How to cope with “Hangry” while Dieting?

Are you still starving yourself to lose weight? Feeling “hangry” when dieting? Spend some time and look into your meal plan.

Yes, in order to lose weight, we need to cut down our daily calorie intake. But it is not necessary to feel hungry when dieting. In fact, hunger should be avoided as getting too hungry could be stopping you from losing weight. 

Why? When hunger strikes, all foods become attractive, especially those high-calorie foods that you have been craving for. With that being said, you are less likely to make healthy food choices. You would also tend to eat more than you should during starvation and this may easily overshoot your recommended calorie intake.

Do you know that snacking can be part of the weight loss diet? Snacking does not always refer to eating junk foods. Munching on snacks without guilt is possible if you wisely choose the right snacks.

Before we begin with the smart snacking tips, think again. Are you really hungry? Or are you just bored or stressed? Drink a glass of water before grabbing your snacks. If you are still feeling hungry, let’s see what the snacking tips are.

Always pick foods that are high in protein and fibre content.

These foods can help you to feel full faster and longer and can help to avoid taking in unnecessary calories. Hard-boiled egg, which provides high-quality complete protein, is an excellent snacking option. Not only that, one hard-boiled egg contains only 75 calories.

Of course, at 75 calories, you could also get half a scoop of ice cream or seven pieces of potato chips. But would you want to spend your limited daily calories on foods that have low nutritional value and yet are not fulfilling?

Incorporating fruits and vegetables into snacks is another nutritious way of snacking.

This could help to achieve the recommendation of having 5 servings of fruits and vegetables daily. Apart from their high fibre content, fruit and vegetables are low in fats and calories due to the high-water content.

Prepare yourself a rainbow-colored fruits and vegetables platter, in which you may consider foods, such as apple, cherry tomatoes, oranges, carrot, bell pepper, cucumber, grapes and many more. Eating colourful fruits and vegetables may provide a complete range of vitamins and minerals that are essential to maintain good health.

Similarly, you can also have a delicious smoothie by blending these colourful fruits and vegetables together. Not only do they contain fibre, vitamins and minerals, drinking smoothies could also help you to stay hydrated. But please be aware on adding additional ingredients such as sugar, milk, honey and alike as this will increase the calorie content.

 
So, is snacking possible when dieting? The answer is YES! All you need to do is to be mindful of the snack options. Choosing the right snacks could help you lose weight easily and happily. Remember, you DO NOT need to starve yourself to lose weight.

Prepared by Aileen Low,
Final Year Student, 2022
BSc (Hons) Dietetics with Nutrition,
International Medical University (IMU)

Checked by Mohd. Siddeq Azha
Dietitian,
Diet Ideas Sdn. Bhd.