Really struggling

TheHappyTracker

I have been going crazy with hunger all day long. At one point I thought, "Okay, forget a pound a week. How about half a pound a week? About half an hour later it was, "How about just maintaining my weight?"

I was even more discouraged when I realized I don't really even count as "lightly active", which means I really only have 50 calories left for another 6 hours. I would exercise more, but my plantar fasciitis and knees are killing me from my walking yesterday. I feel like just going out and binging on ice cream and pizza if just maintaining my weight seems impossible.

Is it normal to be such a struggle?

IAmTheGlue

No…you should not be starving. What are you eating? I’m wondering if you need to eat more low calorie options to help keep you full longer, or more protein because it helps satiate you.

Some foods have a lot of energy (calories) for their size. They don’t fill you up or they make you sugar crave. For example if I woke up and ate 2 pop tarts (400 ish calories) it would make me personally crave sugar and hungry in an hour. I wake up and drink coffee with a premier protein shake in it. 170 ish calories and I am full until noon. That’s what works for me.

I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables and I’m never hungry. I like them though. You will have to figure out what foods trigger cravings, what keeps you full, and honestly what makes you happy and feel good.

I’m also very, very sorry you are in pain. 😥 I hope you feel better soon. 💐

emmamcgarity

There are some days that I am hungrier than others. I eat more on those days and track the calories. I do find that looking at the weekly average on calories helps me better gauge how I am doing instead of looking at a single day.

TheHappyTracker

IAmTheGlue wrote: »

No…you should not be starving. What are you eating? I’m wondering if you need to eat more low calorie options to help keep you full longer, or more protein because it helps satiate you.

Some foods have a lot of energy (calories) for their size. They don’t fill you up or they make you sugar crave. For example if I woke up and ate 2 pop tarts (400 ish calories) it would make me personally crave sugar and hungry in an hour. I wake up and drink coffee with a premier protein shake in it. 170 ish calories and I am full until noon. That’s what works for me.

I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables and I’m never hungry. I like them though. You will have to figure out what foods trigger cravings, what keeps you full, and honestly what makes you happy and feel good.

I’m also very, very sorry you are in pain. 😥 I hope you feel better soon. 💐

Hmm...you might be on to something about the protein. I ate a lot of low calorie food (fruit, vegetables, popcorn), but it wasn't very high in protein. Thanks for the suggestion. I also had a nap and felt a little better, so tiredness may have affected my appetite/pain levels too.

TheHappyTracker

emmamcgarity wrote: »

There are some days that I am hungrier than others. I eat more on those days and track the calories. I do find that looking at the weekly average on calories helps me better gauge how I am doing instead of looking at a single day.

Oh, that's a good idea. Yeah...that's a really good idea. Thanks.

wunderkindking

Definitely pay attention to all aspects of your life, including sleep since you mentioned that.

Even now, after successful loss and months and months into maintenance if I am low on sleep/not sleeping well ALL I WANT TO DO IS EAT. Your body has two energy to restore energy: sleep.... or food.dd When I'm dragging, because of bad or low sleep, it is an instant recipe for me to start eating and keep eating. Mostly carbs because quick calories. Then I crash. Then I eat more.

For me figuring out/getting enough sleep is KEY.

As is, when I start getting hungry late, to just go to BED.

Xellercin

You shouldn't be starving, but what does "starving" feel like for you, and what makes it feel better?

If your system is used to eating a lot of food multiple times a day, then it's going to be a shock to your system to suddenly change that.

If you are used to eating pizza and ice cream, then your system is used to digesting those things and may be over-preparing itself for incoming food. If your intense sense of hunger in stomach sensations, then try an ant-acid and see what happens. It likely won't eliminate the hunger, but it can help you determine the difference between hunger and churning stomach acid.

Perhaps start with smaller goals? Start by just improving food choices? Get your body used to a different way of eating and then reduce portion sizes perhaps?

Basically, if too much change all at once is too hard for your body to adjust to, then start with smaller changes.

And for the record, maintaining is a GREAT goal, because if you can find a way to improve your eating and consistently NOT gain any weight, then that would put you 99% of the way there to losing weight, because then only small adjustments would be needed to start losing.

FTR, I lost from obese to very lean by never making any drastic changes. I completely overhauled my lifestyle, but once small, tolerable, incremental change at a time.

I never suffered, I never felt like I was starving, and I never felt like "giving up" because there was nothing to give up. My new, small habit changes were my normal. To go back to the eating that made me obese would require effort.

Try to approach this as loving self care, not punishment you put your body through for not being the "right" weight.

Treat it as an experiment where you try to find the best and healthiest options that your body responds best to. And know that the more small changes you make, the more your body will respond well to new changes over time.

Right now, the calorie goal you are trying to stick to feels impossible. But if you make changes over time, it may become incredibly easy.

Bodies don't like drastic, rapid changes, but that doesn't mean that they can't handle MASSIVE changes over time.

You have no idea what your body can become comfortable with, but you need to change on your body's timeline.

GoRun2

In addition to the above tips, drink water. I drink a lot of carbonated water. If I think I want a snack, I drink a large glass of carbonated water. It takes a long time to drink it and the bubbles take up space in my stomach. It works for me.

88olds

There’s nothing wrong with aiming at .5 lbs, or your maintenance number when starting out. The important thing is to control the process. There’s a fairly long learning curve that doesn’t get a lot of discussion. Calorie counting is a skill set, living with it is another skill set, give it time. Don’t let your brain wreck you.

Here’s a thing about that 1 lb per week. Conventional wisdom is that requires a deficit of 3500 calories, thats’ 500 per day. You don’t say when you started or what you were doing before you started, but if you were gaining then, you were eating in a surplus. So what you’ve done as far as how you’re living, is you’ve jammed on the brakes and gone into reverse in one move. So you might want to ease up to get started. Losing slowly is a whole lot better than quitting.

I found that in addition to protein, I want to be aware of how much fat I’m eating. Sometimes I can load up on veggies, grilled chicken and egg whites and still have this agitated never satisfied feeling. That usually means I’ve gone too far down the low/no fat diet road.

And this- sometimes I just need a stopper. If I find myself constantly going for another snack and never feeling satisfied I bite the bullet and make oatmeal. Middle of the day. I’m never hungry after oatmeal. If it puts me over my number, oh well. Some days are like that.

TheHappyTracker

Thanks for all the suggestions. I think I figured out what was going wrong. I didn't take into account that I was under my daily calories the day before, I had slept terribly, I was trying to go from fairly unhealthy to "super healthy " too quickly, and I was trying to save calories for dinner, forgetting that I am usually way hungrier earlier in the day.

Today I have been eating small meals every hour and a half, and balancing healthier foods with familiar favorites, and it is going better.

corinasue1143

I always eat less on the days I exercise more—naturally. Then I’m hungrier than usual the next day.
If your feet and knees hurt, maybe this is a good time to think about weight lifting, yoga, Pilates? Summer’s here. How about some swimming, water walking?

ahoy_m8

wunderkindking wrote: »

Definitely pay attention to all aspects of your life, including sleep since you mentioned that.

Even now, after successful loss and months and months into maintenance if I am low on sleep/not sleeping well ALL I WANT TO DO IS EAT. Your body has two energy to restore energy: sleep.... or food.dd When I'm dragging, because of bad or low sleep, it is an instant recipe for me to start eating and keep eating. Mostly carbs because quick calories. Then I crash. Then I eat more.

For me figuring out/getting enough sleep is KEY.

As is, when I start getting hungry late, to just go to BED.

Ditto to ALL of this. Google "leptin ghrelin sleep."