Advice - please!

juliaky84

Yesterday, I tried to eat adequate protein for breakfast and lunch, and had some at snacks. Then I was still starving at dinner time and ate a lot of pizza and cookies. How could I have redesigned my meal plan today to prevent that? I was actually surprised at how hungry I felt.

wilsoncl6

Make your diary public so people can see what you ate if you want more help.

malibu927

Prelog everything either in the morning or the night before and stick to what you've written down

wilsoncl6

We don't know what kinds of protein she's talking about or in what amounts. You have to have a good mixture of protein, fats and fiber.

KylaDenay

malibu927 wrote: »

Prelog everything either in the morning or the night before and stick to what you've written down

This. Log everything the night before. Make sure you are eating adequate protein, fat and fiber. Not just protein. If you feel that you are more hungry in the evenings, then make your evening meals larger.

diannethegeek

Since we don't have any details about what you ate yesterday, these are my general tips for hunger:

1. Make sure your calorie goals are actually set appropriately. Don't skip this step. If you're exercising and using MFP's setup for calories, this means you can/should be eating back at least a portion of your exercise calories.

2. Look for foods higher in protein, fat, and fiber. These help us stay full and more satisfied longer.

3. Drink plenty of fluids. Some people really do confuse thirst and hunger.

4. Get plenty of rest. This includes sleeping enough and taking rest days from the exercise. Sometimes our bodies look for food when they're exhausted.

5. Play around with your meal timings. Some people do really well on 5-6 small meals a day and others feel like they want to gnaw their own arm off eating like that. Skipping breakfast, eating breakfast, 16:8 fasting, 6 small meals, 3 larger meals, snacks, no snacks, meal timing won't make a big difference to your weight loss, but it may help your hunger levels, mood, concentration, gym performance, etc. throughout the day. Don't be afraid to try a different way and see if it helps.

6. Wait it out. If you know you're eating enough and the other steps above aren't helping, you may just have to wait it out. Our bodies send out hunger signals partially out of habit. If you eat at a certain time every day your body will start to get hungry at that time. The good news is that these signals can be retrained to stop telling you to be hungry all the time. The bad news is that you may just have to wait it out and be hungry for a little bit while that happens.

Branstin

What are you definitions of "tried" and "adequate"? Focus on hitting the protein, dietary fat, and fiber if you want to stay full longer. More importantly, what are your stats (age, height, weight), weekly weight loss goal, and daily calorie consumption?

Kalikel

Don't buy pizza and cookies.

A lot of oeople have success by pre-logging.

Some skip breakfast and save those calories for nighttime.

Some eat 2-3 big meals, others eat 4-6 smaller ones.

Some people do extra exercise to get more calories.

Etc, etc. You have to play around and fine what works for you. For me, it's a day-to-day thing and there is no one thing. I can't pre-log. I tried it, but it told me to have Cheerios when I wanted berries and said I should have cottage cheese and peaches when I wanted to make fiesta potatos. It works well for a lot of people, though! I think it's worth trying.

Everyone has their thing that helps them stay full. Fiber is best for me, but I can only eat 20-25 a day, lol.

I don't have the answer for me, much less for someone else. But if you eat more healthy food, you can eat a lot more food and stay fuller, that's for sure. A lot easier to get your vitamins, minerals and fiber that way, too.

SueInAz

diannethegeek wrote: »

5. Play around with your meal timings. Some people do really well on 5-6 small meals a day and others feel like they want to gnaw their own arm off eating like that. Skipping breakfast, eating breakfast, 16:8 fasting, 6 small meals, 3 larger meals, snacks, no snacks, meal timing won't make a big difference to your weight loss, but it may help your hunger levels, mood, concentration, gym performance, etc. throughout the day. Don't be afraid to try a different way and see if it helps.

6. Wait it out. If you know you're eating enough and the other steps above aren't helping, you may just have to wait it out. Our bodies send out hunger signals partially out of habit. If you eat at a certain time every day your body will start to get hungry at that time. The good news is that these signals can be retrained to stop telling you to be hungry all the time. The bad news is that you may just have to wait it out and be hungry for a little bit while that happens.

I just had to say that I love these two points. It's so true that what works for others might not work for you. We all have our habits and preferences so finding out what works best for you is important.

Be sure your weight loss goal isn't too aggressive. A lot of people start out wanting to lose weight as fast as possible so they go for the 2 pound per week rate but don't have enough to lose to support that rate of loss. What ends up happening is that they are starving and miserable and then give up because it's not sustainable. According to the ticker on your profile you want to lose 8 pounds, right? Your weight loss goal should ideally be set at .5 pound per week. It just doesn't come off very quickly when you're close to goal weight. It's better to lose the weight slowly than not lose it at all.

marc83155

You just have to make up your mind that this is what you want to do. Convince yourself you are not hungry, drinking lots of water helps. Find something to occupy your time, most eating is boredom. This is what has worked for me. I've gone from 403 to 250 and back to 356, now headed back down. Been on one or another diet since I was 8 years old and I'm 59.

TimothyFish

Embrace your hunger. It means you're losing weight.

mitch16

I sometimes feel binge-y in the afternoon through dinner time, too... I try to workout around 3:00 to eat up some of my idle time, and I drink a decent amount of water afterwards. When I'm cooking dinner I try to have a couple of cups of unsweetened tea (usually green tea, but I'm on a cinnamon tea kick with the cold weather) to keep me from snacking. And then for dinner--add a nice big green salad or some vegetables to your plate, and fill up on those. Way less room for pizza and sweets that way!

Kalikel

Hunger comes in waves. People come up with all kinds of things you can do to make it go away in 20-30 minutes, but the truth is that it will go away if you do absolutely nothing, too.

It's not necessary to be hungry when you diet. But it's okay to be hungry sometimes. Just wait it out.

CariJean64

Could there possibly be a hormonal reason for your hunger? Some women get ravenous around their TOM and you just have to deal with it for a few days.

socalkay

"The chief cause of failure and unhappiness is trading what you want most for what you want now." ~ Zig Ziglar

Cookies & pizza or health, feeling good about yourself and rocking those favorite jeans again?

bwogilvie

I find it helps to eat slowly. The thing about cookies and pizza is that they are both easy to scarf down quickly and mindlessly. Try eating pizza like a French person, with a knife and fork. You'll eat it more slowly, which gives your stomach more time to tell your brain that it's full.

It also helps to serve the pizza at the oven or counter, rather than at the table, so that you have to think about whether you want seconds.

There's no reason to cut pizza out of your life, as long as you learn to eat moderate portions within your calorie goal.