How To Deal With Hunger During Intermittent Fasting (8 Tips Backed by Science & Experience)

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In the video, you'll learn how to deal with hunger while doing intermittent fasting. This is a summary of my own experience and my clients' experiences, combined with research.

Summary:
First thing, realize that you won't starve from fasting. This negative mindset with fear works as a self-fulfilling prophecy.

If you're 2 minutes into a fast, suffering from hunger, convincing yourself it's impossible, and being obsessed over your next meal, it's not gonna get you anywhere.

The human body has evolved with fasting.

Interesting study: 27-year-old man fasted for 382 days, lost 275 lb, suffered no ill effects. pmj.bmj.com/content/49/569/203.abstract

He started at 456 lbs, and the doctors had him undergo a clinically supervised fast, providing only daily doses of multivitamins and water.

By the end of the study, he lost about 275 pounds.

And if you think about it there's really no evolutionary logic behind eating 3-5 meals a day.

In the wild, there's no such thing as 3 to 5 sure meals every day.

The difference between physical vs. psychological hunger:

Often, people think they're hungry, but they're not experiencing true physiological (body) hunger, but rather psychological (head) hunger.

8 Proven Tips to Reduce Hunger While Doing an Intermittent Fasting Diet:

1. Balance Your Macronutrients (Protein, Carbs, and Fats)

Martin Berkhan the author of Lean Gains said it himself that most people fail on LeanGains because they go very low carb and keep entering a state of ketosis which is very detrimental for mental performance.

Carbohydrates: Minimum 0,6g per pound of body mass to stay out of ketosis

I recommend even higher carbohydrate intakes while keeping fats between 25-30% of total calorie intake.

2. Don't mistake hunger for dehydration - ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2849909

3. Drink tea (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23666454?dopt=Abstract) and coffee (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23204152)

I prefer Green tea, and I recommend getting a few herbal teas.

4. Try sugar-free diet sodas, flavored water (sugar-free) and sugarless gum nature.com/ejcn/journal/v61/n6/full/1602649a.ht…

There's no evidence so far pointing that artificial sweeteners are bad for health so definitely give these a try if nothing else works and with moderation, it should be fine.

5. Try a tablespoon or two of psyllium husk - ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9093551

Psyllium husk is a fiber supplement that helps massively with hunger, and it signals your brain that you have food in your digestive system.

6. Brushing your teeth can also reduce the feeling of hunger

7. Keep yourself active

Go for a short walk while listening to an audiobook

Do something you enjoy, immerse yourself in activities especially during that morning period when you're most productive.

6-7 hours fly by very fast when you're in the state of flow.

This is the opposite of what most people are doing by putting themselves in a low-consciousness zombie mode with TV and Social Media

And we all know people eat because they're bored.

Stay busy, stay productive.

8. Get enough sleep - ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2951287/

Sleep deprivation decreases in leptin and elevations in ghrelin which means more hunger.

Comparing 2 groups that were on a 700-calorie daily deficit with 2 different sleep durations, they found:

The 8.5-hour group lost about 50/50 body fat and lean mass. The 5.5-hour group lost 20/80 body fat and lean mass.

Bottom line:
Hunger is only an issue until your body gets used to the fasting schedule.

And in a period of 4-8 weeks, you'll most likely not be hungry anymore. The hardest period is the first week.

And if you don't notice improvements after 4 weeks, then maybe IF Lean Gains isn't for you. It's definitely not a universal must-do approach for all.

Simply keeping a balanced diet, manage your macros according to your goal and make 80% of your diet healthy unprocessed foods and you will get you to your goals.

Website: tomic.com

Music: Ahrix - Nova [NCS Release]