Posted on May 06, 2020 by Jenny Cromack

Fuelling for the fullness!

The temptation to eat more than we normally do is likely to be a lot higher right now, and to be honest its pretty damn hard to control it when we are stuck indoors with left over Easter chocolate, the kids/your partners snacks and hidden gems lurking in the cupboards and the worst of all… BOREDOM!

So, here are some tips to help you stay fuller for longer!

1.INCREASE YOUR PROTEIN INTAKE

Increase your protein intake! It is a well-known fact that foods high in protein make us feel satisfied for longer compared to carbohydrates and fats! Go for foods such as meat, eggs, fish, beans, pulses, yoghurt and even protein shakes!

2. INCLUDE MORE FRUIT & VEGETABLES

Apart from them being high in fibre which again allows longer satiety they are LOW ENERGY DENSE. This means they a lower in calories (especially vegetables) meaning you can increase your portion size at meal times with extra veg without loads of extra calories! It also means you can reduce calorie intake without portion size being compromised! Winner!

3. ATTENTION!

Pay more attention to eating! Put down your phone, switch off the TV and chew your food! With no distractions, you” take your time to eat your meals and you’ll soon begin to ‘feel’ full rather than wolfing your food down whilst distracted by the TV and not even recognising that you have eaten!

4. SERIAL SNACKER?

Depending on what you snack on, certain snacks can be laden with ’empty’ calories. i.e you’ll eat the calories but not feel full and then want to eat something else. You can try to limit snacks and instead have smaller, more nutritious meals more often. Alternatively, if you do prefer to snack between meals then make sure it’s healthy snacks such as fruit, nuts, protein shakes, humous and veggie dippers.

5. KEEP BUSY!

Try not to allow yourself to be bored. We all know the most common thing to do when we are bored is eat but the majority of the time, we aren’t actually hungry. Being busy distracts us from that feeling and from overeating when unnecessary!

Following these easy tips will help towards helping you stay fuller for longer and spending less time staring into the fridge! One rule of thumb we should always remember, food is fuel, if we are spending less time moving, we won’t need as much food as we did before lockdown. So trying lower calorie foods and including more vegetables than you did before will not only allow you to have high volume foods to keep you full but it can provide that energy deficit during lockdown to help maintain a healthy weight.

Beth x