Who else is hungry ALL THE TIME?

cashidy

Hello,
Is it normal to be hungry all the time? I get hunger pains and even sometimes feel nauseous. It is making losing weight really hard! I can eat and an hour later be hungry. Is it mind over matter? Could I have another issue?

Then, when I go to sleep, I get so hungry overnight it wakes me up and I have to try to go to sleep again. It also makes me preoccupied with food.

It is so hard to not go home and binge on bad food and go over my limit. I have been trying to combat this by going to bed earlier, but it is still hard.


For background, I started a 1200 calorie diet and going to the gym. If I run, I am allowed to eat the same amount of calories I burned. I am drinking more water.

Who else has this problem? Any tips?

kshama2001

Many of us start with 1200 calories before realizing that this low amount of calories creates too aggressive a calorie deficit. How much weight do you want to lose in total? And how tall are you?

1200 calories usually only works for short or older women who are also sedentary.

cashidy

I weigh 150, and would like to get down to 120, but would be happy with 125.

cashidy

My problem is I also do not calorie count over the weekend, so I feel like I need a huge deficit in order to lose the weight. I know it would be more realistic to just not eat as much on the weekends and only have one cheat day

kshama2001

cashidy wrote: »

I weigh 150, and would like to get down to 120, but would be happy with 125.

With only 25-30 pounds to lose, set your weekly weight loss goal to a half pound per week and enjoy those extra calories!

If you find that you are still hungry, experiment to find which foods satiate you the most and focus on them.

http://www.nutrition.org.uk/healthyliving/fuller/understanding-satiety-feeling-full-after-a-meal.html

cwolfman13

Calorie deficit might be too aggressive. Also, most people have to play around with their diets to find what is satiating...for me it's primarily complex carbs

jemhh

cashidy wrote: »

My problem is I also do not calorie count over the weekend, so I feel like I need a huge deficit in order to lose the weight. I know it would be more realistic to just not eat as much on the weekends and only have one cheat day

Why have a cheat day? Why not have a maintenance day instead?

Also, eat some of your exercise calories and consider lowering your weekly weight loss goal. Weight loss doesn't have to be a painful uncomfortable process.

marijaa1996

motivatio 0 points. A eat sendvich now.

nightengale7

You're going to have to watch what you are eating on the weekends as well. A cheat day here or there is a good thing to help keep your cravings in check, but every weekend is just sabotaging yourself. I have found that if I only have 2 meals on weekend days, I can eat some of the more calorie heavy foods I love without going over on my calories. Also, maybe try upping your deficit to 1400 to see if that feels any better. An extra 200 calories can mean a tasty and nutritious snack to keep you going!

kshama2001

cashidy wrote: »

My problem is I also do not calorie count over the weekend, so I feel like I need a huge deficit in order to lose the weight. I know it would be more realistic to just not eat as much on the weekends and only have one cheat day

Many of us don't buy in to the concept of cheat days. However, if you are going to do this, still log them so you know how many calories you have consumed.

I could easily undo all my hard work during the week by eating freely on the weekends.

I prefer to not suffer M-F just to indulge the other two days. I do eat more on the weekends, but I also exercise more those days.

endlessfall16

I don't have your problem. I think I used to be like that but memories are fading.

For me it doesn't take much to cure a hunger. 5, 10 kernels of cashew or a simple sandwich.

Weight control is, if you do it right, all dependent on your discipline. None of the out of control hunger, discomfort. So, I think you can use some tweaking on your meal timing and food types.

Btw, I think healthily you are supposed to feel a bit empty/hungry by end of day. You cannot lose/maintain your weight if you feel full or neutral all the time. Your body needs to use up the daily calories.

Trish1c

I found that it passed.

I was at 158 & wanted to get down to 135; for my height, weight & sedentary lifestyle whether I set it for 1 or 2 pounds of weight loss I only got 1200 calories.

At first I was starving all the time. I learned to drink a bottle of water before I ate anything. Sometimes that helped. In the beginning it didn't. I learned to snack. I'd eat breakfast, then have a mid morning snack of under 100 calories around 10:30. I'd eat lunch & have a mid afternoon snack. Then eat dinner. Spreading it out helped & that reduced the nausea & dizziness. The snacks were small things: a few carrots, a granola bar, a yogurt, some fruit etc.

I was also fixed on food which made me think about food all the time which only lead to more hunger.

As my body got used to eating less, the cravings & the obsession diminished.

Ready2Rock206

1200 is really low. But yep - if I am losing weight I am hungry 100% of the time.

LadyDriver17

It's very tough for a woman to get enough nutrients at only 1200 calories/day ..... & you really need to keep track EVERY day, even weekends .... if you lose a little slower, you'll stay healthier plus it'll be easier to maintain your weight loss. Hunger pains don't always signify that your stomach is empty ..... sometimes they mean you are dehydrated, sometimes they happen because your blood sugar is fluctuating .....

By the way, my big eating trigger is boredom, not hunger ...... & I have found that tracking every mouthful on here made me realise how much food I took in even though I WASN'T hungry ......

Mouse_Potato

Ready2Rock206 wrote: »

1200 is really low. But yep - if I am losing weight I am hungry 100% of the time.

This is me as well. And that's on about 2000 calories a day.

kshama2001

Trish1c wrote: »

I found that it passed.

I was at 158 & wanted to get down to 135; for my height, weight & sedentary lifestyle whether I set it for 1 or 2 pounds of weight loss I only got 1200 calories.

At first I was starving all the time. I learned to drink a bottle of water before I ate anything. Sometimes that helped. In the beginning it didn't. I learned to snack. I'd eat breakfast, then have a mid morning snack of under 100 calories around 10:30. I'd eat lunch & have a mid afternoon snack. Then eat dinner. Spreading it out helped & that reduced the nausea & dizziness. The snacks were small things: a few carrots, a granola bar, a yogurt, some fruit etc.

I was also fixed on food which made me think about food all the time which only lead to more hunger.

As my body got used to eating less, the cravings & the obsession diminished.

Nausea and dizziness is a sign that something is wrong. In your case, it sounds like you created too aggressive a calorie deficit in an attempt to lose that 23 pounds too quickly.

Shows like The Biggest Loser give us unrealistic expectations of how long weight loss should take. MFP doesn't help by failing to give guidelines when one is choosing a weekly weight loss goal. (If this is no longer true for the app, would someone please post a screenshot?)

marijaa1996

The point of weight loss is not starvation. Of course we do not need every day to eat three slices of pork .. but we can eat one and a lot of vegetables with it. I run in the morning before breakfast and so I lose calories .. Throughout the day I enter from 1000-1200 calories, and I'm not too hungry. lots of vegetables, fruits, a lot of water. Share you to the smaller 5.6 servings. Of course there will be difficult first week. But then it will be only a matter of habit. Believe the figures we can play. And 1200 calories sounds small, but it is actually enough for the body.

kcwebb2012

Have you ever tried eating smaller meals more often? For example, I eat 6 or 7 meals a day. Extreme hunger is usually rare for me, but my body does usually know (and let me know!) when it's time to eat. Here's my schedule:

08:30 - breakfast
10:30 - snack
12:30 - lunch
2:30 - snack
4:30 - snack
maybe include a post-workout snack here
7:30 - 8:30 - dinner (depending on gym time)
two hours after dinner, if I am feeling hungry, I'll have a late night snack

Snacks can be things like fruit, nuts and yogurt, or a protein shake or they can be more substantial (i.e. a couple ounces of chicken/turkey) depending on your body and needs. I was eating 1200 calories a day over the summer to get to my goal weight, so I know it can be really hard, but you can do it!!

cashidy

Thank you all for the advice. From this I believe I need to calorie count this weekend and try to spread my food out over the day, as well as prepare my own foods and starting eating lower calorie but larger meals.

marijaa1996

Now to deal with numbers. To lose weight 0.5 kg should consume about 3,500 calories - without having to make up for them. You force your body to use the energy of a pound of fat. Five kilos in a month corresponds to 1.25 kg per week. So that in a week you need to create a deficit of 8,750 calories - or 1,250 calories a day.

Wait! Before you fall into despair of these numbers (and reaching for chips), try to understand that the daily intake of calories and play with the big numbers. It's like currency in Italy, where every day in the buying and selling of goods exchanged thousands of lira.

Your body each day spent on thousands of calories just to be seated or the vehicle to a mini-market, not to mention daring activities. For example, a man of 85 kg at rest consumes 1,850 calories a day, and in other normal daily activities even 1,600. This is a total 3,450 calories each day. If you would still run 30 minutes at a good pace (say 4: 20 / km), would spend another 540 calories, making a total of 3,990.

If the runner ate 3,990 calories a day, it would not put on weight nor to lost weight. But if every day ate 1,250 calories less, you would still take 2,740 calories, including 16 rolls or 27 bananas or apples 34 or 14 cups of cooked pasta. The point is that you can eat quite a lot of food, if you exercise and eat wisely.

leanjogreen18

Eating more often during the day was a disaster for me personally.

I skip breakfast because I'm not hungry in the am. This allows for bigger brunch and dinner portions. Sometimes I have snacks sometimes not. But this allows for 500 brunch 500 dinner and one or two snacks on 1200 for me.

I also like volume so I make the biggest salad I can and add my protein to it. This helps.

I also found a carb, fat & protein at every meal helps with satiety, for me anyway.

Ready2Rock206

leanjogreen18 wrote: »

Eating more often during the day was a disaster for me personally.

I

Me too! I was even more hungry because I was never satisfied by actually having a meal. Probably a mental thing but tiny snacks all day was so unfulfilling it just made everything worse.

release_the_kraken

Eat better quality fats. I am doing Keto..carbs under 50g at the most. Was hungry all the time until I got my good fats up..now never hungry

bwogilvie

cashidy wrote: »

My problem is I also do not calorie count over the weekend, so I feel like I need a huge deficit in order to lose the weight. I know it would be more realistic to just not eat as much on the weekends and only have one cheat day

I was hungry much of the time for the first three weeks I was losing weight. I dealt with it with three D's:

(1) Distraction: often focusing on something for 10-15 minutes would take care of the hunger.

(2) Drinking water: hydration helps.

(3) Dill pickles: a couple of baby dills are filling and have 10 calories or so.

However, I was running a moderate deficit (500-600 calories) and eating all my exercise calories. And while I aimed for a weekly calorie goal, not a daily one, I didn't have any "cheat" days; days I went over my average calorie goal were over by a couple hundred at most.

It's clear that you know your problem; the solution is not to go overboard on the weekends, so you can eat more on weekdays. Good luck implementing it!

jdog022

marijaa1996 wrote: »

Now to deal with numbers. To lose weight 0.5 kg should consume about 3,500 calories - without having to make up for them. You force your body to use the energy of a pound of fat. Five kilos in a month corresponds to 1.25 kg per week. So that in a week you need to create a deficit of 8,750 calories - or 1,250 calories a day.

say what?? 1250 per day deficit. no

TMW2119

I started at 1200 a day and it went well for about a month. Then I started having days when I was starving. A little research encouraged me to bump my calorie count up. I eat around 1400-1500 a day now. I'm losing weight at a slower rate, but I'm okay with that. I'm glad I can still lose weight without going hungry.

ddeliciosa

I don't feel hungry all the time per say, but definitely at night. If I stay up too late I get hunger pangs. Still trying to figure out the best way to deal with it. It's not terribly bothersome but it can prevent me from going to sleep right away.

AnnPT77

I disagree with those who say you "should" be hungry while losing weight - at least not if we're talking major-league life-altering hungry, as you seem to be. I grant that the first couple of weeks can involve adaptation, but after that things ought to become pretty manageable.

Mid-thread here, you sound like you have a good plan: Eat more home-cooked foods - more nutritious, higher volume, lower calorie - and manage the weekends more in line with your goals. Good stuff!

I'd also like to suggest you step back (conceptually) from the "many small meals" idea. It may be a good idea for you, and it's definitely worth a try.

Here's the thing: Calories in < Calories Out works for pretty much everyone, to lose weight. But satiation - avoiding hunger - seems to be very individualized. There are lots of variations that work for at least some people, but no one solution works for everyone. Think of it as involving two major variables: Timing, and composition of eating.

Timing: Multiple small meals works for some. At the other extreme, one-big-meal-daily intermittent fasting works best for others. There are innumerable variations in between. Some people need a big breakfast; others skip breakfast. Some do better with even-calorie meals through the day; some eat lightly at breakfast/lunch but have a heavy dinner and/or a bedtime snack. There are lots of other possible variations in number, size, and time of day for meals/snacks. You can even vary your calories on different days of the week (bigger deficit weekdays, smaller weekends; 5:2 intermittent fasting - lots of variation possible there, too).

Composition: While always working within a healthy range, what you eat also matters for satiation, but again there are huge individual differences. Some people find protein filling, some find fat filling. Some need complex carbs (whole grains, whole potatoes, and the like) to feel full, while others find that eating carbs makes them crave more carbs. Some people need high volume low-cal foods to feel full (these are usually high-fiber veggies). Some people need combinations of the above.

Obviously, you need certain minimums of protein, fat, fiber, and fruit/veggies (for micronutrients) to be eating most healthfully, but you have some wiggle room, possibly even at a calorie deficit, that lets you emphasize some more than others and still keep things nutritious.

So: It sounds like you're considering trying the "many small meals/snacks" option. That's great. Try it for a few days, and if it works for you, stick with it. But if you find it isn't effective, try another variation (in timing or composition) for a few days, and see if it's better. Rinse'n'repeat, until you find what works best for you.

Through this, diary review is a powerful tool, assuming you log your food. At first, look at your diary every couple of days. Look for foods that "cost" a lot of calories, but didn't give you enough satiation, nutrition or tastiness for those calories. Reduce/eliminate those foods, and replace them with something else you enjoy, that better meets your goals. Over time, this will evolve your eating in a more satisfying, nutritious direction.

Look for patterns in what precedes bouts of hunger. Are there trigger foods? Lesser amounts of some nutrient or food before bouts of hunger? Etc.

During diary review, also consider other factors that affect hunger/satiation: Did you get enough restful sleep? Did you experience an unusually high amount of stress? Were you bored? Did your exercise type or volume differ? How much water or equivalent did you drink? Etc. Either eating changes, or other behavior strategies (hobbies, bedtimes, exercise, etc.) can help manage these.

For me, I learned that I needed a very solid breakfast with plenty of protein, then protein through the day, plus a decent volume of high-volume low-calorie foods (one of my faves is whole plates of raw veggies like cucumber, jicama, kohlrabi, carrots, celery, celeriac, and others). Lack of sleep, for me, is a craving/over-eating trigger.

Your specifics will differ. But - I predict - once you figure things out, you can manage to be rarely very hungry, unless it's almost time for the next meal. And, in the rare case where hunger strikes at a different time, you'll know what snack works best to tide you over, and keep your calorie deficit reasonably intact.

Good luck!

tomteboda

@cashidy how tall are you? You mentioned eating back exercise calories, but do you eat all of them or only some?

cashidy

Thank you all for your input!

@tomteboda I am 5 3. And I have decided to eat back most of the calories I burn exercising.

allie2girlz

If your "diet" (what you are eating) leaves you hungry then you are not going to want to stick with it for the duration of the weight loss or even after you lose the weight so then you will have a hard time maintaining the wt. loss.
I started eating low carb high fat (keto) and will never have to "diet" again. I am never hungry. Went from having to eat 6 times a day, and after several weeks could go all day without eating and felt great. I am in maintenance now and eat 3 meals a day just so I don't keep losing weight. I do not snack nor feel the need to. I also don't want to go back to my previous way of eating, because my "diet" foods taste good and are extremely filling.

I hope you find what works for you!