In the BBC documentary, ‘10 Things You Should Know About Losing Weight’, a study was carried out to show the effects on the part of the brain controlling appetite of allowing ourselves to get too hungry.
The man being studied had brain scans when presented with pictures of food in two different conditions.
The first condition was following a full breakfast.
When shown pictures of both low and high calorie food, the part of the brain controlling appetite didn’t produce much activity.
The second condition was with no breakfast.
The same part of the brain lit up much more when presented with high calorie foods compared to when presented with low calorie foods.
This means that we crave high calorie foods when we allow ourselves to get too hungry and we are far more likely to make bad choices.
It may cause us to absolutely reject lower calorie options, as we feel that only the high calorie food option can satisfy us. (You’re probably familiar with that feeling!)
So the way to prevent cravings for high calorie foods, is to make sure that we have eaten enough lower calorie filling foods at meal times to fill us up and then to not allow ourselves to get too hungry before eating something else which is lower calorie and filling.
For tips on how to make meals more filling, you can read my post; ‘Lessons From the Satiety Index: How to Make Meals More Filling For Fewer Calories’
Or you can follow this link to find low-calorie filling snack ideas , to prevent you from getting too hungry between meals.
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