Here’s What to Do If Snacking Is Sabotaging Your Diet

Drink more water

A lot of the time, snacking is a reflex because of boredom. Curb your boredom. Try this: Have a glass of water, and wait at least 10 minutes. If you still feel like you have to have a slice of banana bread, go for it, but odds are the water will have satiated the need for something to do, and you’ll be deep enough into whatever it is you’re doing next that you won’t be thinking about the bread anymore.

Switch up the way you eat

If the water hack isn’t working for you, and it’s just that you need food to keep full every few hours, then it might be that you need to change the way you eat. Instead of eating 3 larger meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner), see if you can do 5 smaller meals instead. You could do a small bowl of nutty oats at 7 am, two boiled eggs and some sliced tomato at 10am, fish and brown rice at 12pm, avocado toast at 3pm, and shrimp and sweet potatoes at 5pm.

Try intermittent fasting

Sometimes, it’s easier to say no to all food than it is to say no to some. If this is the case for you, try intermittent fasting like 5:2 or 16:8. On these diets, you’ll either eat limited amounts on certain days of the week, or you’ll eat nothing at all between certain  times; in this way you’ll have a limited window to eat and are more likely to opt for wholesome choices that will sustain you, than smaller sugar-filled snacks.

Snack on the right foods

If you must snack, snack right. Eating foods which nourish your body and strengthen it is better than filling up on foods which are tasty but offer no nutritional value. Finding the right foods to eat is a great step in the right direction.