoon snack trick to beat cravings. I guess the only way to know for sure if ghrelin, insulin levels, etc have to do with what's going on would be blood tests. With circadian rhythm, you'd probably need sleep clinic monitoring to know. Whatever it is, keep up the good work!

[madscientist]

dominover Do you find you're eating more protein and fat now instead of mostly carbs? Think that could be making a difference to your hunger?