How do you combat hunger..

Eat. Otherwise deal with the hunger. Being hungry won't kill you.

I know this may sound like psychobabble, but what has worked for me is to change the way I respond to hunger pangs mentally. I also used to smoke, and I always responded to nicotine cravings and hunger pangs like they were a screaming child I just wanted to quiet, and so I gave in and trained my body to never expect to feel them. Now when I feel hunger, I've learned to appreciate the feeling as something good. It means I'm no longer over-feeding my body with excess calories, and that I need to feel a moderate bit of hunger in between meals to know that I am losing weight. This has changed the way I experience and respond to hunger and honestly, it has trained my brain to appreciate a moderate amount of hunger. It also makes my meals more pleasurable. I don't know if this will work for others, but it has worked well for me.