What do you do when you are hungry all of the time??

Luv108

At my current job I work almost 11 hours Monday-Friday, I am there 7:30am-6:00pm. I find that on weekends I am totally fine with my calorie goal (which is 1500, plus I'll eat exercise calories) and have 3 meals a day with a couple of snacks. But on the weekdays, it feels like such a long day, I get really hungry and I can't stop eating. I also go to the gym before work, so that adds onto wanting to eat more. I'll have a pre-workout snack, then breakfast at 7am. Then I'm hungry by 11am, then I'm hungry and want a meal at 3pm, then I am really hungry again when I get home at 6:30! If I don't eat when I get home I have a hard time falling asleep. I've tried eating smaller meals, but I get too hungry and out of it. I need alot of energy to take care of the toddler, I'm a babysitter. It is so discouraging, everyday I feel like a failure and that I'll never lose weight!

NCchar130

High protein and high fiber foods tend to keep me more satisfied - what kind of stuff are you eating during your workday?

Also, where do you have your activity level set on MFP? If it is set to 'sedentary' for example, your calorie goal will be lower and it sounds like you are pretty active.

Luv108

Thanks for responding! I have my activity level set for moderate because although I'm active throughout the day, I do still sit quite a bit. I usually eat a protein bar before my workout, it is early at 5am. And then after I will usually have oatmeal, toast with almond butter and banana, or a whole fruit and nut smoothie. MFP set my calories at 1500 to lose 1 lb a week. Yeah, maybe I need more protein. I'm a vegetarian, I eat dairy, but not eggs. I usually eat alot of beans, veggie burgers, tofu, and cheese for protein. I just don't know what I am doing wrong, maybe it is stress?

acogg

I don't know your size, but the heavier you are, the more you will feel starved at a lower calorie setting. As you lose weight, your body will not cry out as much for calories because it will need less to maintain. In the beginning I used to joke about my fat cells screaming for food, lol. Now they are much more satisfied with lower cals. I hope that makes sense.

Luv108

Yeah, that is a good point, I am definitely overweight, I'm 5'4 at 174lbs. Maybe it is just that I'm fat!

acogg

Remember. a lot of this diet thing is mind over fat cells! We didn't get this way by feeling full. lol

NCchar130

Thanks for responding! I have my activity level set for moderate because although I'm active throughout the day, I do still sit quite a bit. I usually eat a protein bar before my workout, it is early at 5am. And then after I will usually have oatmeal, toast with almond butter and banana, or a whole fruit and nut smoothie. MFP set my calories at 1500 to lose 1 lb a week. Yeah, maybe I need more protein. I'm a vegetarian, I eat dairy, but not eggs. I usually eat alot of beans, veggie burgers, tofu, and cheese for protein. I just don't know what I am doing wrong, maybe it is stress?

I'm a vegetarian too (at least, 99% of the time, I do occasionally eat chicken or fish) but I do eat eggs and dairy. I eat peanuts or almonds almost every day because they are very satisfying, although high in calories so I have to be careful with the portion size. Beans are a go-to food for me too.

Stress could definitely be a factor, I am hungrier for sure when I'm chronically stressed.

Are you set to lose 2 lbs a week or 1 lb? I started with it set to 2 lbs/wk and found I just could not eat that low and not feel like I was starving all day, so I changed it to 1 lb and found it a lot easier. And I've ended up losing an average of 1.7 lbs/week anyway, so I'm glad I switched. That might be something to consider (if that applies to you). It doesn't really matter to me in the long-run if it takes a little longer to lose it if going slower means keeping it off and not feeling deprived every day.

One other suggestion since you don't have trouble keeping to your goal on weekends is to bank some calories. I keep track of my daily intake and if I'm under by a few hundred, as I am sometimes, I may then eat those back on another day if I'm really hungry. So, in your case, if you workout on weekends and can manage to get by without eating back all or some of your exercise calories, you could bank those for another day during the week.

myscaleaddiction

chew gum, drink water, and/or think of something else

Abztract1

I drink water to fill in the gaps between snacks. Keeps me full and hydrated through out the day and for my workouts. I love water and when it gets boring I add a splash of Mio. I try to drink at least 12 cups per day.

MyOwnSunshine

Chew sugarless gum. Drink hot tea. Drink water. Eat tic tacs as slowly as possible. Plan a lot of fruit and veggie snacks. Make sure I pack my lunch instead of relying on my "at work eating judgement."

acogg

Stress could definitely be a factor, I am hungrier for sure when I'm chronically stressed.

One other suggestion since you don't have trouble keeping to your goal on weekends is to bank some calories. I keep track of my daily intake and if I'm under by a few hundred, as I am sometimes, I may then eat those back on another day if I'm really hungry. So, in your case, if you workout on weekends and can manage to get by without eating back all or some of your exercise calories, you could bank those for another day during the week.

I do this all the time. Yesterday I was over on my cals, today I made up for it without feeling strarved. It helped me to average my cals over a weeks time, rather than stress about it daily.

To the OP: Are you able to log on to MFP while working? If so, dwell here. You will get a lot of inspiration and help. You can do this!

ladywendolyn

Hot tea

KristysLosing

Eating mints or mint gum make me not want to eat anything else.

eandrsmom

When I am tired, I am famished. I packed on a ton of weight when my kids were younger and I was sleeping three or four hours a night on a good day. Now i still get that way on occasion, and it is my reminder to walk away from the laundry and head to bed.

marvybells

i find that protein shakes really fill me up & make me not want to eat for a while. (that's not why i drink them, i'm trying to get more protein in because i tend to come in low most days. it's just something i noticed after i started drinking them.)

Crazy4Healthy

MFP may have you set to low to begin with. Check out http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/ and plug in your numbers. It will give you your BMR, you should not go below that number. You may just need to eat a bit more, even 100 extra calories can really help.

I agree that protein will also help you to feel full longer or complex carbs. Water is also a great filler as someone else mentioned.

peacemongernc

I have found that fiber and protein are key for me to not feeling hungry. And the odd thing is that my breakfast choices make the biggest difference of all. I don't know why that matters, but it makes a huge difference in how hungry I feel the rest of the day.

One thing I noticed recently that surprised me... I was trying to make my body let go of water it was retaining because I had a weigh-in... I don't usually do anything different for that sort of thing, but this time it mattered more. I tend to put on between 2 and 8 pounds in water weight about 2 weeks out of the month. I decided to eat as perfectly as I could, and spent a whole lot of time sorting out my daily menu based on what I had in the house that I wanted to eat. I kept my protein and fiber as high as I could, and tried to get my sugar and salt (to things I rarely pay any attention to) lower than usual. I was trying to keep my sugar grams under 26 and my salt under 2500, and my protein over 120 and my fiber over 30 grams. I don't know if it was the lower sugar grams or what, but I swear I couldn't finish all the food I had planned for that day. I think I ended up with 1350 or something and I was so full I was uncomfortable. I try to keep my fiber and protein up all the time, although I don't typically go that high everyday, so the biggest difference was the sugar.

Keeping my sugar low meant I couldn't eat fruits I normally eat (apples and oranges) and ate blueberries instead, and there were a few other changes like that.

Anyway, I know for a fact that the protein and fiber helps, but I don't know about the rest. I thought I'd throw it out there for you to consider.

Good luck!!

Shadowknight137

Eat less meals.

Seriously. I find the more I eat, the more I want to. Try eating three meals a day or less.

freddykid

Just a suggestion, change when you go to the gym to after work. When I hit the gym hard I am always very hungry for a few hours after.

Firefox7275

Thanks for responding! I have my activity level set for moderate because although I'm active throughout the day, I do still sit quite a bit. I usually eat a protein bar before my workout, it is early at 5am. And then after I will usually have oatmeal, toast with almond butter and banana, or a whole fruit and nut smoothie. MFP set my calories at 1500 to lose 1 lb a week. Yeah, maybe I need more protein. I'm a vegetarian, I eat dairy, but not eggs. I usually eat alot of beans, veggie burgers, tofu, and cheese for protein. I just don't know what I am doing wrong, maybe it is stress?

That is a lot of carbs especially your main breakfast, try more protein and healthy fats spread through the day. Many vegetarian sources are much lower in protein than meat and fish so vegetarians sometimes have to work extra hard at it. Vegetable burgers are often more carbs than protein, beans and lentils the same although very nutritious. Try more seeds for fibre and minerals, ones like flax and chia are particularly high fibre so very filling and also good sources of omega-3s albeit short chain. Do you take a marine algae supplements for long chain omega-3s since you don't have fish or eggs?

Also try to make sure your carbs are the slower digesting ones - steel cut or jumbo oats not quick cook, beans and lentils which you already have, pot barley. If you are having regular bread consider switching to a bread with less wheat, more protein, or traditional not modern super finely ground flour - stoneground, granary or brown pitta are gentler on the blood sugar.
http://www.marmaladeandmileposts.com/archives/21240

If stress is contributing look at your long chain omega-3, B complex vitamins, magnesium and zinc intake.

Luv108

Thanks everyone for your input, alot of helpful advice! I think I'll work on getting more fiber and protein, it seems this has helped alot of you out. And I'm going to try to bring tea to work, that may work! thanks

_jkr

If you have a microwave in your office, you can try eating popcorn! There are low cal variants of these. You can also try grapes! I'm usually very happy with the crunch I get with them (:
Like others suggested, warm drinks help (: You can heat up some skim milk, drink tea or coffee.

What fills me up most of the day is water. For breakfast, I usually eat oatmeal (you can eat it with different fruits, if you prefer!) -- it fills me up until even way after lunch.

Good luck! I hope you find what suits you (:

grassette

Things that help me: a good breakfast (rolled oats, greek yogurt, flax seed), more protein, more healthy fats (like avocado), a higher protein-fat ratio to carbohydrates..

katcunock

nothing wrong with eating many times a day, try little and often rather than much and far between.

rml_16

It's not how much you eat, but WHAT you eat. Be sure to get a mix of protein, fat and fiber with each meal or snack. My breakfast is usually a cup of Kashi Go Lean mixed with half a cup of fat free vanilla Greek yogurt and it keeps me full for a long time, Sometimes I'll also have hot chocolate (Ovaltine with soy milk). The total of all that is around 300 calories but very filling.

Dark chocolate and cinnamon are natural appetite suppressants, too, so maybe try to incorporate those into your meals. I love Green & Black's 85% cocoa dark chocolate (I eat about six squares a day). I am NOT a dark chocolate fan. It's the only one I can stand and I love it.

turquoise3

I have porridge for breakfast. It keeps my hunger well at bay. If i do get hungry i keep making myself nice hot drinks, like green tea, or peppermint tea for example It really works for me!

beccyleigh

I drink water. And eat eggs & meat based foods for breakfast & lunch.

I am currently snacking on celery sprinkled with salt & pepper & seems to be doing a good job of keeping me off the choccie & crisps.

darrensurrey

But on the weekdays, it feels like such a long day, I get really hungry and I can't stop eating

It's probably because you find your job boring. If you're engrossed in something, the time would just fly by and you wouldn't even think of food. For instance, when I play Battlefield 3, I could go for 3 hours without thinking of eating. I call it the Battlefield 3 Diet.

So either get your boss to give you more interesting work or find a different job.

Drudoo

I eat/ suck on ice cubes along with upping how much water I drink. It is something to fill the space. However, I rarely get hungry during the day but this is my fix inbetween snacks and meals.

ArroganceInStep

1) Can you workout after work instead of before?
2) Can you moderate your target intake somewhat? Say shoot for 1700 instead of 1500. Sometimes a few hundred extra calories means the difference between being starving and overeating and maintaining your diet
3) Can you handle spicy food? That helps me a lot with intake.
4) Drink lots of water

Biggipooh

I eat eggs, when I get hungry, but it is not mealtime yet.