How to stop the hungries?

Barngoddess1369

Yep, I'm new. Day three I think. Trying to work this food portion control thing out without feeling like I'm starting during the day. I eat breakfast around 5:30 and can take lunch anytime, usually around 1230 or 1 pm. I pretty much sit/move around my office area all day, totally sedentary. Breakfast is usually two dry Ego blueberry toaster waffles or (previously) 2 bowls of Cheerios or Chez cereal with whole milk and black coffee. So I'll cut the milk to skim, cut the cereal to a cup and be STARVING by 10. I welcome tips, tricks, ideas, etc. Just getting started here and I'm clueless.

THANKS!!!

jadethief

Try adding some protein in with your breakfast, like eggs or greek yogurt. You'll stay full longer.

Liftng4Lis

First, pre-logging your day helps tremendously. Second, I find for ME, that if I eat earlier in the day, I'm hungrier throughout, so maybe push your breakfast out a bit. (I wake up at 3 a.m. have my first meal at 9:30-10). Finally, try adding protein to your morning meal, Greek yogurt with nuts and some fruit is yummy.

ceriseamanda

Make sure to drink lots of water, too! I read somewhere that you should always have a drink when you start to feel hungry because half the time it's thirst rather than hunger but we're really bad at recognising it
Whether that's true or not, I dont know but I find that it really does help!

KylaDenay

Protein, fiber and fats will keep you feeling full.

deksgrl

That's mostly carbs for breakfast. You need to add protein. If you don't do eggs or meats or yogurt, then look for a protein powder and drink it. Also, switch to 2% milk that has a little fat. Your body needs healthy fats as well.

Annabel89

Protein, Protein, Protein. Make sure everything you eat is high protein.

mmocarr

If I eat early in the AM, I am starving throughout the day. Not advocating skipping breakfast if you like it, but for me I try to wait to eat breakfast for awhile. Good luck!

eldamiano

What is a 'hungry'?

rosebette

I have the same schedule as you do, OP, two to three days a week, where I have to eat an early breakfast to teach early AM classes. I actually bring healthy snacks to work so I'm not starving at lunch. So at 10:00 AM, I usually have an apple or a banana, and around 3:00 I might have another piece of fruit or a protein or granola bar (stick with those that are under 150 calories). I also bring my lunch ratherthan buy it, so I have more control over what I'm eating. It doesn't take a lot of work to make a sandwich the night before and throw an apple in a bag. Now that it's fall, I sometimes pack one of those microwavable soups, which are very filling. You'll also be surprised how much money you save by not buying lunch and snacks from your cafeteria, food courts, and vending machines! If you want to see my eating pattern on one of my workdays, check my Monday or Wednesday diary. (Thursday I was off both from work and from my good eating!)

JustFindingMe

I'm going to echo everyone who said "eat more protein & fats ".

As soon as I figured out it keeps me full longer, it was a life saver! I didn't find myself thinking about when or what I should or could eat

deksgrl

I used to be a no breakfast person. But then I'd be sluggish and not very productive all morning, and over compensate at lunch and dinner. Initially I would feel better and work better after lunch, and then I'd suffer a carb crash and be sleepy, so really I'd only have a couple of hours of good work. So, then I started bringing food to work and eating throughout the morning. Greek yogurt, cheese stick, apple, eaten over an hour or two. When I am out of stock of food at work, I get a Muscle Milk drink out of the vending machine. The protein in that fills me up. I eat less in general for lunch and less carbs, so I rarely have a crash in the afternoon any more.

mitch16

I find I do better if I have an earlier lunch since I like to work out in the afternoon. I eat breakfast at 6:30, lunch at 11, have a 100 calorie snack around 2:30, go running from 3-4, and have dinner around 6:00. I drink vast amounts of green tea during the stretch of the day and while I am preparing dinner to keep me from wanting to graze. (I'm always cold, too, so having a nice hot cup of tea in my hands keeps me warm!)

Consider having adding more protein for breakfast--a hard boiled egg instead of one of the waffles--or mid-morning (some almonds, a bit of cheese) to keep you more satisfied. Popcorn or some crunchy veggies can also take a bit of the edge off.

999tigger

You need to find a diet that suits you.
Imo hunger is the first priority to avoid during the diet, becayse you wont stick to it if you are constantly hungry.

Its always a balance between those saying you cna lose weight just by porion control, which is correct, but it doesnt tic the hunger factor, merely by eating smaller portions.
On MFP the role of protein and fat all have their champions, but if you wnat carbs then make them complex carbs so they can release a slow release of energy through the day. If its processed then you are likely to get highs and then big falls.

Keep logging and then trageting your calorie resources to the times of the day when you most need them. We are all different. Once you get an idea then you cna preplan if needed to make sure you dont run out and can maintain your deficit.

The drinking your required level of water was good. O find soup and hot veg to be a real boon against hunger.

esjones12

Make sure you are drinking enough water and getting enough sleep. Also - it takes your body a little bit to "adjust" to your new calorie intake. Your body likes consistency so when you all of a sudden stop feeding it as much food as it is used to, it likes to go crazy. So just double check you are eating the correct amount, drinking water, getting sleep, having balanced nutrients, and give it a few days to see if your body adjusts. You can play with meal times and sizes, etc. It does take some figuring out and hard work.....

Also - the type of calories you eat will effect how hungry you feel. Protein and fiber is better at keeping you "fuller longer" than sugary, processed stuff.

independant2406

Protein, Healthy fats and fiber are the best things to keep you full. Its especially important to eat a good balance of these three at breakfast and lunch.

Heres a few breakfast item suggestions:

Greek Yogurt (the 100 calorie Chiobani yogurts have 12g of protein)
Almonds, Pecans, Cashews (Just a small handful serving gives you some healthy fats)
Whole grain cinnamon raisin Ezekiel bread packs a pretty good punch of fiber and its yummy.
Raspberries + a little splenda or truvia. Lots of fiber in these

VirgoFrancesca

It's important to pack snacks! It's all about the snacks. You can take a mid-morning snack if you are starving by 10am! Try sliced apples with a tablespoon of peanut butter, greek yogurt, a banana, some nuts, a few slices of rolled up lunch meat, 2 Tbs hummus with a small wheat pita..

Good luck you can do this!

deksgrl

nosajjao wrote: »

Re-evaluate what you think you mean by 'starving'. Follow the numbers by your calorie tracking. Trust that when you've eaten enough, you've eaten enough. Embrace the hunger as a comfortable normal feeling.

Nonsense. You don't have to starve to lose weight. This is why most people fail.

Kalikel

Skip the waffles and add something more nutritious to those Cheerios. Fiber, protein and good fats do tend to keep you full longer. You can also eat a lot more of healthier produce than you can of waffles.

Start thinking about what your food is giving you more than how it tastes. Waffles are yummy, but what do you get from them? Can you get those things and eat a lot more? How much could eat of something else?

When you eat healthy foods, it is unlikely that you'll go hungry. Imagine how many strawberries you could eat for however many calories those waffles give you.

Soon enough, you'll decide that instead of waffles, you want to eat a LOT of food and give your body things it wants and needs.

Vaprrenon

nosajjao wrote: »

Re-evaluate what you think you mean by 'starving'. Follow the numbers by your calorie tracking. Trust that when you've eaten enough, you've eaten enough. Embrace the hunger as a comfortable normal feeling.

It's hard to embrace hunger when it drives you absolutely crazy and all you can think about is food every day...that's the perfect setup for failure.

missdibs1

Drink green tea and water also get enough sleep and exercise consistently

emdeesea

Lay off on the carbs and sugar and add more and more protein and good fats.

enterdanger

Some one else might have said this already, but when I started I had the same complaint and was told that I was eating too little calories. I wanted to lose 2lbs a week and MFP told me to eat 1200 calories. The wise people on here talked me in to 1lb a week loss, which allows me 1440 calories (trust me, that extra 240 calories makes a big difference) and I also eat back about half of my exercise calories.

If MFP set you on 1200 calories you might want to reevaluate that. I rather lose weight slowly and not be miserable. The first month or so, even with extra calories you will probably still be hungy. I find that if I mix protein with fiber I stay full longer. Like an apple in greek yogurt keeps me full for breakfast.

richardositosanchez

Increase your water intake and add more protein.

runningforthetrain

Annabel89 wrote: »

Protein, Protein, Protein. Make sure everything you eat is high protein.

This ^^^ Greek yogurt, meat, ham and hard boiled egg, beans,....

Btw- I have a really hard time doing the protein thing. Love me my carbs-- but, when I do manage it -more protein totally helps the hunger and I lose.

RoseyDgirl

start thinking of what you're putting into your body and only choose things that are nutrient filled. Your body craves nutrients, not waffles.

Start the day with protein, healthy fats, nutrient rich carbs. - and make every meal count toward the daily goal of becoming fitter and healthier.
-
Breakfast, 2 eggs over easy cooked in coconut oil or butter. A side of 2 pork sausages. A half cup of blueberries with a half cup of greek yogurt (plain) but with a teaspoon of honey drizzled over the top of it. The nutrients will fill you and keep you happy.

aerochic42

Personally, while I'm still rather sporadic in my tracking and still working on making any consistent progress, one thing that has helped me with the not starving was that for the first week or two I set a high calorie amount. The high calorie allowable was mostly so I didn't feel frustrated when I went over. I then tried to log every bit of food I ate on a normal week (which is why it was two, the first week was not normal) to determine the amount of calories on average a day I was eating. It turns that my normal was about 2500 calories a day and I was trying to cut it down to 1200 just like that. No wonder I was starving and was setting myself up for failure. Sure if I had been able to sustain it, massive caloric deficit would have helped me quickly lose weight, but completely not sustainable for me.

Quick summary, I had to know how much I really was eating for I could make changes that would help longer term.

Vaprrenon

nosajjao wrote: »

Vaprrenon wrote: »

It's hard to embrace hunger when it drives you absolutely crazy and all you can think about is food every day...that's the perfect setup for failure.

The failure is to embrace feeling-full as a positive thing and feeling slightly hungry as negative.

I'll give you that; I never said that feeling a bit hungry was bad. I'm just saying that when you're constantly hungry (the kind that will practically drive you nuts, not just feeling *slightly* hungry now and again), you're not going to be able to stick with anything and often go overboard eating later and that's not good for anyone.