I'm hungry ALL of the time. I need filling suggestions!

elyelyse

oh did anyone mention popcorn? it's a whole grain, relatively low calorie, and it's got that volume you might be looking for in a snack. It may not have that long term satisfaction that proteins and fats do, but you can always have some nuts along with it.

crisanderson27

What healthy foods are good for making you full?

(i didn't read all the replies so if someone said this already i apologize)

here's another perspective...

why do you have to feel "full"? You don't have to have a full belly to have gotten enough calories and nutrients from your food. If you are actually hungry, as in not having enough energy to get comfortably through your day that is different, then by all means eat! but if you are looking to feel "full" then that's a way of thinking that needs to change.
Having said that, i love to eat until i am full sometimes, so sometimes I do, but I am aware that that is purely about having a pleasant feeling, not about getting the fuel I need so I save it for special occasions. i have learned to really appreciate the feeling of NOT being full... to me that means I am not eating more than I need and that is a kind of satisfaction all its own.

I like this outlook. Very few members of our modern society have any clue what 'hunger' is. Hunger is not when you get up in the morning and feel 'empty'. Particularly if you had any sort of real dinner. That's habit. The same goes for any other meal you're used to having. Your body doesn't trigger real hunger until it's actually out of food. When you feel hungry...drink some water...or find something to do. You'll be absolutely amazed at how quickly the feeling goes away.

By the way...eating small amounts of food is often a very strong trigger for 'hunger'. For example, if for some reason I HAVE to eat in the morning, it had better be a serious breakfast...otherwise I'm ravenously hungry all day.

That being said, I like to feel 'full' myself, and have actually come to enjoy the feeling of an empty stomach as well. Those two states are very natural for human beings. Constantly being full, isn't. When I first started losing weight two years ago, I had myself down around 1500cal/day (yeah, big mistake). I tried dividing that 1500cal up into six meals...because, well...that's what you're supposed to do, right? More on that in a minute, but...as you can guess, six meals of 250cal or so did nothing to make me, a grown working male...at 200lbs, feel full, or even close to satisfied. Hell...you can eat four Oreo's and cover 250cal. I later increased my calories to 2000 (still not enough), and that did little to make it any better. Even at the 3000cal I eat now to lose weight, I wouldn't be happy with 500cal for a meal.

And then I found Intermittent Fasting.

Now, I don't eat breakfast (or rarely eat breakfast), and my lunch falls anywhere between 11am and 2pm or so. ALL of my calories fall between noonish and about 8pm (this time frame is not hard and fast by the way...it's very flexible). So my body gets to enjoy the feeling of being 'full' every single day...and I know that I don't have to hang on every single minute until I get the next tiny infusion of food, because I get to have a stellar lunch and dinner every day of the week.

It's pretty interesting, and if you find yourself curious, google 'leangains' or 'eat stop eat'.

Good luck!

whytewytch

One thing I forgot to mention, ScottishMrs, if you are hungry all the time, prepare some snacks the night before. Make sure you have things to snack on throughout the day to keep your metabolism steady & avoid that hungry feeling. Make sure you don't stay up too late after your last snack of the day & drink lots of water or those 0 calorie drinks to help fill you up. All right, that was more than one thing.

katy_trail

if you're missing that salty snacky kind of foods, how about roasted chick peas?
really tasty sauteed or baked in seasonings and olive oil.

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ILiftHeavyAcrylics

I never understand the idea that drinking water would solve hunger. When I've tried to do that in the past I just ended up feeling full of water, and still hungry. Some people swear by it, so try it I guess, but don't be surprised if it doesn't help much.

You don't need to be stuffed, that's for sure, but you also don't need to feel like you're going hungry. If you're always feeling lousy then your new habits become a lot less sustainable IMO.

jsd_135

Glad I could help. I usually just scramble the eggs first, then put salsa on it. If I feel really fancy, I put a dollop low fat sour cream on the side. Heavenly. With two eggs, a modest amount of salsa and sour cream, the whole meal comes out to about 200 cal.

I love eggs and salsa as well. My version is a cheese omelet (2 eggs) filled with refried pinto beans and topped with salsa. Best meal ever!

jsd_135

This is great. I didn't know that stews were low cal enough for weightloss. Thanks. I'll have to look for some stewing meat next time I do groceries.

I would be wary of overly focusing on meals that are "low cal." This might be the source of your always feeling hungry. For me, too much austere, low cal eating would pretty much doom my long-term weighloss goals. That refried bean omelet I mentioned upthread was about 540 calories. It was my dinner, but I also eat them for breakfast on occasion. Very filling, and more important, very satisfying. Any food is appropriate for weightloss, you just have to monitor your portions.

My diary is open if you want to get some ideas.

Good luck to you!

yip4yaks

Hi ScottishMrs,

It sounds like we're cut from a similar cloth! I'm not allergic to every raw fruit and vegetable, but I'm allergic to many. Most of them I don't miss too much, but the berries and peaches... sad

For fruit, I buy frozen fruit and then nuke it in the microwave. Then I add it to yogurt & cereal or oatmeal in the morning. Sometimes I sprinkle a tablespoon chia seeds on there to up my protein and fiber intake for the morning. Oatmeal is the best thing for making me full in the morning, and it will keep me full for 3-4 hours. When I'm feeling like protein for breakfast, I make eggs, but to lower the calories and increase the volume of food, I'll take the egg whites from 3-4 eggs and only use one whole egg. I think egg whites by themselves are kind of gross, but that one whole egg in the mix makes the difference for me.

I also cook bananas foster or sauté apples with butter, sugar, and cinnamon and put them on top of pancakes. It's delicious, but not low calorie! But it's a thought if you ever want to splurge :-)

Soup is really filling because of its higher volume, but it's low calorie. I started making tons of soup in my crockpot and then freezing one portion-sizes in ziplock bags (after the soup cools). I originally got a ton of recipes from the "Not Your Mother's Crockpot" book. Vegetable soups, chilis, stews - they are all in there. The only modification that I usually make is to reduce the oil/butter used. I find that cookbooks often overstate the amount of butter to use, and who wants to add calories for no reason? I begin half of my meals with a soup. Moosewood Simple Suppers also has some good soup recipes - the cream of spinach soup is incredible.

I can only eat broccoli when it's seriously overcooked and mushy, so I add it to my pasta (especially tortellini) when it's boiling. Then, when the pasta is ready, I also have cooked broccoli! I've found that broccoli in particular is really filling, and since it's replacing some of the pasta I would have eaten, voila! fewer calories.

I also try to eat a lot of fish that's lean. I love beef and pork, but often they are just too high calorie for the amount that I want to eat! When I see a puny portion on my plate, I get hungry again before I even finish eating!

I love mayonnaise too, but I started replacing it with Greek yogurt, especially in tuna salad and egg salad. If you like mustard or horseradish, those are good substitutions because they are tangy and low (or no) calories.

I hope that helps! And if you ever have any suggestions for dealing with fruit and veggie allergies, I'd love to hear them! I'm hoping that if my allergy shots ever kick in, I'll magically be able to eat strawberries again :-)