Today’s article is by Jessica Culver. I originally met Jessica at a powerlifting competition, where she put up some incredible numbers, while weighing in at an unsuspecting 123 lbs.

As you know, I don’t publish garbage. I only allow others to post on my site when they provide true value.

The reason I allowed Jessica to share this article is because:

– She has an excellent writing style. Clear, but funny. Like me.

– She has nothing to sell.

– She deadlifts 286 friggin’ pounds.

How could I say no?

Without further ado, here’s Jessica.

Just Can’t Stop Eating!

Now, the world’s safest and most natural appetite suppressant is motivation, I think.

Unfortunately, the supply of that can run out pretty quickly and the next thing you know, you’re going back for seconds. Then thirds.

And it’s impossible to keep a healthy body weight and body fat percentage if you’re stuffing your face with everything in sight. If you actually have the self-control to not binge on everything in your fridge, then you will hit your goal weight – however, you may be miserably constantly thinking of ways to distract yourself from food.

Original source: here.

So what if there was a way to actually, you know, NOT get hungry all the time?

There are things like appetite suppressants that can help you control your food intake, but first, you want to make sure that there’s not anything else in your life that is making your appetite out of control.

You want to make sure that…

1)You’re sleeping enough
If you don’t get enough sleep, you’ll be energy deprived all day long. Your body will crave quick forms of energy (high calorie, fatty/sugary food) to keep it going. Also, leptin and ghrelin (our hunger hormones) levels are affected by the amount of sleep we get. Too little sleep, and those hormones don’t work properly to let us know when we’re actually full.

2)Your food is nutrient-dense
There’s a reason why you can eat 2,000 calories of chocolate cake and not feel full, yet feel totally stuffed on 1,200 calories of veggies and meat. Chocolate cake doesn’t have any nutrients your body really needs, so while your tummy is technically full, your body hasn’t received sufficient nutrients to feel nourished and full. So, your brain will tell you to keep eating until those nutrients are received. On top of that, the insulin spike and dip you get from sugary foods will cause you to get hungry very quickly after you eat. But, if you eat the same amount of calories (or even less!) from REAL foods, like veggies, fruits, meat, etc., you will actually feel full. This is because it takes a larger portion size of real foods to meet these caloric needs (1,000 calories of veggies will fill your stomach right up, but 1,000 calories of ice cream is barely anything) so you will actually physically be full. Also, the nutrients you get from real foods will satisfy your body’s needs, so your brain won’t have to tell you “Keep eating until we get enough nutrients!”

That’s why you may experience very specific food cravings (and thus eat a pound of chocolate in one sitting). It’s not the food you’re craving in mass quantities, it’s the key nutrients that food contains that you’re otherwise lacking in your diet. If you crave a lot of salty, crunchy foods like chips, pickles, pretzels, and so on, then you may be lacking certain minerals. Have some REAL salt (sea salt, himalayan salt) a little more often (not table salt!) and your cravings should disappear, and you can finally put down that bag of chips.

3)You don’t have an underlying “illness”
Diabetes and hyperthyroidism can cause a raging appetite. Those two “illnesses” are very common, actually, but they can easily be managed with the right diet. If you have diabetes, take it easy on the quick carbs. If you have hyperthyroidism, you may have problems with your iodine levels, and you may have been a super stressed out person living on coffee for to long and now it’s resulted in an overactive thyroid. If you have any other weird symptoms besides a raging appetite, do some research and figure out the underlying cause – treat the problem, not the symptoms.

4)There’s been no major changes in your life
Stress plays a huge role in your appetite. Breakups, moving, a new job, death, guilt, low-self esteem, trauma, and all those fun but difficult parts of life can cause an increase in appetite. It’s an emotional void, not you’re stomach, that you’re trying to fill. Take care of yourself, love yourself, and find ways to fulfill your emotional needs (outside of eating or any other vice) so you don’t reach for comfort food. See this post I did on our emotional attachment to food and how you can break your addictive eating patterns.

5)You’re not excessively exercising
Some people, though few, are actually more active than they think they are, and they just don’t eat enough food. I believe this is actually kind of rare (most people overestimate how active they are) but if you work a job that’s physically demanding and you train at least four or five days per week (doing real workouts, not stationary bicycle type workouts) then perhaps you need to reassess how much food you should be eating to fuel your body to meet all those physical demands.

6)You’re not very muscular
If you have a lot of muscle on your body, and a fairly low body fat percentage, you need to eat more than somebody with more fat and less muscle. If you can actually see muscle definition all over your body, you probably need to eat more food to sustain that. Don’t feel bad about having to order a bigger meal on the menu than your skinny-fat friends.

Alright, so if you’ve gone over the above issues and you find that some of them may affect you (could be more than one or two things!), then THAT could be the reason for an increased appetite. Deal with those issues first (get more sleep, eliminate stress, etc.) and see if your appetite levels go back to normal.

If you’re pregnant or you train like an athlete, then you’ll obviously want to eat more to accommodate your body’s energy needs.

All those issues aside, if you feel like you just have a food addiction or something where you just can’t stop eating (perhaps even a binge eating disorder) and you WANT to heal from that, just know that it may take some time to get over. It’s hard to break addictions, including food addictions. This type of appetite is of course aiming to fill an emotional void (which I talked about in #4) but it could have to do with something much deeper than a recent life stressor. Therefore, it may take longer to overcome. It may take you a while to finally feel emotionally fulfilled. But until then, how do you curb the appetite so you don’t gain an unhealthy amount of weight?

Maybe, *maybe* you want to look into appetite suppressants.
And I’m not talking about foods that naturally suppress your appetite (like almonds, apples, etc.). I’m talking about actual supplements.

Until your emotional needs are met, you may need the help of something external to stop you from eating unhealthily large amounts of food. So I looked into some natural appetite suppressants and found one that I think could really help you out. Mind you, this one I’d only recommend to people that not only need to control their appetite, but who ALSO actually have some fat to lose, too.

Garcinia cambogia extract is a natural appetite suppressant, made from the rind of the tamardin fruit. It is also a fat blocker (not fat burner) and it is NOT a stimulant. It raises your serotonin levels also, promoting feelings of calmness, thus preventing emotional eating.

The active ingredient in this extract is HCA.

Garcinia cambodia extract is available as a capsule supplement both online and in certain health food stores. If you’re thinking of grabbing a bottle, just check for a few things:

Make sure its HCA content is at least 50% (it will say so on the label) and make sure there are no other fillers, unless they are completely natural (and even then, do your research to know what those fillers are added for). Each capsule should be at least 400mg.

Before you think I’m just promoting some hocus-pocus product, rest assured, I’m not. Do you see any links here to gardenia cambodia extract? Nope. I’m not selling anything or doing any affiliate stuff. I’m just giving you my honest opinion of what I think can help you.

And I wouldn’t recommend something that doesn’t work. I made a bit of a lab rat of myself and tried out this extract for about three months, and it works.

I tried it because I was dealing with #4, personally. There was some upsetting stuff going on in my life back in September 2013 and I felt like reaching for every kind of comfort food possible. I didn’t indulge, but the cravings were bothering me and that in itself became another stressor. For those few weeks I tried dealing with the stress in other ways (meditation, good friends, volunteering, yoga, etc.) but it was still pretty difficult. So I headed over to my local Healthy Planet and had a look at some natural appetite suppressants and came across that extract. I grabbed a bottle, went home with it, researched everything, and then gave it a shot. If it looked sketchy I would’ve just returned it.

But anyway, I cracked open the bottle the next day and took the capsules as advised. I still ate my normal, healthy foods, though. Remember, the point isn’t to UNDEReat – the point is to be able to stop eating when you should. The point is to not go crazy with a tub of ice cream.

The supplement worked. My appetite was back to normal, and I just didn’t feel the need to binge on the whole grocery store. It’s like I “forgot” about tempting foods. Simply didn’t cross my mind. I stopped taking it at the beginning of December, once I felt more emotionally stable and trusted myself to not gorge on junk food. There weren’t any side effects coming off of the garcinia cambogia, and I never had any side effects while using it either. My appetite didn’t shoot back up, thank goodness!

The specific brand I picked up was iHealth. They met all of the requirements to be considered “legit” enough to use.

Give it a shot but ONLY if you have given everything else a chance to work first. This isn’t a short-cut for weight loss. Use it as a short-term assistant, but don’t rely on it.

Good luck, do your research, and remember to stay hot and efficient!

About the Author

Jessica Culver is a clean-eating, powerlifting, dancing journalist who wants to help you get a hot and efficient body. You can learn more about her on her site at www.hotandefficient.com