Controlling your snacks and snacking habits is a really important part of not only changing your dieting patterns, but also changing your mental responses to your body telling you it is hungry.

If you find you have to snack in between meals all the time it can mean a number of things:

• Firstly: Your meals might not be big enough.
  
  
• Secondly: You meals might not contain enough nutrients, minerals and energy. In other words you are eating foods that are empty in substance.
  
  
• Thirdly: You are stuck in a pattern that simply needs to be broken by removing snacks from your diet.
  
  
• Fourth: You are using snacks as emotional comfort food, using them when you get stressed, depressed, upset or in a number of other situations.
  
  
• Fifth: The meals might be too far apart or unevenly spaced.
  
  
• Sixth: You might be thirsty. The body sometimes sends out hunger pains when it is thirsty.
  

Look at your snacking habits 

After you have identified your snacking style (if you feel you are using food as an emotional comfort food it is advised you seek the advice of a doctor or professional) have a look at your actual snacks that you are eating.

Try and break them down to what you would eat in a sitting, for example if you have a big bag of potato chips in your cupboard and you reach for a handful every time you are hungry, try weighing a handful (or maybe two if that is how many you have) and seeing how many calories and grams of fat are consumed in that mindless grab into the cupboard.

Perhaps you open the fridge and a couple of spoons of last night's leftovers, or buy a muffin from the coffee shop. Many people are not aware that even when you are trying hard to control what you are eating in your main meals, your snacking habits might actually be what is doing your damage!