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Safe Ways to Suppress an Appetite

If you're tempted to use over-the-counter appetite suppressants to promote rapid weight loss, consider advice from the Mayo Clinic, which notes that these supplements do not yield permanent results. For safe ways to suppress your appetite and maintain permanent weight loss, change your eating habits and follow a vigorous exercise routine.

  1. Water

    • Aim for 64 ounces of water, a safe appetite suppressant, per day. Naturalnews.com writer Mike Adams suggests drinking a glass of water when you feel hungry and waiting 10 minutes. The water may reduce your hunger pangs. If you don't like plain water, squeeze a bit or orange or lemon into it. Other beverage choices include vegetable broth and herbal teas. Eat a piece of fruit or other healthy snack if hunger persists.

    Green Vegetables and Fruits

    • Eat vegetables like lettuce, kale, cabbage, bok choy and other dark leafy greens. You can eat more of these vegetable because they are low in calories, contain water and fiber, and are filling. Make vegetables the main part of a meal, or eat these greens in a salad. Drizzle vegetables with olive oil because the good fats in the oil work as natural appetite suppressants. Like vegetables, fruits are low-calorie foods that contain fiber and water, which fills you up. Try apples, pineapples, guavas, oranges and grapes. Fruits and vegetables serve as a healthy alternative to junk food: Potato chips, candy and other processed foods contain more calories and fewer nutrients--and leave you feeling hungry.

    Eat Often

    • Start the day with a healthy breakfast, which will make you less likely to overeat during the day. Eating on a regular schedule safely suppresses your appetite. Make sure to eat every two to three hours each day, with three main meals and two snacks. Include protein, carbohydrates and healthy fats in each snack and meal. A healthy snack, such as an apple and a small handful of nuts, contains all of these nutrients.

    Vigorous Exercise

    • Engage in vigorous aerobic exercise to suppress your appetite. Thirty minutes a day is enough to affect the hormones that control hunger. A 2008 study reported in the American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology found that people who engaged in 60-minutes of vigorous exercise felt less hungry than people who focused on weight training.

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