Extra hungry days

shelbyrea1985

What do y’all do when you are hungrier on some days than others? All I wanna do today is eat! Any suggestions would be great and very helpful. 😊

Terytha

I eat cherries or apples. They are very filling for not very much calories. That way even if I go over it won't be by much.

Strudders67

I eat a load of veg - bulk food at a low calorie count. Or up your calories to eat at maintenance.

nancy939393

I sit down and eat a tub of fresh salsa (the whole container) with a spoon. It's like a spicy gazpacho and only 150 calories, and packed with vitamins. It fills up my stomach (literally) and the spiceness I find provides satiety (normally). If it doesn't then I need protein.

gweduc

High fiber foods or an acceptable meal with a fiber supplement.

Annie_01

Grapes or Halo mandarins...I have those hand to mouth days on occasion and both seem to work...especially the mandarins since I have to peel them. I am sad right now...mandarins are out of season. I also keep the small cups of greek yogurt around and the sugar free pudding cups. I found my best solution to those days that I just want to eat is to keep low calorie items around. I always have some type of fruit...yes it will drive sugar levels up but I don't worry about that very much.

puffbrat

I eat to maintenance rather than a deficit.

grinning_chick

I add in an additional actual meal for the day rather than one or more snacks. For me, by doing so, I end up at around maintenance on a "hungry day" instead of 1-5K calories over it.

kshama2001

If you are a woman with a menstrual cycle and are premenstrual, increased appetite is common then. Many of us eat at maintenance at that time. For me, increased appetite is often the first and only symptom that my period is approaching.

Other women have mentioned being hungrier at ovulation as well.

veganbaum

Another thing you could try is diarizing in order to see if there is a pattern to those days. For instance, do they coincide with a certain time in your cycle? Do they coincide with a certain type of exercise? Lack of sleep? etc.

If you are able to identify a pattern, you might be able to plan for it. Depending on the cause, you could exercise to earn more calories, or you could save 50-100 calories for a set number of preceding days, focus on adding at least half and hour more sleep, or whatever.

If the days just seem random, you have lots of suggestions about how to approach that hunger.

AnnPT77

It's a tangent, but earlier on one thing I did was try to figure out why I was especially hungry: Macros or specific food choices or meal/snack timing that day (or the previous day)? Stress? Boredom? Poor sleep? More exercise, less exercise, a specific type of exercise? Over-restriction? Emotions? Social triggers? Habit-based triggers? Over-restricting? Denying myself desired treat foods I could maybe fit in? Something else?

I think it's kind of common to be a little hungry in the first couple of weeks of a new calorie deficit. After that, for many of us (the lucky ones ), it should be possible to feel more or less satisfied much of the time, unless it's getting pretty close to another reasonable meal or snack time.

Satiation strategies seem to vary by individual, but figuring out one's personal formula is really, really helpful.

I needed a solid breakfast with protein, adequate protein through the day, and volume (mostly high-fiber low-cal veggies) at some time during the day, on the food front (but other people may need relatively more fats, or carbs, or something else). I also learned that inadequate sleep created problems, and learned some new coping mechanisms (if food isn't the root problem, but rather boredom or habit or something, then food isn't the solution).

LyndaBSS

I look at my diary and compare a hungry day to a satiated day. I look at the times I've eaten meals, see if that makes a difference. For me, it's a matter of a few foods that satisfy me for longer than others.

shelbyrea1985

Thank y’all so much! Everyone’s comments were very insightful. I’m only on my fourth day of my new lifestyle of eating. LOL hopefully it’ll get better with time!

whoami67

I expect to be hungry the first couple weeks of any diet. I just suffer. After that, when I have a hungry day, I eat more. Today, I had breakfast twice. Usually, I work out and then eat breakfast. I went to bed a little hungry last night, woke up starving really early this morning and had my breakfast. Then I worked out and had another breakfast. Now I feel better; my body needed some food.

kshama2001

shelbyrea1985 wrote: »

Thank y’all so much! Everyone’s comments were very insightful. I’m only on my fourth day of my new lifestyle of eating. LOL hopefully it’ll get better with time!

How many pounds do you want to lose total and what weekly weight loss goal did you chose? Many people, myself including, start using MFP with an overly aggressive weight loss goal for the amount of weight we need to lose.

Evamutt

I don't have any other kinds of food in the house other than what I usually eat so I'll just have extra of that or extra snack of yogurt