This is a picture of me before I gained some weight during the winter. People in my family resemble a grape more than a pencil. I have used diets a number of times. It is always a fight with my willpower when snack food calls to me. Often I feel deprived and hungry. The temptations often overcome my good intentions.

Moderate exercise on my bicycle has often been a big help for curbing appetite. But, if I ride too hard or too long, it only increases my desire to snack. Cycling generally reduces my appetite when I ride at about 75 percent of my theoretical maximum heart rate for between 30 and 75 minutes. Your maximum heart rate is approximately the number 220 minus your age. That is not a completely reliable way to calculate it for training purposes, but it is close enough for moderate exercise.

This Instructable will review strategies I have used for curbing my appetite. Most of them are not entirely satisfactory for various reasons. If you want to cut the chase, I intend to discuss the benefits for appetite control I am finding with white tea.

Step 1: Carrot Sticks

A carrot stick is supposed to fill you with bulk and take away hunger. It has never worked for me and I find eating carrot sticks a struggle devoid of enjoyment.

Step 2: Drink Water

Drinking eight glasses of water each day is supposed to keep you feeling full so you are not hungry. I still felt hungry at times and binged.

Step 3: Lemon Drops

When I was younger and began cycling heavily combined with dieting to lose weight, I used lemon drops to curb my appetite. There is something about the small doses of sugar combined with the sour taste that often reduced my hunger. Still, I often found myself thinking about food, and eventually ate something I should not.

Step 4: Rub Your Ear Lobe

A short article in the periodical Bottom Line Personal once recommended rubbing one ear lobe between your thumb and first finger as a type of acupuncture for the purpose of curbing your appetite. It does have a calming effect, but my appetite came back a few minutes later. (You need not rub two earlobes at once as in the graphic.)

Step 5: Peanuts

Eating a few peanuts sometimes curbs my appetite, but I am likely to find myself migrating back to get more. Nuts are also high in fat.

Step 6: Cinnamon

Someone suggested a half of a teaspoon of cinnamon each day as an appetite suppressant. Cinnamon helps metabolize sugar in a healthy way, but it did not have much effect on my appetite.

Step 7: Coffee

Hot drinks, like coffee, are supposed to curb an appetite. Many people associate coffee with delicious bakery goods, and the association wins out over willpower. I came to a place a few years ago where coffee upset my stomach terribly. I quit drinking coffee completely. Now I no longer buy antacid tablets for my stomach. Once I would not travel without them.

Step 8: Green Tea

Green tea is a very healthy thing to drink. I began to drink it in place of coffee. It is a bit of an acquired taste, although they do make it in some good flavors. It is a very relaxing thing to drink.

Relaxing is a good thing. Stress makes it more likely you will eat when you are not truly hungry. Not getting enough sleep is a problem, too. Both of these can increase your appetite.

Green tea is supposed to suppress the appetite. It never really did for me to any greater degree than something like plain hot water.

Step 9: A Recent Short on the Local News

This is a photo of a female anchor on channel 7 television in Boise, Idaho. In late April 2009 she reported on a short feature about white tea. People in China who drink it regularly do not have weight problems. She reported white tea works against the production of fat cells. The feature said at least four cups a day should be consumed. It contains less caffeine than other teas, so it does not do as much as coffee to stimulate your metabolism. Google white tea for pages on its benefits for appetite control.

Step 10: White Tea

I bought some white tea at our grocery store. They had only an orange-mango flavor. It is good. It does not become bitter if the bag steeps in the cup for a long time. I get almost three cups per bag.

Step 11: Temptation Resisted

I have been drinking four or more cups of white tea for about a week. Earlier this week I was at a seminar. Homemade cinnamon rolls were out for all to take. They looked this good. Normally, I would have turned away from them and had some green tea. But, after an hour or so I would have had at least one. That morning I had been drinking white tea and even took some bags with me to the seminar so I could make my own. I was never hungry and did not eat anything until lunch was served. That was a new experience.

I sent e-mail about white tea to a friend who also struggles with his appetite and weight gain. Today he bought a cup of white tea at a Starbucks. He went to a meeting and had no mid-morning cravings. He also ate a very light lunch. He said he simply was not hungry. He is going out to find more white tea.

Already I can feel that the waistband on my trousers is a little looser than before I began drinking white tea.

I cannot say definitely that white tea will control my appetite in ways I hope it will. Time will tell. I would be interested in some of you trying it and reporting back through the comments what your experience is. Thank you.