Does hunger get better after dieting for a few weeks?

Taleatia

I've maintained a 40lb loss for about 3 years, and got there by eating around 1600 calories per day (after much research this is the number I came up with). I've put 7 pounds back on and am have gone back to 1500-1600 calories per day to lose it (plus the last 5 pounds or so I've been struggling with).

I'm eating high protein, tons of veggies, lots of water, whole foods and fiber but 3 days in I'm still SO HUNGRY. Like, can't focus on much else hungry. Even right after meals. For most of the day.

My question is: does it get better? I dimly remember feeling a little less hungry after a few weeks of caloric deficit. Have other people found this to be the case?

Addiewe

I was hungry all the time until I went from eating several times a day to three meals a day. My lunch and dinner meals are quite high in calories, around 700 cal apiece. I find that when I get sufficiently "full", I don't think of food as much until the next meal.

galgenstrick

I do an intermittent fasting type diet: skip breakfast and eat between 12pm and 9pm. Only reason is I'm super hungry at night if I eat breakfast and run low on calories.

shmulyeng

I got less hungry when I discovered a few low calorie and filling snacks

peleroja

For me, it did, but I also had to look at what made me feel full - fortunately in my case it's bulk from vegetables and that kind of thing. However, a lot of people here say that fat is what helps them the most, so you might want to try upping the percentage of fat in your diet and see if that helps you too. Protein helps too but it sounds like you might be (possibly unintentionally) eating pretty low-fat, so I'm wondering if that's the culprit. You're out of the realm of hard science here and into "how does it make you feel?" so it's worth a shot to see if it makes you feel better.

Also, this might be a placebo thing, but I feel less hungry when I'm very careful with my micronutrient intake and get lots of vitamins and minerals in my diet. My explanation of that in my own head is that my body isn't craving anything because I'm deficient so it's curbing my hunger, but that could totally be made-up and I don't want to present it as fact, just an anecdotal thing that has worked for me personally as far as the sensation of hunger goes.

JenD1066

What got me over this was modified IF. I only only eat between 8 and 4. This allows me to consume enough calories to feel sated.

harpsdesire

I was definitely struggling more with hunger when I first started

krmsotherhalf68

I've noticed that if I don't come pretty close to or meet my protein goals for the day, I'm hungrier. Also, if I do have a sweet treat or more carbs than usual, I crave more food for a day or two. The only way I've found to curb my appetite is to eat healthy and eat snacks that are filling, yet aren't heavily laden with cals, sugar, carbs, and fats. For example, if I have a Greek yogurt with some fruit, I'm much more satisfied than if I try to have just a handful of reduced cal chips or one serving of a favorite candy. Don't know if it will always work for me, but so far, so good. Best of luck to you! : )

jgnatca

When I was on a medically supervised VLCD liquid diet, I stopped getting hungry after a few days. It has not been so with a moderate reduction in calories, and hunger comes in waves, sometimes lasting days. Extra cardio can leave me in a raging hunger in a day or so.

Not terribly encouraging I know. I figure hunger is a signal that all systems are operational.

Then I had a hot day working in my community garden and my hunger just wasn't there. I had one of hubby's cool smoothies for dinner, as I figured, "why question it? If I'm not hungry the don't eat big." A couple days later I dropped a few pounds.

dalila747

I found that after a few weeks it gets easier. Your stomach isn't asking for food all the time.

lemurcat12

Playing around with food choice and eating time can help, depending on why you were hungry.

For me it's usually just mental--like I was in the habit of eating certain things or at certain times and feel the lack when I stop. When I first did this I just let myself eat raw veggies when I felt like eating outside of mealtimes and the feeling of wanting to eat eventually went away--really in just a week or so as I got used to my new schedule and confident that I was eating plenty of food.

I also tend to be a volume eater, though, so making sure I had big plates of food for my meals (I'm a 3 meals a day person, mostly) helped, so I piled on the veggies in addition to the protein, but it sounds as if you are already doing that.

drewchiu1

You are 40 lbs lighter than previous and if you have been exercising, that also means you have increased your lean muscle mass. In order to give some options, you will need to look at you current BF, your activity level and your nutrition intake.

3AAnn3

I'm still hungry. Only about 12 days in. I'm not hungry after meals, but am hungry between them. Also do a lot of exercise though which I'm sure makes a difference. I would say stick to what you're doing. Eat plenty of protein, drink lots of water and include lots of high fiber veggies, but don't leave the carbs and fat out. You need a little of each as well.

Ready2Rock206

I don't know - I obsess over food constantly! I eat too many calories early in the day and then go like 8 hours between my last snack and dinner with gym time in between so I'm hungry a lot!! I need to get better at spacing out my calories through the day.

TimothyFish

For the most part, it has gotten better for me. Mornings, between breakfast at 5:00 and Dinner at 11:00 are difficult for me. I find myself watching the clock. But I do pretty good in the afternoons.

rainbowbow

About 2 weeks in a deficit it seems to level out for me.

Orphia

Have you checked whether you're eating enough low GI food?

http://www.the-gi-diet.org/lowgifoods/

Alluminati

It got better for me when I made peace with that hunger feeling. It's ok to feel hungry in between meals and I'm not gonna keel over and die before lunch.

lauracups

I have heard it over and over how hunger can be confused with dehydration, and it wasn't until I started upping my water and decaf tea at night that I believed it. Try increasing fluids, see if that helps.

rainbowbow

This is a good scale that i have memorized and used. It's been nice to learn the difference between real hunger and when to stop eating. I follow the 80% rule. I stop eating when i'm 80% full.