If you occasionally find yourself battling food cravings or an overwhelming urge to indulge in particular dishes, take comfort in knowing that you are far from alone. In fact, research suggests that more than 90% of people across the globe experience food cravings at some point in their lives. These cravings can be difficult to resist, often leading you to consume large quantities of calorie-rich, nutrient-deficient, and highly appealing foods such as chocolate, cake, ice cream, and pizza. Sadly, indulging in these processed foods and extra calories can negatively impact your overall health and well-being. If you're concerned that your cravings are more frequent or distressing than those of others, it's important to understand that various factors may contribute to this, and fortunately, there are effective strategies to manage them.

This article presents 12 scientifically-backed techniques to help you regulate your food cravings effectively.

1. Ensure Adequate Caloric Intake

Properly fueling your body is essential for maintaining health and optimal functioning. A sufficient intake of calories and nutrients is crucial, as inadequate consumption can trigger your body to signal hunger, resulting in intense cravings for specific foods. The connection between calorie consumption and food cravings is intricate; however, some studies indicate that short-term calorie restriction may lead to heightened cravings. In contrast, prolonged calorie limitation may correlate with reduced overall and specific cravings. Nevertheless, consistently nourishing your body with wholesome, satiating foods while avoiding excessive calorie restrictions can significantly help diminish those persistent food cravings.

2. Steer Clear of Restrictive Diets

Imagine embarking on a new dietary journey, brimming with enthusiasm to transform your eating habits and achieve your health aspirations. Yet, only hours or days later, you find yourself overwhelmed by intensified cravings for all the foods that are off-limits. If this scenario resonates with you, know that you're not alone. Many dietary plans are excessively restrictive, leading to heightened food cravings. Research indicates that individuals on diets often experience cravings more frequently than those who enjoy a more flexible approach to eating.

While shedding excess body fat can enhance your overall health, it’s crucial to avoid overly restrictive diets to manage cravings effectively. Instead, prioritize a balanced eating pattern that nourishes your body while allowing you to indulge in your favorite treats occasionally.

3. Avoid Allowing Yourself to Become Excessively Hungry

While hunger is a natural indication from your body that should not be feared, allowing yourself to become excessively hungry can lead to intense food cravings. This reaction is quite understandable from your body’s perspective. When you experience extreme hunger, it often indicates that you haven’t provided your body with adequate nourishment for an extended period. Consequently, your blood sugar levels may drop, prompting your body to crave high-energy foods to restore those levels to a healthier range. In contrast, maintaining stable blood sugar levels significantly reduces the likelihood of experiencing intense food cravings. The good news is that you don’t need to adhere to a strict eating schedule every few hours to keep your blood sugar balanced. Instead, focus on recognizing your hunger and fullness signals, and nourish your body when it requires sustenance.

4. Choose Nutrient-Dense Foods that Satisfy

A straightforward approach to manage cravings, enhance satiety, and maintain stable blood sugar levels is to indulge in foods that encourage a sense of fullness. All three macronutrients—fats, carbohydrates, and proteins—play a vital role in ensuring you feel satisfied after meals. Among these, protein stands out as the most satiating macronutrient. Numerous studies indicate that increasing protein intake effectively helps control food cravings. For instance, research has shown that high-protein diets can diminish the activation of brain regions linked to food rewards and cravings, curb late-night snacking on sugary and calorie-dense foods, and reduce overall food cravings. This means that combining protein-rich foods with healthy fats and fiber-filled carbohydrates is crucial for fostering a sense of fullness. It’s wise to plan in advance to ensure you have access to meals and snacks abundant in fiber, protein, and healthy fats that can promote satiety and minimize cravings. Balanced and simple pairing ideas include enjoying an apple with nut butter or a slice of cheese, or having a hard-boiled egg alongside some vegetables and hummus.

5. Let Go of Calorie Obsession

Focusing excessively on calorie counts not only consumes your time, energy, and mental resources but can also lead to significant restrictions in your overall energy consumption, pushing you to avoid foods that bring you joy. While keeping track of food consumption can be beneficial for some individuals temporarily, a constant fixation on your calorie intake can negatively affect your relationship with food and introduce unwarranted stress into your life. Moreover, when you limit certain foods or adjust your intake strictly to meet a specific calorie target, you may experience intense cravings that can lead to overeating later on. This cycle can create a detrimental pattern that is difficult to break.

6. Embrace the Joy of Your Favorite Foods

In order to enhance overall well-being, effectively manage your weight, and feel at your best, it's crucial to moderate your consumption of certain items, particularly those laden with added sugars and highly processed foods, such as fast food. Nevertheless, imposing strict limits or entirely eliminating certain foods may heighten your cravings, potentially leading to increased consumption once the urge becomes too strong to resist. The good news is that your beloved foods can absolutely be integrated into your diet — even if they aren’t the healthiest options and even when you aim to shed some body fat. In fact, research indicates that adopting a more adaptable and less stringent approach to dietary choices may facilitate weight loss.

7. Nourish Your Body to Regulate Blood Sugar Levels

Experiencing fluctuations in your blood sugar can occur after prolonged periods without food. This often leads to cravings for carbohydrate-rich items, which is completely understandable. You may find yourself reaching for snacks like crackers, french fries, chocolate, or even bread when hunger strikes.

A study conducted in 2013, which involved 210 participants both with and without type 2 diabetes, revealed a link between unmanaged blood sugar levels and increased cravings for carbohydrates. Interestingly, these cravings diminished as blood sugar management improved. This correlation is not unexpected. For instance, when your blood sugar dips low—whether from intentional fasting or simply not eating for a while—your brain activates specific regions that trigger cravings for high-calorie foods. If you notice that your cravings tend to arise at a particular time each day, it could indicate that your blood sugar levels are not being managed effectively or that your body is not receiving adequate nourishment.

8. Manage Stress

It's common to notice a shift in food preferences when stress levels rise; you're certainly not experiencing this alone. Numerous studies have established a strong connection between stress and heightened food cravings. For instance, a study conducted in 2015 involving 619 participants revealed that chronic stress has a significant and direct impact on food cravings. This phenomenon may stem from the detrimental effects of chronic stress on various bodily systems and the hormonal balance that governs appetite control.

Moreover, chronic stress is linked to an increased likelihood of developing conditions such as overweight or obesity. If you find yourself grappling with stress, consider implementing some of these effective stress-relief strategies to help you unwind and reduce those cravings. Remember, reaching out for support or guidance from a healthcare professional is always a wise option.

9. Prioritize Sufficient Sleep

It’s fascinating to note that insufficient sleep can heighten your likelihood of experiencing food cravings. A study from 2019, which involved a group of 256 children and adolescents, found that inadequate sleep correlated with a rise in food cravings and a decline in overall diet quality. Similarly, another 2019 investigation focused on 24 women revealed that lack of sleep was associated with heightened feelings of hunger and increased food cravings. The impact of sleep deprivation extends to specific regions of the brain, notably the frontal cortex and amygdala, which are crucial for regulating appetite and can drive your desire for indulgent, calorie-dense foods. Alarmingly, chronic sleep deprivation has also been connected to serious health issues, including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and mental health disorders like depression. To mitigate the food cravings linked to insufficient sleep and enhance your overall well-being, it is advisable to aim for a minimum of 7 hours of quality sleep each night.

10. Limit Your Consumption of Certain Carbohydrates

Emerging research indicates that decreasing your intake of highly refined carbohydrates may help alleviate your food cravings. This phenomenon could be linked to the impact that a diet abundant in refined carbs has on your blood sugar levels, potentially triggering brain signals that intensify cravings for appealing foods. A small-scale study conducted in 2019 revealed that participants who adhered to a low-carb diet—consisting of 14% carbohydrates, 58% fat, and 28% protein over four weeks—experienced a notable reduction in food cravings compared to their initial state.

Additional studies have also indicated that low-carb diets are effective in diminishing cravings, particularly for sugary high-carb items. However, there's no need to adhere strictly to a low-carb regimen, or any specific diet, to manage cravings effectively. Instead, you can concentrate on minimizing your intake of ultra-processed carbohydrate sources that are laden with added sugars, such as cakes and candies. A healthier alternative would be to substitute these with fiber-rich, nutrient-dense options like sweet potatoes (shakarkandi), oats, and butternut squash, which provide satisfying and nourishing choices.

11. Reduce Consumption of Highly Palatable Foods

Often, indulging in highly palatable foods such as sweetened baked treats, creamy ice cream, cheesy pizza, and decadent doughnuts can trigger intense food cravings. A study conducted in 2014 involving 646 participants revealed that an increase in the consumption of sweets, high-fat items, and fast food led to a corresponding rise in cravings for those very foods. Furthermore, a comprehensive review in 2018 suggested that minimizing the intake of frequently craved foods might help in decreasing those cravings. Research indicates that as individuals consume more highly palatable foods, the brain registers fewer reward responses, which can inadvertently intensify cravings, prompting a cycle where one seeks out even more of these tempting foods to achieve satisfaction. Given these insights, scaling back on highly palatable foods such as ice cream, fast food, packaged macaroni and cheese, cookies or candies — specifically those that you find yourself craving often — could serve as an effective long-term strategy to diminish the frequency of those cravings.

12. Embrace a Healthy Body Weight

It is widely recognized that sustaining a healthy body weight significantly contributes to your overall well-being. However, what may come as a surprise is that it can also help in mitigating food cravings. Research indicates a strong correlation between elevated body weight and an increased incidence of food cravings. For instance, a notable study conducted in 2014 with 646 participants revealed that individuals with a higher Body Mass Index (BMI) — a measure that relates weight to height — experienced a greater number of food cravings compared to those within the normal BMI range. Furthermore, a 2019 study involving 100 participants found that individuals classified as overweight had a higher frequency of cravings for indulgent foods than their counterparts with weights deemed normal.

In addition to influencing cravings, maintaining a healthy body weight can lower the risk of various chronic diseases, enhance self-image, positively impact mental health, and contribute to an overall sense of well-being, ensuring you feel your best.

The Bottom Line

It's important to understand that experiencing food cravings is completely normal, as nearly everyone encounters them at some point. However, frequent cravings can often lead to overeating, particularly involving foods that lack essential nutrients, which can negatively impact your health.

To help manage these cravings, consider implementing some of the evidence-based strategies highlighted earlier. These include ensuring you get adequate sleep, steering clear of restrictive diets, focusing on consuming nutrient-dense foods, and actively reducing stress levels.

If you find that your food cravings are persistent and challenging to control, it may be beneficial to consult with a registered dietitian. Collaboratively, you can explore the underlying reasons for your cravings and develop a suitable plan to handle them in a healthy and sustainable way.