I never feel 'full'

tarynopolis

I have a big problem with overeating and I have such a hard time tracking calories because I snack a lot and lose track... I find when I'm eating a meal, I never feel satisfied. It normally gets to the point that I eat until it hurts and I don't know how to fix this. I drink plenty of water every day, I could just eat forever.

Control_Dopamine

I cant look at your food logs..But what is your macro breakdown ? How much protein are you getting?

tarynopolis

I just getting into the swing of this app.... I've used it on and off, I'm awful at tracking.

Carb 50, Fat 30, Protein 20

livingleanlivingclean

Learn to accept hunger? There's nothing wrong with feeling hungry - you don't need to be full 24/7.

I have found eating more mindfully helps a lot, I no longer eat in the car on the run, or when I'm in a rush - I sit down properly, take time and enjoy my food. I choose foods for volume so I get big meals and eat less often - continuous grazing or small meals makes me hungry a lot.

Got2GetIt1

Same here! It's crazy but I will try again tomorrow. One day at a time.

Control_Dopamine

tarynopolis wrote: »

I just getting into the swing of this app.... I've used it on and off, I'm awful at tracking.

Carb 50, Fat 30, Protein 20

I'm guessing these are percentages. Try these carb 40 fat 25 protein 35 . Most people feel fuller on more protein , also since protein requires a little more energy to digest it cant hurt. What is your total calorie intake and your height and weight?

MikeGettingSmaller

I find it helps to enter the food before I eat it. That allows me to see what is going in my body and how much it is costing me as far as calories and carbs. Also eat at the table, even if it is by yourself. I find I can eat forever in front of the TV or Computer.

seska422

MikeGettingSmaller wrote: »

I find it helps to enter the food before I eat it. That allows me to see what is going in my body and how much it is costing me as far as calories

This.

Log first, then eat and drink what you've logged. That gives you a chance to think about what you plan to eat and make a different decision before it's too late.

tarynopolis

Don't know why I never thought of logging first. Brilliant

Christine_72

tarynopolis wrote: »

Don't know why I never thought of logging first. Brilliant

It's a good idea. I prelog my whole day first thing in the morning, every morning. This way you can tweak things if yhey dont fit and shuffle bits and pieces to hit your macros etc

OneTwentyThree

Filling up on protein might help.

cebreisch

Increase fiber and protein. That helped me not be hungry.

tarynopolis

Protein is probably where I struggle. I follow a vegetarian diet, but to me I feel like I eat enough protein but my body is telling me otherwise? I tend to make that as an excuse for eating more, I think.

OneTwentyThree

tarynopolis wrote: »

Protein is probably where I struggle. I follow a vegetarian diet, but to me I feel like I eat enough protein but my body is telling me otherwise? I tend to make that as an excuse for eating more, I think.

Ive tried a vegan diet and felt that hunger feeling all the time. I was doing a very healthy diet, mostly plant based (nothing processed), plenty of vegan protein, all the vitamins, adequate calories, was doing everything the right way but animal protein is the only thing that made the hunger feeling in my stomach go away and felt better energy wise overall. I was experimenting with being vegan for health purposes so I will not try to tell you to change your diet since you may be doing it for moral reasons, just sharing my experience and what helped.

Sunnybaby3034

tarynopolis wrote: »

Protein is probably where I struggle. I follow a vegetarian diet, but to me I feel like I eat enough protein but my body is telling me otherwise? I tend to make that as an excuse for eating more, I think.

snacking in between meals on Peanuts help curb appetite and they are good for you too

CattOfTheGarage

All good advice. It's also possible that you're looking for something that food can't provide - that the feeling of "satisfaction" you're after is actually emotional. Worth considering. Food can give you pleasure in the moment and it can take away hunger, but that's about the limit of what it can do, it can't give you an overall feeling of satisfaction or bliss. I know I, for some reason, sometimes attach this kind of expectation to it and in fact I need to look elsewhere.

trevorw52

yes you need to find what triggers your over eating we all over eat for a reason eg emotional. boredom. depression

em_schaefer

I have this problem as well. I eat until I'm full. Often times feeling miserable after. But some of these tips actually make sense. I'm going to try it

VixxyLiss

Eat slower, put your knife & fork down between each mouthful, make each meal last at least 20 minutes to give the "I've had sufficient" message to reach your brain.

It isn't about feeling full, if you eat until you're full then you're probably eating too much, try to learn the difference being having sufficient and being full. I find that if I have sufficient then I'm ready for my next meal, if I have too much and I'm full then I don't feel like eating at the next meal so I don't eat enough which leads to picking and snacking later.

Lostyourchariot

Recently I've been experimenting with having several small courses, so say a little soup, or a grapefruit before my main course and a little dessert course, such as a small yoghourt and fruit, all served on attractive crockery. It slows down eating and allows your full-feeling to kick in (it takes about 20 minutes) and also means you have a new taste to look forward to at the end of one course, so you don't carry on gorging on the first taste.

GottaBurnEmAll

I'm a vegetarian too. I eat a lot of cottage cheese and egg whites for protein.

Do learn to eat slower. Chew every bit thoroughly.

Give this time.

I used to need to feel stuffed to the gills to feel full. You will get over that. The fact is that it's not normal to feel that. The feeling you're actually going for is to no longer feel hungry. There's a difference between no longer feeling hungry and between feeling stuffed.

I am still a volume eater, and if given the opportunity I could eat for days. I have to fight the urge, but it's doable. I fill up on the low calorie things like fiber filled vegetables (I can eat a pound of steamed broccoli at a time) and then keep my portions of things like protein and fat more reasonable.

CMNVA

I've been doing this for 4 months now. I never feel full either and I've accepted that. Some things make me feel more satisfied than others and these are usually high volume foods that also contain protein (think a big bowl of crunchy salad with chicken on top). That's the closest I get to feeling full. Soft foods such as eggs never give me a full feeling but I am not starving either.

Over the holidays I stepped off my eating plan and, yeah, for the first time in months, I got that full feeling. Unfortunately, it takes about a 1,000 calorie meal to get me feeling full.

sbrandt37

I read a book on this topic called "Mindless Eating" that I found really helpful. One of the things it says (and proves) is that feeling full is highly subjective, and that it is healthier to aim for feeling "not hungry".

Recognizing the difference between feeling hungry and craving food is also important. I often crave food when I am not hungry. When that happens now, I drink a zero-calorie drink instead of eating something.

When I am genuinely hungry between meals, I snack now, which makes it easier to eat mindfully at mealtime.

isabellapanzica9387

Try picking at a bowl of low calories snacks throughout the day. For example making a plain bowl of popcorn and eat a few whenever you feel hungery. Some times I use a cup of dry cerial or a counted out amount of m&ms. The trick is to eat them one at a time and chew slowly. By doing this I end up being able to eat most of the day and not go over my calorie limit since popcorn and one cup of dry cerial is low on calories.

lemurcat12

sbrandt37 wrote: »

I read a book on this topic called "Mindless Eating" that I found really helpful. One of the things it says (and proves) is that feeling full is highly subjective, and that it is healthier to aim for feeling "not hungry".

Recognizing the difference between feeling hungry and craving food is also important. I often crave food when I am not hungry. When that happens now, I drink a zero-calorie drink instead of eating something.

When I am genuinely hungry between meals, I snack now, which makes it easier to eat mindfully at mealtime.

This is pretty similar to what I was going to say.

OP, I wonder if you just need to adjust what "feel satisfied" means to you. That stuffed feeling is not necessary, and you also don't need to feel like you couldn't eat more. My signals were messed up when I started and so I decided how much I should eat in a day and stuck with it and found even when my eye was off and it looked like just a little (and I could have eaten more), I'd be perfectly content with less. Bulking meals out with vegetables also helped me, and until I got used to not snacking having some raw veg if I really wanted to eat something.

That said, you mention snacking a lot and that (grazing, basically) has never worked for me and contributes to me not feeling satisfied. I am much better off with 3 larger meals. But you should experiment with what works for you.

Trying to start by relying on signals to tell you how much to eat often doesn't work, though, even if you can fix it so it does later. I instead had an idea in my mind of how much to eat, how much I would eat at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and then logged throughout the day, and found I was satisfied.

Lounmoun

If you are not feeling full then play with the amounts of protein, fats and fiber you consume. If you think you get enough protein maybe you need more fats. Also when you have eaten an appropriate portion stop eating, drink a glass of water and wait 20 minutes to see if you are really still hungry or not.

I prelog for my day every morning and it helps me meet my goals better.

TigerLily100

I had this problem. I got into the habit of eating until I feel stuffed, so eating until my hunger had gone left me feeling unsatisfied with my food and I'd be straight in the cupboard stuffing my face with cookies etc until I felt my normal stuffed. Few years of eating like this has left me 50% over my healthy weight.

I changed once I admitted I was just plain old greedy!
I changed to a smaller dinner plate and made a conscious effort to stop eating once I was no longer hungry, rather than stopping when I felt full.

It definitely changed my eating habits, and I lost half of the weight just over a year ago.....slowly put what I'd lost back on over the next year but that's another storie based around way too much chocolate!
I never regained the habit of eating until I was stuffed though thankfully.

Sometimes you just have to stick with it and accept the hunger until you adjust both physically and mentally, but it's definitely worth checking your macros in case you're out and it's adding to the problem.

Trish1c

Mindful, slow eating is required. Good self talk helps. You see the plate of food before you that is properly portioned control & before you start eating, you say to yourself you will be full when the meal is over.

Planning small, filling, low calorie snacks, that you can eat during the day. I found I did better on 5 meals -- breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, and dinner.

H_Ock12

I like to eat a lot of food in one sitting, which is where intermittent fasting comes in handy for me....I eat one large meal each day and sometimes a small one, depending on my activity level. I can get all my needed calories in at once, or during a four - six hour span and then I'm done for the day.

nowine4me

Pre-log your day and only eat what you log. Set your goal to lose 1# per week to give yourself some wiggle room.

Evamutt

I find if I drink big glass of water,or big cup of hot tea after I eat & wait 20min, I'm not hungry. I told myself, if I'm hungry in 20min I'll eat some more, but I'm not hungry