How hungry are you, most days? Are you comfortable being hungry?
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I tend to be hungry in the mornings, even after eating breakfast. It makes it difficult to focus. After dinner, things get better.0
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FlyingMolly wrote: »I've been hungry every day since I started tracking again, but I'm not that bothered by it. Like you, I interpret it to mean that my body wants more calories in order to maintain its current weight, so I must be eating at a deficit to be hungry.
Filling foods help--I'm a big believer in a high-fat diet--but I tend to eat too much when I "snack," so I've never done well with frequent small meals. I prefer to eat three times per day and make friends with the hunger I feel in between. It's not severe or problematic, and if that changes it's not like I don't know how to find the kitchen.
I have the same problem when I snack - especially at work. I don't think it would be a bad idea for me to eat three times a day! How do you distribute your calories throughout the day?
To respond to the initial topic, hunger is only a problem for me if I'm about to do some resistance training. I work out at 5am and a couple weeks back I had a small salad for dinner around 6pm and nothing else. I was pretty hungry when I went to bed, which I felt fine with, but come 5am and my arms were nearly falling out from under me by the time I was doing my second or third set of push-ups.
I'm also guilty of eating when I'm bored/confusing hunger with boredom which is something I'm working on.0 -
Well, for me, there's a huge difference between being a little hungry and being so ravenous that I feel like I could eat an entire Chinese buffet, because when I get to feeling that way, that's usually exactly what happens and I feel terrible about letting myself get to that point. It's a delicate balance for me, as I'm sure it is for everyone, and we all handle it a bit differently.
I agree with a previous poster that said filling foods help, like fruits, veggies, proteins and fats. I am also a fan of smaller more frequent meals, including breakfast, morning snack, lunch, pre work out snack and then (most of my calories for the day) dinner post workout. Planning and meal prepping are such great tricks to staying on track and not letting myself get too hungry without a snack.
Then there is the post dinner before bed hunger, which I usually just ignore. I ALWAYS feel fine in the morning when I wake up, and glad I didn't give in.0 -
Well I think there is a difference between hunger, appetite and low blood sugar/dehydration.
Hunger:
your body is burning too much muscle, eat more.
Appetite:
Craving something specific (sometimes you actually need it though), emotional eating, or stimulated by the taste or smell of another food. Just try to pay attention to how your body reacts to each meal so you know better next time
Low blood sugar/ dehydration:
You feel dizzy, grumpy and can't concentrate. Drink more water, eat more frequently, change your macros, etc
I like this! It makes sense to me.0 -
iLoveMyPitbull1225 wrote: »Then there is the post dinner before bed hunger, which I usually just ignore. I ALWAYS feel fine in the morning when I wake up, and glad I didn't give in.
I get this. Most nights around 10pm I'm looking for something sweet even though I'm not hungry as such. Some nights I'll give in to it, some nights I ignore it, and on other nights I'm so tired from the gym I've fallen asleep on the sofa before making it to the fridge.0 -
I used to be hungry all the time. However I made a couple of changes that work for me.
- I began lifting in addition to cardio
- I use the TDEE method and eat 1700 calories everyday (before I was eating like 1400)
- I eat three substantial healthy meals and maybe one not so healthy snack
This pretty much feels like a "lifestyle" to me and I could live this way forever. Granted I only had about 20lbs to lose and have been losing very slowly over the past year.0 -
liftlovelunge wrote: »I have the same problem when I snack - especially at work. I don't think it would be a bad idea for me to eat three times a day! How do you distribute your calories throughout the day?
Usually about 300 for breakfast, 500 for lunch, and then 600 for dinner is my baseline. But I'm pretty active (I didn't think I was that active, but my FitBit begs to differ), so I usually have extra calories to add to a bigger dinner, or to use as an afternoon snack.
I know a lot of people do really well on 6-8 meals a day, but the thing I like about only eating 3-4 is that I'm less prone to lie to myself. Like, if I'm hungry at 11am and eat a handful of nuts, I tell myself I'll deduct those calories from my "real" lunch but that part never seems to actually happen. This way, when I'm hungry at 11, I can just shrug and remind myself that it isn't lunchtime yet, but it will be soon, and I can wait.
Plus, I like big meals. I just do. Eating a bunch of 250-calorie "meals" throughout the day depresses me to no end.0 -
I wake up hungry, my day is filled with thoughts of shoving food in my mouth. When I do have my meal I'm still hungry. It's a never ending battle with food and me.
Oh yeah, I go to bed hungry too, ha!0 -
I wasn't hungry the first 6 weeks but I attribute that to dramatically upping my protein intake. After that, if I was awake, I was hungry. My deficit was not extreme and I quickly figured out I was a volume eater so geared my eating around foods I could eat a lot of for relatively few calories.
Dieting is about successfully managing hunger, imho. What that looks like will be very specific to the individual.
I had resigned myself to feeling hungry forever as I had daily hunger even during my bulks. I've been maintaining the last few months and noticed my hunger has really subsided with the exception of really heavy lifting days. Even if it hadn't, it was a tradeoff I was willing to make. Experiencing hunger most days was vastly superior to suffering heart palpitations and GERD after eating when I was obese.0 -
It usually takes me a few weeks of being consistent for the hunger to go away. If I have a "no counting" day (like a holiday or vacation), I know that I'll have to deal with some hunger when I get back to my deficit. But, for me, it does decrease after the first week or so.
But it never really goes away. However, that's not a bad thing.
Hunger is not an emergency. It's your body saying "hey, at some point you're going to have to fuel me again". It's not "OMG FEED ME NOW". Most of us who have regular access to the internet have never been on the brink of starvation. We don't know true hunger. (I know some people experience low blood sugar issues, but that's not the same thing as starvation)
I actually like getting a little hungry before meals. It makes the meals taste better. I've found that it increases my enjoyment of food to let my stomach empty in between meals.
Also keep in mind that your appetite is "trainable". Meaning that if you're used to eating at certain times, your appetite expects to eat at those times. This is why people who normally snack in the afternoon (or whatever) will get hungry in the afternoon even if they've eaten sufficient food. You can retrain your appetite. Really interesting book that talks about appetite and habit: https://experiencelife.com/article/the-power-of-habit/
Obviously, all of this comes with the disclaimer that I'm not telling you to starve yourself. You should be eating sufficient calories and try to find foods that make you feel satisfied. But its ok to get a little hungry once in a while.0 -
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I learned the difference between nothing to do hunger and genuine hunger by keeping water with me and reaching for that first. I have also stopped looking at food as a reward, I build and run my own business - take no salary and work like heck to pay down the bank note principle in some amount (above monthly payment) every week. Food became my only reward - that had to stop. Now buying very nice prepared food at Publix and eating 4 approx 200 - 230 cal meals a day. It is very nice. The shrimp and chicken are great! Honestly doubt if I could accomplish my goals without Publix.0
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SergeantSausage wrote: »When I run, I'm tired.
When I lift, I'm weak (lift to muscle failure) and sore
When I eat for health, diet fatigue (where's my donuts and pizza!?)
When I eat for weight loss, I'm hungry.
These are the facts of my life... and yet I do all four simultaneously.
If it were comfortable, everyone would be doing it, right?
The more, uncomfortable you can be, the farther ahead of the Average Schmo you will be. In everything. Everything.
Sarge, I loves ya .. but nope to the last bit ..
You don't have to be completely uncomfortable to win at this .. you just have to do what you need to do and adjust
and you can fit your donuts and pizza in an eating for health diet
Unless you have a masochistic streak a mile wide of course0 -
I am not usually hungry while eating in a deficit. Not any hungrier than "oh, it's dinner time" type of hunger anyway. When I do hit the point where I am hungry all the time, I take a week or so off.0
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I used to have better distinction between "hungry" and "not hungry." I used to have three states, "OK," "peckish," and "HANGRY." Now, I have "signal" or "quiet." The new signal I get from my stomach doesn't really feel like "hungry" used to. It's kind of ambiguous and quiet and I really have to think about whether I need to eat, or if I'm not feeling well. (It's like nausea, but not quite as fierce.) I miss the joy and satisfaction of "hungry" and "full," but this new state, whatever it is, makes it pretty easy to keep things within my calorie limits.0
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FlyingMolly wrote: »liftlovelunge wrote: »I have the same problem when I snack - especially at work. I don't think it would be a bad idea for me to eat three times a day! How do you distribute your calories throughout the day?
Usually about 300 for breakfast, 500 for lunch, and then 600 for dinner is my baseline. But I'm pretty active (I didn't think I was that active, but my FitBit begs to differ), so I usually have extra calories to add to a bigger dinner, or to use as an afternoon snack.
I know a lot of people do really well on 6-8 meals a day, but the thing I like about only eating 3-4 is that I'm less prone to lie to myself. Like, if I'm hungry at 11am and eat a handful of nuts, I tell myself I'll deduct those calories from my "real" lunch but that part never seems to actually happen. This way, when I'm hungry at 11, I can just shrug and remind myself that it isn't lunchtime yet, but it will be soon, and I can wait.
Plus, I like big meals. I just do. Eating a bunch of 250-calorie "meals" throughout the day depresses me to no end.
Yep, this.
A few weeks of doing this actually retrained my appetite. I no longer get hungry until right before (like 30 minutes) meal times. If its not time to eat, its not time to eat. On very rare occasions, I will have a snack if a meal is far away or I didn't eat enough earlier in the day, but my appetite only appears at meal times for the most part.
I eat 4 times a day. Breakfast, lunch (half of my calories between those two), dinner and a snack at 9pm. Consistently, every day. Half of my calories before noon, half of my calories after 6pm. After a year of eating on that schedule, I no longer have a desire to eat outside of those times and I get a little hungry right before its time to eat. It works for me.0 -
not that hungry because I don't do a massive deficit, can't imagine how miserable I'd be eating only 1200 calories like some people do0
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I have two types of hunger - mental hunger (I just want to munch something but I'm not actually needing food, physical hunger - empty tummy)! I have 1500 calories daily and I have a small breakfast and small lunch, saving up for a good sized evening meal with a pudding. That way I don't need to munch because I never really feel hungry. When I burn calories through exercise, I do not eat additional food. I have set a goal of 1 lb a week. Could it be you could adjust your goal so u don't suffer so much? Hate the idea of being hungry all the time. I lost 4 lb week 1, 1 lb week 2, so I an already ahead by 3 lbs0
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I generally don't feel hungry until I actually start eating. I will go from when I wake up, around 4:30 till lunch time without feeling like I need to eat.
It's normally getting back from the gym and grabbing my protein shake that my body seems to come awake to the realisation that I need food.
For instance my breakfast and lunch, around 1300 calories was all consumed between 11:30 and 13:00. I'll snack on my fruit for my commute home and normally eat dinner around 21.30.0 -
Sorting ritual "hunger" (sitting down to watch a movie: where's the popcorn?) and actual hunger = a learning process for me that I'm guessing will go on for-ev-er.
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I'm in maintenance now, but it was the same when losing weight: Uncomfortably hungry - never. I'll get somewhat hungry before meals, as in looking forward to eat, and I do feel the rumbling in my guts, but it's not unpleasant at all. Some of it isn't even "hunger pangs", just digestion. I don't see why one would get extra hungry when losing weight, provided the calorie deficit isn't too aggressive - the deficit is taken from stored fat, that's what it's there for!
While I was gaining weight, on the other hand, I was starving all the time. So I ate and ate.
The difference lies in taking care of what I eat, getting a varied diet and thus enough nutrients.0 -
After my first week or so, I'm rarely hungry. I learn to space out my snacks so that I don't get too terribly hungry. I want to be ready to eat by the time my next meal rolls around, but I don't want to be so hungry I over-eat.
One thing I learned with my Fitbit was that I was eating too little. I am more active than I think I am.0 -
Hunger is not an emergency. I repeat this to myself regularly. Yes, I get hungry. Not every day, but many days. One book I read actually asked readers to skip a meal one day just to get used to the feeling of hunger and to help the mind wrap itself around the fact that hunger is not an emergency (in this case).
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I've had to do some medical testing for my insulin pump over the last few weeks to make sure my rates are set correctly. The testing involves eating a low fat meal and then not eating anything for 11 hours. No caffeine even. Water and diet sprite and sf jello only. I've had to do this multiple days and I've learned a lot about hunger. The "hunger" I experience on a daily, 3 hours post meal basis is real, but very very mild. The real hunger starts at about 7 hours after eating and it is so consuming by hour 9 that I can't function (dizzy, weak, shouldn't be driving kind of bad). Hats off to those who do regular fasting. I'm trying to learn to be ok with the mild hunger after experiencing the crazy hunger several times now.0
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I used to at the start ... someone said to me "What's wrong with feeling hungry" and it hit home
so I started analysing the feeling
.. was it a bad feeling?
...this is how it feels? that's interesting .. is this really hungry
and I'd wait .. I wouldn't rush to eat, particularly if I'd just eaten ... I'd just let the feeling wash over me and get on with doing stuff
30 mins later I was still feeling hungry I'd eat ... but more often than not the 'hunger signal' had gone away ]
Now .. a year down the line and 3 months into maintenance it's far less frequent .. and only when I am consciously thinking of my stomach / mouth hunger .. like now .. but I automatically do the 'have I just eaten / is it true hungry' analysis (it's almost subconscious) and it seems to work
Hope that helps
@rabbitjb This hits on something that's been rattling around in my head the past couple days. Have we, in Western culture, simply bought into the idea that any temporary discomfort due to hunger is unacceptable and we must always respond with food? If that it the case no wonder obesity is skyrocketing, if every few hours we traipse off to the vending machine or grab something from the fridge.
If we have to always answer the first tiny pang of hunger with food, we're doomed to be fat and whiny childish creatures. It's the ultimate First World Problem; I'm uncomfortable, medicate me! Heaven help us if we have to face real hardship as too often happens in the developing world.1 -
I've been at this for 18 months and I'm not hungry, but I'm never full/satiated either. It's hard to tell the difference. The funny thing is that I *kitten* and moan that I want to eat until I feel full, but when I do it I feel disgusting and bloated. I think this might be one of those things that never really goes away. Like I quit smoking cigarettes 8 years ago but I still think about them several times a day. I just don't have one.0
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Questions I ask myself if I'm "hungry":
1. Am I thirsty? Have I been drinking enough water today?
2. When did I last eat? When is my next meal? Can I wait that long?
3. Would I eat a bowl of broccoli if it were given to me or am I just craving junk food? (this question is usually after a main meal)
I try to listen to my body. If I'm truly hungry, I eat. If I'm not, I don't.0 -
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It took me a a good 2 and a half months to work out how to deal with this and, to be honest, I've still not got it 100% sorted.
My problem was that I was used to eating high calorie, low nutrient foods. Not necessarily "Junk Food" like McDonalds (other fast-food vendors are available) but just food that was not a good choice. The result was that would hit my calorie goal but my body would still tell me that it needed something more.
My change was to switch to lower calorie choice foods (which in general appear to be higher nutritional value). Eating lower calorie foods in a larger volume meant that I was still eating the same calories, but I was able to feel full after a meal.0 -
I am also hungry every day, but usually just before meal time. I've never thought of this as a bad thing because I think eating when not hungry is a bad thing. I don't regularly snack, but if I get overly hungry before meal time I have a small snack.0
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