Eating is an activity that must be done by humans, whereby eating a person can maintain the body and increase the energy lost due to daily activities.So how to increase appetite?
As a basic need, food is essential for body health, but what if someone loses their appetite? This loss of appetite can occur due to various things, including diseases in the body, bad moods, and various other mental illnesses.
Someone who has problems with eating will certainly easily cause various diseases. For that, we need to overcome this problem of loss of appetite. Here are some steps that can be applied to increase appetite.
7 Ways to Increase Your Appetite
- Eat Small Meals More Frequently
- Eat Nutrient-Rich Foods
- Add More Calories to Your Meals
- Make Mealtime an Enjoyable Social Activity
- Trick Your Brain With Different Plate Sizes
- Schedule Meal Times
- Don't Skip Breakfast
1. Eat Small Meals More Frequently
Dividing the portion of food is one way that can be done when someone experiences a loss of appetite. In this case, you can divide the amount of food into more. Usually, a person eats three times a day; you can divide it into six times a day by reducing the usual portion. Over time your brain will get used to it and get accustomed to eating something again. After it works, you can continue doing it or return to the usual portion. Combining a heavy meal with a mixture of other nutrients in a more considerable amount than usual will help increase the number of calories in the body. You can try this method to restore the appetite that had been lost.
2. Eat Nutrient-Rich Foods
The formation of calories in the body results from burning carbohydrates from the food consumed. When a person loses their appetite, they tend to ignore the calories that must be present, even if they prefer to consume foods that do not have nutrients, such as chips or candy.
A person who loses appetite usually does not like to eat staple foods such as rice or wheat. Therefore during this period, you can replace your staple food with foods that contain calories, such as yoghurt mixed with fruit, to make it more delicious. And if you want to eat bread or other instant foods, you can mix it with vegetables, such as sandwiches, to add calories and essential nutrients for the body.
3. Add More Calories to Your Meals
As we explained earlier, calories are essential for the body. A person who loses appetite then his body will need enough calories to restore his immune system; you can add calories to snacks that you eat every day as a substitute for staple foods.
A simple example that you can do is to cook your food the way you want. In this case, you can add calories such as eggs, butter, and whole milk to enjoy snacks as a substitute for calories lost because you don't eat normal portions.
4. Make Mealtime an Enjoyable Social Activity
Sometimes loss of appetite is caused by boredom with food and the environment, such as being bored by eating with the same people daily as a family.
Of course, you can improve this atmosphere by inviting relatives or friends to eat together at home, cooking food together so that it can return the feeling of boredom.
You can also have dinner together outside the home with distant family or with friends so that you can replace the dull atmosphere in your daily life. That way, the boredom will disappear, and you can enjoy the familiar atmosphere again.
5. Trick Your Brain With Different Plate Sizes
Feelings of no appetite are problematic to your health if it occurs continuously. Even looking at the portion of food dishes already feels terrible and does not want to eat it.
The best way you can do this is to manipulate your mind. If you don't like seeing portions of food on a plate that looks large and large, then you can replace the plate with a bigger one so that the food portions look smaller. By manipulating the mind, you can unknowingly spend the same amount of food as before.
Or you can manipulate your mind by dividing the food into many plates, which in each portion looks less, and you can enjoy it without realizing you managed to finish the food in the same portion as usual.
6. Schedule Meal Times
This loss of appetite problem can also occur due to bad habits from your irregular eating schedule, and in this case, if you are used to eating at unusual hours, your brain will not stimulate you to feel hungry.
Therefore, you can make a schedule by writing it down or creating a reminder mode on your cellphone so that you eat on time, and this will train your brain and stimulate your mind to eat more regularly and stay well awake.
7. Don't Skip Breakfast
Breakfast can alarm the brain to remember a regular meal schedule. The alarm is a feeling of hunger according to the hour. The importance of eating this breakfast will significantly affect efforts to increase the lost appetite.
Another benefit of eating breakfast is that it can help burn carbohydrates into calories in every activity throughout the day. You can also become healthier with a more balanced weight. By keeping this breakfast, the body also becomes fresher and more energetic in carrying out every activity that is carried out.
If You Have Problems Finishing Meals
Eating activity is an obligation that sometimes makes someone lazy to do it, and this can be triggered by thinking about work, love problems, and mental burdens that make you uneasy while eating.
Not a few of us leave food and can't spend it for various reasons, and this problem will also harm us because the calorie needs in the body are not balanced with the workload. To finish eating quietly and deliciously, there are some tips that you can apply when eating, namely :
- Create a comfortable atmosphere
- Divert your mind with fun things
- Get used to eating the right portion and not excessive
- Take advantage of the fruits that are there to be a lure for you to finish the meal.
- Avoid drinking water when eating except when needed, such as choking or otherwise.
These tips can help you divert your mind so that the food you are eating can be appropriately finished; besides, these tips can also be tried to increase your appetite.