How to Stop Hunger When Fasting

People fast for various reasons: weight loss, overall body detoxification and religious purposes, but fasting can also make a person keel over in pain with hunger. Fasting has many positive effects, and as long as you don't fast for too long, there are no real negative effects. Unfortunately, your body's natural reaction to fasting, hunger, can easily send you running to the refrigerator unless you learn ways to control and manage hunger when fasting.

Instructions

• 1

  Drink water. Sometimes, dehydration can mistakenly feel like hunger. You wouldn't to want to suffer feelings of hunger when you could simply be thirsty. Water can also make you feel full even though you haven't eaten.

• 2

  Perform aerobic exercise. In general, aerobic exercise yields positive results on your health. Aerobic exercise also suppresses your appetite. How long you fast decides the intensity of your aerobic exercise. If you are on a long fast, take a short walk, making sure not to overexert yourself. If you're on a shorter fast, you can try a more intense aerobic workout.

• 3

  Take an appetite suppressant. If you are fasting to lose weight, and doing so under medical supervision, you can have a doctor prescribe you an appetite suppressant. If you're just doing a quick one-time fast, try drinking coffee, tea or other any other caffeinated drink. Caffeine is a mild appetite suppressant, and many over-the-counter appetite suppressants are just a mixture of large amounts of caffeine with other ingredients.

• 4

  Take your mind off hunger. After you've fasted for so long, you reach a point where you aren't hungry anymore. Watch television, visit friends or engage in any hobby you enjoy to take your mind off the hunger. If you take your focus away from your hunger while doing something you enjoy, you'll hit that point where you aren't hungry anymore without realizing.