Hunger ...grrr.....I'm always hungry!

mammytotwo

Hi everyone and greetings from Ireland

I'm a 39 year old Irish mammy to two little girls (14 and 25 months old!), lovely hubby, work full time and am 5ft7 and weigh 12 stone 5 pounds.
I want to loose 1 stone 7 pounds.......and I've only been trying for 20 YEARS. I've lost pregnancy weight and in fact weigh 5 pounds lighter than when I first got pregnant so I can't blame my two little women!

My problem is I've tried everything and stuck at nothing....simple.

I've a big appetite. I could eat eat and eat. I do actually have a really healthy diet for probably 70% of the time but do indulge in alcohol and c*ap fast food, bingeing at weekends.

I run 3 times per week (5 - 10k) - and one group run where we do sprints.

So I'm going to give MFP a try........I want to loose 1 pound per week so that's been worked out at 1500 calories.

I'm hungry already even thinking about it.

How do all you guys manage hunger..............I wonder is my hunger - stress related, boredom, defeatist behavoiur, comfort eating after a stressful day at work and then minding girls....whatever the cause - it still feels like hunger.

I'm also very much of the - oh well I've had one chocolate so that's today messed up so I might as well order a chinese takeaway type person...........grrrrr

I read posts here from people who eat 1200 cals only per day and I think I would really struggle.

Do I just eat too much.......do you get used to eating much less. We were brought up to eat big portions and I've been programmed that way.....the gbigger the plate of food the better!

Any advice so welcome.

O

alijeskey

Hey! I am very much the same way Its so hard! I have found that drinking lots of water helps. When I find my self looking for snacks when I really don't need one I have been making a cup of coffee or tea, it seems to help too. Best of luck!

PeachyCarol

I've been doing a lot of thinking about this lately myself. I'm one of those people who eats around 1200 a day.

I used to need to eat to feel stuffed. That was always my signal that I was full. And I'd have to carry that comfortably stuffed feeling between meals with me, otherwise my body would interpret it as "hunger".

Obviously, this is disordered thinking, because "not full/stuffed" doesn't mean "empty".

I've been misinterpreting hunger signals for years, all because I wanted to retain that "full" feeling. It gave me a sense of security.

I'm still learning. Sometimes a big glass of water helps. Thirst is often mistaken for hunger. And I get thirsty a lot.

I know I'm eating enough to sustain me. I'm slowly learning what true hunger feels like. I'm learning the difference between want and need.

You can too, but it will take time. Just tell yourself that you can get there and you will.

Set your goal. Allow yourself regular meals and snacks. A small bit of chocolate is okay, it will fit into your calories and doesn't mean you've blown it. No foods are bad. It's all about total calories consumed.

It will take time, but you can get there.

healthygreek

Keep your deficit small or you will be hungry and there is no need for hunger except of course when you're close to mealtime.
Start with setting MFP to losing 1/2 pound per week.
In addition eat back at least half of your exercise calories.

Lounmoun

I eat regular food and pre-log my whole day. I've found it helpful to see the calories I'm consuming. I tell myself that I am eating enough to support my life so it is easier to drink a glass of water and wait 20 minutes or an hour to see if the hunger feeling goes away. If it doesn't go away then I eat a bit.
I don't freak out or give up when I go over my calories a bit one day. I stop eating. I might exercise more or just log it and do better the next day.

Try to eat foods that are satisfying. Foods with protein, fiber, and somes fats will help.
If you like eating then save your calories for food and drink mostly water or tea without anything added.

Tabithas_Transformation

I've found that making sure I'm getting enough water and protein reaaallly helps me feel fuller for longer. If I aim to get at least 2-3 litres of water and hit my protein goals, I tend to find I'm satisfied for the day and don't feel tempted to over-eat.

That said, everyone is different and it may take some trial/error to find what's right for you and helps you feel full. Keep going!

Lisajohnston

I used to eat really big portions, I was hungry at first but I find my body got used to the smaller portions and then that is all I need. I have water or tea if I feel like I want more food to see if I really need it or just want it because it tastes good. I do go over my 1200 calories some days but I try to exercise those days. I do eat back some of my exercise calories. I am not always in a deficit but I try to stay within my limit each day. Planning helps and I find the type of food I eat makes a difference too.

mammytotwo

Thanks for all your kind replies. I'm off to a good start today. Someone mentioned pre-planning for the day ahead - that might be something I will try on days when I can.

I will be sticking to healthy options as much as possible.

I do make a lot of homemade dinners and soups.....chillis, curries, stir-frys, italian (all fresh ingredients with no oil or cream) and I also try to make a veg soup once a week .....

I suppose when you buy a pre-portioned food in a supermarket it's easy to log it here.......trying to work out cals in a bowl of veg soup with carrots, onions, leeks, celery......might get a bit boring but heh.........I didn't get fat from my veg soup so I can guesstimate!!!

Funny how the mind tricks us and puts ridiculous obstacles in our way!!!!!

I'm stressing over healthy home-cooked food........note I didn't mention the cheese laden pizza and bottle of wine!!!

Ok thanks again ....onwards and downwards and praying I WON'T BE HUNGRY!

X

PeachyCarol

Oh, it's very simple to log home made items! There's a recipe builder feature on the site. Go to the foods tab on your diary and you'll see recipes. There's an option to add your own.

Just weigh and measure each ingredient you include while you're making your dish, then weigh the finished dish. That will be the number of servings. Weigh your portion and that's how many servings you eat. Say that you make chili. Measure the container, tare your scale, add the chili. The finished yield weighs 800 grams. You'd enter it as 800 servings, take your portion, note the difference in weight... say it now weighs 650. Yeah... go ahead and eat 150 servings of chili!!!!!

PeachyCarol

One more thing about the recipe builder! Sometimes you don't always get the correct entry for an ingredient on the first try. It pays to double check the nutrition information for what you're using with a Google search and/or food labels.

SergeantSausage

Hunger is a request, not a demand. You don't have to obey it. You have a choice to ignore it. It won't kill you and it doesn't even hurt. It's just a bit of discomfort.

How do I deal with it? I tell myself "suck it up, buttercup" ... but mostly by trying to not be too aggressive on the Calorie Deficit. If a pound a week leaves you feeling deprived and hungry all the time, then be an adult - fix it and set it for a quarter pound a week.

It's not going to hurt you to slow that train down. You've been dealing with this for, literally, decades, right? What's it matter if it takes a few more months than you'd like right now ... if it actually *works* this time. Wouldn't that be worth any delay in slowing it down? Wouldn't it?

ana3067

I've never been hungry while dieting outside of the normal hunger before a meal. Having a reasonable caloric deficit (no more than 1lb, smaller deficit as you lose more weight) and eating enough fat and protein help.

And BTW "healthy items" are not necessary for weight loss. It's all about CICO (cals in < cals out). I'm eating protein pancakes with maple sausages. and maple syrup. I had donuts with nutella last night.

bccashleyiverson

Make sure you eat enough protein, it helps a lot! and since you're a volume eater, eat high volume foods! Things like broccoli and mushrooms--you can eat a ton of them and stay within your goals. Also, just try and do a search for high volume foods, things like protein fluff help me when I want that nice full content feeling after a *kitten* day. The "suck it up, buttercup" method does not work for me personally--thinking like that is what causes me to binge later. Work on finding out what foods actually make you feel full instead of feeling like you need to deprive yourself to stay under your calorie goal.

bencze1

I am often hungry, not very but somewhat. I think main problem is that I used to eat in evenings twice, out of boredom while watching TV. I simply like to eat, and not green leaves mind you.
I try to keep busy now, also focus on my goal. I keep apples at home and when I feel like would eat something I eat one or two. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. I also don't keep a lot of food at home, which works since I live alone. Stuff that needs cooking is generally safe.
Sometimes I order and eat a nice 1500-2000 kcal or something, what can I say, it didn't happen since a couple of weeks so I'm fine.
At this moment I crave a good spicy vindaloo with a lot of garlic bread and some cake. Let me go afk to drink some water and eat an apple.

MarkJCherry

Hey I used to be the same way. Here's what I did, and after only a week I could feel the difference. Maybe it will help you.

I used to eat twice a day. Breakfast and Dinner. Pretty much every 12 hours. I've split it up and eat less, more. So instead of 2 1200 calorie meals, I'll have 4 500 calorie meals.

Part of what you're experiencing is stomach size. Your stomach is elastic and will stretch out to accommodate what you're used to. By eating smaller portions more often, you'll still get the calories you need to function, but also you'll get that full feeling from a much smaller portion. I split MFP up to Breakfast(7am), Lunch(12pm), Dinner 1(5pm), Dinner 2(9pm). I intersperse it with healthy snacks - baby spinach (I love the stuff), peach cups, I buy cans of peanuts and portion them out in sandwich bags. I get the desire to chew food so I've started chewing on Sunflower Seeds. A lot of chewing, so I get the feeling I want, but only a little seed and I spit the shell out.

Sunday night I went to a Chinese Buffet with my mother. I had one plate of food, mostly chicken, and half a roll of sushi. I used to put back 3-4 with no problem. But now, off one plate I was nice and comfortably full. I've lost 117lbs since last January.

Here's what I did to start: I took whatever I was going to have for breakfast, cut it in half. I ate half then, and half at lunchtime. Then I did the same for dinner - cut it in half, have half then, and half an hour or so before bed. Then I slowly started cutting down the size of those portions, a little bit each week.

Also, portion distortion: some foods have a much higher concentration of calories than others. A banana is about 100 calories, for instance, but 2 hotdogs (similar in volume and consistency) is 240 calories. They'll give you the same feeling of fullness, for almost 2.5x the cals.

ONE LAST THING and this might be the most important. It's something I never knew until I talked to a personal trainer (dieticians never revealed this to me). If you feel hungry, you might just be dehydrated. I never knew, but dehydration feels like hunger. I stopped drinking pop as much as I used to and mostly drink water now, and I think that's been a huge contributing factor as well. So have a glass of water instead of pop with dinner, and when you're going about looking for a snack, have a drink of water and see if that makes you feel better. Best part is, water fills you up, fuels you, is good for you, and has no calories, sugar, fat, or sodium!

SwankyTomato

babaontheway wrote: »

Hi everyone and greetings from Ireland

I'm a 39 year old Irish mammy to two little girls (14 and 25 months old!), lovely hubby, work full time and am 5ft7 and weigh 12 stone 5 pounds.
I want to loose 1 stone 7 pounds.......and I've only been trying for 20 YEARS. I've lost pregnancy weight and in fact weigh 5 pounds lighter than when I first got pregnant so I can't blame my two little women!

My problem is I've tried everything and stuck at nothing....simple.

I've a big appetite. I could eat eat and eat. I do actually have a really healthy diet for probably 70% of the time but do indulge in alcohol and c*ap fast food, bingeing at weekends.

I run 3 times per week (5 - 10k) - and one group run where we do sprints.

So I'm going to give MFP a try........I want to loose 1 pound per week so that's been worked out at 1500 calories.

I'm hungry already even thinking about it.

How do all you guys manage hunger..............I wonder is my hunger - stress related, boredom, defeatist behavoiur, comfort eating after a stressful day at work and then minding girls....whatever the cause - it still feels like hunger.

I'm also very much of the - oh well I've had one chocolate so that's today messed up so I might as well order a chinese takeaway type person...........grrrrr

I read posts here from people who eat 1200 cals only per day and I think I would really struggle.

Do I just eat too much.......do you get used to eating much less. We were brought up to eat big portions and I've been programmed that way.....the gbigger the plate of food the better!

Any advice so welcome.

O

Yes you eat too much and yes you will get better. Although your TDEE is about 1800calories/day.

I would start there instead of jumping into 1500/cal a day. The idea is to eat at a deficit but not so much that you set yourself up for torture.

I like to EAT as well and I only have about 16.5lbs to lose. I do not think it is easy at any weight or height to be honest. I am doing 1450cal/day.

http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/tdee-calculator.html

scorpiophoenix

babaontheway wrote: »

I'm also very much of the - oh well I've had one chocolate so that's today messed up so I might as well order a chinese takeaway type person.

This was the hardest thing for me to get over before I started counting calories. Eventually you realize you CAN have the chocolate and work it into your day. It's very liberating.

healthygreek wrote: »

Keep your deficit small or you will be hungry and there is no need for hunger except of course when you're close to mealtime. Start with setting MFP to losing 1/2 pound per week. In addition eat back at least half of your exercise calories.

^^^This helps!! I started with mine set to 1lb and was losing 2lbs/week. Currently I switch between 1/2lb (to make sure I don't go overboard) and maintenance depending on what's going on with my week.

While you're getting the hang of it there's nothing wrong with exercising to create a bigger deficit so you can eat more (I do it if I know I'm going to be drinking or eating a lot of sweets) and any deficit is a step in the right direction. Don't get discouraged!

rybo

My tips to try and see if any work for you...try not to eat empty calories (processed junk), eat nutrient dense foods
Learn to identify true hunger
Drink more water
Eat less often (skip breakfast) I have found that makes me less hungry.

Buu_kz

Dont eat less!!! Eat more food that is dense in nutrition if you eat less processed food its actually a challenge to eat enough calories because you can eat so much and it fills you up so much more

Superlissaanne

I manage my hunger by managing the type of food I eat. I could eat 1500 cals of carbs and still be starving. But, eat those same cals in protein and healthy fat and i will be full. My goal is 40% carbs, 30% protein, 30% fat. I don't always hit those goals, but I try.

SwankyTomato

Superlissaanne wrote: »

I manage my hunger by managing the type of food I eat. I could eat 1500 cals of carbs and still be starving. But, eat those same cals in protein and healthy fat and i will be full. My goal is 40% carbs, 30% protein, 30% fat. I don't always hit those goals, but I try.

Interesting. I will have to take a look at my stats daily to see if I can do some tweaking there.

justcat206

The things that have helped me to beat hunger:

1) Making sure I get protein AND carbs each time I eat. If I eat just one or the other I'll be starving or craving in no time
2) Filling up on low-cal veggies - makes me feel satisfyingly 'full' at the end of the meal without being a calorie bomb
3) Planning snacks. Sometimes just the idea of having to go hours without food makes me feel hungry so knowing I've got something (even just an apple or handful of nuts) coming up to munch on makes it easier to wait
4) Planning meals I'm excited about - when I know I'm going to eat something really yummy in a couple hours, I don't want to 'waste' my appetite on some random junk
5) Make sure it's really hunger. Often I'll find that if I get up and move for a few minutes I don't feel the urge to eat any more
6) Gum chewing might be uncouth, but I try to keep mint gum with me - if I'm feeling hungry but I'm close to meal time, I'll chew a piece - the mint helps break the mood to eat, and chewing keeps my mouth busy.

And I agree about taking calories down slowly while you develop other habits. Good luck, you'll adjust soon!

SLLRunner

rybo wrote: »

My tips to try and see if any work for you...try not to eat empty calories (processed junk), eat nutrient dense foods
Learn to identify true hunger
Drink more water
Eat less often (skip breakfast) I have found that makes me less hungry.

What is "processed junk?" Food is food, and what one chooses to eat has nothing to do with weight loss. Type of food is personal preference. Type of diet has a lot to do with nutrition, however.

Eating less often is not the answer. That also is personal preference.

babaontheway,

Eat whatever you like whenever you like, as meal timing, how many meals you eat, and type of food having nothing to do with weight loss. Weight loss is calories in/calories out.

I eat six small meals a day from 4:30 a.m. to whenever I feel like it at night (usually around seven on weekdays), and I lost over 40 pounds and have been maintaining for over a year. My diary is open, feel free to peruse.

cwlsr

I will keep it short! You may be a stress eater who is looking for comfort. It seems that you have your hands full with children, family and work. Take this opportunity to change your life style by using MFP correctly . This is also a wonderful opportunity to learn about food, nutrition, exercise, sleep, important mind rest (releases stress) and water. With this knowledge you can prepare your children for a lifetime of healthy habits. Good luck mom your journey is just beginning.

rybo

SLLRunner wrote: »

rybo wrote: »

My tips to try and see if any work for you...try not to eat empty calories (processed junk), eat nutrient dense foods
Learn to identify true hunger
Drink more water
Eat less often (skip breakfast) I have found that makes me less hungry.

What is "processed junk?" Food is food, and what one chooses to eat has nothing to do with weight loss. Type of food is personal preference. Type of diet has a lot to do with nutrition, however.

Eating less often is not the answer. That also is personal preference.

babaontheway,

Eat whatever you like whenever you like, as meal timing, how many meals you eat, and type of food having nothing to do with weight loss. Weight loss is calories in/calories out.

I eat six small meals a day from 4:30 a.m. to whenever I feel like it at night (usually around seven on weekdays), and I lost over 40 pounds and have been maintaining for over a year. My diary is open, feel free to peruse.

You have your opinions i have what works for me that I suggested may work for someone else. You are just being argumentative.

illyich

This is totally my problem too! You have to eat foods that will fill you up. A staple for me at lunch time is:
Tuna Salad (1 can tuna, 1/4 cup fat free greek yogurt, relish, celery, spicy brown mustard)
125g peas
1/4lb roasted brussel sprouts

I can barely make it through the whole thing. Really. 328 calories, 10g fiber, 41g protein.

Get more fiber and protein in your diet - you'll stay fuller longer.

michelle_816

mamapeach910 wrote: »

Oh, it's very simple to log home made items! There's a recipe builder feature on the site. Go to the foods tab on your diary and you'll see recipes. There's an option to add your own.

Just weigh and measure each ingredient you include while you're making your dish, then weigh the finished dish. That will be the number of servings. Weigh your portion and that's how many servings you eat. Say that you make chili. Measure the container, tare your scale, add the chili. The finished yield weighs 800 grams. You'd enter it as 800 servings, take your portion, note the difference in weight... say it now weighs 650. Yeah... go ahead and eat 150 servings of chili!!!!!

I second the recipe builder. I use it A LOT and have logged many of the meals my family eats. It is incredibly useful and I love that I am still able to eat the meals my family eats but in smaller portions

dubird

I started splitting meals up more during the day. It means I eat less at a time, but more often. I don't always get to do this on work days, but I can make sure I split my calorie allotment up so that I can snack between work and dinner, and can sometimes even have some left over for popcorn after dinner. I also make it a point to not have anything to eat in my office. I'm lazy, and if it's there, I'll eat it, but if I have to get up and go downstairs for snack foods, I'm less likely to do so!

mammytotwo

Wow - some brilliant advice - honestly when it's put so simply and succintly as above, it becomes clear that all my messing with different 'slimming plans' and famous 'groups' has all been just tiresome and obviously hasn't worked if I have been trying to shift these 21 pounds for 20 years! Seriously, even typing that makes me laugh out loud!

Calories in < calories out. simple.

I definitely take on board that protein keeps one fuller for longer...

I will try to eat carb and protein together - that might work. I know it does for a lot of people. I have felt that my two boring slices of toast every morning was a bit 'empty' in every sense.

I have to learn to moderate......I can get into a mood and eat a huge amount of food and it's like I CANNOT get full.........that is obviously emotional eating....it has to be.

Can't thank all of you for your helpful words enough....I'm going back now to re-read thread!

Happy Friday!

jessicarobinson00

I'm nearing 1 year of my version of eating "clean" which is staying away from boxed/processed foods. I too enjoy the feeling of being extra full, so I have been able to do this by healthy versions of things I love in larger quantities. My favorite thing is steamed baby carrots cooked down with sweet Vidalia onions paired with 2 steamed tilapia fillets with lemon pepper seasoning. By my calorie count you can have a huge portion of these and stay under 400 calories. Shooting for 3/4 portion of veggies to 1/4 portion of protein helps...

thedarkwombat

The only way I have found to manage my hunger is to eat a lot of protein and ditch the carbs, sugars etc. I am doing low carb right now and I have to force myself to eat.