I’m looking for one, and reading the reviews online is a bit of a nightmare. Have you had a good experience with one?
Food has always worked for me.
Not what you’re looking for, I know, but I have good luck with carefully timed high-fiber snacks and a caffeinated beverage or two.
Echoing Motorgirl, caffeinated drinks. A nice hot cuppa will fool the tummy very effectively. (I use tea; coffee works too.)
I am not actually *recommending *any of these.
In my experience all of the following work great:
not eating for long enough that your metabolism goes into starvation mode, not eating any sit-down meals at all (in other words: grazing throughout the day), massive intake of caffeine, regular application of clove cigarettes, vast amounts of stress, even more stress, ovarian cysts, massive internal infections, taking antibiotics when you’re allergic to them, and GERD.
From what I’ve heard, appetite suppressants are about as good for you as most of the above list.
As far as safe methods, I’ve heard that high fiber, low processed sugar/carb diets work very well for reducing hunger, because you don’t get drastic blood sugar drops that trigger your body to want more energy.
I’ve also heard that if you’re grazing constantly on healthy food and keeping track of the amounts, that can be a healthy option also for much the same reason. In addition, it’s helpful because (at least in my experience) your stomach becames intolerant of too much food at once. I still CAN’T eat large meals now because I’ll get sick. I often have to wait about two hours after meals just to have dessert, because I’m just too full to want anything before then.
Cleaning up after a puking kid with food poisoning is VERY effective.
~VOW
Not sold for this purpose anymore but pseudoephedrine works great for me. I always notice that when I’m taking it for sinus problems I have to remind myself to eat. I will occasionally take it for a week to break myself of a snacking habit.
Dont play this game. It is easy to abuse, and they can turn very unhealthy for you fast.
Protein always works for me. I usually keep some cooked shredded chicken with me in case I get super hungry.
I’ve been on a diet for two years now where one of the rules is “no snacks”. At first, I would get very hungry between meals. That eventually went away, though it did take a while to do so.
I’ve even had decent results with just water.
Don’t keep food near you if you can help it. Seeing food is an appetite stimulant (food advertisement works on this principle). Smelling food will do it, too.
Realize that feeling hungry isn’t an emergency that needs to be taken care of immediately. You’ve felt a lot worse things than feeling a bit hungry. An overweight person with no metabolic disorders living in a developed country will not starve to death in less than 24 hours. Feeling hungry isn’t like feeling like you have to go to the bathroom, where ignoring the feeling for a while can have bad consequences.
Realize that boredom often masquerades as hunger. It might be that what you really want is to do something different than what you’re doing now.
A glass of 40-calorie/cup almond milk fills me up pretty well. I can’t remember the name of the brand I last had that I like, but it was NOT Blue Diamond, which was pretty awful. The better-tasting almond milk is fairly tolerable, and thick enough to be filling, more so than cow’s milk. My sister reports that whatever brand Trader Joe’s carries is good.