The bigger the meal the hungrier I am hours later. Why??

tpyott1

I have been dieting for 2 months now with great results. The whole day I eat every few hr and I barely have any cravings in fact I sometimes have to force myself to eat. The weird thing is like tonight I wasn't hungry for dinner I forced myself to make it but once I was finished with my small portion I craved one of my two daily snacks and after that I craved one of my two fruit servings. It's gotten so bad that I have to save a lot of my food for after dinner so that I feel satisfied. It's not just dinner though. If I eat a bigger lunch or bfast it's like I'm hungrier. Is it because I am coming down from a higher sugar crash than if my dinner was something super small? Like I said it just seems the larger the meal the hungrier I am shortly after I eat thst meal

aheg1

Ive heard that when you eat big meals you stomach expands and when the food passes through the digestive system your stomach contracts back to it's normal size, this feeling is very similar to hunger, though you are not technically hungry

SexyKatherine73

how many calories are you eating a day? this could be your issue ... If your defect is too great for you, you will crave more food.

tpyott1

I'm eating roughly on avg 1500 calories. Like I said it's not really hunger in general because for most of the day I'm fine. It's like once I taste that food I want more and more of it. The best way for me to describe it is , imagine opening a can of your favorite chips and eating just one and having to put it up. You would be like oh man I want another! However before you opened up that can of chips you weren't hungry and you weren't craving the chips all that bad. That's how I feel a few hours after my bigger meal the day which is usually dinner.

SexyKatherine73

For a man you are under eating. Men should eat around 1800 calories as a minimum no wonder your getting hungry after your main meal. Adding lean protein will fill you up too.

Do you have your defect set to 2 pounds a week? maybe setting it to a much more of a sensible goal of 1.5 pounds a week.

If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal

Christine_72

I feel like that when I've had a Carb heavy meal...

dramaqueen45

I will definitely say that I'm hungrier mid morning if I eat breakfast than if I don't. It's like it wakes up my whole system or something. But I still try to eat breakfast.

I think if you eat a heavy meal with a lot of carbs then yes, your blood sugar probably spikes, you release insulin and then your blood sugar plummets and you get that sleepy feeling and then hunger because your blood sugar has dropped. That's why I like to eat smaller meals more frequently and avoid a lot of heavy carbs.

slaite1

Try having fewer, larger meals. It doesn't sound so much like its the size of the meals-rather it's hard for you to stop once you start. This makes sense if you're eating multiple small snacks throughout the day. Some people never feel satisfied eating this way, it's like a chronic low-grade hunger. Stop forcing yourself to eat every few hours and focus on eating when you're hungry and stopping when you're full.

Edited for typos

neanderthin

Try stuffing yourself with eggs and come back and tell how that works, because protein.

tpyott1

Thanks guys. The reason I am eating so little calories is because I am doing the nutrisystem diet that is why it is around 1500 calories. I have lost 15lbs or so in a month n half. I still want to lose another 50. Like I said the best way to describe it is the potato chip analogy. Once you pop you can't stop lol. It's like eating sets my body on let's eat more mode. Have you guy ever noticed that if you go awile without food you are hungry but if you go a real long time you stop being hungry. What causes this and could this be the same phenomenon in action in my case? Thanks again.

bunnywestley81

Have you tried drinking a big glass of water?

If i think I'm hungry i drink some water. Sometimes I'm just thirsty or bored.

Depends on what you consider a long time and a short time?

breefoshee

Nutrisystem is basically prepackaged food, right? Its very possible that even though they are hitting the right calorie amounts, you aren't getting the most bang for your calories. You would do better by cooking your own meals-- or at least the majority of them.

EDIT: Also the sodium in the prepackaged food may be giving you the illusion that you are full... maybe when it goes down you realize that you are actually hungry? Just an idea. I had crawfish the other day (I'm from Louisiana) and I didn't eat that much... but I felt so sooo full because its loaded with sodium. But only an hour later, I was starving!

bunnywestley81

Also i don't have breakfast first thing usually...but when i do my tummy is like "we're doing this all day, right? RIGHT!?"

I usually eat after I've been at work a couple of hours. 5am breakfast just doesnt appeal!!

abhijitbasu

Your situation seems to be an interesting one. On one hand, you aren't feeling hungry when you don't eat, and when you eat, you feel hungrier, which is a peculiar situation. I suppose it is because of a higher metabolic rate, I.e the rate at which your body converts your food into energy.

When you eat less, you are essentially training your Body into surviving on lesser quantities, which is why your metabolic rate drops. This happens because your body recognizes that you have a lesser food intake, and so it knows that it has limited reserves. Meaning that there are fewer reserves for it to convert into energy, and to this, your body adapts by lowering the rate at which the food is converted into energy, leading the reserve to last longer.

When this reserve is depleted, you start feeling hunger, and since you are eating less, these reserves are being consumed at a lower rate, leading to lower metabolic rates, and this is why you feel lesser hunger pangs when you consume less good.

On the other hand, when you consume large amounts of food, your body needs to quickly use it up, else it risks losing valuable energy, and so the metabolic rate increases, and you feel hungrier.

To reduce these hunger pangs, reduce your carbohydrate intake, which can help you maintain a lower metabolic rate, and you can in turn avoid these hunger pangs.