Always Hungry

Nuke_64

From looking at your diary, you are not eating enough protein, or enough in general for my preference. If you insist on sticking with 1200 calories, replace those high carb foods with more filling ones in particular ones with higher protein. For breakfast, try eggs, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese or higher protein cereal.

jacobs18201

Thank you for the input everyone.. I replaced a few items with some better choices.. I have oatmeal with protein on the morning, I've been waiting a little later to eat breakfast as well.. I went shopping and bought healthier alternatives to snack on.. I was a lot less hungry yesterday because of this..

freak4iron

Up the protein and healthy fats and watch the carbs, especially the low GI carbs. That's what works best for me while cutting.

Another thing that I've been playing around with is skipping breakfast and not starting to eat until lunch, this helps me immensely. Cutting is hard especially when you're used to eating out of boredom or "feeling-eating" this makes it so there's a smaller window to work with.

freak4iron

Quite frankly though,if you can't sit with the feeling of being hungry, you are gonna struggle loosing weighT. You body wants to naturally maintain a homeostatic environment. When your trying to drop body fat your forcing it to not do that and making it get its energy through your fat cells rather than VIA the stomach. So your gonna feel hungry to some extent.... It takes discipline for sure.

cbelc2

It takes at least 20 minutes for a meal to register with the brain. Try having a glass of water at your meal, putting down the fork and sipping between bites to slow you down. Fiber, protein, and healthy fats are satiating. Sugar and refined grains are hunger - producing.

Becca_250

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.

I would agree with all of these. I'm one of those people who could eat continuously even when I'm probably full. I do find drinking a big mug of tea immediately after finishing my meal helps to feel properly full and not be tempted with anything further snacking (at least for a while!).