I'm not really hungry...until I start eating

kristy_n0831

I've never been a breakfast person, but I have been making it a point to eat something for each meal since starting MFP. It seems that after breakfast, I'm fine. Once I eat lunch though, I feel hungry again shortly after, and seem to stay hungry until dinner time. Anyone else feel like this? Any suggestions as to what will help curb the hunger pains?

BarackMeLikeAHurricane

Right? I skip breakfast and lunch and just eat a big dinner and snack until I go to bed. Check out intermittent fasting.

photojunkie28

I know exactly what you mean and I dont know the reason. I have come up with several possible explainations for myself...

One theory is that after being in a calorie deficit all day and then a long nights sleep and not enough calories for breakfast means you spend the rest of the day trying to "catch up" which means hunger feelings until you do.

Another possibility is your macro nutrients. Maybe you need to increase your protein for lunch (the time of day when you may even be most active and burn calories faster) in order to keep you satisfied longer.

I also find a connection between my carb macro and hunger. If it is too high I get a "fake hunger" feeling before I should truely be hungry again. Maybe this is sudden increases/decreases in glucose levels.

I am NO EXPERT....but I tend to just deal with it if I know I want to have a big dinner or simply eat when im hungry. As long as I make the right choices (high protein) typically I never go hungry even in a deficit.

jenfoxjercha

Only from looking at your food diary I would suggest drinking more water. Maybe you are and not logging it. I did notice in one day you drank 12 cups.

WBB55

Once I eat lunch though, I feel hungry again shortly after, and seem to stay hungry until dinner time. Anyone else feel like this? Any suggestions as to what will help curb the hunger pains?

There's lots of different causes of "hunger." How many calories is your breakfast and what's the macro breakdown of it? My suggestion is that if your breakfast right now is typically on the smaller side, and if you don't feel like breakfast "just makes you hungrier," then try eating that same amount of calories/carbs/protein/fat EVERY time you eat.

Just a little body science here, but a big stretched out stomach releases certain chemicals to the brain that says "stop eating, I'm stretched out and full." And for some people once the belly isn't stretched out anymore, the LACK of those "stop eating!" chemical sends the body into full out "EAT ALL THE THINGS!" mode, even though you have plenty of food left still in your intestines to digest. See, in this example, you aren't actually "hungry," it's just you're now lacking that chemical signal that tells your brain that you're "full." If you eat smaller meals, in theory, you never get that "STOP EATING!" chemical. And then you won't suffer from the "hunger" you feel when your stomach stops making that chemical. Does that make sense? I don't know if that's what's going on. It was just a thought I had based on what you posted.

quirkytizzy

I'm the same way only about breakfast instead of lunch. I have a small breakfast - between 200 and 300 calories. Anymore and I find myself ravenous during the day. Bodies are weird.

stellabobella79

The same thing happens to me! I'm totally new to MFP so take what I say with grain of salt. I plan out to eat 500 calories after breakfast and before dinner. One day I had a 100 calorie snackat 10am, a 300 calorie lunch at noon, then another 100 calorie snack around 3pm. I was so hungry all afternoon. I almost blew my diet. The next day I changed it up to 200 calorie snack at 10am, 200 calorie lunch (lean cuisine spring rolls...yum!), then a 100 calorie snack around 3 or 4. I felt much more satisfied with the 200, 200, 100 calorie schedule. No idea why, but I'm going with it!

brynnsmom

I almost never eat breakfast, but when I do I swear it actually makes me hungrier throughout the day. I don't get the phenomenon either. What works best for me from the standpoint of managing hunger is to omit breakfast, eat a small lunch (200 calories or less), and then dinner with a healthy snack or two before bed.