How to stop morning food craving?

Hi there
I'm been stuck with my current weight for months now ( 80kg, 172cm), although I've maintained exercising 5 times a week alternating between cardio, spinning classes & weight training
My working hours are 6:30am-2:30pm and I have to leave home daily at 6 am in order to reach work on time. I have an early breakfast at 5:30 which is usually bran flakes with skimmed milk
My biggest problem is morning food craving. My office canteen is opera cafe which doesn't contain much healthy food choices for lunch & mid morning snacks
Overall I try to maintain a healthy dinner after gym sessions, still I can't control my morning craving
Which is obviously the reason I'm not losing any weight despite working out continuously

Abdul

Welcome to the forum. Thanks for posting a query.

First of all I don't think your early breakfast is great. Bran flakes although they do contain a little bit of bran are mostly simple carbs and sugar (yes there is a lot of sugar in there). This is going to increase your cravings as the insulin spike from the high GI carbs makes you hungrier.

So my first advice is to change this. If cereal is what you like then try and change for something a little more rough. The best on sale in Doha is Dorset Cereals. They sell it in Lulu for not too much (the blue regular variety is best at about QR15). This contains plenty of nuts and is less processed and has no sugar. Alternatively make your own from raw oats, and add some bran and some flax seeds, some almond pieces and raisins.

Another alternative is to change your breakfast entirely and get a little more protein there and less carbs. Always ask yourself a question, "why am I eating these carbs?" Remember carbs are a short term fuel. You need them for training hard etc but you don't need them for sleeping (so have very limited carbs in your evening meal) and you don't need many at your office desk. A breakfast cereal is almost completely carb. So perhaps instead have an omelette etc (if you want some recipe ideas check out the diet plan www.bootcampqatar.com/fitness-resources)

As for snacks then you don't want carbs. These do you no good as snacks, very short term benefit in terms of appetite suppression. So raw nuts (almonds, walnuts, etc), seeds (not fried) - like sunflower seens. Boiled eggs are great. Lean pieces of chicken with some vegetable sticks, piece of cheese.

Hope this helps

Thank you for your kind advice

I think small frequent meals is a best option as it gives your body to follow a certain routine to burn fats. based on the recent research, dont deprive yourself to eat when you want to eat as long as your eating a small meal, everytime we eat, our body is working to burn the calorie, if you planned to lose weight? dont skip meals. eat everytime you are hungry but only eat small meals preferably fruits and vegetables :)


http://www.makingthebest.com/?page_id=924

makingthebest08 wrote:I think small frequent meals is a best option as it gives your body to follow a certain routine to burn fats. based on the recent research, dont deprive yourself to eat when you want to eat as long as your eating a small meal, everytime we eat, our body is working to burn the calorie, if you planned to lose weight? dont skip meals. eat everytime you are hungry but only eat small meals preferably fruits and vegetables


http://www.makingthebest.com/?page_id=924

Good advice however go easy on the fruit. Especially depending on the fruit. Fruit is not a free food and much of it is very high in sugar. We have access to a lot more ripe fruit than we would have done in the wild 10000 years ago and our bodies are the same. The lower GI fruit is the best such as apples, melon etc.