Do you always feel hungry? It’s hard to stick to a healthy diet when hunger pangs are driving you crazy, but don’t reach for that cookie! Instead, figure out WHY you get hungry between meals, so you can keep your appetite in check. According to Quality Health News, these are the main reasons you get hungry:

• You eat the RIGHT foods - at the WRONG times. You want to keep your metabolism running smoothly by eating the RIGHT foods at the RIGHT times, which means roughly the SAME time every day. You should eat within two hours of waking up and once every three to five hours the rest of the day.
• You don’t eat the right breakfast. The ideal breakfast has a balance of protein and carbohydrates. It’ll fill you up and keep you satisfied until lunch. A bad breakfast like a doughnut or pastry has too much simple sugar, which means you’ll be hitting the vending machine by 10am.
• Your diet doesn’t have enough flavor. Plain chicken breasts and broccoli may be good for you and low in calories, but if you eat them all the time, you’ll get bored. Boredom can lead to binges. So get creative with spices and pay attention to texture. Look for the three “c”s - creamy, crunchy, and chewy. However, don’t fall into the three “F”s - fatty, fried, and full of sugar. So for creamy, try hummus. For crunchy try carrot sticks and for chewy try sugarless gum. 
• You skip meals so you can eat more later.  If you starve all day long, you’ll end up gorging at dinner. Skipping meals is NOT the way to cut calories. It’ll just make your body store fat when you overeat.
• You DRINK your calories. If you have a latte for breakfast and a smoothie for lunch, you’ll miss the sensation of chewing - and THAT’S what actually releases your fullness hormones. If you want something light, try peanut butter on toast or fruit and yogurt.

Remember: you don’t need to go hungry to lose weight. Instead eat smaller portions of healthy foods and try to get 30 minutes of exercise a day.