In this video Arvind Padmaraju, founder of Half Fit, explains why cravings arise during a fat‑loss journey and outlines sustainable, long‑term strategies to eliminate them. He emphasizes that cravings are signals from the body indicating nutritional, hormonal, or emotional imbalances rather than mere lack of willpower. The core causes discussed include inadequate balanced meals (insufficient protein, healthy fats, fiber, and micronutrients), insulin spikes from simple carbs, sleep deprivation leading to cortisol‑driven hunger, emotional stress and unmanaged cortisol, dehydration (thirst mistaken for hunger), excessive intake of sugary or salty foods, and specific micronutrient deficiencies (zinc, iron, chromium, calcium, magnesium). Padmaraju provides concrete macro‑nutrient guidelines (protein 1–1.5 × target body weight, fats 0.6–0.8 ×, fiber ≥15 g per 1,000 kcal) and recommends focusing on complex, high‑fiber carbs while limiting simple carbs. He also notes that dopamine‑driven habits such as smoking, alcohol, or other reward‑seeking behaviors can exacerbate cravings. The video concludes with a call to personalize these principles, adopt sustainable habit changes, and invites viewers to a free training session where they can learn to design their own fitness blueprint and become their own coach.
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Welcome back, friends. So today we're going to talk about how to manage cravings and why do you exactly get cravings during your fitness journey and what would be the long-term approach and what are the points you need to actually look into to get out of these cravings. So without further ado, let's get started with today's video. My name is Arvind Padmaraju and I'm a founder of Half Fit and Half Fit Lifestyle Hub. So we are in a mission of making 100K working professionals fit and healthy by following sustainable habits. And also our longer-term vision is to create a new breed of healthy and fit kids. So each one of us' contribution is going to help them to build that foundation and we become their role models on their own fitness and health routine. So let's first understand, uh, What is the important thing about the cravings? Because anytime when you start a journey, and because of some of the reasons, if you don't follow, if you don't understand your body, if you don't listen to your body, there is high chance of you going into a cravings attack during this journey. That's why it is very important for you to understand your body, your existing eating habits, your existing lifestyle. All of them has to be slowly and gradually has to be changed to attain your health and fitness goal. It is not about you just going on some kind of a fad diet or some kind of a very strict diet and some kind of an aggressive workout and you attain a goal and go back to old habits. What it happens is it will put you into the loop of losing and gaining weight. So today in this video, I'm going to talk about what are the main reasons why you get cravings, what happens into your body on a day-to-day basis. Cravings are normal. Cravings is something that your body is giving a signal to yourself that, you know, you are in a lack in energy or your body is putting you into an energy consumption state. So some of the reasons why you get exactly cravings during the fat loss journey is the first thing is, first and foremost thing is you have, you're not having a proper balanced meal. What does that mean is you're not taking you are not taking enough protein, or you're not taking enough fats, and you're not taking enough vitamins and minerals through foods, what happens is that will put you into a kind of a hunger state because you're not giving the enough nutrition what your body is required. Basically, your mind and body is very well, very well connected. So your mind actually keep checking on your body that whatever food you're eating, are you getting enough nutrition or not? By any chance, if you don't, if you're not getting it, your mind will keep sending signals, hunger signals to your body that, you know, you really need to fulfill it. That's why you keep feeling hungry. That's why if you, whenever you eat any kind of a junk food or any kind of a high sugary food, what happens is, see, your body is meant to have certain kind of a nutrition every single day. Those are proteins, your vitamins, your minerals, and your, your good carbs and fiber, and then good fats. These things are required for you to perform, each and every body part. If you're not giving them on a right amounts, what happens is your mind will be keep sending you a signals. That is one of the main reason, um, why you feel hungry. You need to make sure that whether your diet is in point or not. The second point is your insulin imbalance or your sugar imbalance. What happens is whenever you take a food, when you take your high calorie food, your food gets digested, especially with the simple carbs. That food will be digested and it will be converted into a sugar and enter into a bloodstream. So what it does is it spikes up the sugar level, and there is something called pancreas in your, in your body which thinks that sugar is high, and pancreas' job is to maintain the insulin level. So it actually reduces to balance it out that, you know, you have excess energy. By this process, what happens is your body actually puts you into a low energy state again. So that's why if you see any kind of simple carbs when you consume, you, you tend to eat more and your body will be get digested very fast and again you put you into a hunger state. That is the second number. You need to check whether you have the insulin resistance or insulin imbalance. If you have, then accordingly you need to plan. You need to control the foods which actually spikes up your insulin, try to focus to have complex carbs instead of simple carbs. Restrict the simple carbs, fat, especially the junk foods, high-calorie foods as much as possible to avoid that. Or you can check whether you have any other insulin deficiencies or something. Third important thing is sleep deprivation. So one of the most important thing is human body is meant to move more and rest well. So what happens is if you don't take a proper sleep, if you don't give enough rest to your sleep, there is a hormonal imbalance. There is a hormonal changes happens into your body which, which releases a cortisol, is a stress hormone, and which actually triggers your hunger hormone, which will put you into a hunger state. You can remember whenever you slept for 2 to 3 hours, the next day should have been really tough because your body is consistently asking for the food because of that hormonal imbalance. So never ever sacrifice your sleep, especially if you are wanted to live the healthy and fit life. Sleep is one of the most important thing you need to focus on. Fourth thing is your emotional state. So most of the times, your anger, your fear, your overthinking, all of them also, there are some patterns happens that, you know, your body craves for the food because the emotional state also triggers your hormonal imbalance and which will put you into hunger state again. Until and unless you don't address, you don't you fix that root cause of that emotional state, it is really difficult for you to, you know, control the hunger. The next important point is your stress management. It could be an office, it could be a work, it could be your financial, it could be your family. So any stress again releases hormone called cortisol, which, which will again triggers the hunger hormone. The whole cycle goes in. So what is most important is you need to know how to manage stress effectively. If you don't know how to manage stress, then it is really, really difficult during the fat loss journey to reduce your weight or fat because you consistently put you into a hunger state, and it is really difficult for you to resist your cravings. So it's not about you changing your foods, it is about you changing and fixing the root cause of the stress. What is the trigger for that stress? And sit with yourself, understand that stress the triggers and try to see how you can avoid those triggers in your body so that you, you get out of the stress. The next important thing is not having enough water. Our body doesn't understand the difference between thirst and hunger. So most of the times you are actually thirsty, but because of you drinking less water, you tend to eat more, and also it puts you into cravings. So make sure that you hydrate well. This is one of the most important things people neglect. Drink enough water during your journey. Sixth point is you having too much high, high sugary foods or high sodium foods. And also there is, by eating this high sugary food, high salty foods, your body also puts you into a hunger state. So make sure that you limit— it's not about you completely getting rid of it— limit the sodium and sugar intake, especially the raw sugar intake. During this journey to avoid the cravings. And also, there is recently I have studied that any vitamin deficiencies will also put you into cravings. It could be a low zinc, you are low in zinc, low in iron, low in chromium, low in calcium and magnesium. So please do check your vitamin test and see if there is any deficiencies are there. If there is any deficiencies, please try to fulfill those deficiencies through food or food items, whatever is required. Your balanced diet should be up to the mark. If you are not having enough protein, enough fats, and enough fiber, then there is a high chance of your body puts you into hunger state because these are very, very essential. So make sure that you don't neglect on them. Minimum protein is required, which is at least 1 to 1.5 into your target body weight or your ideal body weight, and at least 0.6 to 0.8 of good fats. And at least 15 grams every 1,000 calories you consume the fiber. So make sure that they are part of your diet. If you don't give that, again you put into a hunger state because of lack of nutrition into your body. So the next thing is, so you will also need to take care of your simple carbs. Try to restrict them as much as possible because they will spike again insulin, as I told you initially. So try to restrict them and have a complex carb which are high in fiber will always make you full and also will not make you hunger every now and then. Okay, because it's all about your body, is how your, your body has been trained. It is going to send you signals. That signals will put you into a craving state. So make sure that you try to have your carbs more. Most of the carbs comes from the complex carbs. And if you have any kind of addiction, so there is a kind of a dopamine depression happens. So that is also causes to put you into hunger state. Maybe you have a smoking, you have alcohol, or any kind of a dopamine release happening because of existing the habits. So that also put you into a hunger state. So make sure that you control that by slowly, slowly limiting your dopamine hits by your existing habits. So that you need to change during this process. So that is all for today. So these are all the things is matters is again I'm telling you every human body is unique. The things which work for me may or may not work for you. What is most important is you need to understand what is your body is saying, what you can sustain, what is exactly can suit you is what is best for you. So that is why what I have done is I, uh, I have put across a free training on coming Saturday, which is around 11 o'clock Indian time. I will be talking about in detail about all the things like, you know, how you can start a fitness journey, how you can create your own overall plan, and how you can become your own coach by By just following that blueprint, you will be able to understand that. So if you are really interested, you can click on that registration link. I'll drop the link in my, by my description. So please enroll it and we'll get started. So till then, Arvind signing off. As I always say, let's focus on fitness as a lifestyle and focus on building habits is the only way you can build fitness. So the strong mindset With a strong knowledge, you can build a sustainable fitness for a lifetime. So I wish you great health. See you again with one more new video. Take care, bye-bye.
