Do I have to feel hungry for the rest of my life?

ihateyoga

I eat less. I lost weight. I like it. Yet, I feel hungry everyday. It's a life style change. Does that mean I have to feel hungry everyday for the rest of my life?

suziepoo1984

maybe include food with higher proteins and fats?

chad_phillips1123

No. Your diary isn't open, but I would suggest eating more veggies. Eating proteins and fats would also help satiety.

SherryTeach

I don't think you should ever feel hungry. Something needs changing if you are.

Cindyinpg

As I commented in your other post, as you are hungrier at night, save most of your calories for the evening. You could also be eating at too severe of a deficit and not including enough protein, fat and fiber. Read these and see if you are at your optimum calories and macro targets for your current goals. Good luck.:flowerforyou:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/833026-important-posts-to-read

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

MrsFowler1069

I see where you have posted before that you were not struggling with hunger. Are you eating differently now? Exercising more?

Francl27

For me it comes and go. When I'm hungrier, I make better choices. The rest of the time, I'm totally fine on 1650 calories. But I'm not starving myself to lose weight either... I just make sure I move more.

Mongognom

When I feel hungry I first drink a glass of water, if I'm still hungry after 15 min, then I'm hungry and eat something. I try to eat less then 1500 calories a day, but my 'maintain weight' number of cals is 1850, so as long as I stay under that I'm not going to gain, just not lose quite as fast.

prettyface55

I don't think you should ever feel hungry. Something needs changing if you are.

This .. exactly!

MrsFowler1069

Not sure what's different between now and when you were having a measure of success without feeling hungry. But, in general, my answer would be to bulk up your meals with calorie-moderate foods (so you can eat more) and make sure that you include plenty of fats, fiber, and protein (to help you feel more satisfied for longer). Also drink plenty of water, or otherwise hydrate yourself, as dehydration can feel like hunger.

I had the HUGEST, most leisurely day-off breakfast today - literally a heaping dinner plate full of food - and it was 349 calories and felt not one bit like "diet food." I do not go hungry. Ever.

RaineyLaney

There is never any reason to go hungry. Eat different foods. Less calorie, more filling to get more food. Take a look at my food diary. I eat 6 times a day. I eat ALOT and I only eat between 1200 to 1300 calories a day. If you eat more veggies you get more bulk for the buck.

iechick

I never feel hungry-change up your foods and find ones that are more filling (an example would be a bowl of oatmeal with fruit added in vs a bowl of cereal and milk etc etc).

howardheilweil

Not quite sure how to give you advice without seeing your food diary. That said, you'll never be successful on a long term basis if you're always hungry. If you are hungry, you're either eating too little, or you're eating the wrong things. Please unlock your diary so you can get some real advice. Good luck!

jennjychung

I feel your pain! It really is more of a mental challenge, I always seem to have my mind on food or what I'm going to eat next. It's best to keep yourself busy. If you feel hungry all the time, I would recommend eating more protein and high fiber food. I went to Whole Foods yesterday and bought whole wheat bran flakes cereal - AMAZING! It has a tiny amount of sugar and has a natural sweet flavor to it. The best part is that it is high in fiber so you can munch on it and actually feel full for a small amount of calories. I love to eat it as an afternoon snack with some unsweetened almond milk and a few shakes of ground cinnamon (the cinnamon really brings out the sweetness in the flakes). There are a lot of ways you can feel full while eating healthy...you just have to get creative! Good luck to you!

brenn24179

I grab me some sugarfree gum. I really don't feel hungry doing this, I guess I eat a lot of protein foods which fill me up. I don't think I was overeating because of hunger anyway. If I see something yummy on TV or in the magazines then I want it, has nothing to do with me being hungry. I just eat it because it looks good. My skinny daughter thinks this is weird but she just does not get into eating, lucky her.

SLLRunner

Is it emotional hunger or physical hunger?

Physical hunger means you are not satisfying your body with what you are eating. If this is true, you might have to eat more calorie dense foods, or you should try eating more often (smaller meals).

Emotional hunger means there is some underlying reason that you are eating, such as stress, anger, loneliness, or some unresolved issue. This one you need to ride it out and try to figure out why you want to eat when you are not hungry.

If you are eating properly, you should not be physically hungry unless you have not eaten for a longer period of time, or your body tells you it's time to eat.

AmyRhubarb

I made a lifestyle change too, but I am not hungry. I just enjoyed three slices of pizza and a glass of wine, and I'm still under cals for the day.

If you are hungry all the time, your lifestyle change needs to include a higher calorie goal.

I set mine according to the info and tools here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/974888-in-place-of-a-road-map-2k13

Been working great for me for over a year and a half now. :drinker:

AllonsYtotheTardis

I eat less. I lost weight. I like it. Yet, I feel hungry everyday. It's a life style change. Does that mean I have to feel hungry everyday for the rest of my life?

You shouldn't have to feel hungry all the time. Experiment with your food choices. Make sure you're getting enough food, get enough protein and fats (they help keep you feeling full for longer).

kellyskitties

I went through physical hunger - and my solution was higher protein and fiber - resolved.

I also go through emotional hunger - so I have times I feel anxious because I can't eat away the problem. I don't have a good answer to that other than I am often chewing through it with low cal small crunchy things like cheerios, carrots, popcorn.

I have hormone driven hunger - I'm letting that beast have it's way monthly. Haven't found a way to tame it - but monthly - not much damage to be done. One day I feel ravenous - and want mostly meat/fat. The next I'm usually uninterested in food - so I think it can find it's own balance.

ddky

If you are always hungry, you won't be able to stay with it. But you should be able to eat a deficit without being hungry. I started at 1200 cal (I know , not good), and I was hungry. I went to 1500 and still lost weight, but wasn't hungry. I wasn't hungry, but I did still have cravings. There is a big difference. You need to find the right range for you. But as others have said, veggies and foods high in protein will be your friend. Good luck.

Ed98043

I'm not going to speak for everyone, but there is a fair amount of hunger involved for me to lose weight. It doesn't matter how physically full my stomach is - my body knows when I'm running a calorie deficit and it sends out hunger signals. I'm surprised it's not that way for everyone.

I know from losing 40 lbs as a teenager and more or less maintaining that loss for 25 years that I will never be able to just eat whatever I want, at least in whatever quantities I want (I did that for 5 years and look where it got me). My general mantra as a thinner person was that if I was "good" 80% of the time, the scale stayed where I wanted it to. That still left room for the food that life sometimes throws in your mouth, but I'm not going to lie - there was a lot of restricting in between. That being said, eating at maintenance instead of a deficit makes a big difference for me in the level of hunger I experience.

MuseofSong

If you need to eat more because you're hungry, you can re-evaluate if you're going for a 1000 calories a day deficit or 500 a day or whatever, and if you really ARE sedentary (most people set themselves sedentary when they're not). And after that, you can exercise a bit more to pick up an extra snack. It's not hard to burn a couple hundred calories and then eat a yummy nature valley protein bar (or whatever you might enjoy!). It'll keep you from feeling like you're being punished.

Some of my days I might be over my calories, some of my days I'll be under, some I'll be almost exactly at my goal. As long as the week balances out for the goal net calories, it's fine.

Increasing my water intake helped my hunger, too.

I have sympathy for you though because today I was hungry from the moment I woke up. I just wanted to eat like whatever! Sometimes I just have hungry days.

I was like man, I just want some chips! I want nori maki! I want string cheese! I want peanut butter pretzels! I want dried fruit! I want some peanuts! Before I logged, those cravings would be me sitting down with the bag or container of whatever I craved and eating. And I'd eat until the cravings went away, many servings later.

I ended up eating all those things today, but I measured each thing into a bowl and ate them separately over time. I'm about to drink my 10th cup of water today, and I feel pretty darn okay. All my carvings were attended to and right now, a few hours before bed, I do not feel hungry or deprived. Also, I had a large portion of vegetables with my dinner and the bulk of that really helps.

I don't want you to feel like you're going to be starving forever. I'm definitely eating different. I'm definitely not full all the time. But, as long as I eat what I want, I feel okay about cutting back on how much of it I have. If I told myself no this or that, pfft, I wouldn't last more than a week or two. I think once you lose the weight and your body gets used to your new size, maintaining won't be bad. At least, I hope it will be that way for me.

TL;DR: I do not think you'll be hungry forever, but you will have hungry days / times while in a calorie deficit. This is normal.

salladeve

I am always hungry! Doesn't matter what I eat, within 1/2 hour I'm hungry again. I have just learned to live with it. For me it is just a part of maintaining my weight. I think my hunger switch is broken

nxd10

Truthfully, I am rarely hungry - even when I was on 1230 calories net a day. I did happily eat excerise calories when I was.

This is the wonderful thing about logging your food. Look at the things that are lots of calories but not important to you. For me it was bread, milk/cream, and cheese. Drop way down on them. Now you have lots of room for more filling foods.

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I do get hungry when I eat sugar or really easy to digest food because it gives me insulin spikes (no I am not diabetic or insulin resistant). When I dropped down to 40% carbs from 60% of my calories from carbs, it helped a lot.