7 tips to control your hunger

Our fitness trainers try to force us on a diet; our doctors warn us to control our food intake thanks to our high cholesterol levels; our wives and girlfriends have warned us they will walk out on us because of that excess baggage pouring over our belts! It is not as if we haven't tried. But it is just so darned hard to control our hunger! Sound familiar? Stay tuned. Rediff offers you tips to control that darn hunger so that you can go ahead and finally be successful in your attempts to stop overeating. Read more after the break...



1.Eat small frequent meals.

Want to lose weight? Eat more -- frequently, that is. Your body needs food to provide energy, repair damaged muscle tissue, and to carry out various other functions. But there are only so many nutrients it can draw from each meal. Large meals mean more nutrients than your body can handle, thus causing an 'overflow effect'. Thus, go for smaller, more frequent meals. They provide just the right amount of nutrients every few hours, without causing that overflow effect. They also maintain blood sugar levels, thus keeping your appetite and energy levels in control.

2. Don't skip meals!

Skipping meals and going too long without food can turn hunger pangs into irresistible cravings. To start with, don't skip breakfast! It is amazing how so many people skip this meal. If you are one of those, change that nasty food habit. NOW! Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Your first meal of the day helps replenish all those nutrients lost during that all-night fast. It raises those early morning low blood sugar levels. Missing out on this meal means setting you up for low blood sugar levels and, thus, low energy levels and irresistible hunger pangs and cravings at lunchtime.

3. Eat your veggies!

Vegetables are healthy. They are chockfull with nutrients that can boost your health. They are also rich in fibre, the dieters' secret weapon to control hunger. While all vegetables are beneficial as far as good health and hunger control go, certain veggies, like broccoli, cauliflower, spinach and mushrooms, are super-high in fibre and have a negligible amount of calories. They can fill your stomach and control your hunger while filling you with a small amount of calories.

4. Eat more whole grains and less refined carbohydrates.

Whole grains, besides being healthier than their 'nutrient-stripped' refined counterparts, are also higher in fibre.

Thus they are more filling and satisfying. While refined carbs -- like idlis, dosas, white bread, white rice -- may be low in fat, they are higher in fibre. You may run the risk of over-consuming calories.

5. Eat slowly!

Give it a shot. It actually works. The brain actually takes ten minutes longer than the stomach to receive the message that it is full. Thus, eating too fast might cause you to eat beyond the point of fullness without even realising.

6. Sleep and shed those pounds!

Studies have found that people who sleep only five hours every night were 50 per cent more likely to be obese than those who sleep seven to nine hours. Researchers believe lack of sleep affects hormones related to appetite, causing you to gain pounds.

7. Drink more water!

Water is the healthiest, cheapest and most easily available appetite suppressant around. Thirst is often mistaken as hunger. Also, foods with high water content can fill you up easily. They naturally pack fewer calories for their volume. Toss together a salad of lettuce, cucumbers.

40 Things You May Not KNOW

1. Money isn't made out of paper; it's made out of cotton.

2. The 57 on Heinz ketchup bottle represents the varieties of pickle the company once had.

3. Your stomach produces a new layer of mucus every two weeks - otherwise it will digest itself .

4. The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper.

5. The dot over the letter 'i' is called a "tittle".

6. A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.

7. Susan Lucci is the daughter of Phyllis Diller.

8. A duck's quack doesn't echo ... no one knows why.

9. 40% of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.

10 Every person has a unique tongue print (no licking at the scene of a crime!).

11. 315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.

12. The 'spot' on 7UP comes from its inventor who had red eyes. He was albino.

13. On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.

14. During the chariot scene in 'Ben Hur' a small red car can be seen in the distance.

15. Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine are brother and sister.

16. Chocolate affects a dog's heart and nervous system; a few ounces will kill a small sized dog.

17. Orcas (killer whales) kill sharks by torpedoing up into the shark's stomach from underneath, causing the shark to explode.

18. Most lipstick contains fish scales (eeww)..

19. Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants!

20. Ketchup was sold in the 1830s as medicine.

21. Upper and lower case letters are named 'upper' and 'lower' because in the time when all original print had to be set in individual letters, the 'upper case' letters were stored in the case on top of the case that stored the smaller, 'lower case' letters.

22. Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time.

23. Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.

24. There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos.

25. The name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan, there was never a recorded Wendy before!

26. There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with: orange, purple, and silver!

27. Leonardo Da Vinci invented scissors. Also, it took him 10 years to paint Mona Lisa's lips.

28. A tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion will make it instantly go mad and sting itself to death.

29. The mask used by Michael Myers in the original "Halloween" was a Captain Kirk mask painted white.

30. If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you have $1.19.. You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar.

31. By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you can't sink in quicksand.

32. The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law, which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.

33. American Airlines saved $40,000 in '87 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first class

34. The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player for automobiles. At that time, the most known player on the market was the Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola.

35. Celery has negative calories! It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with. It's the same with apples!

36. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying!

37. The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.

38. Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from Public Libraries.

39. Back in the mid to late 80's, an IBM compatible computer wasn't considered a hundred percent compatible unless it could run Microsoft's Flight Simulator game.

40. Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing wind in a space suit damages them.