There is a reality about weight loss that people need to be aware of. Losing weight requires you to feel hungry from time to time. There is no way to lose weight without feeling some degree of hunger.

There are many strategies that help reduce hunger: avoiding refined carbohydrates, getting plenty of natural sunlight on your skin, drinking large amounts of water on a regular basis, and getting plenty of fiber in your diet. But there is nothing that absolutely eliminates hunger. The bottom line is that if you are going to lose weight, you are going to experience hunger at one time or another. This is especially true if you engage in strength training. Nothing gets your appetite whipped into a fury like the leg press.

The key in all this is realizing there's nothing wrong with experiencing hunger from time to time. It's a normal human response to a decrease in your consumption of calories. The problem that most people encounter when they feel hungry is they feel it's some sort of emergency. It feels like they are dying or wasting away when, in fact, the body is just signaling that it doesn't have enough calories to add new fat to the fat stores it's already carrying around. The first feelings of hunger are really more of a false alarm than anything to be concerned about. At least from a logical point of view - but when you feel like you're starving, logic goes out the window, right?

A person who is aiming for a low percentage of body fat learns to manage their hunger so that it becomes something they can live with. In fact, there are several "lifesaving" foods and beverages you can turn to when you are feeling intense hunger pains but you don't want to consume foods that add significant calories to your daily intake.

These foods and drinks are what have been referred to as emergency appetite control foods. What these foods and beverages have in common is that they make your stomach feel like it's full of calorie-rich foods. But in reality, you are filling your stomach with foods that contain almost no calories or carbohydrates. This way, even though your stomach is full, you are not adding calories to your intake. But your body is temporarily fooled into thinking you've just woofed down a triple-plate buffet.

In other words, if you eat two cups of cashews versus two cups of cabbage, your body can't really tell the difference for the first few minutes. Your stomach will turn off the hunger signals thinking you have eaten a large quantity of food regardless of whether you are eating cabbage or cashews, but in fact the cabbage may only contain 20 calories while the cashews contain as much as 900 or even 1000 calories. Two cups of cashews provides probably half the calories you need for the entire day, whereas two cups of cabbage provides virtually no calories whatsoever. You burn off the cabbage just digesting it.

Emergency appetite control food #1
Fresh drinking water. That's right: water is a powerful appetite suppressant and if you drink an 8-ounce glass of water when you first start feeling hungry, you will find that it suppresses your appetite in nearly every case. If you just drink a full glass of water and have the discipline to wait 10 minutes, you will find that your appetite is either completely gone or dramatically reduced.

Your next choice, if water does not do the trick for you, is to consume a quart of natural, organic vegetable broth. The key is to get organic vegetable broth that does not contain excitotoxins. These are ingredients that cause neurological disorders because they overexcite and harm nerve cells. Those ingredients are MSG, yeast extract, autolyzed yeast extract, hydrolyzed vegetable proteins, and other similar ingredients.

Emergency appetite control food #2
The next best strategy is to turn to green vegetables such as lettuce, cabbage and other leafy vegetables. They have so few calories that in most diets, you don't even have to count them.

It takes just as many calories for your body to digest them as you get out of the foods themselves. And yet at the same time, they fill your stomach and make you feel full, turning off the hunger signals in your brain. You may have also heard these called "negative calorie foods."

You can consume these green leafy vegetables in a couple of ways. Most people don't like to eat them plain. Instead, you can fill up a very large bowl with lettuce and salad greens, then add only 100 calories worth of salad dressing. You will want to find some of the lower calorie salad dressings out there, and of course you want to avoid MSG, high-fructose corn syrup, and other ingredients in salad dressings. There are many very good salad dressings that only have 25 calories per tablespoon. Using those dressings, you can put four tablespoons of salad dressing on your salad and start munching away. In a few minutes, you will feel quite full and yet will have only consumed 100 calories that count. Remember the calories for the green leafy vegetables are free. You only count the calories of the salad dressing itself. This is an excellent way to fill your stomach and turn off your hunger signals while only giving yourself 100 calories.

If salads don't catch your fancy, try stir frying them in a pan with no oils whatsoever. Just use water and flavoring such as onions, garlic and soy sauce. Simply stir fry all the green vegetables you want, add the spices and eat it.

Emergency appetite control food #3
Here's an easy one: apples. Yes, apples. Eat the largest apple you can find. Sure, you'll get some calories and some carbs, but the apple will fill you up for quite a while, and that will stop you from eating far more calorie-dense foods.

Apples are great appetite suppressing foods because the bulky fiber fills up your stomach and turns off your appetite control hormones before you overeat. Plus, apples contain various phytonutrients, vitamins and minerals. They're even a decent source of folic acid.

Overall, keep in mind that weight loss takes effort. You will experience moments of intense hunger, and these low-calorie, filling foods are one excellent way to get through a difficult time without packing on the pounds.

Emergency appetite control food #4
The last food is pickles. That's right, pickles. But I am not talking about the pickles you find at a regular grocery store. Nearly all pickles you find in grocery stores contain artificial food coloring. They have a yellowish tint to them that has been added through the use of chemical colors. This is not a natural ingredient and so it is something you want to avoid purchasing. Instead, you want to buy completely natural pickles that are made without artificial colors or flavors and that have an extremely low calorie count as well. An entire jar of pickles may give you only 50 calories or so and yet they can be quite satisfying and take up a considerable amount of space in your stomach, thereby turning off your appetite cravings.

While you're eating the pickles, keep in mind that it's an excellent time to take some calcium and mineral supplements, too. The acidity of the pickles will accelerate the absorption of calcium.