Everybody experiences food cravings every now and then. The key question here is how you will you respond to it. If you’re in the middle of a weight-loss program, it’s more crucial that you find out what the proper ways are to deal with these food cravings.

You can lose weight by overcoming your cravings now. Here are the latest tricks of the trade from researchers and experts: 

1. Drink water first. Usually, our cravings can be satisfied simply if we drink a glass of water. Remember, water has no calories. Drinking it frequently contributes to your wellness. So, indulge and drink up!
2. Maintain a food diary. Before visiting a nutritionist or a doctor, keep a record of everything you eat or drink, and your reactions to them for at least three days. Some foods are well-known for causing reactions. Pay close attention if symptoms such as bloating, headaches, fatigue or mood swings follow when you eat or drink dairy foods, wheat, citrus fruit, tomatoes, eggs, sugar or caffeine.
3. Avoid your triggers intentionally. The first few days are always the hardest, and you probably can’t completely eliminate your old cravings. Nevertheless, the longer you avoid your trigger foods, the less likely you may be to want them. In fact, you’ll probably begin to crave the foods you eat, a real bonus if you’ve switched to fresh fruit.
4. Deal with it and let it go. Since stress is a huge trigger for cravings, learning to deal with it could potentially save you hundreds of calories a day. This will take some practice. You can try deep breathing or visualizing a serene scene on your own, or you can speed things up by buying one of the many CDs that teach progressive muscle relaxation.
5. Distract yourself. If only a chocolate bar will do, it’s a craving, and not hunger. Cravings typically last for ten minutes. Know that and divert your mind: Call someone, listen to music, run an errand, meditate or exercise.
6. Indulge yourself, within limits. Once in a while, it’s fine to go ahead and have that ice cream. However, buy a small cone, not a pint. Try 100-calorie snack packs of pretzel sticks, cookies, or peanuts. The technique is to buy only one pack at a time so you won’t be tempted to reach for more. Since even 100 extra calories can interfere with your weight loss if you give in to “temptation” every day. Promise yourself to work off the excess calories. A brisk 15-minute walk will burn 100 calories or so.

Bottom Line:

When you do give in, forgive yourself. If you are eating a diet based around fruit and vegetables and drinking lots of water, the occasional lapse is no cause for concern.