Want to lose weight? Reducing food cravings and controlled snacking could be the keyWeight loss success is strongly linked to managing and reducing food cravings, a significant challenge for many. Find out what a recent study had to say about this strategyAllen Joe Mathew
Allen Joe Mathew, August 10, 2025 : Getting those pesky kilos off and maintaining a healthy weight is a challenge that is all too familiar to many of us. Every day, there is new advice that streams in about what one needs to do to shed those extra kilograms—from new fad diets to workout regimes. But can controlled snacking on sweets be helpful in looking after one’s health and weight?
The dietary study’s major focus is on how adults successfully lost weight and kept it off without gaining it back, and also notes that those who did lose weight and kept it off for two years also saw a significant and lasting reduction in food cravings. This underlines that managing cravings may be crucial for long-term weight loss success, offering hope to the millions battling weight issues worldwide.
How Big a Problem is Obesity?
As of 2022, 1 in every 8 people worldwide was living with obesity, with far more people being overweight. “About 16% of adults aged 18 years and older worldwide were obese in 2022. The worldwide prevalence of obesity more than doubled between 1990 and 2022,” according to the World Health Organization, which adds that “obesity is a multifactorial disease due to obesogenic environments, psycho-social factors, and genetic variants.”
It is a major concern in India as well. Official data shows that overall, 24% of Indian women and 23% of Indian men are overweight or obese, prompting the government to look at various measures, from raising awareness, promoting mobility, and encouraging healthy food habits, to control the public health challenge.
Such unhealthy weight gain can have serious consequences. The WHO said that in 2021, people who were overweight and obese caused about 37 lakh deaths from non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers, and others.
Food Cravings and Weight Loss: What the Study Found
The research, conducted at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and published in Physiology & Behavior, tracked 30 overweight and obese adults enrolled in a year-long online dietary program, followed by a year of weight maintenance. The program included nutrition education, daily weigh-ins, and specific strategies for coping with food cravings.
Researchers measured participants’ weight and food cravings every six months over two years. By the end of the study, 20 participants remained. Results showed that food cravings—especially for sweets and carbohydrates—dropped significantly during the first year of weight loss and remained stable during the second year of maintenance.
“This study showed a strong correlation between successful weight loss/maintenance and reduced food cravings, whereas users of the craving control strategy achieved greater weight loss,” according to the study.
“These results suggest that weight loss reduces cravings, and controlling cravings, in turn, further accelerates weight loss.”
The study found a strong correlation between the degree of weight loss and the reduction in food cravings. Participants who lost more than 5% of their body weight over 24 months consistently reported lower craving scores, while those who lost less than 5% saw little or no change in food cravings.
Importantly, and the highlight of this study for most people, the study also tested a practical strategy for managing cravings: allowing participants to include small portions of their favorite, craved foods as part of a balanced meal, rather than banning them outright. Those who used this “inclusion strategy” lost more weight and reported greater reductions in cravings for sweets and high-fat foods compared to those who did not.
The study notes, “Participants who included craved foods into a balanced meal achieved greater weight loss and greater reduction in sweet and high-fat food cravings compared to those who did not at 12 months.”
Food cravings are defined as intense urges to eat specific foods, often calorie-dense and highly palatable items like chocolate, cake, or fast food. The study points out that “Unlike hunger, which can be satisfied with various foods, food cravings are specific and intense and only satisfied by the desired food or foods with similar sensory profiles.”
What makes this study special is that it is one of the first to track both weight and cravings over a full two-year period.
The authors suggest that helping people understand and manage their cravings—rather than simply trying to suppress them—may be a more effective approach for long-term weight management. Techniques such as including small amounts of favorite foods in a balanced diet, changing the food environment, and establishing regular eating routines were all part of the program’s strategy.
As stated in the study, “Sustained adherence to dietary changes is key for long-term weight loss outcome. However, food cravings, defined as strong and intense desires or subjectively non-resistible urges to consume a specific food or type of food, often undermine efforts to maintain dietary changes.”
The study’s findings could help inform future weight loss programs and public health strategies, especially as obesity rates continue to rise in the world.
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