the hungries

sparklebritches

10-days into reducing my calories, I have found my stomach growling often from morning through even the night sometimes when I wake (often, with small children) over the last couple of days.

My reduction is not that great--my base is 1590 calories plus about 300 exercise cals.

I eat rather clean--tons of nuts, fruit, protein. In fact, my protein might be a tad high. I eat every couple of hours.

Thoughts? I eat almost all of my exercise calories and eat often. Is this pretty normal after the initial fun of dieting starts to wear off? I wonder if adding in more carbs other than fruit would help.

Exercise has been Jari Love videos, pretty intense weighted stuff with fast cycling on active rest days.

hamiltonba

Is your stomach making noises due to digestion or are you hungry? You don't state what your concern is. What is an example of your food plan for a day?

KristiChilds

make sure you are drinking plenty of water. hot tea will help make your tummy feel fuller, or veggie-based soups.

Chenoachem

Fruits and nuts are healthy but have high calorie counts for not much food. Try eating more veggies to help fill you up.

SewRue

Drinking plenty of water will help. Try a glass when you wake up. It could also be your food digesting. Most of your stomach sounds are due to digestion rather than hunger. But it took me about two weeks two get use to the calorie loss. I was eating more than 2000 calories a day, but when I started "my fitness pal" I cut down to 1300. I heard the stomach growl several times. But it just took time to get used to it. You will too!! Good luck!

sparklebritches

Oh. My "concern" is that I'm truly hungry feeling at 1800-1900 calories of rather nutrient dense food. I have never cut back on carbs before. I suppose I'm looking for tips and pointers to make it through the day. Thanks, Kris and others!

Food plan can get kind of long.

Breakfast is usually a cottage cheese smoothie with fruit and water
Snack--1-2 oz smoked turkey breast and about a cup of grapes
Lunch--can of tuna, cup of spinach, maybe a tbsp of mayo
Snack-1/4 cup walnuts, banana
Supper--4 oz halibut, broccoli, few roasted potatoes slices
Snack--FF greek yogurt, 1/4 almonds and strawberries
Other similar snacks as hungry. Plenty of olive oil so perhaps it's more calorie dense than it appears.

KarenECunningham

If the only carbs you are eating is fruit you might want to try and add a few servings of complex carbs like brown rice or oatmeal.

tutujoli

Yikes. You're not eating much volume of food. Maybe look at adding in foods that are not calorie dense that you can eat in larger portions. I have about the same calories available to me, and I'm rarely hungry except just before meal time.

AllisonMS

How about a huge salad at lunch, with egg whites and veggies and a slice of whole wheat bread? It'll be less than 300 calories, take a long time to eat, and keep that belly busy digesting for a good long time. I don't need to snack during the day when I fill up on veggies midday. (I used to have one slice of bread with peanut butter and an apple and was always hungry afterwards... the grumblies. But no more!)

sparklebritches

Oh man. It feels like I am constantly eating and entering everything into the food journal can get a little tedious, especially with home cooked meals.

I've tried to eat proper portion sizes, which I've never done and seriously cut down on starches, which I've also never done. Sounds like I should add back in some oats and brown rice, as suggested. Which I love.

Thanks for the input! It just seemed to all catch up with me. I figured you all would be the people to ask.

allykat8

It's hard to say that eating "x,y, and z" will fix your problem. Everybody is a little different and you will have to find what works for you.

For me, drinking a full bottle of Powerade Zero and chewing gum helps a ton. The powerade has zero calories and good to balance out the amount of water you drink.

Broccoli also will fill me up for hours. Very little calories, but there is something about it that keeps me stuffed.

Keep your mind busy. If you have time to just sit around and think, you will want to eat. I know any down time I have, I am ready for a snack or to eat out of boredum.

Before you give into a craving/hunger, wait about 10-15 minutes and see if you are still hungry. If you are, you need to eat. If it passes, it was just a craving. However, if you are dying/urging for something, it's could be your bodies way of telling you it needs something. Learn the difference between wanting to eat and needing to eat. This just takes time.

HTH

aareeyesee

Try adding Fiber to one of your track items and set it at 35-40. If you eat the kinds of food you need to eat to hit 35-40 everyday you shouldn't be hungry. At least thats what I have found to be true in my case. Just make sure you are hammering the H2O. I make myself have minimum of 5 liters of water a day.

lreed

It looks like you are doing REALLY well, I would just agree, you need to add MORE veggies. You can slightly cut out a little bit of other stuff and add way more snap peas, broccoli, celery (has barely any calories) carrots Make sure you are drinking lots of water too, there is lots of differing opinions on this one, but if you are hungry drink more, it will help (especially as you transition to a lower calorie diet) I also eat only high fiber carbs (i.e. bread and oatmeal)

cymills

I have been on the program almost three weeks and I cannot remember the last time my stomach DID NOT growl. I have adopted a saying , and have posted it everywhere. It is... "suck it up cupcake". It is along the same lines as... "if this were easy every one would do it" I figure the growling reminds me to not put something in my mouth. BTW - I drink at LEAST 8 glasses of water a day - sometimes 10 ...so again- to coin a phrase.. .."suck it up cupcake"

sparklebritches

Bwahaha. I'm also putting on my big girl britches. Except, that's not exactly the way the phrase goes...

xoxsandee

Try adding some whole grain foods to your diet. Fruits don't fill me up as much as the other carbs, such as, whole wheat bread, brown rice, whole wheat cereals, sweet potato etc.
I see you have banana as a snack. A banana actually has as much, or even higher, carbs than a slice of whole wheat bread.
I used to eat a banana for a snack and that did not fill me up. I tried eating a slice of whole wheat bread for a snack instead and that lasted me pretty long. I added a tablespoon of natural peanut butter as well for the healthy fats. With the fat, you should feel more satisfy and full. If you wanted to add jam as well, try putting slices of strawberries instead. It taste even better than the jam, much healthier too! I'm getting hungry now lol. I hope that kinda helped.