I don't think I can do it
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No one said you can't eat a waffle. Geez.
Look, if I complain that I can't get out of bed in the morning, and then I tell you I drink a sixpack every night and then stay up til 2 am, and you say, maybe you should cut back on the beer and go to bed earlier, and I say, "but I don't want to", then the conversation has nowhere else to go.
Give up if you want, but I can't see what you're looking for from this thread unless it's just to vent. If that's it, then yes, dieting sucks. Hope you have a better day tomorrow.
But if you really want advice then:
To control hunger, cut back on starchy carbs and sugar. They will increase your hunger, all else being equal.
When you're hungry, reach for vegetables. Double your vegetable intake at meals.
If you crave sugar, choose fruit.
Choose high volume foods like rice cakes, salad, bran flakes, etc
Find low cal alternatives: Splenda over sugar, margarine over butter, almond milk over cow milk, tomato juice over orange juice, etc
Choose chicken over beef, and seafood over chicken
Switch to a plan where you eat more on exercise days and less on non exercise days. That is, log and "eat back" exercise calories. MFP exercise estimates are high so be careful.
Control high calorie foods like butter, nuts, and nut butters.
I weigh almost 100 lbs more than you and I net 1450 calories or less on most days with very little hunger and enjoying the foods I like. My average deficit is over 500 cals/day. I never could have done that with the foods I was choosing before. You are not a snowflake, and you can do it if you want.
Good luck!0 -
If I eat, even healthy options, so that I'm not hungry I either gain or stay at an unhealthy weight. I've exercised religiously for almost 20 years and change it up frequently so it's just the food that's doing it to me. Protein and veggies does not fill me up. Ever. I have come to the conclusion that if I am going to hit and maintain a healthy weight I have to be hungry. All the time. It has to be my life. I eat whole grain carbs, but sparingly. If I ate to fullness I'd stall and a weight more than 25 BMI is not good for me. So, I'm hungry. I'm sorry you're similar to me. In my case it's not hormones. It's just how I'm built. I know I can do it....so can you.
Thanks, it's nice to know I'm not alone... even if it sucks! I knew I'd have to be hungry to lose weight, I didn't think I'd have to be hungry to maintain. I'm just not sure *I* can do it. If you can, good for you though!
There is a difference between empty stomach and hungry. If you are truly hungry 2hrs after eating you have a hormone issue. It may be the foods you eat that are triggering this, my bet is you have trained your body to cue at these times through habits, but you don't actually need to eat that frequently.
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But if you really want advice then:
To control hunger, cut back on starchy carbs and sugar. They will increase your hunger, all else being equal.
When you're hungry, reach for vegetables. Double your vegetable intake at meals.
If you crave sugar, choose fruit.
Choose high volume foods like rice cakes, salad, bran flakes, etc
Find low cal alternatives: Splenda over sugar, margarine over butter, almond milk over cow milk, tomato juice over orange juice, etc
Choose chicken over beef, and seafood over chicken
Switch to a plan where you eat more on exercise days and less on non exercise days. That is, log and "eat back" exercise calories. MFP exercise estimates are high so be careful.
Control high calorie foods like butter, nuts, and nut butters.
Good luck!
This is kinda what I was saying on your wall. I'm gonna try it myself. I know I'll be hungry for a few days, and probably crave the shite I love to eat, but it'll level out.0 -
No one said you can't eat a waffle. Geez.
Look, if I complain that I can't get out of bed in the morning, and then I tell you I drink a sixpack every night and then stay up til 2 am, and you say, maybe you should cut back on the beer and go to bed earlier, and I say, "but I don't want to", then the conversation has nowhere else to go.
Give up if you want, but I can't see what you're looking for from this thread unless it's just to vent. If that's it, then yes, dieting sucks. Hope you have a better day tomorrow.
But if you really want advice then:
To control hunger, cut back on starchy carbs and sugar. They will increase your hunger, all else being equal.
When you're hungry, reach for vegetables. Double your vegetable intake at meals.
If you crave sugar, choose fruit.
Choose high volume foods like rice cakes, salad, bran flakes, etc
Find low cal alternatives: Splenda over sugar, margarine over butter, almond milk over cow milk, tomato juice over orange juice, etc
Choose chicken over beef, and seafood over chicken
Switch to a plan where you eat more on exercise days and less on non exercise days. That is, log and "eat back" exercise calories. MFP exercise estimates are high so be careful.
Control high calorie foods like butter, nuts, and nut butters.
I weigh almost 100 lbs more than you and I net 1450 calories or less on most days with very little hunger and enjoying the foods I like. My average deficit is over 500 cals/day. I never could have done that with the foods I was choosing before. You are not a snowflake, and you can do it if you want.
Good luck!
Yes but that's exactly the thing... all this worked great when I was losing and still overweight. It's much harder now because I'm hungrier, and I'm not sure I can realistically cut more on carbs and sugar when I already don't eat that much of them (really, I don't. My carb macro is 40% and I don't even hit 35% most days). If I have to maintain like this, well... as I posted in the title, I don't think I can do it, lol!
You're telling me to double veggies, but I already eat close to 3 servings, sometimes 5, at meals. The other day I had a big bowl of potato leek soup (with really way more leek than potato), 4oz of pork (lean), and a bag of veggies... Hungry again 2 hours later. I try to keep baby carrots at hand and munch on those, and it typically helps for an hour, so there's that I guess.
I do appreciate the advice though... but overall, what I eat really doesn't seem to make a difference. I mean, two of the days when I wasn't hungry lately were after eating a 1200 calories lunch - once Smashburger (burger and fries), the second time some lettuce wraps and a piece of cheesecake at Cheesecake Factory. Both times I ended up under my calorie goal and I was full all afternoon.
Go figure. I knew that maintenance was hard, I never figured it would be because I'd get hungrier.
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I've had blood work done, everything was normal. But it mostly happens when I ovulate or before/during AF (which is pretty much 2 weeks). I've always been very sensitive to hormonal changes unfortunately... Even the lowest dose pill was making me sick, and when I did IVF 9 years ago my body reacted way too strongly to the normal dose of hormones.
I've been trying to delay my next meals more but if I overdo it, I'm just more likely to get ravenous and overeat.
I'm stocking up on baby carrots as they seem to help some, but sheesh, seriously, it really upsets me. I feel like I'm making excuses but then I know that when it happens, if I don't eat, it just gets way worse.
When was the last time you had routine blood work?0 -
I think you can do it.
In fact I think you already have done it.
You are (judging by your OP) within 2-3 lbs of your goal weight. Is it possible this is a good weight for you? Is it possible that somewhere in your thought process there's a part of your mind that thinks this is a perfectly okay weight and that all this hard work and searching for solutions is unnecessary and so when you get hungrier than your cal goal it becomes easy to indulge, just enough so that you are essentially at maintenance? I'm not really referring to complacency but more like acceptance. And then at the front of your mind you only allow room to be "so frustrated" by those last few pounds? I am saying this because I remember another thread where you replied that you are not always happy with yourself or some topic like that and so I wonder if these last few lbs are just a way for you to beat yourself up even though you are already where you should be physically. Just wondering. Almost like if it were a distraction to keep you busy and not have to face, "hey I'm physically pretty much at my goal, it's totally okay to like myself now."
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So many buts...0
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Anyways, whole separate point...I've been considering FRing you for awhile based on that post I referred to and others. Feel free to FR me, I love myself even in spite of some here who clearly think I shouldn't. Maybe by hanging out on my wall and with my FL you can learn to fake it till you make it. If not you might have fun anyways. Lots of my FL are just happy go lucky people and might just put a smile on your face. Regardless good luck on achieving your goal, or just on accepting it if you reason out that perhaps you are already where you need to be.
:flowerforyou:0 -
47Jacqueline wrote: »So many buts...
Because I typically try everything before posting, lol. I guess that's why I always end up saying 'thanks for the advice, but I've tried it and it doesn't work for me'. I guess I was posting more to see if anyone else is in the same boat than to get advice.MyChocolateDiet wrote: »I think you can do it.
In fact I think you already have done it.
You are (judging by your OP) within 2-3 lbs of your goal weight. Is it possible this is a good weight for you? Is it possible that somewhere in your thought process there's a part of your mind that thinks this is a perfectly okay weight and that all this hard work and searching for solutions is unnecessary and so when you get hungrier than your cal goal it becomes easy to indulge, just enough so that you are essentially at maintenance? I'm not really referring to complacency but more like acceptance. And then at the front of your mind you only allow room to be "so frustrated" by those last few pounds? I am saying this because I remember another thread where you replied that you are not always happy with yourself or some topic like that and so I wonder if these last few lbs are just a way for you to beat yourself up even though you are already where you should be physically. Just wondering. Almost like if it were a distraction to keep you busy and not have to face, "hey I'm physically pretty much at my goal, it's totally okay to like myself now."
It's the weight my twin sister is pretty much at too. And I agree that I changed my goal to maintenance with the mindset of 'I'll get there when I get there' a few months ago when I was starting to struggle with my goal. But at this point really I'd be glad to maintain without having to be hungry most days... which I'm starting to realize, might not be possible for me.HappyCampr1 wrote: »I just thought of something that I figured out for myself. For me, I have to eat a huge dinner or I'm hungry all the next day. If I don't eat enough at night, I'll be starving all the next day and it doesn't seem to matter how much I eat for breakfast. I'll eat a huge breakfast and a huge lunch, with snacks and still be hungry. If I eat enough at night, that doesn't happen. I don't pretend to understand it, but that's the way I work. So...I generally plan my dinners first and use 40-45% of my calories there. Then, I spread the rest of my calories throughout the day and I'm fine. Maybe this will help. I don't know. I'm sorry you're suffering.![:\](https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/resources/emoji/confused.png ":\")
That's very possible. I need to figure out how to try this out LOL. At this point, on days when I have extra calories at night because I'm not that hungry, I just end up saving them to make up for the day I will (or did) inevitably go over.0 -
Drink more water, the headaches and hunger pains could come from dehydration. Exercise is also important, even at maintenance, because it can give you extra calories to eat with...0
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Quick oats and egg white omelets keep me full.0
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without reading everything...if you add in a little extra activity, you can always eat more...0
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maybe.. you just need a break? it's clear that your current situation is stressing you out, & I do think that can be manifested through hunger.
obviously I'm no expert and it's just a suggestion, but it may be something to look a little deeper into.0 -
Maybe you have heartburn? or gastritis? I've read a few articles where there's a burning/gnawing feeling in your stomach and it feels like hunger but it's not. I used to have a similar problem so maybe it's something worth looking into.
I'm not an expert though just my experience
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How's your blood pressure? You mentioned drinking a lot of water and eating a lot of veggies. Are you getting enough of your other electrolytes? You may want to try a couple of packs of Emergen-c or something similar when you start getting faint.0
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Is there anything else particularly stressful going on in your life right now? Could it be the fact that the weather is turning colder and the days are getting shorter? I don't know if it's all in my head, but that definitely seems to make me hungrier and feel less like exercising. You say you work out early in the morning... Any thought of changing up your routine at all? I'm not a morning person--I mean, I will work out at 7 am if that's the only time I have, but I honestly prefer working out at 3 in the afternoon because that's when I tend to binge--if I'm out running I cannot be in the kitchen grazing. Or, have you given any thought to 'taking a break'? Not going crazy or anything, but scaling back to maintenance and just going with it in a couple months?0
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I hear you on the "it's been working and now I'm stuck and I'm just hungry ALL the time and I don't mind being hungry if I'm getting results"
the suck comes from suffering with no results. it's like being miserable for nothing.
girl. The struggle is REAL.
Sometimes you just need to dial it back and realize realize it's okay to have those 3 pounds. eat at maintenance for a while- then try again. I've been hovering on the same weight since early october- or even before- and I've been pushing all directions to get it to budge- sometimes I just can't do it. and that's okay. I take a break- eat a little "looser" and then crack down again. sometimes you just need a refeed- and a mental refresher.0 -
But I've been eating at maintenance... that's the thing
And yeah I typically need a refeed day once a week or so (which is usually factored in my maintenance calories). And no, nothing has changed in my life lately, but this has been going on for a few months. My blood pressure is good, on the low side but good. You got a good point though, maybe I should take a multi vitamin more often... Will start doing that.
For exercise usually I just go after I drop the kids off at school, so typically 2-3 hours after having breakfast, which is about right to me (but I'll need a snack before that if I had breakfast at 6am, so that's when I had the Clif bars lately). I try to delay breakfast as much as possible, but sometimes it's just not possible because I'm just so hungry (typically I don't eat after 6pm, sometimes earlier - I guess I'm more a 'hungry in the morning, eat less in the evening' person, which is why going out for dinner sucks, lol).
I did have heartburn before losing weight, but haven't got any symptom for a year, but who knows?0 -
@Francl27 I'm too lazy to go back and find the quote but I noticed you said you increased your fats but only to 65g/day - for me, personally, I was having many of the same hunger issues as you and have had to SIGNIFICANTLY increase my fats. My preferred diet was leaving me under 50g/day, and I struggled hard to get it up past the 60s and it still wasn't enough. My cousin is an RD fortunately for me - and has personal experience with weight loss as well - when she suggested I take it up to 80g a day or more I about died but I did it and it has mostly solved my hunger troubles (except for about 3 days before, and the first day or two, of my period - but I know I can expect that to end and I can handle 5 days of craving/hunger). So even though you've increased your fats already it might be worthwhile to increase them even more for an experimental period and just see what happens.0
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Have you thought about cutting down the cardio and focusing more on lifting? What struck me firstly about your OP was that the level of cardio seems to correlate with the hunger?0
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I hate lifting. I like cardio. It's not going to happen, honestly. I still make myself lift because it's good for me but frankly I'd rather do laundry or dishes, and that's saying a lot.
I don't know about the fat thing though. I mean, a piece of cheese doesn't fill me up that much for 120 calories, and I had full fat breakfast sausages with eggs yesterday, and it didn't seem to help a whole lot either (I had 75g of fat yesterday and went to bed hungry, but it wasn't the 'bad' hunger so I didn't care). I've switched away from fat free yogurt and low fat cheese, and don't buy the 97%/99% fat free meat anymore, I try to eat more nuts, but I guess I'm nervous because it's quite a big calorie jump to increase it more than that (plus really I naturally don't eat that much fat in my diet, as I used to have stomach/reflux issues made worse with fat, and they've gone away since I started eating less of it). Seriously I don't know anymore, lol. Plus my doctor tells me to eat fat free stuff because of my cholesterol, which drives me nuts. Maybe I need a new doctor... again.0 -
I don't think many people realize what hormonal hunger feels like. It's so overwhelming to the point where you can't see straight. You can't just muscle through it, distract it or trick it with water or some kind of low calorie filler. You need to eat until you are stuffed and gagging for it to finally leave you alone.
Have you considered PCOS? You can have regular periods and normal blood work and still have it. I do. May be something worth checking.
I know you said you would never try it, but sporadic IF is the only thing that worked for me to manage this hunger. On days when my appetite is not too great I have a fast day and eat around 500 calories and it feels easy since I'm barely hungry. Just that manageable empty stomach kind of hunger, not the "I want to climb up the walls" kind. It takes about 5 fasts of this kind for it to get easy. On hungry days I just eat enough not to be hungry even if that's over my maintenance.0 -
Well when I tried IVF 8 years ago we did all kinds of tests and bloodwork and everything was fine, so I don't know about PCOS. But yeah I'll mention it to my doctor at my next appointment for sure.
I try to do what you're doing, and eat as little as possible on days when I'm really not hungry, but I typically I end up eating 1500 calories minimum still, I don't think I could less (that's 600 under my TDEE), pretty much to make up for the days when I overeat (usually 200-300 calories over, when I go more than that it's typically just my own fault for lack of willpower). That's how I managed to have a small deficit overall last week.. somehow LOL.
But yes, those hormonal hungers are just plain nasty. I had them before I lost weight too (although not as often) and seriously I would have to eat a whole box of pasta and a jar of sauce to get rid of them (typically only carbs work, so now I just go for the carbs instead of trying to make it go away with fat and protein - I know it won't work).0 -
I see an interesting patern in your diary that actually parallels my own experience and I'm not all the shocked to see it either. It seems that on the days leading up to your over eating you are eating protein/energy bars as part of your diet.
I'm planning on doing a simple experiment this week, now that I'm finished my pack, to not eat any bars. I've noticed that my calories have gone way up since eating them, not that it's an issue with me since I'm trying to bulk a bit, but care to try this with me? Perhaps it's because these bars aren't real food and our bodies are telling us they want more real food. Just a thought and something that probably wouldn't hurt to test.0 -
Whenever I'm hungry and it's not time to eat I eat something small like 5 cashews. It stills the hunger so it goes away. I do it as soon as I notice I'm hungry.
As I've done that, the cravings have gotten less and less frequent. It's almost like teaching your body to trust you to feed it when it's hungry so it doesn't have to panic (yes, I know it doesn't work like that, but it is how it feels). (I already talked above about the carb thing and I see other people have too so won't repeat it).
Then I religiously eat meals on time and make sure I log so I know I'm eating enough. Now that I don't have a lot of body fat to draw on, when my body tells me it's hungry, it's serious.0 -
Have you thought about trying something new? Eat at your TDEE every day. The one you've calculated versus trying to eat 1500 calories one day and then binging a bit one day a week. You might actually have a higher than you think TDEE (with weight lifting 3x a week plus a few days of cardio, I'm at 2400 calories and I'm almost 46 yrs old)- I've been testing mine out for a few months, going up slowly, 100 calories per week. I'm only now gaining weight (1 lb over the month -so I know I'm over by around 250 calories per week which is not much daily). My next move is to stay at TDEE and be religious about the counting...weighing everything and being as precise as possible. So I will then have a really good idea of my TDEE and try to stick around that. On my hungry days (and I do have them), I eat a LOT of carrots and drink a LOT of water. I keep my protein above 100 grams and don't worry about anything else. Good luck!0
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Wheelhouse15 wrote: »I see an interesting patern in your diary that actually parallels my own experience and I'm not all the shocked to see it either. It seems that on the days leading up to your over eating you are eating protein/energy bars as part of your diet.
I'm planning on doing a simple experiment this week, now that I'm finished my pack, to not eat any bars. I've noticed that my calories have gone way up since eating them, not that it's an issue with me since I'm trying to bulk a bit, but care to try this with me? Perhaps it's because these bars aren't real food and our bodies are telling us they want more real food. Just a thought and something that probably wouldn't hurt to test.
I lost 50 pounds eating Quest bars though, so it's a bit odd.. and I just started eating them again maybe 2 weeks ago? I don't even count the Clif bars, I've only bought 4 because I wanted to try the flavors.
I'll try eating a couple nuts and more carrots when I get hungry, we'll see if it helps. For my TDEE the main reason I don't think it's that higher is that I would be losing weight if it was higher, while I've just pretty much maintained (although I only gained half a pound last month when I thought I would gain more than that, but it's going to take more time to make sure). But I'll have a better idea in a few day, although my lowest weight day will probably be after Thanksgiving so it's going to mess up the numbers... (my lowest weight is always one week after the end of my period, and that's what I base my weight loss/gains on).0 -
I don't know nearly as much as some of the fine people that have posted a reply....but here is what I can tell you. I lost 30 lbs between mar and oct, not a huge lose by any stretch, but I am thrilled with the results I got out considering I didn't put too much in. In Oct I really lose motivation, and I keep trying to talk myself into getting back on track, but I have been eating to maintain since then, and I haven't put back any of the weight. I over eat some days and I under eat on others....but is all balancing out with out my paying too much mind to it. You seem to know what you should/shouldn't eat, and have been maintaining for 3 months (even when you want to lose).....so maybe your body is happy where it is, maybe you aren't meant to hit 130...I would probably recommend getting comfortable at your current weight for another 3 months....enjoy your damn waffle when you want a waffle and don't let anyone make you feel bad.....just don't enjoy waffles every single day for a month and wonder why you've started gaining again
It sounds so much more like its a mental struggle then a physical one right now.....so back off for a bit, find your happy medium and then decide if that last 3-5 lbs is worth the agony you are putting yourself through. Good luck!!! 0 -
Never going to try IF. I workout in the morning, and I'm starving by 8am so... no.
Well, that's a good open mindset to have.
I ate breakfast all my life until about 6 months ago. The first couple weeks switching to IF were tough while my hormones adjusted. Since then, breakfast doesn't even cross my mind, even if I do morning workouts. Heck, I ran a half marathon last weekend fasted. I was hungry when I got home, but I was totally fine during the race. And having all my calories split between only two meals? The most awesome thing ever.
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