STARVING AND NEED HELP

gigiangelique

Girl, where are your natural foods?
Definitely cut back on the processed, high sodium foods, and simple carbs (which will mess with your blood sugar and make you hungrier), and start incorporating whole foods (fresh fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, beans, etc) and lean proteins which will satiate you.

yeah what she said! I think maybe add more protien and veggies. and only use the frozen foods for emergency

traceracer

Girl, where are your natural foods?
Definitely cut back on the processed, high sodium foods, and simple carbs (which will mess with your blood sugar and make you hungrier), and start incorporating whole foods (fresh fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, beans, etc) and lean proteins which will satiate you.

THIS!!!:)

Miss_Chievous_wechange

Try eating real food and not frozen food and processed food.

formersec

Your diet is neither healthy nor filling. You need more protein, vegetables, dairy products, even a certain amount of fat. That Healthy Choice meal isn't nearly enough food. Like other frozen dinners, it has little nutrition and it probably has a lot of sodium and preservatives in it. And even with coupons and sakes, frozen meals cost more than any homemade meal. There are quite a few healthy meals you can prepare in little time and for less money. Get a cookbook or look online. You can do it.

WickedMouse

thank you thank you I had not thought about the processed part of this...I was doing the packaged food due to convenience and cost. figured whats really the difference between doing jenny craig or nutrisystem than buying your own packaged meals. I will try to get more veggies in though..

Eating Fresh whole foods, Veggies, Fruits, Meats, Seafood... if you shop right, buy things that are in season, you will find it is less expensive. If time is a factor, make a few days meals in advance on a Sunday night..

kmjenkins

I am in a very close weight range, am 5 ft. 3 inches, and my caloric intake goal is 1260/day. To some this may not be enough, but I have found it is currently working for me. My feedback to you would be to kick the processed foods as much as you can. I used to be a lean cuisine/quick frozen meal type of person and I was always hungry. Now I have very little processed food and eat six small meals at various intervals throughout the day. Today I've eaten the following (and am full right now):

Meal 1: Oatmeal/Coffee
Meal 2: 5 oz Greek Yogurt
Meal 3: 4 oz grilled chicken breast/2 cups steamed veggies
Meal 4: 1 cup raw veggies/2 tbsp guacamole/5 rice thins

I have planned the following for the rest of my food for the day

Meal 5: Homemade lasagna/ small side salad
Meal 6: Apple

Thus far, I have found lots of protein, fiber, minimum amount of processed food and lots of water has worked for me even at a "low" calorie goal. I rarely eat back my exercise calories (with the exception of this past weekend, holidays, eeks) unless my body tells me I need them, and have steadily lost 1-2 lbs/week for since mid September. I work out 4-6 times/week, for 60-90 minutes. To be honest you are going to get a lot of responses, and probably find a great deal of good advice and some things will work for you and some won’t. I would say to try new things, listen to your body and most importantly focus on fueling your body properly. You’ll find what works for you.

Good luck!
~KJ

kelseyhere

I agree with the others that you should definitely increase your intake, because if you're starving you will not be able to maintain the diet. You hear all the time how people lose tons of weight with "cleanses" and "liquid diets" but they always put it right back on because it is impossible to maintain. Starving yourself only leads to binges which inevitably makes things worse. Exercise is also important and if you're starving, you won't have the energy for a good workout.

I looked at your diary and I notice you are also eating too much sodium (unfortunately the WW meals are full of it). Too much extra salt tricks your body into thinking it's hungry, even if it's not. Too much sodium also makes your hold extra water and bloat up. So drink a lot of water for a couple days to flush out the excess, try to eat less sodium (non-processed foods are the best choice) and increase your calorie intake slightly.

Also when your about to reach for another chocolate, take a quick five minute walk outside. Usually that's enough to let the craving pass and moving around will make you feel better

fitplease

I started MFP at 1200 calories but then upped my calorie intake to match my BMR. I now aim for about 1400 calories. I feel more energetic and fuller for a longer time.

I suggest you also match your calories to your BMR as you go along. You can only lose so much weight per week, so why starve yourself needlessly?

Shanna_Inc86

Okay, did a quick calc on your BMR....at Sedentary (sitting at a desk all day) your BMR is 2280 calories. You should set your MFP goal at about 20% less than that. So, that would be 450-500 cals less. Let's say 500....so your goal to lose 1 pound per week should be 1780 calories. That is probably why you are starving.

Also, as for your morning breakfast choices...if I can off some advice. Instead of the English Muffin....try having oatmeal, eggs, and yogurt. For that same 420 calories you had empty simple carbs you could have had complex carbs (oatmeal=150 cals) an egg (protein=90 cals) and greek yogurt (protein 100 cals) totl of 340 cals....throw in some fruit (50 cals) and you have a feast for less calories than what you had today. All tht protein will also help to keep you full longer!

If you want some reading material and see where I got your BMR go here http://www.shapefit.com/bmr.html

And if you want to read a long, but very informative article on how your BMR and claories work for your body go here
http://www.shapefit.com/basal-metabolic-rate.html

Good luck and feel free to friend me and message me anytime if you need to chat! I am off to work now....but will be on again later tonight! Keep your chin up! And eat some food! I suggest some nuts, fish, chicken breast (only 100 cals in 4 oz).....a huge salad with chicken breast and light dressing can be around 300 calories and very filling as well as healthy!

THIS times 10!!!!

MaggieMay131

Trust me, it will NOT be too much if you eat 1700 calories! I am 5'9" and 155 lbs and I eat 1640 on days I don't exercise and close to 2,000 on days I work out. And I am losing weight. You need to trust!!! 1200 calories is too low for most people.

evil_rider

Reach for a Snickers Bar, they satisfy.

aweightymatter

It's not just that you need to eat more food, in general -- which is true as everyone else has said -- but you need to eat more filling foods!! English muffins and frozen meals are highly processed and loaded with quick carbs that will burn off fast and leave you hungry a short time later.

Try to build meals around slow-burning carbs and protein. For instance, for around 450 breakfast calories, you could have a bowl of old-fashioned oatmeal (150), an apple (70), and 6 egg whites (120ish) even cooked in 1 TB of real butter (100) if you want, or olive oil (120). Or you could mix 1 TB peanut butter (100) into the oatmeal instead and use nonstick cooking spray for the eggs.

That would be a TON of food for the same amount of calories as a couple measly English muffins, and you'd stay really full until lunch.

That's just one example. For lunch, you could have a huge salad full of vegetables, beans, lean protein, etc. dressed again with REAL oil and vinaigrette... Or you could have a sandwich with lean protein and a TON of veggies on high-fiber bread, and fruit on the side, etc... All for about the same calories as a sodium-packed frozen meal.

The benefit, too, of eating these kinds of simple, fresh, non-packaged foods is that you will also save a ton of money if you shop wisely. That seems to be a concern for you based on reading your profile.

You are lucky living in New York because even though it has a reputation of being expensive, there are actually lots of great places to get affordable fresh food because you're so close to so many farms upstate and in LI. Not sure which borough/part of the city you're in but when it gets warm again, you must check out some of the awesome farmers' markets like the one in Union Square.

I used to live in Manhattan, and now spend a decent chunk of the year living in Brooklyn, and my food costs in NY are about the same as they are at home in Florida.

Good luck!!

melbellkid

Quit the processed meals. Those things are full of sodium and don't stay with you at all...get yourself whole grains and fruits and veggies. You would be suprised at the amount of brown rice and steamed veggies you could eat for the same amount of calories-use some seasoning like Mrs Dash for flavor. You can get a whole lot more food that is way more nutritious and will fill you up longer-plus your body wont hold onto all that water weight from the sodium in those meals!

rkteal

Try a high fiber diet! Fiber fills you up and take longer for the body to process. Drinks Lots of Water! Helps curb the appetite.

If you are not on any medication, try Chromium Picolinate. Read about it first, this mineral supplement helps to regulate your blood sugar so you don't feel hungry as a bear between meals.

I usually eat 3 meals and 3 snacks a day. 1 snack is 4 cheese cubes, 1 snack is pounch of 100 calorie almonds, 1 snack is yogurt.

Remember, You can and You will succeed!

Take care and be well
Rebecca

LindLTailor

This sounds like a cliche but those baby carrots are very satisfying. And only 35 calories for like half the bag. Also green tea is very good to cut hunger. If not that then regular Lipton's but with no sweetener whatsoever will kill an appetite. Good luck and hang in there. You can do it!

EuphonyChloeH

Upping your calories should definitely help. You don't want to send your body into shock. Also remember that you should eat back the calories you burned from working out. So if you burn 300 calories during exercise, that means you should be taking in an extra 300 calories from food.

And this may sound silly, but sometimes when I think I'm hungry, I tell myself that there are starving people all over the world who have not eaten for days. THEY are starving, I ate an hour or two ago, I'm NOT starving. Silly, but it helps

MaximalLife

It's not normal, it's not human...I keep looking at my diary. I have been eating all day. I had an english muffin breakfast from weight watchers for lunch, then another one for snack...then a healthy choice lunch, 3 chocalate nuggets, 2 oragnes...that shoudl be more than enough for normal human beings! I have only 270 calories left for the rest of the day (its only 4:07) and I am literally staving to death...I can chew through my desk right now. I am not particularly stressed or unhappy, and I am aware of my boredom since office is dead due to holidays, but I am feeling physical achy starvation signals. How can I keep this up for a year in order for me to lose weight? anyone else go through this?

My weight is 240
I have managed to lose 10 lbs from start
Goal weight is 160
I am 5'7 female

HELP PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEE

It goes away, but it's just painful at first. Make sure you are eating enough good, nutritious foods. Your dairy reflects too much of a deficit, and you need to rework that. Get some help if you need it. And as for the hunger, under the best of circumstances, it's still hard.
Most don't make it through.

I was JUST LIKE THAT! And most days I failed, then little by little it got better. I still remember that first night I did not fix another supper right before bed. Anyway, some will say eating this or drinking water will help...BULL!

It's hard, painful and miserable. That's reality.
You must fight through this, remembering why you started in the first place.

TrainingWithTonya

Okay, I went and looked at your logs. First of all, you need to let MFP or a nutritionist help you determine your calorie needs based on your BMR, normal daily activity, and exercise. Then you will get an amount of calories that will help you not feel so hungry all the time. Second, you need to start eating some more filling foods, like more fruits and veggies, lean meats, and complex carbs, so that you can eat at a calorie deficit without feeling hungry. Prepackaged meals like the Weight Watchers things are great for a quick portion controlled meal while you're on the go, but they can't be the cornerstone of your eating or you won't be able to stick to the changes long term without dying of boredom with your meals. And lets face it, you don't want to get to your goal weight just to regain it all back plus some because you haven't learned to make healthy eating a lifestyle you can stick to for life. That's the secret to long term success....being able to live with your healthy habits for life. If you'd like to chat privately about setting your calorie goals so that I can help you get a number more specific to you, please feel free to PM me.

krazyforyou

I agree with eveyone above me. 1800 is much more managable than 1200. For somepne your ht and wt. You have probably thrown ypu body into starvatipn mode, so it will take some tome for ot to adjust. Dont give up, now go eat something.

tuffytuffy1

Are you logging the peas correctly?

Peas - Green, frozen, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt, 2.5 package (10 oz) yields -- 400+ calories

I saw this a couple of times. I would think you were eating .25 packages of peas, not 2.5.

Anyway, I'm glad you got some good advice here and upped your calories! I agree, 1200 was way too low.

cbbn11

I have done a lot of research about how many calories one should consume in a day. I have found that for a female you need to consume at least 1700 Calories a day just to be able to function, anything less and you put your body into starvation mode which means that everything you eat will be stored for later on. Also if you do not eat enuf calories your body will start to break down muscles to use as fuel because it is easier for your body to break down muscle than fat.

Elzecat

It's not normal, it's not human...I keep looking at my diary. I have been eating all day. I had an english muffin breakfast from weight watchers for lunch, then another one for snack...then a healthy choice lunch, 3 chocalate nuggets, 2 oragnes...that shoudl be more than enough for normal human beings! I have only 270 calories left for the rest of the day (its only 4:07) and I am literally staving to death...I can chew through my desk right now. I am not particularly stressed or unhappy, and I am aware of my boredom since office is dead due to holidays, but I am feeling physical achy starvation signals. How can I keep this up for a year in order for me to lose weight? anyone else go through this?

My weight is 240
I have managed to lose 10 lbs from start
Goal weight is 160
I am 5'7 female

HELP PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEE

It goes away, but it's just painful at first. Make sure you are eating enough good, nutritious foods. Your dairy reflects too much of a deficit, and you need to rework that. Get some help if you need it. And as for the hunger, under the best of circumstances, it's still hard.
Most don't make it through.

I was JUST LIKE THAT! And most days I failed, then little by little it got better. I still remember that first night I did not fix another supper right before bed. Anyway, some will say eating this or drinking water will help...BULL!

It's hard, painful and miserable. That's reality.
You must fight through this, remembering why you started in the first place.

While I agree with some of this (it's a struggle, it's hard, etc) I don't think someone who feels too weak to work out (barring other health issues) is in a good place. You can lower your calorie intake, eat nutritious foods, and don't necessarily have to "suffer"

Johnnycell

thank you thank you I had not thought about the processed part of this...I was doing the packaged food due to convenience and cost. figured whats really the difference between doing jenny craig or nutrisystem than buying your own packaged meals. I will try to get more veggies in though..

put down the nutrisystem and jenny craig. all that pre packaged and processed food is bad for you. and you get smaller portions and it costs a lot more. Go buy fresh meats and vegetables. I buy 8 chicken breasts and cook them all for the week plus some talapia and top serloin. Cook it on the BBQ grill or get some canola oil pam and cook it on the stove or oven. You can buy steam fresh vegetables (broccoli, grean beans, peas, asparagus) and steam fresh brown rice or sweet potatoes. of course fresh veggies are better but these are convenient for eating away from home.
This is a meal you can take to work or anywhere that has a microwave. warm up a breast, some green beans and brown rice. (half a bag is about a cup so i use half a bag with dinner and half the next day at lunch).

feel free to message me and i will help you but you have to really stick to this. no cookies or ice cream and you have to do your cardio!

gussie1026

My doc-recommended-program has me on 30g of protein by mid morning. You stack up on protein first thing and you won't get so hungry throughout the day! It really does work!

bcattoes

If you eat less processed food and more whole natural foods you can eat a lot more for the same calories.

SLaw4215

I could not live on your meal diary without wanting to gnaw my own arm off by 4pm.

Try to get more Protein and Fiber so you feel fuller for a longer period of time -- Fish, Eggs, or a Protein drink powder. You might want to try to get away from carbs from bread, pasta because they are processed in the body like sugar so you have a spike then a crash in energy sometime. Try greek yogurt instead of "whipped" and real fruit with skin on etc.

You may want to consider getting out of the habbit of buying frozen Weight Watcher/Lean Cuisine meals and 100 calorie packs. Leaning on these is a crutch and not a good long term solution because "we" don't eat like this long term and it won't last. It's swapping one bad habbit {eating take-out from a paper sack for a premade frozen paper box}. The frozen meals and snacks are a trap. They are loaded with sodium and preservatives which will make you feel bloated and sluggish. They are expensive compared to making up the same exact thing yourself. Buy some Gladware storage containers, use the Recipe Builder feature, use sites like AllTheCooks (dot com) web site for free recipe ideas and see how easy it is to make your own meals so you have better control over what you are consuming and have more options (more variety). Don't settle for stuff that you think you have to have on a diet. You have to make this experience REAL or you won't stick with it.

Experiment with your grocery list. Just for some ideas.... look at other people's food diaries...
If you haven't tried Diamond brand Almond Milk (Unsweetened Vanilla). It is NOT a soy milk and it tastes great in cereal and significantly less in calories than regular milk. To satisfy a need to crunch I buy Special K Cracker Chips and they have several flavors at Walmart (Sea Salt, Sour Cream, Cheddar, and Southwest Ranch). You get 27 - 30 chips for about 110 calories verses 11 - 13 Lays chips and they are super tasty!!! I used plain light yogurt instead of sour cream with dry ranch dressing and dip veggies.

You can eat more than you are consuming and still be successful.

I like Kashi cereials and I like V8, Progresso Light, microwave popcorn,.... and Imake a lot of home made soups for the exact same reasons I don't ever buy any more frozen WW/LC meals or Lean Pockets...they aren't healthy for me...

fnm101

***later

Cbcarter08

I took a quick look at your food dairy . I think you should eat more lean proteins , and foods that are more filling. Looks like you eat alot of weight watchers meals. I try to stay away from prepackaged meals as they do not keep me full. If I have to have them I always add extra vegetables .

This ^

When I eat prepackaged meals, I NEVER feel satisfied at all! I am set at 1200 cals a day and I feel full most of the time because I've tried to change what I eat to be more filling foods. For breakfast, I eat yoplait greek yogurt which is packed with protein and keeps me full until into the afternoon. It's about 140 cals. It also sets me up to eat well the rest of the day. Try limiting the prepackaged meals if possible and adding more lean protein, fruits, and veggies with your meals. Good luck.

FuzzieJelly

WW wants you to eat POWER FOODS..........do you know what a power food is?

They are:

fruits
vegetables
whole grains
dairy
lean protein

My WW PP value is 42 per day, and that is 1900 or so calories on MFP!!!!!!!

My BIG problem was COST of those power foods. We eat a lot of processed foods and not what is healthier for us to have. So, I know what you meant when you talked about that. Processed foods are cheaper.

DH and I talked quite a bit about it, and we feel the power foods are healthier. So we spend a little more at the grocery store than we used to. IT IS SOOOO WORTH IT. I saw results a lot quicker.

Weeks the we can't afford it, I only loose 0.5 pounds per week or less and it is a slower loss of weight. Thats why our PPV are higher than a person say who is smaller in size. I hope that makes sense to you, cuz I had a hard time explaining myself.

DOES ANYONE ELSE KNOW WHAT I'M SAYING?

mamitosami

Hi yes it was set manually. I was trying to go by weight watchers points and calories. trying to stick to 24 points (50 cals each)

If I can lose on more I will! I will change to 1 lb a week! thank you

FWIW--You aren't supposed to be at 24 points on WW anyway, your points would be a lot higher than that--I'm at 26-29 (I'm trying to lose 5 pounds) and that's the absolute lowest anyone on WW is supposed to go. It's no wonder you are starving... good luck working it out. Be patient, you will find a happy calorie zone. And also, my first 2-3 weeks on a calorie deficit I was ready to chew my own arm off, then I started to feel really good and started to find more foods that fit into what I was allowed to eat.