How to Stop Your Food Cravings…
Weight control seems to be a problem throughout the entire world. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 17% of children and young people ages 2 to 19 are considered obese. Can exercise help curb your food cravings and obesity?
Exercise & your food cravings
Obesity is a serious problem, especially in adults. When we look at the statistics about adults, things get even worse.
The CDC reports that as much as 36.5% of the adults in the United States are obese.
In reality, the United States has been rated the 12th most obese country in the world. World Atlas reports Palau to be the most obese country, with approximately 47.10% of the population being obese. Nauru, Marshall Islands, and Samoa are also some of the countries where a very large number of people are obese.
Obesity can be caused by some factors including an unhealthy diet and not partaking in an adequate amount of daily physical activities. With the rise of technology, a large number of working environments now demand workers to sit in front of a computer for their entire workday.
After a hard day’s work, we get home and often go straight to the couch to get some much-needed relaxation. Such a busy schedule rarely offers an adequate amount of time to partake in physical exercises. Another problem that adds to the obesity rates is constant food cravings.
WebMD reports that almost every single young woman has constant food cravings. Approximately 70% of young men frequently experience food cravings.
Why Do We Have Food Cravings?
Before we look at how you can prevent food cravings, let’s take a look at why we have food cravings in the first place. Mind Body Green reports that one of the most common reasons we crave food is due to dehydration.
They explain that the human body is made up of around 70% water content. If we do not consume enough water on a daily basis, our bodies can become dehydrated. When we are dehydrated, we may feel hungry when our bodies are in fact thirsty, thus causing the sensation of craving food.
Your Food Cravings
Food cravings can also be caused by numerous mental factors. The first and one of the most common factors that may lead to an emotional food craving is serotonin. This is a neurotransmitter that is present in both the brain and the gastrointestinal tract.
When our bodies are low in serotonin, and we eat something, then a certain amount of serotonin can be released in the body.
The next time your body is low on serotonin, your brain may signal a food craving as serotonin was previously enhanced by consuming a quick snack.
There are emotional factors that may also lead to food cravings, also known as psychological triggers. These triggers are caused by events that tend to make you feel sad, unhappy, or angry.
When such a trigger occurs, and you obey the trigger, then you are making yourself feel better through eating – very similar to the previously mentioned mental factor. This is sometimes also called comfort food. Help Guide reports that emotional food cravings are sudden and creates a craving for specific comfort food – such as a pizza, cheesecake, or a McDonald’s burger.
Exercise To Eliminate Food Cravings
There are many ways you can reduce your food cravings. Many people recommend making sure all of the comfort foods in your house are out-of-reach or not available.
Drinking water is also often a great way to fill your stomach without having to eat something full of calories. Authority Nutrition explains that eating more protein, using spinach extract supplements, and not going to the supermarket while you are hungry may all be great ways to reduce your cravings and binge eating.
While these are all excellent ways to reduce your cravings, we want to introduce you to one method that seems to be very effective at reducing food cravings while also providing additional health benefits to your body – exercise.
Wellness Resources reports that exercise can help to reduce the arousal activity linked to food. The study included a total of 35 women.
A total of 17 women were obese, and the rest of the women were all at a healthy weight. All of the participants were asked to complete a morning exercise routine. The results were monitored on days when they did not have to complete the exercise routine.
It was found that the activity associated with food perception significantly reduced as they continued with the exercise routines. More significant results were found among the women who were obese.
This also means that this technique could provide a way for obese people to control their food intake and weight.
Wrap-Up
While numerous methods help reduce your food cravings, recent studies have provided evidence that frequent exercise might be the key.
A simple morning exercise routine provided significant reductions in arousal activity when participants were provided images of “comfort food.” This offers proof that exercise may be an effective way to eliminate food cravings and reduce food intake.
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