How You Should Feel While Dieting

How do you know if a fat loss diet is working? How do you know if you’re just spinning your wheels? Should you stick to your plan or shift gears? Oh the dieting woes. Hard to handle and unpredictable. When I was dieting for bodybuilding contests (sometimes I feel like I was on a diet for 10 years!) I became incredibly in-tune with my body. I knew the difference between needing actual nutrition and just wanting something to eat just to eat. So with many years of getting my body fat in the single digits I’ve come up with a few tactics to be aware of regarding how you should feel while dieting.

These five points are just a few things to keep in mind and are great signs you’re on the right track.

1. Stay Hungry

   You should feel a little less than full all day. Since you’d be in a calorie deficit your body will be wanting food pretty much constantly. The good news is that in a week or two you’ll get used to this feeling as you turn into a fat-torching furnace. The point is you need to embrace the “sort of” empty feeling. No more all-you-can-eat.

2. Go the Distance

   We are weakest when we get famished. We tend to grab whatever is around (usually snack crap) and engulf it with the mindset that “I was about to die!” If you are hungry a half an hour or less before your next scheduled meal then just hold on. Go the distance, resist snacking, and just wait. If you feel this way an hour or more before your next meal then you may need to restructure things.

3. Look Forward

   This goes hand-in-hand with number 2 above. Always look forward to the next meal instead of what you can eat right now. This also applies to cheat meals on the weekends. When you feel like you can’t go another day simply mentally look ahead to that big cheat meal.

4. Be Aware

   Always be ware of your surroundings. Don’t succumb to the scarcity mentality. That is if you don’t eat that cookie now there won’t be anymore made in the world period. There’s always more cookies. Companies make them every day. Also, just be aware of what food is lying around and don’t mindlessly eat. Again, visualize your next planned meal.

5. Live in the Real World

   Look, I’m not suggesting you become a drill sergeant. All I’m saying is have enough wherewithal to know what is right and wrong for your dieting efforts. The world is filled with fast food crap, tasty snacks, and enough peer pressure to choke a mule. Be realistic, be consistent as possible, and don’t live out of your kitchen. You will fall of the horse sometimes. Just get back up. Simple as that.

Happy dieting!