I feel full all day, have I eaten enough?

Buffalo1994

I am on a 1200 calroie a day diet, I am trying to start working out and when I do I eat back my calories. The problem I am having is that sometimes I net below 1200 (300 below at most). The reason for this is because I stopped living off of sweets and fast food, and started eating real food like a lot of veggies and lean proteins. I always feel full. Should I "overstuff" myself to get in the last couple hundred calories to make sure I net 1200? Or if I feel full does it mean I am okay? Once my body adjusts more to "real" food I may start feeling hungrier and this issue will go away, but until then I am not sure what to do and do not want to mess up my metabolism even more.

sunsetzen

It would be easier to give advice if your diary was open,

Buffalo1994

I just made it public....Saturday was when I decided to start after weighing myself, so I went thru the day and logged everything I ate and it was a lot! I am not depriving myself of anything, and yes I did have candy on Halloween! But I still was too full to reach my 1200 net.

cwolfman13

fat...you need dietary fat for proper nutrition. cook your veggies in some olive oil, eat some avocado, have some nuts...a little fat goes a long way in upping your calories. A mere Tbsp of olive oil has around 120 calories...half an avocado is about the same...a small handful of nuts...a mere 1 oz has 150 - 200 calories depending on the nut. You don't have to eat junk or a ton of food to increase calories, just more fat. An realize that fat doesn't make you fat.

You are probably feeling full for a couple of reasons...if you're consuming a vast quantity of veggies, veggies have a lot of volume and take up a lot of space..you're also getting more fiber which can make you feel full. Your leptin (hormone) levels are also probably dropping which is the case when you diet...this hormone sends the hunger signals to your brain and when it drops you lose appetite. Also gherin levels increase while dieting...this is the hormone largely responsible for signaling your brain that you are full.

Buffalo1994

Thanks for your reply. I just opened my food diary. I have been doing just that - eating butter on my sweet potato, snacking on avocados, and using olive oil on my veggies. I wouldnt say I eat an extremely large amount of veggies. But the other stuff you said definitely makes sense. Is that something that will even itself out? I've also thought about drinking more calories but thats mostly sugar which I def. do not need more of. Would Almond Milk or something like that help out at all? Ive also hit my "fat" allotment everyday.

guroprincess

You can try drinking V8 (regular kind, not the fruit kind which has a lot of sugar.) Also, nuts are very very calorie dense. I had a 3oz bag of almonds the other day and it was 510 calories.