HELP! I'm always STARVING!
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Drink plenty water, increase your protein rich foods and dietary fibre (so you poop good), try green tea or herbal teas (they give me the feeling that I have taken some big dessert because of the taste). Give your body time to adjust. Listen to your body, it will tell you when you are REALLY hungry. Most times its you that tells your body you are hungry and not the other way around. Take each day as it comes and don't give up.0
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I suggest adding in more protein, a little healthy fat, i.e. olive oil, mayonnaise, butter, more fiber, more water, and a little less carbs. You won't get as hungry.0
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I had to get to the three week point before I lost the starving feeling. Hang in there!
I was the same way, it took me quite a while to gradually lower my portions and eventually I swapped the not so great foods for healthy foods.
I have tried to lose weight so many times and I would always eat too little, binge because I was too hungry, and then give up.
This time around I decided to be more patient and at first ate close to my maintenance calories for a few weeks, then I lowered it to about 1600, a month later to 1400. All along I was exercising and still losing some weight.
Some people are really good at adjusting to new habits, others just take a little bit longer. Don't compare yourself to others too much, you will only be discontent.
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TimothyFish wrote: »It seems to me that if you aren't hungry when you are dieting, you aren't doing it right. Ideally, your body will lead you to eat at a level that would maintain a healthy weight. When we lose weight, we are eating below that level.
I don't really agree with the bolded part. I found that after a month or so of eating at a moderate deficit, as long as my food choices were higher in fat and protein I was very rarely hungry as I lost my weight.0 -
Green vegetables. Carrots, too. But not potatoes, legumes, etc.
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DemoraFairy wrote: »
#youredoingitright0 -
soapsandropes wrote: »Being hungry is natural. If you are never hungry then you are eating too much (or there is something else wrong). I prefer the larger less frequent meal approach, then I get the full feeling and a period of hunger. If I did little meals every 2-3 hours I would constantly be grumpy and slightly hungry. The skeptic in me always side eyes ads that claim that people are never hungry when losing weight.
Make sure that you are hydrated, getting some fiber, and sticking to your calorie goals. Find some things to distract you (exercise is great). Think about why you are hungry, are you emotionally eating?
DEFINATLEY an emotional eater, but obviously trying to get a handle on it by paying more attention to the how's and when's of eating.
I agree with the posters who find that less frequent, higher calorie meals work better. I've always been an emotional eater, too, and have periods when I binge even. WHen I was eating 6 times a day or more, I had worse binge problems because I never felt satisfied with my food (mentally and physically). I tried a CBT exercise for overeating where you purposely skip a meal(s) so that you learn what true hunger feels like. After that, I learned that I can go 8 hours without food during the day if I have to and hunger is not an emergency. The sensation usually goes away after a while, too. I currently practice 16:8 IF and do not eat until after noon. Then, I usually have a biggish lunch, maybe a snack, a biggish dinner and then an evening snack. I'm usually good for at least 4 hours between these meals/snacks and if I have a snack between lunch/dinner, it's usually to satisfy a want, not a need.0 -
soapsandropes wrote: »Being hungry is natural. If you are never hungry then you are eating too much (or there is something else wrong). I prefer the larger less frequent meal approach, then I get the full feeling and a period of hunger. If I did little meals every 2-3 hours I would constantly be grumpy and slightly hungry. The skeptic in me always side eyes ads that claim that people are never hungry when losing weight.
Make sure that you are hydrated, getting some fiber, and sticking to your calorie goals. Find some things to distract you (exercise is great). Think about why you are hungry, are you emotionally eating?
Jumps up and down and waves frantically!!!!
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I hate the "hungry" feeling too. However, are you REALLY hungry? I realized when I started that I wasn't necessarily hungry, I just wasn't stuffed. For me, I was so used to always feeling super full, that when I was satisfied, but not grumbly hungry, I equated that with being "hungry." Food for thought (haha puns).
Some other tricks that have worked for me so far:- I DO eat about every two hours, it works for me.
- I also have protein and healthy fat with every snack and meal. It's also a little trial and error....for instance, I found I feel fuller longer when I snack on a hard boiled egg, so I keep that in my snack rotation quite a bit.
- I also believe in and love volumetrics...I will have a big *kitten* salad for lunch that I've loaded with lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, onions, etc etc..and a reasonable portion of grilled chicken. I feel like I've eaten a TON, but I've kept the calorie count reasonable. Same with stir-fry meals...I'll do my 4oz of chicken or beef and dump two bags of frozen stirfry veg in the wok...yum!
- I'm probably mirroring a lot of people when I say...stay patient, figure out what works for you, being grumbly hungry won't kill you while you're figuring it out.
- Oh..and I totally exercise so I can eat more.
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soapsandropes wrote: »Being hungry is natural. If you are never hungry then you are eating too much (or there is something else wrong). I prefer the larger less frequent meal approach, then I get the full feeling and a period of hunger. If I did little meals every 2-3 hours I would constantly be grumpy and slightly hungry. The skeptic in me always side eyes ads that claim that people are never hungry when losing weight.
Make sure that you are hydrated, getting some fiber, and sticking to your calorie goals. Find some things to distract you (exercise is great). Think about why you are hungry, are you emotionally eating?
DEFINATLEY an emotional eater, but obviously trying to get a handle on it by paying more attention to the how's and when's of eating.
Okay, emotional eater chiming in here.
Let me start by asking you a question... how quickly do you eat?
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I also like the larger meals approach. This is why I choose to follow Intermittent Fasting Lean Gains. This basically is a program that shortens your eating window to only 8 hours a day. You choose the 8 hour window that fits your needs. It seems that most people that do it eat between 12 pm and 8 pm. Or something close to that. You still eat the same amount of calories, but since the window for eating is smaller you can have larger meals and snacks. I have always eaten breakfast but I could easily skip it too. So I realized, for the most part I was eating it because I was "supposed" too. Most of the time I wasn't really hungry. I thought I would miss the breakfast meal but I usually don't. If I do, I just make sure to have an omelette and toast when I have lunch
It is not something that will work for everyone, but it works great for me. There have even been some days I did the Warrior Diet which is only a 4 hour eating window. The only reason I did that was because I knew I would be at an event where I would be eating or drinking a larger amount of calories that evening.0 -
TimothyFish wrote: »It seems to me that if you aren't hungry when you are dieting, you aren't doing it right. Ideally, your body will lead you to eat at a level that would maintain a healthy weight. When we lose weight, we are eating below that level.
wow we agree..nice.
I agree with this...I was only hungry when I was restricting to a too low of a calorie goal...once I got educated and realize I could still eat over 1200 I stopped being hungry and exercise became a way to eat my ice cream too...
It seems you two are saying the opposite? Maybe I am missing something.
It seems to me that my body compels me to eat at a level that maintains at more than a healthy weight (since I'm not at a healthy weight yet.)
Still, I don't agree with being hungry while dieting. I find if I eat the right foods, and time them correctly, I can eat to lose a pound a week and almost never be hungry. If I eat too much junk, or alcohol, I am not as satisfied, and hunger starts to creep in.0 -
I totally agree. I think what I am learning is that a little hunger is okay. Maybe all of us who find ourselves overweight just have overly developed survival instincts in the primitive parts of our brains. I know that I have realized that I have tended to experience a little bit of panic when I get hungry. This was probably an adaptive trait when food was scarce, leading us to search that much harder for our next meal. It's maladaptive now, when food is plentiful. I have come to realize that, even when I am quite hungry, panic is not necessary. I often used to "have to eat something" even while I waited for my meal to cook, to quell the "hunger panic". I also used to shovel in the first plateful just to get rid off the hunger, & not even really taste the food until my second plate. Now I wait, slow down, and really enjoy my first & only plateful at each meal.mamapeach910 wrote: »girlviernes wrote: »TimothyFish wrote: »It seems to me that if you aren't hungry when you are dieting, you aren't doing it right. Ideally, your body will lead you to eat at a level that would maintain a healthy weight. When we lose weight, we are eating below that level.
I agree that we need to expect some hunger and hunger is a sign you are doing something right (if your goal is weight loss), but starving and having difficulty functioning is not necessary and probably counterproductive.
I'm in a good place with my diet when I notice some hunger about an hour before meals and for the couple hours before bed.
That. But I tend to think that this is what is normal. I think that most of us used to eat so much that we avoided hunger, and that probably wasn't a healthy behavior. I tend to think, on the balance, "naturally thin" people wait to feel hungry before eating, while people with weight problems eat before they're hungry. We learn to think of hunger as an emergency. I'm learning to embrace it.
Also agreed? Being over-hungry is not good and is either a sign that you're at too aggressive a deficit or that maybe you should play around with your macros a bit, or a combination of both.
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mamapeach910 wrote: »soapsandropes wrote: »Being hungry is natural. If you are never hungry then you are eating too much (or there is something else wrong). I prefer the larger less frequent meal approach, then I get the full feeling and a period of hunger. If I did little meals every 2-3 hours I would constantly be grumpy and slightly hungry. The skeptic in me always side eyes ads that claim that people are never hungry when losing weight.
Make sure that you are hydrated, getting some fiber, and sticking to your calorie goals. Find some things to distract you (exercise is great). Think about why you are hungry, are you emotionally eating?
DEFINATLEY an emotional eater, but obviously trying to get a handle on it by paying more attention to the how's and when's of eating.
Okay, emotional eater chiming in here.
Let me start by asking you a question... how quickly do you eat?
Since my nightly binges have been banished from my head my speed has definitely slowed down. 0 -
This. I would fail otherwise. I just get too hungry and crabby.sgthaggard wrote: »Honestly, a large part of the reason I exercise is so that I can eat more and avoid hunger.
I try to only eat back about 1/2 my burned calories, (to account for MFP calories burned overestimates, and my potential food logging underestimates). But it's what works, for ME (I'm 42 lbs down in ~40 weeks).
I really think we are all a little different though, and probably need to experiment to find our optimal routines.0 -
I just looked at your diary and at least for today, it doesn't seem you are eating enough. The minimum you should be eating is 1200 calories, try to add in some more protein and snack on veggies when you get hungry! I like to keep snack veggies (carrot sticks/celery/snap peas) in my desk with a little bit of hummus or natural PB to dip in. Helps a lot! Good Luck!0
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Today I changed my goals from loosing 1.5lb a week to 1lb a week
Tbh this is better for me
Being hungry sometimes is fine... but all the time? NO
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TimothyFish wrote: »It seems to me that if you aren't hungry when you are dieting, you aren't doing it right. Ideally, your body will lead you to eat at a level that would maintain a healthy weight. When we lose weight, we are eating below that level.
wow we agree..nice.
I agree with this...I was only hungry when I was restricting to a too low of a calorie goal...once I got educated and realize I could still eat over 1200 I stopped being hungry and exercise became a way to eat my ice cream too...
It seems you two are saying the opposite? Maybe I am missing something.
It seems to me that my body compels me to eat at a level that maintains at more than a healthy weight (since I'm not at a healthy weight yet.)
Still, I don't agree with being hungry while dieting. I find if I eat the right foods, and time them correctly, I can eat to lose a pound a week and almost never be hungry. If I eat too much junk, or alcohol, I am not as satisfied, and hunger starts to creep in.
I kind of thought it sounded like we were saying something different too.
I actually like having that hungry feeling between meals. It causes me to look forward to a good meal and it makes the food taste better. Before I started losing weight, it had been weeks since I had felt hungry and eating was more an activity to do than it was something to enjoy.
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I'm new at this (3 weeks) and not exercising a lot. I have had up and down eating behaviour (almost binges) and have realized that compared to other days that I didn't feel so hungry-I wasn't eating enough in the daytime. By dinner, I would be so starving even if I've eaten little bits, and small meals. I think I do better with bigger meals for breakfast and lunch, and smaller at dinner...less hungry throughout the day.0
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TimothyFish wrote: »TimothyFish wrote: »It seems to me that if you aren't hungry when you are dieting, you aren't doing it right. Ideally, your body will lead you to eat at a level that would maintain a healthy weight. When we lose weight, we are eating below that level.
wow we agree..nice.
I agree with this...I was only hungry when I was restricting to a too low of a calorie goal...once I got educated and realize I could still eat over 1200 I stopped being hungry and exercise became a way to eat my ice cream too...
It seems you two are saying the opposite? Maybe I am missing something.
It seems to me that my body compels me to eat at a level that maintains at more than a healthy weight (since I'm not at a healthy weight yet.)
Still, I don't agree with being hungry while dieting. I find if I eat the right foods, and time them correctly, I can eat to lose a pound a week and almost never be hungry. If I eat too much junk, or alcohol, I am not as satisfied, and hunger starts to creep in.
I kind of thought it sounded like we were saying something different too.
I actually like having that hungry feeling between meals. It causes me to look forward to a good meal and it makes the food taste better. Before I started losing weight, it had been weeks since I had felt hungry and eating was more an activity to do than it was something to enjoy.
Yeah, I get that. I don't think occasional hunger is a problem, but I try to avoid it as much as possible, especially before bed, because it literally keeps me up at night!
My biggest problem is wanting to munch at work out of boredom instead of hunger. I try to find other things to do, like reading a book, when I'm not doing work, of course.
I'm also very prone to the drunk munchies...so I have to cut way back on my alcohol consumption.0 -
When I'm hungry I eat, If that means exercising more, than that is what I will do.
If I have no calories left for the day my favourites are 100g of salad 20 calories with a hard boiled egg 78 calories. 98 calories which I can easily burn off.
Or 100g salad 20 calories with 1/2 tin of tuna 55 calories = 75
I really couldn't go hungry0 -
KrystaleMBithoney wrote: »I just looked at your diary and at least for today, it doesn't seem you are eating enough. The minimum you should be eating is 1200 calories, try to add in some more protein and snack on veggies when you get hungry! I like to keep snack veggies (carrot sticks/celery/snap peas) in my desk with a little bit of hummus or natural PB to dip in. Helps a lot! Good Luck!
PEANUT BUTTER!
Great idea! That usually gives me the "full" feeling I'm always striving for! 0 -
KrystaleMBithoney wrote: »I just looked at your diary and at least for today, it doesn't seem you are eating enough. The minimum you should be eating is 1200 calories, try to add in some more protein and snack on veggies when you get hungry! I like to keep snack veggies (carrot sticks/celery/snap peas) in my desk with a little bit of hummus or natural PB to dip in. Helps a lot! Good Luck!
I typically try to save a good amount of calories for dinner - and my exercise is sometimes an uncertainty. I'm doing Daily Burn at home and depending on how our evening is going, I don't always get to it.0 -
bibliocephalus wrote: »
This. I would fail otherwise. I just get too hungry and crabby.sgthaggard wrote: »Honestly, a large part of the reason I exercise is so that I can eat more and avoid hunger.
I try to only eat back about 1/2 my burned calories, (to account for MFP calories burned overestimates, and my potential food logging underestimates). But it's what works, for ME (I'm 42 lbs down in ~40 weeks).
I really think we are all a little different though, and probably need to experiment to find our optimal routines.
Congrats on the great loss!!!!0 -
Try adding in more low-calorie, low-sugar, high-fiber fruits and veggies and pair it with a little fat and/or protein for staying power. Berries with a (measured) tablespoon of full-fat sour cream and a sprinkle of stevia are one of my favorite snacks when I'm really struggling to make it through. Other really good options: leafy greens with homemade vinaigrette, fresh herbs, and either avocado or a hard-boiled egg; cucumber wrapped in a bit of turkey breast; apple or banana with a (measured) tablespoon of peanut butter; a small serving of oatmeal with milk.
Also if you can move away from processed store-bought foods and towards homemade ones, that would probably help you out. I saw potato chips listed in your diary pretty often. There is nothing wrong with having potato chips here and there if it fits into your goals, but if you roasted whole potatoes at home with just a bit of oil or baked them (and were careful about your toppings), you would be able to eat a much larger volume of potatoes for the same number of calories, so it would help you feel a lot fuller. Same with some of the other snack items/desserts. Try swapping them out for whole, unprocessed foods and you'll get more bang for your buck. If you really need something sweet that isn't fruit, a few squares of high-quality dark chocolate, savored slowly, can go a long way.
Exercise (healthy) and caffeine (erm...healthy in moderation) also help suppress the appetite. So as counter-intuitive as it may seem, if you are really suffering try going for a short (10-20 minutes), leisurely walk. Sometimes when it is getting close to dinner time I feel like I'm going to faint I'm so hungry, and then my husband and I take our dog for a walk, and when I get home I feel like I could go hours without eating! A cup of coffee (black, or with a small measured splash of cream) can also really help put the hunger pangs to sleep for a bit.
But I think the other advice, about learning to not be afraid of a little hunger and to try to accept and embrace it (as long as you are still mostly functional, that is!) is also on-target. I'm still working on this myself as well. Good luck!0 -
Hey all! I've been logging my chow and exercise for almost 2 weeks now and still find that I am STARVING during the day. I had hoped it would pass as my belly adjusted to the minimizing of food, but still am having trouble. I wonder if anyone has any advise/ideas or if I just need to continue to try and be patient?
I typically try to eat every 2 hours - not too much, but more as an attempt to try and fend off the starving feeling. Usually by the end of day at work, I'm so dang hungry I could eat the steering wheel on my way home. I'm filling my day with good calories and try to get as much protein as possible, but it isn't working as wonderfully as I had hoped.
Anyone out there struggle with this? Or does anyone have any ideas/suggestions?
Thanks in advance!
Are you sure you're drinking enough water? At least 10-12 glasses a day? If you aim to drink at least 3 litres a day, there is a strong chance that it will cure your cravings. That's how I overcame mine. From personal experience, I have found that it is not possible to overeat solid food when your tummy is full of H20 (unless you want that sick, bloated feeling!).
My MO is to drink 1 litre before breakfast, 1L before lunch and 1L before dinner. I do not eat any meal until I attain the 1L drinking goal. Please do try it for a day and see if it works for you.
R
P.S.: I don't follow any special diet. As I am lactose intolerant, I just make appr choice and eat whatever is on the menu... I also try to be within my calorie limit, as dictated by MFP, but only problem is I work late into night and often succumb to late night snacking
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Why do you eat every two hours? Are you hungry when you eat? If not then you could try spacing your meals out more & see if that helps with your satiety.
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So many amazing ideas! I truly cannot thank you all enough for your support and suggestions!!0
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I have to disagree with the people who say it's okay to always be hungry on a diet.
My $0.02 is that if you're always starving, you're doing it wrong. You want to aim to create a reasonable deficit of no more than 15-20% from your TDEE each day. At that sort of deficit, you should not feel hungry all the time, especially if you're eating a reasonably balanced diet.
If you're hungry all the time, it could be an indication that:- You're eating at too extreme a deficit -- try to go with no more than about 20% of your gross maintenance calories. For instance, if you maintain at 2500, then 1lb/week is an appropriate goal for you. If you maintain at less than that, set your goal lower, either by custom-setting calories or by using the 0.5lb/week setting.
- You're consuming a lot of 'empty' calories -- some snacks and alcohol are okay, of course, there are no "good" or "bad" foods, but you will feel fuller on 1500 calories of fruits, veggies, full fat and protein than you will on 1500 calories of chips, soda and beer.
- You're not really hungry, but your emotional food triggers are causing you to think that you are. Tackling this is a whole other kettle of fish, but often counselling and mind tricks can help, as can drinking a lot of water.
Good luck!0
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