Beat the snack-attack!

Finding it difficult to nail down why you’re not dropping the weight? You’re opting for ‘healthier’ options but how many snacks are you actually consuming every day?

Many of us now eat up to 15 times over the course of 15 hours according to a study in Cell Metabolism. To make matters worse, the same research showed that this extensive snacking has nothing to do with hunger. Even when we opt for healthy snacks, it is possible to take it too far.

Now we know we need to keep an eye on our snacking, what can we do to make this easier?

Listen to your gut

If your tummy is rumbling, that’s your cue to eat. If you’re not genuinely hungry, don’t eat out of habit or to satisfy your cravings. Studies have found 62% of people snack because of cravings, 27% snack because of boredom and 17% snack because they are stressed.

Keep the break, lose the snack

For many, a break in their day is an opportunity to reward themselves with food. Undo the association between downtime and food by planning your downtime around an activity, such as walking or listening to a podcast.

Show up empty-handed

Don’t keep snacks in your car or around your desk, we are wired to eat food we see, so remove the temptation and thought process by removing the preemptive snacks. Out of sight, out of mind!

Divide and conquer

Take the total number of kilojoules you should consume a day and divide it by how many times you eat. If you stick to just three meals, each meals kilojoules can be pretty large (about 2760kJs for an approx 8400kJ a day diet).

If you find you opt for a snack once before lunch and then again before dinner, you should aim for 2000kJs per meal and 1000kJs per snack.