One of the biggest problems that most people experience when going on a diet is the unmistakeable hunger that accompanies a reduced calorie intake. Some individuals have figured out ways to combat this hunger while others end up giving in and breaking their diet. If you are to be successful on your diet, this is something you are going to have to learn how to do because for most people, hunger is not simply going to go away. Below is a list of the various ways you can control you hunger levels so they don't get the best of you.

Eat More Vegetables

An easy way to help combat hunger is to consume more fiber-rich foods in your diet. Fiber is a nutrient that helps to add bulk to the diet, therefore slowing the transport of food through your system. Additionally, many foods that are very high in fiber are also quite low calorie (leafy vegetables for example). This means you will be able to eat a great deal of them without adding a lot of additional calories to your diet. This is perfect for any dieter as the main goal of a diet plan, and the determinant of whether you lose weight, is calorie reduction.

Go For A Brisk Walk

Exercise that is moderate in nature is a great way to help curb your appetite. You need to be careful with this point however because if you perform too much intense exercise, it will stimulate your appetite long term. Note that intense exercise is slightly different with this regard, most individuals will find at first their hunger is blunted (due to various hormonal and nervous system responses by the body), however a few hours later the hunger will come back with a vengeance.

Moderate intensity exercise on the other hand will help to get the blood circulating in your body again and prevent ravenous hunger from occurring. Whenever you feel the urge to reach for a snack, try and go for a quick 10 minute walk instead. When you get back, you will likely find that you are no longer that hungry, not to mention your energy levels will be higher.

Eat Some Fat With Every Meal

One of the major macronutrients that is typically avoided on a diet is fat. There is a good reason for this, being that every gram of fat has 9 calories whereas protein and carbohydrates only have 4 calories respectively. When calories are of utmost importance, eating a lot of food that is over twice as calorie dense seems like a bad idea.

The truth of this matter though is that foods containing fat are going to be the best at tiding over hunger and should definitely be included in any diet program. Getting 7-10 grams of fat with each of your meals will significantly impact the hunger you will feel later on in the day. The thing with fat is that you won't necessarily be as satisfied eating this food right away (compared with protein or carbohydrate foods), but long-term, a few hours later they will help to prevent hunger. To illustrate this point, imagine you ate a single banana or else a small handful of nuts. Chances are right after eating you will feel fuller eating the banana. About an hour later though, you will feel very hungry if you ate just the banana whereas with the nuts you still will feel fine. Long-term hunger blunting is an important consideration.

To put this principle into practice, rather than consuming high calorie carbohydrate foods like pasta and bread, use your calories to eat high healthy-fat foods such as nuts, nut butter or olive oil, and then get the bulk of your meal from low-calorie vegetables. The vegetables, as discussed above, will work towards filling you up immediately while the fat will keep you full for the hours to come.

Drink Hot Beverages

Hot liquids also have a tendency to make you feel fuller so including a few cups of coffee or tea might be a very practical solution to helping you fend off hunger. Additionally, the caffeine in these beverages can help to give you more energy and make dieting easier. Just watch out that you are not ordering the high calorie, dessert type beverages from the coffee stores and that you are not flavoring your coffee/tea with sugar or cream.

Use Ephedra

One of the products that is most highly used in the fitness/bodybuilding industry for helping to reduce hunger, bringing CNS levels back up to normal and for speeding up metabolism is ephedra. Unfortunately ephedra has gotten a very bad rap in the media as there were quite a few issues that were reported about it's use. The thing to keep in mind however is that the majority of these issues occurred when people were not using it with care and were drastically exceeding recommended dosages. When used smartly, this herb can be a very powerful weapon for your fight against fat. Also, it appears as though ephedra's properties as a fat loss aide do tend to increase with long-term use.

Drink More Water

Many dieters have a tendency to mistake hunger for thirst so making sure this isn't an issue will be of critical importance. When dieting, particularly for those of you who are on lower carb diets, make sure you are drinking at least 2 liters of water a day - more if you are also consuming lots of caffeinated beverages or foods high in salt. With enough water in your system you will have more energy, be able to focus better and will be less likely to feel hungry.

Have One Piece Of Fruit At A Meal

Fruit is mostly composed of fructose, which is a type of sugar that is handled by the liver. When liver stores get really low, you will find that you start feeling hungrier. For this reason, keeping these stores slightly higher and not fully depleted is a smart move in the battle against appetite. Eating a small piece of fruit with an otherwise high protein/moderate fat meal is the perfect way to help tide off hunger. Note however that eating fruit alone by itself is not a smart idea as this will cause an increase in blood sugar followed by a drastic drop. This will leave you feeling hungry and irritable - two things that make up the dieter's worst nightmare.

Adopt A Low Carbohydrate Diet

Individuals who adopt a low carbohydrate diet tend to notice that they have less of an appetite than those who are on a low fat diet. The reasoning for this mostly comes from, as discussed above, fat is good for satiety as well as protein foods also help to fill you up more than carbohydrate rich foods. Additionally, whenever you cut out an entire macronutrient (carbohydrates), it only makes sense that you are likely to consume less food and calories since there are fewer options available to you. Please remember though that carbohydrates are the only macronutrient that you body can effectively still function without (it will switch over and start running on ketones), thus eliminating protein or fat from your diet entirely is never a good move.

Avoid Chewing Gum

While it may seem like chewing gum would be an ally for those trying to reduce hunger, for some people, even the simple act of chewing will initiate the salivary response and your body will start getting primed to eat. This can lead to an increase in hunger as you feel like you want some food. Play around with this and see how your body reacts. It is individual and for some gum may be a great way to keep the food away, but for others it can be problematic.

Consume More Protein In Your Diet

As stated above, protein rich foods tend to rank higher on the satiety index than carbohydrate rich foods, making high protein diets more filling. Also, your body is going to burn more calories in the process of digesting high protein foods than carbohydrate or fat foods, making a higher protein diet more likely to give you a decrease in total calorie intake. The important thing to watch here is the sauces or accompaniments you have with your protein foods, as these can often be high in sugar/carbs. Try and stick with lean protein sources such as chicken breasts, fish, turkey, egg whites and low fat cottage cheese.

So if you have been feeling like you might just start chewing on the table you are so hunger, give one of these tricks a try first. Find which one(s) work best for you and then implement them on a daily basis. Before you know it your dieting process will be much easier and you will stay on the track to lasting weight loss.