Hoping to learn how to stay full on a diet? Here are nine tips to avoid being hangry along with the best foods to keep you fuller for longer while dieting.

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Being hungry sucks. And trying to lose weight while dieting means being hungry. Which means dieting sucks.

We’ve all been there. Deep in the throes of a fat loss phase, fighting the constant pangs of hunger and trying not to give into the urge to demolish an entire pint of ice cream that’s calling our name in the freezer.

It’s a battle of attrition. 

It’s all about the back and forth to see if you resist The Dark Side of The Force and stay on plan, fight through the hunger and make it to the next day with your caloric deficit still intact. 

Unfortunately, being hungry is part of the process of leaning down. That’s how you know it’s working. You are restricting some calories from the body in an effort to ignite fat loss. 

In turn, the body is essentially eating itself. But you see, the body doesn’t like doing that. It wants to stay put with its current level of body fat. So it delivers all sorts of random mind tricks to bait you into grabbing that entire plate of fries and stuffing them into your pie hole. 

This doesn’t mean you have to give in to the torture of hunger and turn into a hangry beast with a short fuse that unleashes rage-monster-like fits at loved ones all in the name of burning some excess belly fat.

It is possible to be satisfied and stay full on a diet most of the time. But it might take a shift in preparation, approach and how you go about setting up your day-to-day nutrition. 

Luckily, your friendly neighborhood online fat loss coach (that’s me, dude) has nine tips to help you out, and at the end of this article, I’ve even provided some of my favorite foods for keeping you satiated.

Let’s get into it.

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Nine tips to stay full on a diet

 

I. Eat enough protein

I often make reference to the episode of Friends when Joey has to devour an entire turkey and complains of getting the meat sweats. Chewing on protein is a challenge for the body. Digesting that protein takes more energy than the other major macros, carbs and fats. 

It’s a big reason why you should prioritize more protein in order to stay full on a diet. I’m not by any means going to smash the table and proclaim that you need some bodybuilder style approach to consuming nothing by chicken breast all day.

But, the fact remains that many dieters are falling drastically short of the amount of protein that they need every day in order to maintain lean muscle tissue––which is how you optimize fat burning so that weight you lose ends up revealing a leaned-down and toned-up body of sexiness.

If you need help determining just how much protein you should be eating every day in order to compliment your fat loss program, I’ve got you covered with this article that breaks it down for you.

II. Avoid high-calorie drinks

When calories are low, you need to conserve as many as possible so you can enjoy food. So stop drinking your calories. 

Look, I get it. Chugging a smoothie or a protein shake is incredibly convenient and can definitely come in handy if you’re having issues reaching your protein goals or need something quick that you can eat on the go. But, you’ll be much better served actually chewing your food and letting your body and metabolism go to work to break the food down. 

Same ideal applies to just the random calorically dense beverages like lattes or energy drinks or alcohol. All of these things can have a place in a diet. But, if you are struggling with nonstop hunger, you need to reevaluate your food choices and what you drink might be a great place to start.

[For more on the effects of alcohol and a fat loss diet, you should read this article where I break it all down for you]

III. Coffee is awesome

Caffeine has been highly researched and is one of the best supplements known to humankind. It also blunts hunger quite effectively.

It’s important to note that this is not an invite to injecting an IV drip of coffee directly into your veins for a constant supply of the liquid black gold. A good rule of thumb is to stick to no more than 2-3 cups of the nectar of the Gods in the morning. Try your best to avoid caffeine after lunchtime altogether to prevent any issues with getting quality sleep at night.

IV. Eat slow and with mindfulness

In our go-go-go society of always being plugged in and ready for the next notification from our phone or inbox, it’s easy to get caught up in the hustle and scarf down your next meal in order to check it off your to do list and keep it moving.

Try to slow things down. Our hunger hormone, ghrelin, takes a few minutes to respond to the intake of food. By taking a conscious effort to think about each bite and actually chew your food with a purpose, you’re giving your body a chance to chemically respond to the situation at hand.

Slow down meal time by really focusing on each chew. Taste your food. Put the fork or spoon down in between each bite. Enjoy the meal. You’ll likely notice more physiological cues in the body to signal that you are in fact full and satisfied.

V. Sleep like the dead

The most overlooked part of a fat loss diet is the importance of getting restful sleep every single night. Once sleep is wrecked, our inhibitions go out the window and we are much more apt to being a hangry mess during the daytime hours.

It’s a big reason why all of my online coaching clients are encouraged to spend some time every week thinking about the quantity of nightly rest and the quality of sleep. 

Decreasing sleep to anything under about 6-7 hours every night has been shown to increase hunger and appetite by as much as 24-percent.

Simply put, prioritize sleep and you might just unlock the biggest key in your quest to stay full on a diet.

VI. Hydrate

Sometimes what we think is hunger is just the body screaming at us to drink more fluids.

Since you are going to eliminate sodas and other high calorie drinks from your daily diet, this is a great time to start incorporating more water into your day to day routine.

In general, aim for about an ounce of water for each pound of bodyweight you weigh. In other words, if you weigh 120 pounds, you’d target about 60 ounces of water per day at minimum (that’s about 7.5 cups).

But there really is no need for some arbitrary goal for how much H2O you should drink in a day. Have some water handy at all times, sip frequently, monitor how you feel and how often you pee. If your urine is not some crazy neon yellow, you’re probably getting enough liquid.

VII. Eat more cake

Life is far too short to never enjoy the simple culinary indulges available at our disposal. Even my fat loss clients are encouraged to step away from the plan every now and then to enjoy cake, ice cream or even pizza and burgers.

Sometimes, we just need to have a little treat in moderation to satisfy the urge and avoid an all-out binge. The key here is moderation. The second key is all about your willpower. 

If you can enjoy one cookie or a slice of pizza without giving into the desire to eat the entire batch or pie, then you’ve reached next level Jedi status of nutritional adherence. 

But, if you are prone to giving into the treats and just going into full on binge mode without control, it might be better for you to stay away from this concept altogether. This is up to you and your ability to monitor your approach, mindset and relationship with food.

VIII. Skip a meal so you can eat bigger meals later (aka, Intermittent Fasting)

We could go into an entire article about Intermittent Fasting and how it is performed, along with the potential benefits and challenges associated with the IF life.

But to make this as easy as possible for you, the idea of Intermittent Fasting is to simply restrict your total calories for the day into a smaller window of eating. That window of eating is up to you and your lifestyle. 

The most popular IF protocols are to fast for as little as 10-12 hours or as many as 20-24 hours. The key is to eat normally in your “feeding” window of 8-12 hours. Because no matter when you eat, at the end of the day the only thing that matters for fat loss is to eat in a calorie deficit.

You must still manage your calories in versus calories out no matter how often or how little you eat.

But to break this down into something you could implement today, let’s provide a quick example by going into the popular 16 hour fast window followed by eight hours of eating.

Let’s say you are aiming for a fat loss. You’ve read all my knowledge bombs and understand the importance of a proper caloric deficit, so you read this article about setting up your calories and protein targets in order to lose weight. 

You have 1,500 calories per day to play with in order to lose weight sustainably. That’s not an incredible amount of food to eat throughout the course of a day. But, if you shorten the feeding window, you can still enjoy bigger meals while sticking with your calorie deficit.

Eating 1,500 calories over 2-3 meals in just 8-10 hours will provide much more satisfying and larger portion sizes than if you were to go with the same amount of calories during the traditional approach o eating 4-5 meals per day throughout your entire day.

Yes, you will be hungry during the fasting window (whether that window is 10, 12, 16 or even 24 hours), but once you get into the feeding window, you’ll be primed for larger meals and should find it much easier to stay full. 

If you opt to go with an IF style diet, my biggest tip is to stay as busy as possible during your fasting window to help you ignore the hunger pangs. You might even find that you are more productive and creative when you fast as a result. 

IX. Embrace the hunger

Dieting is not easy. It sucks. And being hungry is part of the process. In fact, it’s a great way to know that fat loss is happening. 

Frankly, it’s good to be a little hungry every once in a while. So sometimes you’ve just got to embrace it and suck it up. Oftentimes, we confuse boredom or routine with being actually hungry.

If you are new to a diet protocol and feeling the hunger really kick in, it’s important to take a step back and analyze your situation to determine if you truly are hungry, or if this is just another mind trick trying to fool you into diving face first into some of those donuts that Suzy from Accounting brought to the office.

Chances are you’ll be able to stave off that desire to eat if you just chill out for a few minutes and just embrace the hunger as part of the journey to leaning down.

But, if you are looking for some help finding foods along the way to make sure you are maximizing your potential to stay full while dieting, I’ve listed some of my favorites below.

The best foods for staying full on a diet

Proteins

I’m beating the proverbial dead horse when it comes to the importance of protein. Especially on a fat loss diet and its role in preserving lean muscle tissue. 

So, I’m certainly not going to bore you to death with another plea, urging you to eat more protein and how it will help you lean down and look amazing.

Here are my favorite higher protein foods that should help you stay full on a diet:

• Chicken breast –– the undisputed king of the protein for bros and bodybuilders everywhere, it packs a ton of protein with minimal fat. As a result, the taste is usually lacking so it’s up to you to find some seasonings to make this protein source palatable.
• Egg whites –– options like liquid egg whites are cheat codes. It’s simply pure unadulterated protein with no fat and no carbs. You can add this to any meal to help hit your protein goals. And hitting a huge omelet with egg whites and a ton of veggies will definitely fill you up.
• Other lean proteins –– fish, pork tenderloin, extra lean ground turkey/chicken/beef are all preferred options over protein powders because chewing your food will always trump drinking calories. 

Vegetables

Eat your veggies. If you opt for leafy versions of the green stuff, it’ll go a long way in keeping you satisfied throughout the day.

Aim for these lower calorie winners:

• Broccoli and cauliflower
• Cucumbers
• Bell Peppers
• Zucchini and summer squash
• Spinach, Kale and arugula

Carbs

High carb, low carb, it really doesn’t matter too much from a body composition standpoint as long as you meet your calories, hit the protein and then pick up heavy stuff a few times per week. 

Whatever route you’d like to choose, here are the best carb sources that will help reduce hunger pangs:

• Oatmeal –– lower in calories than the breads and pastas out there and the whole oats really do provide some nutrient punch. Not to mention, this is an incredibly cheap option to help with your plan.
• Boiled potatoes (white potatoes or yams) –– always high on the satiety list of the most filling and satisfying foods, potatoes tend to get a bad wrap because of the paleo crowd that demonizes the white potato, but don’t buy the hype. Each variant carries incredible nutritional power and will keep you full.
• Beans and legumes –– high in fiber and even packs some protein punch, if you are a plant-based dieter, then these need to be a steady source of sustenance in your plan.
• Carrots –– be sure to go slow on these because they can hit your gut like a rock if you eat them too quickly, but that’s kind of the point here: to make you as full as possible.

Fruits

Any coach that tells you the sugar in fruit makes you fat is an asshole and you should run far away from that person and never take their advice again. Period. 

Okay, cool. Now that we got that out of the way …

Fruit is low in calories. Fruits are loaded with awesome vitamins and nutrients. And most fruits are packed with fiber, which helps keep you full and regular.

Strawberries –– did you know that an entire pound of strawberries is only 150 calories? Now you know (and knowing is half the battle).

Other filling fruit options include (but are not limited to):

• Watermelon – 1.5 lbs is 230 calories
• Oranges – 1 orange is 80 calories
• Grapefruit – 1 grapefruit is 100 calories
• Apples – 1 medium apple is 100 calories
• Grapes – 0.5 lbs of grapes is 160 calories

Fats

After you hit the protein and carbs and fulfill your 4-5 servings of fruits and veggies per day, you can tackle the fat department. 

Fats are highly important to your hormonal health. I explain that in more depth in my ultimate guide to setting up and tracking your macros here. But, the problem is that this pillar of the macronutrient setup is not going to help you stay full on a diet.

One of the best ways to ensure feeling fuller with higher fat foods is to again opt for those options that force you to chew more. So avoid things like nut butter in place of actual nuts like walnuts and almonds.

And instead of adding more oils to your dishes, it might be a good idea to just choose a fattier version of your protein source. So chicken thighs, salmon, and a little fattier cuts of beef will be your best bet here.

But, keep in mind that the law of energy balance is undefeated and calories are always king. So choose the higher fat foods carefully and always be mindful of how much you are eating to avoid blowing up your diet and going from a calorie deficit to a calorie surplus. 

Zero and low-calorie beverages

Water should make up the base of your hydration. My personal rule is to drink water if I’m thirsty, but if I have a taste for something, then I’ll choose some of the zero-calorie beverages like diet sodas or water enhanced beverages.

Now that said, sparkling water can actually help you stay full on a diet since the carbonation can essentially flatten your stomach and suppress appetite. 

Here are some of my other low-cal favorites:

• Water
• Sparkling water
• Coffee, tea, diet sodas
• Almond milk (and other milk alternatives)
• Soups –– options like miso soup are incredibly filling and contain negligible amounts of calories
• Wine and bourbon –– not low calorie at all (I break down alcohol on a fat loss diet here), but they are both pretty awesome and I like them so there’s that.

Developing a fat loss meal plan to stay full on a diet

So here’s the deal, I don’t create meal plans for my clients. Largely because I want you to advance the skill of creating your own specific way of eating that is personalized to your lifestyle. 

But with the information that I’ve provided in this article, you should be equipped with enough knowledge to develop your own handy little list of go to foods. 

Play around with the options and strategies provided here and commit to being consistent for a few weeks to see if it truly helps.  That’s how the most successful dieters beat the vicious on-again/off-again cycle, drop the weight for good and keep it off forever.

Photo by Ive Erhard on Unsplash

Let me help you learn how to stay full on a diet … 

I’m here to help you out. 

If you have any questions, reach out. I answer all of my emails at pete [at] petecataldo [.] com … Hit me up with the subject line “How to Stay Full on a Diet” and I’ll answer any questions you have to make this work for you.

Or you can hit me up anytime on the socialz on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

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