How does one learn to be OK with being hungry?

Bottom line: To lose weight you have to burn more calories than you take in. But what no one has ever explained to me is how to go about your day while being hungry. I know people say you have to drink water or snack on veggies. And I'm sorry, but those things do not take care of the hunger pains. So to lose weight we have to take it as given that we're going to feel hungry all the time and I just don't know how to deal with that. Suggestions?

Unfortunately it is part of the process. Some people can handle it better than others. Some people can handle a deeper calorie deficit than others.

When I was losing my 60 lbs I went to bed hungry a lot. My husband remembers, I would sometimes cry (I'm a girl!) myself to sleep and I'd always wake up fine. And I was losing SLOW. It took me two years to lose 60 lbs. It's not like I was doing anything crazy. But I seemed to finally build up a tolerance for it and I was riding the victories at the end and it kept me going and I was even able to handle a deeper calorie deficit for the last 17 lbs. I learned that the feeling of hunger will not kill you and you will not go into starvation mode if you are fat. The only people who have to worry about starvation mode are skinny people.

If you have emotional eating issues than you are not going to be able to handle such a deep deficit and if you eat too low it will backfire. A better strategy is to eat at a shallower deficit, and sometimes give yourself a break from the deficit and eat at maintenance. This is not going backwards, but eating to low and then binging because you can't sustain it is going backwards. It's better to stay forwards even if it is slower. The tortoise wins this race in the end.

I drank a ton of water and herbal teas. Constantly. And I ate satisfying foods that fueled my body for good strong workouts day in and day out. But I did have to go to bed hungry most nights.

Having excess fat is like having a big mortgage payment. It's hard to pay off the debt. But life is nice once you are debt free, although it still takes dedication to stay at maintenance. I've stayed there for over a year now. And I lost the 60 lbs at age 50 when us older ladies have all the weird hormone issues and life seems against us. For me the bottom line was I had to learn that the feeling of hunger won't kill me. Our bodies are designed to handle it. It's only modern societies who have become wimpy about it with our over abundance of food and never having to feel it until we are forced to pay off our fat debt because of heath problems.

Once you are debt free it's amazing. A person who is debt free (no excess fat) can sit next to a person of the same height and gender who has the excess fat (debt) and eat more and not gain, because they are debt free.

Anything worthwhile is hard work. Day in and day out grind of calories and exercise is not exciting or glamorous. You just have to do it. Keep your eye on the prize. Just like going to school, working at a job, etc. It's the day to day grind that matters. The graduation is exciting and glamorous, nothing else in the process is.

Eating clean and healthy is the main thing. Compare:

Eating exactly 1800 calories of McDonalds
Eating exactly 1000 calories of McDonalds + 1000 calories of clean foods
Eating 2000-2500 calories of clean foods

Which one do you think will help you tone your body?

If you are hungry, eat more. But if you are having problems then you should go and see your doctor.

Not enough information here. You can 100% "clean foods" with poor macros and your body comp will suffer for it. It's not about clean vs unclean. It's about nutrients, macro and micro.

I have not been too hungry-- and drinking hot decaf tea helps-- but I remember what being overweight felt like and I never want to go there again. I also remind myself of what I am gaining instead of what I don't have. I make a very filling cauliflower lasagna that is delicious-- so I feel mostly great most of the time. <a href="http://www.myfitnesspal.com/weight-loss-ticker"><img border="0" src="http://tickers.myfitnesspal.com/ticker/show/2605/745/26050745.png&quot; /></a><p style="text-align:center;width:420px;"><small>Created by MyFitnessPal - <a href="http://www.myfitnesspal.com">Free Weight Loss</a> Tools</small></p>

Hi I have found having a protien with your breakfast and lunch....staved off hunger and use the snacks for unlimited veggies....help me alot.

Think about the glycemic index of the food that you eat. I changed my 7AM breakfast from one cup cereal, one cup milk and a banana to one egg fried in butter and a banana then added a 2PM snack of 1/4 cup nuts and my hunger pains are gone.

I don't think you guys are getting it. It's not just when I'm dieting (although it is much worse then). I am always hungry. For example,I could eat two double-cheeseburgers with fries and still be hungry. The only reason I stop eating is because I think I'm supposed to. I'm always hungry. I mean ALWAYS. Have any of you ever actually been obese?

I can relate to your constant hunger. What helped me was learning to identify the difference between eating due to physical hunger as opposed to eating to self medicate or eating out of boredom or whatever the problem might be. It's really not easy to identify or overcome when you've become so used to using food to deal with stuff in your life. I have all the knowledge and tools I need and I still struggle. It might be something you are not even consciously aware of so you might need to seek some professional help to work through whatever's "eating you". Wish you much success with your journey :happy:

A good point has been made here about nutrition. You may not be interested in nutrition at all, but it would help you to learn more about what your body needs. Clue: 2 double cheeseburgers and fries from a fast food restaurant isn't it. It might be that you are still hungry because your body is screaming: "I need some iron and manganese down here, STAT!" Feed it what it needs, and meals should satisfy you.

Another thing to consider is this: Yes, we can be hungry with an ache inside creating such a large vacuum that we keep eating and eating and eating, trying to fill that hole. Only food will never fill it because that's not what you're really hungry for. Maybe you're hungry for a meaningful relationship or a satisfying job or relief from some major stress in your life. It helps to stop feeding yourself food, ride it out, wait until your body is really and truly hungry for food. Feel what that's like and how it's different from the ache you get inside because something in your life just isn't right.

I had gotten into a bad habit of stuffing myself to the point of misery all day every day because of problems with an adult son on drugs. It was only about 6 weeks ago that the scales fell from my eyes all of a sudden, and I realized that I had to face my son directly because all the food in the world would never heal that pain. (and yeh - got myself right over the line into the obese category; thank goodness I recognized the behavior now and not 100 pounds from now)

That hasn't happened to me yet. :ohwell:

How many calories are you eating? What kinds of foods are you eating? If you are eating about 20% fewer calories than you burn and getting a balanced diet, plenty of protein, fats, and the right mix of carbs, then you should not be getting hungry. When I'm hungry, I eat. The only times I have gone over my calorie goal is when I simply overeat, which I have done a few times since I started.

Being hungry all the time, very, very hungry can be a sign of diabetes, or insulin resistance. You can test your own blood sugar to see if you are being diabetic with supplies from the drug store..easy. If you google insulin resistance you will see that you need to build muscle.

Oh - and I've actually come to enjoy the feeling of being hungry. The years I was eating all day every day, I never felt that. It was almost a high the first few times I felt it.

Now I'm always hungry before a meal, and I really love putting together a nice meal to satisfy that hunger.

I dont go around hungry - purposefully that is.

if I'm hungry I eat. I track my protein amounts more than my calories. I try to get about 150grams of protein a day. I not hungry with that.

I don't think you guys are getting it. It's not just when I'm dieting (although it is much worse then). I am always hungry. For example,I could eat two double-cheeseburgers with fries and still be hungry. The only reason I stop eating is because I think I'm supposed to. I'm always hungry. I mean ALWAYS. Have any of you ever actually been obese?

I'm obese right now! WTF? You don't have to starve yourself to lose weight.

If you're hungry all the time, you're not picking the right foods. I was only hungry on this for a couple of days until I figured out how to make more filling choices for the same calorie amount.

is really hunger or cravings?

When I first started on the weight loss program I did 5:2 intermittent fasting (mostly for other health benefits like improved insulin sensitivity) so hunger was a given on the down days of 500 Cals. Did find that hunger came and went in waves and that it was useful to learn what physical hunger actually was, as opposed to habitual hunger dictated by the clock. Can now distinguish the two. I did find the 5:2 program easy to manage psychologically since occasional extreme deprivation was easier to deal with than constant low level deprivation.

Agreed -- I've been doing something similar trying to fix in insulin problems. When your insulin is out of whack, it is easier to eat nothing at all until the problem passes than shove more "problem food" down one's "pie hole!"

But oh no -don't say that low calorie "plan" too loud. You'll get the "gotta eat more than 1200 calories" police on your tail!