HELP! Why am I so hungry all the time?

melaniepearce

I'm trying to lose 10kg of post baby/post hypothyroidism fat.
I am sticking to 1400 cal per day & eating regularly, drinking more than 2L of water per day but I am just so so hungry; its driving me insane!
I really cant stand hunger pain at the best of times... my husband can go all day without eating & wont mention that he's even hungry but if it's 3 hours past breakfast & I havent eaten I can't concentrate, I'm irritable & pretty much crazy till I eat. Why? Am I hungrier than the average Joe or does hunger just bother me more?

I've even started using Duromine this week but it hasn't had much effect on my hunger...
I could never be a contestant on Survivor... I'd probably eat my own arm!

Advice welcome.

Sul3i

Make sure u r getting enough protein also fiber both help keep hunger at bay. Maybe an apple til its lunch time. I make sure I eat protein with every meal. Also if u r active you may just need to increase calorie intake a little. Seems like I read somewhere hunger pains actually mean ur metabolism is working. Good luck

carly_am

Yes totally agree, make sure you're eating the 'right' foods that keep you fuller for longer? Have a look into low GI foods and things like that and stay away from quick fix snacks that are often high in carbs and sugar- they make you feel instantly full but it doesn't last. If all else fails find some low cal snacks and factor them into your allowance. Weight loss is no walk in the park but it certainly doesn't have to be hell on earth

moran1917

if you do not open your diary it is not really possible to say. there are things that typically help.

eat more protien
eat more fibre
drink more water
eat 4-5 times a day
hold on to your self-control- commit
don't beat yourself up after a bad day, move on

keelz2010

I can't see your diary but maybe try eating little and often. If your only eating 3 meals a day try having 6 smaller meals a day instead..my diary is open so you can see how I've laid mine out different to the original MFP style. I'm never hungry really on 1200 cals but I'm always munching and never have to wait long til I eat again. Also you could have a good filling breakfast like oatmeal to keep you satisfied for longer.

dancerom

How much did you eat before? For how long are you now on the 1400? Maybe it's too little. So you can either go back to what you ate before and cut down slowly (100-200cal/week) or up to somewhere in-between and eat there for a week or two. If you feel comfortable and losing weight, there you go, if you're not losing, cut down another 100-200 calls. So your body get's used to it.

Or for me it sometimes help just to eat on those days. Not all the chocolate and chips and stuff. But enough of the healthy things, and a day later the hunger is gone and I can stick to my 1450 (+ usually 500-1000 exercise/teaching cals).

Be kind to you and your body and don't starve yourself. Better slowly and happy!

Yanicka1

Eat more. Put your weight loss goal at half a pound if you have to, this is not a sprint
Eat your exercise calories.
Protein will help with hunger while carbs will make you hungry.
If you are starving all the time you won't stick with it

rousehouse

I found that drinking diet soda made me hungrier. When I stopped drinking it, the change in my appetite was very surprising and encouraging. That might not be for you, but something to think about in any case.

penzan

Hi,
I'm on Duromine as well and you have to drink alot more than 2ltrs of water. If you're still hungry maybe you need a stronger dose. Maybe eat more and smaller portions and have a glass of water before you eat. It's definetly a slow process.

SeaJenni

If you don't get your nutritional needs met, your brain won't register that you're full. So then you eat more. There are a lot of fancy articles about this. I'm super simplifying.

That's why obesity and malnutrition go hand in hand. Your body will always tell you are hungry when you have a nutritional deficiency, in an effort to get your nutritional needs met through eating more. Also, you can develop allergies by eating too much of any one thing. It's your body's way of forcing you to diversify your diet.

Eating all day is not the problem. That's fine, as long as you're within your calorie range and eating a balanced diet. Try taking some vitamins or eating something you hate when you feel hungry. That thing you hate probably has some nutrient in it that your body is looking for. It sounds weird, but whenever I force myself to eat something I hate, when I can't seem to get satisfied no matter what, all my cravings subside. Also, use the nutrition reports on here to see what your diet is lacking. They are great tools. Stop when you are satisfied, not when you are full. Full is too much. I am undoing this bad habit and it is really hard to undo. I trained myself to overeat when I married an overeater and wanted to go along with whatever he was doing. Big mistake.

Best of luck!

melaniepearce

Thank you all for being so encouraging. I have gained some useful tips & will apply them & see how I go

Lyra89

I hear ya hun! I lost nearly 60lbs but now that I'm maintenance I find that I feel hungry a lot of the time & its harder to ignore seeing as I don't count calories anymore, struggling to maintain my goal weight and keep going up and down a few lbs! This morning I ate a huge bowl of oatmeal cooked with soy milk with cinnamon (meant to control blood sugar) cranberries, macadamia nuts AND mince-pie filling added in which has raisins etc...two hours later and I'm already thinking about lunch! After a protein packed dinner with lots of veg last night, I ate a TON of chocolate. Its really hard.

MissSusieQ

because you're thinking about how hungry you are! i know it sucks, but the more you think about how hungry you are, the hungrier you'll be.

i used to be a 'it's 7pm, it's dinnertime, i'm staaaaarving' girl, but i found that when i went through a bit of a knitting phase i was regularly noticing that 10pm would have come around and dinner wouldn't have entered my mind, because i was too busy thinking about my knitting to think 'oh, it's 7pm, i must be hungry'!

blossomnu

I'm similar, but I try to eat little and often. 3 hours is the very maximum I would go without eating. I think it's related to blood sugar.

Also, I find that the more I think about food and dieting, the hungrier I get/the more I eat. So I try to stick with concrete numbers rather than thoughts of feeling hungry or whatever.

gjulie

I eat every 3 hours I would starve if I didnt!

SeaJenni

because you're thinking about how hungry you are! i know it sucks, but the more you think about how hungry you are, the hungrier you'll be.

i used to be a 'it's 7pm, it's dinnertime, i'm staaaaarving' girl, but i found that when i went through a bit of a knitting phase i was regularly noticing that 10pm would have come around and dinner wouldn't have entered my mind, because i was too busy thinking about my knitting to think 'oh, it's 7pm, i must be hungry'!

So very true. I used to eat a full meal on my break at work. This is the busy season, so now I am lucky to get a cup of tea; and I'm not hungry at all. I'm too busy to be hungry.

jesz124

No your not alone with the hunger thing. I get hungry very very often. I eat usually between 120-150 g protein daily, eat pretty clean but still feel like i'm literally starving if I don't eat every 3 hours of so!! It's just a case of spreading your cals across the day so you don't have to do too long without eating.

Water also helps. Also as said above, switch to losing 0.5 lbs a week. Slow and steady means more cals daily, then it will feel less like an exercise in torture lol.

Good luck x

krokador

Would help if we could see your diary but:

Eat more vegetables! More protein! (Seriously, a 30-40g-worth of protein serving of chicken breast is HUGE in a plate. Fill the rest with veggies, you may not even feel like finishing your plate, and that's okay. Put the rest aside, and pick at it if you get hungry later on ).

I don't know how tall or heavy you are, but I find 1600 cals for me to be a bare minimum and I'm 5'6", 200lbs. It's still a 1lbs loss per week all things considered in my case. With exercise, I tend to eat even more. It's no use to starve yourself. If you're hungry, eat! Just make sure you pick the right thing to gnaw on. Heck, if you're worried about your self control, put aside "healthy snacks" for yourself the day before. Prepare them while on a full stomach. They'll be easy to reach for when you need them!

melaniepearce

Thanks for being so helpful, everyone! I have just made my diary public so you can see what I've eaten

cajohn

when you get the hunger pain go and wash your theeth .You won't want to eat after a freshly washed mouth.

melaniepearce

PS I'm 74kg (163lbs) & 172cm (5f 8in)

bdamaster60

A quick fact, your crazy hunger is completely normal. Your metabolism has not adapted to the lower amounts of calories (which is good! you don't want it to adapt other wise it slows fat loss). Ghrelin is the main hormone associated with registering hunger receptors in the stomach, and communicate with hunger chambers in the brain. It is a mind game, where you have the advantage over your body as you know now that its just a hormonal response. And know this, you will not die if you do not eat for a few hours or until the next day. I know this because fast everyday for 20 hours a day and eat for 4 hours. With any diet, your bodies instinctual response is to resist as it is a FAT STORING MACHINE. Mind over body. So your stomach grumbles a little bit, so what? It's not going to collapse out of your butt.

Mpol2

if you do not open your diary it is not really possible to say. there are things that typically help.

eat more protien
eat more fibre
drink more water
eat 4-5 times a day
hold on to your self-control- commit
don't beat yourself up after a bad day, move on

This is a great recipe for long term too ...well said :flowerforyou:

Firefox7275

Your fat intake is far too low, eat more real food and less branded processed stuff - breakfast particularly is heavy on carbs but light on protein and fat, no water and fibre rich fruits or veggies to fill you up. That would be the meal I would focus on.

cajohn

i've got this program on my lap top called Mind master , very cheap to download, and it's always working in the background
for me sending subliminal messages about food exercise lifestyle anything you like.
When I close the program I feel like I can't do it alone. This program is really good .Try it.

MissSusieQ

just looked at your diary. maybe it's the shakes? i did a shake diet a little while back and i found it so hard to be satisfied by a cup of something that i just glugged down without enjoying.

for the same amount of calories as your shake and apple, i have a light wrap with light cheese, a veggie burger, lettuce, cucumber and tomato. or a veggie patty, a pack of steamfresh veggies and a salada with a slice of light cheese.

MrsSWW

Your evening meals look fantastic but I haven't got a clue what all the powders and stuff for breakfast and lunch are. It's only a personal opinion but I don't think you need protein shakes unless you are an athlete, a balanced diet with real food really all you need.

Try having some porridge or oatmeal with fruit for breakfast, or omelette with vegetables (or be like me and have both). Proper food at lunchtime too, it doesn't have to be made fresh that morning unless you have restrictions on your food preparation such as no microwave if you work. For the same number of calories you could have a hearty homemade vegetable soup and either a small sandwich or salad. Find some good low calorie filling fruit or vegetable snacks, or oatcakes with a very small amount of cheese, or Greek yoghurt with fruit.

My diary is open as far as I am aware, feel free to have a trawl through for some ideas.

bathsheba_c

You aren't eating lunch! An apple or a container of yogurt is not a meal.

Also, how quickly are you trying to lose? If you only have about 10 lbs to lose (and your profile picture shows that you are already slender), it might be more realistic for you to aim for only half a pound a week.

I won't go into the math of it, but how quickly you can reasonably expect to lose weight and be healthy is determine by the difference between your BMR (the number of calories you need to live) and TDEE (the number of calories you burn each day). Your target should be in between those two number, and you can find calculators for them online.

MissSusieQ

also, about the medication you've started -

apart from my basic feeling that the only person they benefit is the rich dude whose pockets they line, have you read the adverse effects of them?

palpitations, tachycardia, hypertension, chest pain, CNS stimulation, headache, GI upset including constipation, dry mouth, altered taste, urinary disturbance, rash, impotence, libido change, facial oedema, cardiac arrest/failure, stroke, euphoria, psychosis, hallucinations..

plus, you said your weight was thyroid related - duromine interacts with thyroid hormones.

johloz

If I was drinking weight loss shakes for 1/3 of my calories for the day, I'd be starving, too. Unless they are required by a doctor (which given their name, I highly doubt), replace them with real food. 500 calories of meat, whole grains, and veggies will fill you right up and keep you full.

Of course there are small exceptions, but weight loss is as simple as calories in/calories out. You don't need some special and probably expensive shake to lose weight, you only need to lower your total caloric intake. I guarantee even 400 calories of real, chewable food will make you feel more full than 500 calories of shake.

mayflowermn

I took a quick peek at your food diary, and I would say you are eating way too many carbs and not enough protein. As others mentioned, protein will keep you full longer.

My opinion? Eliminate the Celebrity Slim - Rapid Chocolate. Although you are getting 22 g protein for the shake, you are also getting 22 g of sugar and 26 g of carbs which runs you 237 calories. It just doesn't seem like much bang for your buck but then I'm all about fooling myself with volume of food and liquid food just doesn't seem like it's very 'rewarding' when compared to other things that have the same calorie total.

For 237 calories you could eat:

4 oz of chicken, 110 calories, 21g protien, 0 carbs, 0 sugar
8 oz of Dannon Oikos - 0% Fat - Greek Yogurt Plain, 120 calories, 22g protein, 9g carbs, 9 sugars (flavor with Stevia & Cinnamon).

Sheer volume, you are getting more food as well as well as a ton of protein to fill you up. Cut the portion of yogurt and add some good carbs with Dare Grains First Whole Grain Crackers for 80 calories, 2 protein, 11g carbs, 1 sugar and a slice of cheese which roughly amounts to 60 calories, 6g protein, 0g carbs, 0g sugars.

I would consider tracking my sugar totals as those are burned through quickly by the body and that can also trigger hunger issues.

Best of luck! I know you can do it!!! : )