PLEASE HELP. I'M ALWAYS HUNGRY

PAV8888

MSG is salty/umami.

The PB mentioned above is de-fatted and dried peanut butter. I found it OK as an add on to give other things peanut butter taste. Amazon should deliver it to the UK. Look for PB2 or PB&Me as brands.. or possibly no name peanut flour might do the same trick.

Various things make one feel more or less full.

In random order I've found various forms of success with: apples (not bananas), plain potatoes, 0% plain greek and 0% sucralose sweetened yogurts, fat free artificially sweetened refrigerated jello puddings, whole eggs to egg whites in a 1:2 and up to 1:3 per gram ratio (so a 50g whole egg with 100 to 150g of egg white added), unsweetened cocoa powder (hersheys), reasonable amounts of cinnamon, adding onion and garlic, coffee (black these past few years and enjoying it), hot whole wheat plain cream of wheat and/or plain oatmeal or mixed plain and flavoured, various soups and chilies, spicier indian food-sometimes cut with 0% yogurt and often with extra veggies, frozen and fresh bags of veggies (shredded coleslaw sits in the fridge to be randomly added to things), fish (and shellfish) when I can be bothered to "cook" proves to be a good bargain!, sharp and stronger tasting cheese (danish blue for example), all bran bud cereal--for the longest time my night-time meal was a tub of yogurt with all bran bud cereal and some cocoa mixed in! The general idea for me was to bulk up meals with less calories and skew the macros towards higher protein. I found that, in general, fats took care of themselves--as in i was never in danger of not eating enough of them!

PAV8888

In your OP you mentioned that you are gaining weight every time you eat normally.

I wonder about the size of swings you are attempting. And what time frames you use when looking at your results. Consider your weight TREND over several weeks, not today's weight!

Think feathering, not sledgehammers, when it comes to pushing the trend up or down.

You need to look at your weight trend over 6-8 weeks, not at your weight over a single week. And you probably should be weighing yourself daily, not once a week at "Booth's"

Unless you are low-carbing, if you lose 5 lbs you would expect to be able to add at least 1000 Cal a day AND NOT GAIN.


TDEE is the total amount of calories you spend. There is an inherent amount of estimating that only long term consistent data can help you sort through.

And it is a dynamic system: we don't burn the same amount of calories exactly in a deficit, at maintenance and on a surplus. And there are errors in measuring our weight and in measuring our calories out and calories in and.... <-- but you don't need perfection to get estimates that are good enough to yield results for you!

You said: "I lost 5 lbs in a week. I was only supposed to lose 2 lbs". And I said: "your deficit is too large". And this is in the context of you complaining that you're having trouble complying with your deficit because of being too hungry

First of all unless you're currently well in the obese range and your estimated TDEE is well over 3000, a target of more than 1lb a week for weight loss (i.e. more than 500 Cal a day) falls above a 20-25% deficit... i.e. it is probably too aggressive.

You lost 5lbs. Now I realize and already assume that it was not all fat and that some of it was water weight, etc etc. But 5lbs argues that you are effectively applying AT LEAST a 1000 Cal deficit, if not larger, as compared to what you're eating. Because if your deficit was less than 1000 Cal we would expect you to lose less than 2lbs... not more than double that!

Therefore you ARE hungry. Because you're under-eating by too much for your current situation! Because 5lbs says your deficit was more than 1000 Cal which was already potentially too much for you in the first place!

The goal is not a sprint to the finish--what finish? You're going to have to maintain your weight loss for the rest of your life!

The goal is to lose weight in a way that helps you figure out how to maintain your weight loss and generates the least amount of problems for you both now and in the future.

Starting with a super aggressive deficit that leaves you hungry and lethargic (as sometimes happens with people who persist on applying too large of a deficit for a long period of time) won't help you much down the road! Same applies with a deficit that is so aggressive you keep giving up and consuming everything under the sun after the intense restriction!

Not sure if mentioned above. Use a weight trend app and weigh yourself no more than once a day taking into account expected hormonal fluctuations as they relate to your weight when trying to figure out your weight level.

Calculate calories eaten by consistently logging everything you eat/drink. Weighing your food and choosing accurate entries helps because the more accurate you are the more consistent you will be. Consistency, ultimately matters more than accuracy.

ON AVERAGE 3500 Cal per lb lost or gained is a good enough approximation for your effective deficit. Even it if doesn't work exactly and even if the number is much more variable in reality, the approximation is good enough for you to apply a stimulus (deficit or surplus) that pushes you to achieving the results you seek (weight loss or gain).

If you find yourself targeting a >15-20% effective stimulus double check with yourself if that's the best thing for you. Risk of non-compliance and negative consequences increase with larger applications! The obvious issue exists with too small of an application: lack of results.

Like with everything else: balance works best!

TL; dr: reduce your deficit. Target 1lb per week at most. Don't try to under-eat much more than that. If your faster than expected results continue, don't hesitate to increase your calories especially if you are having trouble maintaining compliance.

allother94

What worked for me was to find replacement foods for the bad things I was eating. You end up eating at least as much, but the calories are far less.

The other thing that worked for me was to amp up my exercise; when you get better of course. I would burn 800-1000cals in the gym 2 days a week and just “pig out” with the extra calories. I often couldn’t eat enough to cover my burn.

Have you tried eating skinless chicken breasts? The calories are so low relative to the amount of solid food you put into you body. It’s not the answer to all your questions, but it may help. It’s been a daily staple of mine for a year now and fills me up every time.

Whole quaker oats soaked in milk over night and egg whites from a carton cooked in a muffin pan are also good replacements. Just find the right foods, get some exercise when you are better, and let the buffet begin...

nooshi713

1200 calories is too little. I would be starving too! Try 1500 calories. Good luck! You can do it!