Still Hungry

nc603

I make sure to eat all my calories for the day. I drink a ton of water (1/2 my body weight in ounces). I exercise 5 days a week.

I have been sticking to my calorie range for the past week (this is my first week on MFP). However, I am hungry All. The. Time. This is true hunger too, not hunger that is just 'in my head' or emotional hunger. This is true stomach growling hunger.

I will not be able to stick with this if I am hungry all the time. What am I supposed to do? Should I up my calories a little bit?

Does anyone have experience with this?

diannethegeek

These are my really general tips for hunger:

1. Make sure that your calorie goals are actually set appropriately. Don't skip this step. A lot of people set goals that are too aggressive and then wonder why they're having a hard time. http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/819055/setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets

2. Look for foods higher in protein, fat, and fiber. These help us stay full and more satisfied longer. If you're using MFP's default settings, try to consider protein, fat, and fiber as minimums to reach every day rather than maximums to stay below.

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 be hungry for a little bit while that happens.

7. I also think it's important to remember that there's a habitual component to hunger. This goes along with point #6, but if you eat because you're bored or you're used to eating in front of the TV or in the car or whatever it is, then you can replace those habits with others that are better for you. Things like keeping water on hand to sip instead of snacking or picking up hobbies that keep your hands busy or that get you out of the house more can help out a little while you're retraining your hunger cues. You might need to pay attention to why you're eating/hungry or what you're feeling when you eat and try to replace food with other things, but it can be really beneficial over time.

RodaRose

Yes. You need to increase your calories. Change your goal to 1/2 or 1 pound per week.
Also, you might like these groups:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/45-happy-herbivores
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/46-team-vegan

ana3067

a) how much are you eating? Change your goal to 0.5 or 1lb/week as already stated.

b) eat back at least half of your exercise calories... if you're not already logging exercise, then start logging it and eating back at least half of the exercise calories.

c) eat more fat and/or protein.

d) drink more water.

galgenstrick

Can you open your diary? If you're ever starving while dieting then you're not eating enough or you're eating the wrong kinds of foods.

GBrady43068

nc603 wrote: »

I make sure to eat all my calories for the day. I drink a ton of water (1/2 my body weight in ounces). I exercise 5 days a week.

I have been sticking to my calorie range for the past week (this is my first week on MFP). However, I am hungry All. The. Time. This is true hunger too, not hunger that is just 'in my head' or emotional hunger. This is true stomach growling hunger.

I will not be able to stick with this if I am hungry all the time. What am I supposed to do? Should I up my calories a little bit?

I Does anyone have experience with this?

1) You eat all your calories for the day..this is good. Are you also eating back at least some of your exercise calories? (I say "some" because there is a consensus that the estimates for calorie burn on the exercise listed in MFP tends to be too high..some say as much as double. I log 2/3 of the calorie burn MFP shows then eat those calories back.)

2) Without knowing what you weigh, I can't verify for sure if this is enough water..but if you're drinking around 5-6 glasses of water a day you're probably getting the rest from what you eat. So water consumption is probably fine unless you're relatively light in weight.

3) See if you can add more roughage. Leafy green vegetables are good for you and they help you feel "full" longer..all with a pretty low calorie burn. As long as I don't drench it in fatty dressing or top it with tons of ham or croutons, I can eat quite a bit of salad..or a big bowl of steamed veggies..with minimal calories spent.

4) If you are doing all of the above and still hungry, lower your loss goals to .5 to 1 pound a week...better to take an extra 6 months to a year reaching your goal weight than to lose really fast for 2 months and then give up because you're tired of feeling "deprived" all the time. Slow and steady wins the race..

Good luck!

GBrady43068

diannethegeek wrote: »

These are my really general tips for hunger:

1. Make sure that your calorie goals are actually set appropriately. Don't skip this step. A lot of people set goals that are too aggressive and then wonder why they're having a hard time. http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/819055/setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets

2. Look for foods higher in protein, fat, and fiber. These help us stay full and more satisfied longer. If you're using MFP's default settings, try to consider protein, fat, and fiber as minimums to reach every day rather than maximums to stay below.

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 be hungry for a little bit while that happens.

7. I also think it's important to remember that there's a habitual component to hunger. This goes along with point #6, but if you eat because you're bored or you're used to eating in front of the TV or in the car or whatever it is, then you can replace those habits with others that are better for you. Things like keeping water on hand to sip instead of snacking or picking up hobbies that keep your hands busy or that get you out of the house more can help out a little while you're retraining your hunger cues. You might need to pay attention to why you're eating/hungry or what you're feeling when you eat and try to replace food with other things, but it can be really beneficial over time.

+1

lulucitron

Incorporate more salads into your meals and I'm big on homemade soups too with lots of veggies and no salt broth. Not sure what you're eating but incorporating high protein in your snacks as well as meals helps...one of my favs is plain greek yogurt with protein powder and a bit of natural pb or almond butter and no sugar jam. I don't eat breads except the odd ezekiel bread but incorporate more oatmeal, sweet potatoes, brown rice, quinoa in my diet for my starchy carbs.