Eat a protein-heavy breakfast. Some suggestions: breakfast burritos, fruit smoothies (without added sugar), or even non-traditional breakfast food like a veggie patty, sandwich, or salad. Eating a good breakfast will get your metabolism going and will prevent you from snacking before lunch.

Avoid sugary drinks and snacks. This includes soda, sweet coffee drinks, and cookies. Sugar has a lot of calories that provide little to no nutritional value. Plus, once your blood sugar spikes and crashes, you’ll feel hungry than before and will want to snack again. Try drinking water, flavored water (sold that way, or you can ad an Emergen-C vitamin pack or piece of lime), diluted fruit juice, kombucha, or coffee without much added sugar.

Eat a nutritional and adequate lunch. Don’t stuff yourself, but don’t starve yourself, either, because you’ll need these calories for your activities during the afternoon, and if you’re hungry, you’ll snack on whatever is available. If you have to snack during the afternoon, have some almonds, carrot sticks, or fruit, which won’t spike your blood sugar levels and will hold you over until your next meal.

Eat a light dinner, and don’t eat close to bed time. You need most of your energy during the day You burn some energy while you sleep, but not as much as when you’re awake and moving around. Don’t eat anything substantial within 3 hours of going to bed. If you wake up hungry, it’s a sign that you consumed fewer calories before bed than you needed, which is a good sign if you’re trying to lose weight.

Eat smaller meals, only as needed. That is, when you feel hungry. We’re socialized to eat food in the form of three square meals a day, and while you may find yourself at social functions oriented around food when you’d rather not eat, you ultimately control what you eat at these events. It’s best to eat on your own body’s schedule whenever possible, rather than because it’s “time for dinner” (or lunch, or dessert).

Eat large amounts of vegetables (raw and cooked) and fruits. Eat whole grains (quinoa, cous cous). Drink a large glass of water before you sit down for a meal. Not only will water and whole foods provide you with health benefits, but they will fill you up, and you’ll wind up consuming fewer calories.