Deep thoughts on eating when hungry

kiramaniac

I think this is the heart of some of my weight issues. I don't know how to monitor how full I am, and eat when hungry and not eat when I'm not hungry. Right now with MFP, I eat until I get to my calories. It's almost a game - how close can I get to my target calories without going over. If I have 200 calories left, I will typically eat something to consume those, even if I'm not super hungry. It's kind of fun to play the game - but it also means that I'm not monitoring myself at all to figure out what and how much I should eat. I think I'm also really confused on how to read my body's signals too. Right now I feel a little hungry. The one side of me says that's normal for when you are on a weight loss plan. The other side says - no! you should eat something.

I think this is ultimately why I have a weight problem though. The natural regulating mechanisms that some people seem to have, I seem to have lost (or never had) that ability. I feel like historically during my life I've either been actively gaining weight or losing weight, but I don't know how to maintain weight. Again, I'm either in a mode of cutting back and letting something artificial guide my diet and limit me (like Weight Watchers of MFP); or when that's removed I put weight on. If I don't figure this part out, I either have a lifetime of MFP dependency to provide the guidance on when and how much to eat. or I'll gain weight again.

I was considering removing the upper limit and having it show 2000 calories to try to force myself into this mode (am I hungry? OK eat. No? Ok, don't eat.). A little dangerous though!

tanigrrrrr

I dont have any limit on my calories... i think its at around 2500 or something like that .. which i NEVER get close to... i use it more as a tool to see what ive eaten and identify what has driven them up so much.
I think counting calories is so much more about learning what is in each food so you can make a wiser decision rather than just staying under the number.

gmansmom2

I know what you mean. I have always been on a diet. I have been a size 4 to a 14 (tight 14). I am an emotional eater. I believe it was my childhood that triggered it. Never the less, it is an issue. I always do well with WW / MFP, etc. I think I have finally decided that I will have to track for the rest of my life. Maybe I will and maybe I won't but at this point I think it is better to think I will. For me, it is to see that if I have already had 1500 calories I can't be starving so maybe it is just emotions making me want to eat.

I also agree with the pp that it is a good tool to see what works and what does not. To learn how many calories are in each food, etc. I have traveled and made choices onmy own without looking at MFP but if I go too many days without checking in on myself I can get lazy.

If it is important to you to do it on your own I say increase your calories and see what happens. You will figure out if you are ready for that or not. If not, no worries, you may just need more time. After 3 years of maintining we may be in a different place. At this point I refuse to feel bad that I need this tool.

EricCowperthwaite

I went from very physically fit and healthy in my 20's to obese and unhealthy in my 40's. To get back to where I was as a young man, I need more than just determination. This tool is insanely helpful .... and so are all of you. During that uber healthy/fit part of my life, I always ate as much as I wanted, when I wanted. However, I worked out for as much as 1 1/2 hours a day, and had a massively physical job where I was on my feet and doing hard physical work 8 hours a day or more. I calculated my calorie intake from back then just for fun .... it was on the order of 4000 calories a day and I didn't gain weight except when I was working to put on muscle. I stayed at 160 lbs the whole time.

Additionally, most of my eating in my 20's was, more or less, low carb (except for Friday night beer and whiskey, that is). I ate very little in the way of bread, pasta or other grain based stuff. Somewhat low carbs, lots of protein and fat, and very high levels of physical activity naturally keeps you lean and fit. The problem is, I never learned to regulate food intake. I just ate to fill that insatiable void created by that level of physical activity. This wasn't good later on as I moved on to a more sedentary life.

That said, I find that I eat when I'm hungry mostly when I'm sitting around and sort of bored. If I am working and focused on what I'm doing, no big deal. I don't get hungry and I don't eat a lot. So, I've started doing some exercise to fight the boredom eating. Only been at it a week or so, but it really does seem to help. When I start feeling the urge to snack/eat (unless it is time to eat anyhow, but we all know the difference) I get up and do the following:

10 pushups
10 squats (deep knee bends we called them in the army)
1 minute of stretches: neck rolls, quad stretches, toe touches.

I end up doing this 5 or so times a day. It drives away the urge to eat and I feel much better. So far, so good.