How do you deal with hunger?

jdbly3373

Hi, I am working on losing 60 lbs but I find it difficult because I start feeling very hungry when I am eating less than I burn even a little and start to want to just eat a bunch of food in one sitting. How do you deal with the hungry feeling? I don't like it and feel it almost constantly. Do you get used to it?

cmriverside

How many calories per day are you eating?

I deal with hunger by first of all, eating.

With that said, if your calories are set too low you're going to struggle but lowering calories in general causes hunger. It does tend to settle down in a week or two for me, but not if I'm eating too little in general or not eating enough of the types of foods to keep me full (like protein and piles of vegetables.)

MaltedTea

If your hunger pangs are reasonable and regular then eat. But also take a look at whether you're setting your caloric goal too low. Perhaps losing at a slower rate would allow you to have more calories per day.

If this is emotional eating, then the above still applies but it may also be helpful to check in with a nutritionist and/or therapist to discuss strategies to help you overcome that in a healthy way.

ninerbuff

jdbly3373 wrote: »

Hi, I am working on losing 60 lbs but I find it difficult because I start feeling very hungry when I am eating less than I burn even a little and start to want to just eat a bunch of food in one sitting. How do you deal with the hungry feeling? I don't like it and feel it almost constantly. Do you get used to it?

Many people because of habitual behavior just want to eat or chew on something. When I used to compete, it was tough to diet for it because I was so used to eating so many meals in a day and snacking. I just basically had to change what I snacked on. So I switched to celery. Well after a while of doing that, I really didn't care for celery anymore and stopped snacking. But that's just me.
You can still snack, but overall you HAVE TO BE ACCOUNTABLE for you overall calories in a day. So my suggestion is if you feel you have to eat, make sure to pick something low calorie and just have ONE SERVING of it and stop. This takes getting used to, so you need to be disciplined and do it for a few weeks to get used to the new behavior.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Theoldguy1

ninerbuff wrote: »

jdbly3373 wrote: »

Hi, I am working on losing 60 lbs but I find it difficult because I start feeling very hungry when I am eating less than I burn even a little and start to want to just eat a bunch of food in one sitting. How do you deal with the hungry feeling? I don't like it and feel it almost constantly. Do you get used to it?

Many people because of habitual behavior just want to eat or chew on something. When I used to compete, it was tough to diet for it because I was so used to eating so many meals in a day and snacking. I just basically had to change what I snacked on. So I switched to celery. Well after a while of doing that, I really didn't care for celery anymore and stopped snacking. But that's just me.
You can still snack, but overall you HAVE TO BE ACCOUNTABLE for you overall calories in a day. So my suggestion is if you feel you have to eat, make sure to pick something low calorie and just have ONE SERVING of it and stop. This takes getting used to, so you need to be disciplined and do it for a few weeks to get used to the new behavior.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Agree with this. One has to determine if they are TRUELY hungry (i.e., their body physically needs food) or they THINK they are hungry and are eating out of habit, boredom, etc.

jennacole12

So it took me a long time to learn I am a volume eater, mini meals will never work for me bc I’m always starving. What I do is with every meal I incorporate a high volume low calorie food and they add little to my calorie intake but make me feel full bc my stomach is full. Some example are slices of zucchini and season and bake for a few minutes, you can also zoodle it but that takes more time, I slice a cucumber and add kernal seasonings white cheddar and EBTB seasoning, an entire pepper sliced in half with 30 g of fat free cream cheese and EBTB seasoning, I also eat sliced and seasoned eggplant or riced cauliflower (a whole bag) which I even add to my wraps and oatmeal.... sounds weird but I swear it’s good! When I say I add an entire giant cucumber or zucchini or even eggplant I’m not lying. It works great for micronutrients and satiation!

goal06082021

The first thing I would do is see if maybe your calorie limit is set too low, as others have suggested. If you have MFP set to lose 2 lbs per week, reset it to 1 lb per week; you aren't heavy enough to lose that quickly in a safe and sustainable way for very long. Most people don't actually need to be on 1200/1500-calorie diets to lose (those are the minimum calorie budgets MFP will set for women and men respectively) - if you're male and/or taller than about 5'2", you almost assuredly need more calories than that in a day. (For reference, I'm female, 5'3", currently 243lb, and I'm losing about a pound per week on an average of 2650 cal/day, doing only about 10-20 minutes of light to moderate exercise daily - so no, not even I need to be on 1200 cal/day to lose. Maybe if I literally never left my bed, I would need to eat that little.)

The next thing, after adjusting your calories and seeing how you feel, is to try drinking a glass of water first whenever you start to feel hungry, and see what that does for you. Tons of people are really bad at differentiating hunger and thirst, and plenty of folks don't drink enough water. If you can't do plain water for whatever reason, you can zhuzh it up with fruit or Mio drops - lemon-ginger water* is delightful, as is cucumber-mint water, and Mio comes in a million flavors. Or, if you like fizzy drinks, there's also roughly a million brands of flavored seltzer out now.

The last thing I would try is to plan for snacks. If you start to notice patterns, like "I'm always feeling snacky around 3 PM," then...plan for a snack at 3 PM. Just, you know, make it something reasonably nutritious if at all possible. An ounce of nuts, a piece of fruit. Carrots and hummus. Sometimes you just need a g**d*** Oreo, though, and that is also OK, as long as you fit it into your budget for that day. (I have some g**d*** Oreos pre-logged to eat later today, as a matter of fact.)

*if you make yourself some lemon-ginger water, drink it through a straw - it's rather acidic, not good for your tooth enamel. Delicious, though!

SnifterPug

When I first started 16:8 if I felt hungry during a fast period I had a cup of green tea. I promised myself that if I still felt hungry 30 minutes later I would allow myself a snack. I then busied myself with something to take my mind off the hunger and most of the time I forgot even to check whether 30 mins had elapsed. Realising that the feeling of hunger goes away rather than getting worse and worse until I ate something was the game changer for me.

SunnyBunBun79

I struggle with hunger too.. i found if i ate more protein during breakfast and lunch, then I wasnt so ravenous during dinner and before bed which is when the Snack Monster comes out. I have this Cafe Latte Premier Protein shake that I mix with my black coffee at breakfast and it keeps me full. Eat more protein at each meal, and if you want to snack get some beef jerky or some mixed nuts...the chewiness is more satisfying with those type of foods.

Jthanmyfitnesspal

I agree with just about everything above. I'm going to assume you have selected a reasonable weight loss plan. I default to 1lb per week. I don't like my deficit to be more than about 25% of your TDEE. (For me, my sedentary maintenance TDEE is ~2000kcals, so I cut at ~2500KCALS. It just happens that eliminating 500kcals per day will lead to about ~1lb loss per week.) But, you can go to a lower deficit of 25% is too hard to maintain. Consistency is much more important than speed!

Hunger is a very complex sensation which has evolved to get you to eat more when you can in preparation for a lack of food. In other words, you have evolved to over-eat! Our ability to store weeks worth of energy in our own bodies is an enabling human capability relative to other primates, so it's rather a miracle. Unfortunately, unlike our ancestors, some of us (the lucky few) have easy access to food, particularly processed foods. Sometimes it's hard to recognize that as a huge blessing.

But, by the same argument, we evolved to be able to ignore hunger when necessary. Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to hunt for food or do other activities while hungry. The hunger sensation is clearly different for different people, so you need to figure out what works best for you if you want to control your weight. I feel like your ability to ignore hunger is a muscle. If you do it long enough, it the muscle becomes stronger, and it is easier to stick to your plan.

There are all the common techniques of controlling macros ("keto") and scheduled eating ("IF"). I don't like going full keto, personally, but I do limit carbs when I'm cutting, and that helps (it means eating more fats, not necessarily more protein). As for "IF," it can really help to eat on a set schedule. It is always the case that when you overeat in a day, the "extra calories" will be eaten late in the day, so it helps to eliminate late evening snacks.

When you are hungry, which you will be during a deficit at some time, you need to find what works for you. A cup of tea, celery, or maybe just pure distraction. I actually think that going on a diet frees up a lot of extra time to do something else. What about knitting, reading, exercising, housecleaning, organizing, etc. Do any of those work for you?

Best of luck!

PS One of my hobbies is writing these posts!

kshama2001

jdbly3373 wrote: »

Hi, I am working on losing 60 lbs but I find it difficult because I start feeling very hungry when I am eating less than I burn even a little and start to want to just eat a bunch of food in one sitting. How do you deal with the hungry feeling? I don't like it and feel it almost constantly. Do you get used to it?

I'm guessing you chose the weekly weight loss goal of two pounds per week, which many of us do when we first start. If so, drop it to a pound a week until you get used to the new lower amount of calories. You can then try 1.5 pounds per week until you only have 50 pounds to lose, or just keep it at 1 pound per week.



If that is not applicable, look at your macros. I am satiated with protein and fiber. I swapped out sodium for fiber and kept a close eye on it until I was regularly hitting my fiber goal.

https://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

Other people are satiated by fat and love plans like keto. Yet others are volume eaters, as mentioned above. Find what works for you

vivo1972

I tell myself hunger is normal. It can't hurt me

LisaGetsMoving

Unless it's the 'gnawing off your arm because you're starving' kind of hunger (in which case, eat more, & eat consistently) what I try and do is become comfortable with it, try to befriend it, try not to view it as a terrible thing.

A little hunger is normal for humans, throughout history we've not had access to calories just because we got a little hungry, but hunger is a great motivator. When I feel a little hunger creeping in, I acknowledge it, and encourage the feeling to move into my thighs or big belly and feed on some fat there. I'll also make a cup of tea and sometimes get some celery, cucumber, carrot or apple slices and convince myself that those will chase it away, and more often than not it is enough. Sometimes I realize that the hunger is really boredom or stress, the two things that seem to trigger my mind to eat. It easier to come up with solutions when you recognize the underlying cause.

Here's what I try not to do, because it's asking for trouble. Don't:
-watch cooking/food shows on TV, it triggers the mind
-keep chips, cookies, candy stocked up in the house, they will talk to you
-skip meals or try to undercut calories, especially on work out days, unless you're planning for a treat meal
-eliminate all your favorite foods from your diet, you should fit some in within your calorie range

spiriteagle99

Try to figure out which foods keep you full longer. I do better with eggs for breakfast or lunch than cereal or bread when I'm trying to lose weight as the protein helps make me feel full for a longer period of time. For a snack, an apple or cheese will last longer than a cookie. A dinner with lots of vegetables and fiber fill me up.

lgfrie

Lot of good insights above.

My two cents: you're going to be hungry sometimes while you're dieting, learn to accept that, and build it into your expectations. You can (and should) fine tune your meal times, the content of those meals, and other aspects of your diet in order to minimize the hunger pangs, but they're going to happen. Part of successful dieting is exerting willpower over minor hunger pangs and learning to just ride them out. The notion that every little hunger pang can be eliminated in advance by hyper-managing the macros and timing is ... well, I just find that unrealistic. It is the in the very nature of a calorie deficit for your body to request more food, which is what a hunger pang is. Your body would rather be provided with more food than burn its fat stores, which makes sense, evolutionarily speaking.

I started doing 16:8 in May, 2019 and have stuck with it all this time. At first I was unbelievably, insanely hungry in the evenings, as my eating window was noon to 8 pm. I toughed it out because I really wanted to give IF a chance. After 3-4 weeks the hunger pangs sort of went away, and now they barely if at all exist outside my eating window. The brain does adjust. It just takes a little time. I think (but am not sure) that the physical hunger pangs still occur around 11-12 pm, but my mind has just tuned them out, because it knows no matter how much it whines, it will not be fed. Kind of like pets, actually.

Hunger pangs pass. If you're starving to death, no, they're not going to pass, but I'm talking about the daily grind of feeling a little hungry when you've got a 500 calorie per day deficit going. Learn to ignore the hunger pangs and they will (mostly) dissipate. Mind over body. Then you will lose weight and reap all the many benefits.

Jthanmyfitnesspal

I respectfully disagree with @kshama2001 table (again).

There's no reason to taper your deficit as you approach your goal weight. It's more important to consider how big your calorie deficit is relative to your TDEE. Large deficits (>25%) are harder to maintain. You select whatever deficit you feel you can maintain until the weight is lost, however long that takes.

cwolfman13

When dieting, I maintain a reasonable deficit...500 calories from my TDEE is basically a couple of small snacks...not really anything that is going to make or break me hunger wise. I focus on foods that keep me going...lots of vegetables, high fiber foods like oats, beans, lentils, etc...good amount of protein, etc. I can have a breakfast of a few scrambled eggs and some whole grain toast with butter and cinnamon...or I can have a doughnut for roughly the same calories...the actual breakfast is going to keep me going much longer.

I recognize that some level of hunger is completely normal...especially before a meal. I learned that I didn't have to be "full" all of the time. I also recognize that sometimes hunger isn't really hunger...it's often boredom, or even just habitual eating when doing certain things like sitting down to watch some tv or a movie. Sometimes "hunger" is actually just a craving for something...like yesterday, I had a craving for this delicious Vermont white cheddar my wife had just bought...I wasn't hungry at all...but I sliced off a nice hunk anyway.

daniwilford

A couple of weeks ago I was really hungry. I tried to tough it out but I was miserable. Then 2 days I ate at maintenance, then went back to a calorie deficit. I still lost weight that week. I was scared I would fail. I found it was temporary. I give myself permission to occasionally eat above my calorie goal but not above maintenance. After you have accounted for thirst, emotional eating, and tried to adjust macros if you are still hungry you may need to adjust your goal. This may be only temporary or long term. As long as you are still eating fewer calories than you burn you will lose weight. Slow and steady wins the race.

Speakeasy76

For me: Distraction, water (sometimes flavored water like Bubly) and gum! It's also perfectly okay to feel a little hungry at times, something I really had to work on. I tell myself a little bit of hunger is okay and perfectly normal. I have a history of starting very restrictive diets at a young age that eventually led to restrict/binge cycles, so part of me thinks if I let myself get too hungry I will binge.

However, I definitely agree with others to look at your weight loss goal and possibly upping your calorie limit so you are losing at a more sustainable pace. The last time I took off some weight (not much, but still), I just cut 250 calories a week, but if I had to lose more, I wouldn't aim to lose more than a pound a week.

I_Want_A_Donut

I like to drink water or chew gum. I'm a snacker, so I don't really ever eat a big meal, just little bits throughout the day and that seems to help me. My dad also used to use a trick when he quit smoking. He'd tell himself he could smoke after a certain amount of time or activity (like I can smoke after my next meeting). Often times, when that time came, he'd have forgotten about his craving.

rosebarnalice

One way I AVOID hunger is to get a LOT of my calories from veggies. By bulking up on low-cal veg, it takes longer to digest, and I find I feel fuller longer.

One way I RESPOND to hunger between meals or when I haven't had a chance to eat a proper meal is to eat a very small amount of something with a lot of protein (tsp of peanut butter or hummus, or HALF or THIRD of a larabar or other high-protein nutrition bar. Then I wait for AT LEAST 30 minutes before eating any more. About 80% of the time, that little hit of protein does the trick.

After dinner during the "snack-attack" hours, when I know for fact that I have eaten my calorie allotment for the day and I really DON'T need to eat any more that day, if I feel a little noshy (which is probably not REALLY hunger but boredom or something else), I will chug 16-24 ounces of room-temp water (NOT cold) just as fast as I can--so fast that it actually makes me a little nauseous. That "water bomb" gives my system something to occupy it, and that slight feeling of nausea actually makes the thought of eating very unappetizing. That will usually get my mind off food until it's time to go to bed :-)