Always hungry?

jennabeauchesne1
jennabeauchesne1 Posts: 17 Member
in Motivation and Support
Hi, all!

I'm having a problem. For starters, I'm 23, 5'8.5", and 279lbs. I have lost 19 lbs since March 7th. In the past I have lost 100lbs and then gained 150lbs (nothing surgery related, but rather restrictive disorder related to which I'm very much recovered from). The first month of my diet went well, I'd say. I was doing pretty well at staying between 1300-1400 calories with a few hiccups (my birthday, Easter, nephew's birthday party). The second month got a bit harder. I've upped my cals to 1590 (MFP's recommendation), yet I'm struggling HARD. I find that I am constantly hungry.
For reference, I am a volume eater. I can't eat a normal portion of anything and be satisfied. I need to feel stuffed to feel good and be able to focus. So, for a good while, I would eat a whole bag of veggies with my meals to try to help. I even tried drinking a full glass of water before my meals and then taking sips in between bites, but water just gives me the empty-full feeling so that I'm still craving food. I added more fiber and protein into my diet- nothing. The only thing thats somewhat helped is having more carbs in my diet, but even then I still get hungry quickly after. The only time I seem to be full and satisfied is having fast food- but, of course, the calories are so immense it makes up my day's calories (and I'm not satisfied unless its at least a medium-sized meal, getting a small would probably make me get an attitude lmao). I don't do much exercise, although I do plan on heading back to the gym and burning 300-500 calories 5x a week. My day job is dog walking so I walk daily but thats it right now. Anyone else have this problem? I know its definitely somewhat of a mental thing, but the physical hunger is also real and makes every day harder to deal with or find joy in my days because all I can think about is being hungry. SOS :/

Replies

  • 88olds
    88olds Posts: 4,532 Member
    How much fat are you getting? If I get too far out on the low fat eating limb I get into this agitated never satisfied thing. It keeps dragging me into the kitchen looking for food.

    I think of myself as a volume eater too. And the calories add up in a hurry eating fat. But sometimes I go out and instead of the egg white veggie omelet, I’ll opt for the bacon and eggs. Afternoon snack time will come and go, and I don’t even think about it. Maybe experiment a little.
  • MichelleSilverleaf
    MichelleSilverleaf Posts: 2,027 Member
    There is a volume eater's thread somewhere here on the boards, if you plug it into the search you may find it. That would give you ideas of things to eat that isn't going to put you over your calories.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,409 Member
    How long ago did you switch up from 1300-1400 to 1590? Was it in the last couple weeks? I find increased hunger/appetite when I increase calories but it goes away usually in a couple weeks.

    The other thing is I 100% agree with lthames0810. I can psyche myself out if I start thinking, "Poor me. I need more food." On the other hand if I tell myself, "1600 calories is the amount of food I am eating today. It is enough food if I choose carefully," then I'm able to relax a bit.

    And finally - you can eat more than 1590 if it's just too hard. I'm assuming you set your MFP Goal at, "Lose 2 pounds per week." If so, why don't you set it at, "Lose 1 pound per week," and then try sticking to that for a while. You may find that you lose faster than the setting, AND you may find yourself better able to eat less. A lot of this is psychological and finding our how your thoughts work.

    I lose weight at 500 calories more per day than MFP suggests. If I try to use the MFP settings I can't stick to them. You may just have it set too low - For You. With your daily walking, 1590 may just be too low. You would still lose at 1800 or 1900, for instance.

  • jennabeauchesne1
    jennabeauchesne1 Posts: 17 Member
    88olds wrote: »
    How much fat are you getting? If I get too far out on the low fat eating limb I get into this agitated never satisfied thing. It keeps dragging me into the kitchen looking for food.

    I think of myself as a volume eater too. And the calories add up in a hurry eating fat. But sometimes I go out and instead of the egg white veggie omelet, I’ll opt for the bacon and eggs. Afternoon snack time will come and go, and I don’t even think about it. Maybe experiment a little.

    I would say that a large portion of my diet is fats. I've definitely experimented like you've mentioned. When I eat the full-fat, calorie-dense foods then I can wait. For example, every Monday night me and my bf get fast food around 6pm. It leaves me full and satisfied the remainder of the night. I've made low-calorie versions of what I get and they leave me full for about an hour and then I'm raveging again. It's dumb and makes no sense!!

  • jennabeauchesne1
    jennabeauchesne1 Posts: 17 Member
    MichelleSilverleaf wrote: »
    There is a volume eater's thread somewhere here on the boards, if you plug it into the search you may find it. That would give you ideas of things to eat that isn't going to put you over your calories.

    Thank you honey. I've gone through the whole thread multiple times. It's pretty easy for me to eat full bags of veggies and fruit and what not, and I get the "stuffed" feeling from the veggies but it still feels somewhat empty and leaves me wanting more food soon after?
  • jennabeauchesne1
    jennabeauchesne1 Posts: 17 Member
    lthames0810 wrote: »
    Hunger is a type of pain and people naturally differ in how tolerant they are of different kinds of pain. For me, I can tolerate a kidney stone better than the muscle burn from riding my bike up a hill.

    But I wonder sometimes if there isn't an element of anxiety in the hunger intolerance. Like, worry that I might run out of gas?

    I accidentally discovered a thing about this. I had to have fasted blood work done, but my appointment wasn't until 10AM. I was miserable. Several months later I tried out of curiosity the 16:8 type of intermittent fasting. I waited until 10 AM to eat my first meal. It wasn't bad at all. The only difference was in my head.

    Sorry if this isn't helpful or what you're looking for. Just throwing it out there that perspective has a lot to do with how we perceive things.

    You are most certainly correct in saying there's an element of anxiety involved. In terms of fasting, I'm a very experienced (imho) faster. Back in the day I could water/diet soda fast for up to a week. Doing 16:8 just never made any sense to me because it still allowed 8 hours of calorie intake and that's basically the time period of when I eat my meals anyways if you know what I'm saying. I generally never eat breakfast and try to hold off on lunch as long as possible (generally 2pm-4pm) because if I eat breakfast I become RAVENOUS right after for the rest of the day. At least "fasting" through breakfast means I won't ingest an extra meal's worth of calories and that I won't be so hungry throughout the first half of the day.
  • jennabeauchesne1
    jennabeauchesne1 Posts: 17 Member
    cmriverside wrote: »
    How long ago did you switch up from 1300-1400 to 1590? Was it in the last couple weeks? I find increased hunger/appetite when I increase calories but it goes away usually in a couple weeks.

    The other thing is I 100% agree with lthames0810. I can psyche myself out if I start thinking, "Poor me. I need more food." On the other hand if I tell myself, "1600 calories is the amount of food I am eating today. It is enough food if I choose carefully," then I'm able to relax a bit.

    And finally - you can eat more than 1590 if it's just too hard. I'm assuming you set your MFP Goal at, "Lose 2 pounds per week." If so, why don't you set it at, "Lose 1 pound per week," and then try sticking to that for a while. You may find that you lose faster than the setting, AND you may find yourself better able to eat less. A lot of this is psychological and finding our how your thoughts work.

    I lose weight at 500 calories more per day than MFP suggests. If I try to use the MFP settings I can't stick to them. You may just have it set too low - For You. With your daily walking, 1590 may just be too low. You would still lose at 1800 or 1900, for instance.

    Just this week I switched it up. I generally start the day with that attitude, I think- where I'm like, "It's enough food", but once I get to dinner I'm like "oh *kitten* this is not enough" lmao.

    Unfortunately, and this is just my dumb stubbornness, I can't up my calories anymore. I already feel horrible upping them from 1300-1590. I really want to lose at least 2lbs a week :( It's hard because I could up my calories and lose 1lb a week- but if I have any screw ups, then I can so easily put back on that 1lb. You know what I'm saying?
  • jennabeauchesne1
    jennabeauchesne1 Posts: 17 Member
    Larissa_NY wrote: »
    I know you know this because you just said it in the last line of your post, but it's worth repeating: being hungry and wanting food aren't the same thing. Being hungry and wanting to feel stuffed and satisfied aren't the same thing either.

    The reason I bring it up is that I think a lot of people who have been overweight for a long time have lost sight of what physical hunger feels like, because they don't go long enough between meals and snacks to start the physiological process your body goes through to tell you it needs food. Some of them seem like they're caught up in constantly monitoring their physical status over the course of the day and every twinge or momentary discomfort gets labeled "hunger" even though real physical hunger (stomach growling, hands shaking, feeling light-headed) is something they never give themselves a chance to experience.

    So here's more stuff you know but it never hurts to hear it again: hunger is unpleasant, but unless you legitimately are living with food insecurity, it's not an emergency. You're never more than a few hours away from your next meal. It's not something you have to respond to immediately or something bad will happen.

    If what you're struggling with isn't "my stomach is growling so loud my coworkers can hear it" but "I'm distracted because my stomach feels empty and I need it to feel stuffed," there is no calorie level or macro balance that will meet that need and still allow you to lose weight. If you've tried whole bags of vegetables, more protein, and more fiber, and the only thing that makes you feel better is fast food, it may be time to try working on your tolerance for discomfort and anxiety.

    I definitely agree and understand the overweight and misconception of physical hunger pain and cues. I've never been one of those overweight people who eat every few hours- the majority of my life (I was an obese child, too) I've fasted through meals (or days on end), been too broke to afford food, or just eaten one meal per day (because of work hours and what not). Most days now I'm up around 9am and feel the real hunger pain start around 2pm, after I've finished my dog walking job for the day. I'm not a snacker, either. Snacks just seem pointless to me lmao. Like why eat a small portion of something just to be more hungry?? I definitely understand what you mean by working on my discomfort and anxiety though, but I just have no idea how to go about it. Like it takes an extreme amount of effort to stop myself from bingeing all day every day- and I know that's completely mental. I think I've realized that this whole post and worries is actually mental but damn, I have no idea how to fix it so that I can be a normal person and eat a normal portion without breaking down or needing more food.
  • Larissa_NY
    Larissa_NY Posts: 495 Member
    So it sounds from your replies like your eating habits are kind of a process of over-restricting, bingeing, and being afraid that if you start eating you won't want to stop or won't be able to stop (e.g., not eating breakfast because if you do it just sets off the feeling of wanting more food). It also sounds like you've spent a lot of time being food insecure, which can give people this feeling that if they don't eat All The Things when they do sit down to eat, there's no telling how long it will be before they get access to food again.

    This is a lot, and if that's a reasonable description of what's going on, it's beyond MFP's pay grade. If therapy with an ED specialist is available to you, you might need to try that. I'm not saying you have a full-blown eating disorder, but you do seem to have pretty disordered eating habits and an uncomfortable relationship with food, and someone with expertise in that area can give you actual tools to try instead of giving you generic dieting advice.

    I hope you can find someone to talk to. Dealing with anxiety sucks a lot.
  • Spliner1969
    Spliner1969 Posts: 3,233 Member
    jennabeauchesne1 wrote: »
    Hi, all!

    I'm having a problem. For starters, I'm 23, 5'8.5", and 279lbs. I have lost 19 lbs since March 7th. In the past I have lost 100lbs and then gained 150lbs (nothing surgery related, but rather restrictive disorder related to which I'm very much recovered from). The first month of my diet went well, I'd say. I was doing pretty well at staying between 1300-1400 calories with a few hiccups (my birthday, Easter, nephew's birthday party). The second month got a bit harder. I've upped my cals to 1590 (MFP's recommendation), yet I'm struggling HARD. I find that I am constantly hungry.
    For reference, I am a volume eater. I can't eat a normal portion of anything and be satisfied. I need to feel stuffed to feel good and be able to focus. So, for a good while, I would eat a whole bag of veggies with my meals to try to help. I even tried drinking a full glass of water before my meals and then taking sips in between bites, but water just gives me the empty-full feeling so that I'm still craving food. I added more fiber and protein into my diet- nothing. The only thing thats somewhat helped is having more carbs in my diet, but even then I still get hungry quickly after. The only time I seem to be full and satisfied is having fast food- but, of course, the calories are so immense it makes up my day's calories (and I'm not satisfied unless its at least a medium-sized meal, getting a small would probably make me get an attitude lmao). I don't do much exercise, although I do plan on heading back to the gym and burning 300-500 calories 5x a week. My day job is dog walking so I walk daily but thats it right now. Anyone else have this problem? I know its definitely somewhat of a mental thing, but the physical hunger is also real and makes every day harder to deal with or find joy in my days because all I can think about is being hungry. SOS :/

    I'm 6'2" tall, and currently somewhere in the 235lb range. I originally started with MFP in 2015 (weighed 305+ then), shot down to 187lbs in about 14 months, maintained it for a while (that was 1700 cals/day plus about 50% of exercise calories), then started bulking and cutting off and on for the next two years. Started a big bulk in the fall last year and am currently trying to cut back on that and start to lean out. I've always had a hard time gaining muscle. Fat, however, is easy for me.

    I feel your pain, I've always been a big eater. Some of the things I tried in the past that worked that first year aren't working now for me. I've increased my activity level to working out like never (back in 2015) to 5-6 times a week which only increases the hunger. It seems my body's happy place is around 250 lbs. Unfortunately because of joint problems and high blood pressure when I get that heavy, I can't really stay at that weight even if I wanted to. Hunger is no joke, and the only way my body wants to release the fat stores is if I do a 1.5-2lb/week loss rate. I managed it back in 2015 but now couldn't even consider cutting my calories that low and still perform with my workouts the way I do now. It's been tough this year to find balance, because I tend to eat a lot in a setting. Even if I manage to keep breakfast and lunch to about 500 calories or less each, I tend to eat 1200-1500 calories for dinner. If there are snacks involved, and there usually are, that puts me up over my limits pretty easy.

    I know how I did it before (I starved most of the time.. not literally, but I stayed hungry a lot), just have not done well with it yet this year. The volume of food I ate was done with substitution in 2015. I ate a lot of baked cauliflower as a side, usually a couple hundred grams or a bit more at dinner time, simply tossed with a tablespoon or two of EVOO and salt and pepper and baked until lightly browned. Adding that as a side, and any steamed veggies, always helped fill the void so to speak. So I'd eat 8-12oz (usually baked or grilled chicken) of protein, add in the veggies as a side, and if I ate anything else with it, it was usually a baked potato with very few toppings. I got so tired of it though I'm having trouble doing that again.

    But do think about substitution. Look at what you normally eat, start changing out your sides with something lower calorie but with a lot of bulk. What also helped me before was drinking up to a gallon of water a day, and I'd always try to drink a bottle of water about an hour or so before a meal. Since 2015 though I can tell you this; people will tell you that your stomach will shrink.. it doesn't. You may get used to eating less at a sitting, or eating more steamed veggies to fill up, but you will always have the ability to eat what you do now in one sitting. Even when I was down to 187lbs I could eat like a horse if I let myself. Eating more veggies as sides or drinking more water can help, but you'll always likely need to be mindful of what you are eating and practice portion control. I use a scale, try to log all my food, and that keeps me somewhat in check anyway.
  • Wombat468
    Wombat468 Posts: 191 Member
    Your calories seem absurdly low for your stats!! Can you just decrease your rate of loss and up them?
  • Spliner1969
    Spliner1969 Posts: 3,233 Member
    CiaraCatch wrote: »
    Your calories seem absurdly low for your stats!! Can you just decrease your rate of loss and up them?

    Although I understand trying to lose weight as quick as possible I'd have to agree. The OP could probably move up to around 1800-2000 cals/day and still lose weight at a decent pace. If the OP is going to add in the gym the calories will need to increase anyway, likely a couple hundred a day on average for what is mentioned above. Then again, that will depend on how motivated someone is in the gym. Someone who walks dogs every day should likely have a larger TDEE than someone who is sedentary anyway.
  • staticsplit
    staticsplit Posts: 538 Member
    It sounds like weight loss path you're on is too aggressive for you to stick to. I also understand wanting to lose quickly, but if sticking to it makes you give up and binge and put you back where you started, what's the point? Maybe even slow down to 1 pound a week for 2-3 months to give yourself a semi-break. That'd still be 8 to 12 pounds, and your stomach might by then adjust.

    I've also had eating disorders in the past (fairly recently into recovery for a relapse last year) and pushing my first meal to 1 or 2 pm is often a surefire way to set myself up for a binge in the evening. I was suuuuper hungry when I first started introducing breakfasts again, but after a few weeks I got used to it, and I'm not usually as mega hungry in the evenings as a result. I did that today and I'm comfortably sitting on 1900 calories despite an hour of weight lifting and half an hour of walking. (I'm 6 ft and 153 pounds).

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