Portion control and actually feeling full

i feel your pain....im in the same boat..but we gotta just keep pushing!! :flowerforyou:

just give it a few days. u feel hungry at first but ur body gets used to it

What about speaking with the parents about serving healthier yummy snacks that you will not feel guilty eating and can snack on with the kids?

Also, drink more water. Most of the time if you feel hungry between meals you can drink a glass of water to curb the feeling of being hungry.
Add some cucumbers, lemons and mint to a pitcher of water the night before and drink it during the day to get a tasty treat and not have just "plain ole water"

how big of a deficit are you running?

quite often hunger is actually a sign of... hunger.

Yup, portion control and struggling with hunger never, ever worked for me. 20 years of failed dieting attempts. Perhaps you could experiment with what kind of healthy foods might help you and which foods may be hindering you?

Edit: oh never mind, you could just "fill up with water" and low fat, low cal foods. Good luck with that.

I've had to learn that you're not supposed to feel full after a meal, but satiated.

Exactly.

Why do you iron the foods that are supposed to keep you full? Doesn't that just make them flatter? Maybe that's the problem.

The thing about healthy meals is that they don't make you feel full right away. Keyword there though is feel. Just because you don't feel full, that doesn't mean that your body is not full. If you don't feel food and you keep eating, that's when food comas occur.
What I do is after every meal, I wait a while for my body to digest the food. If after a couple of minutes or so (10-20 minutes usually); if I am still hungry, I might consider light seconds, or a healthy snack to accompany my meal. But see, by waiting, I allowed my body to make some space for the new incoming food so that I won't overeat and cause my metabolism to work harder; and I allowed my body to decide for itself whether it still needed fuel. If your body says its still hungry, you just got the green light to eat without feeling guilty. Its better to eat than to starve.
If you drink water with your meals (before, during, or after) you tend to feel full faster. Water does take up space and it keeps your body hydrated which helps your metabolism out a lot. Water also eliminates the possibility of you mistaking thirst for hunger.
Also, learn the difference between hunger and craving. When food is delicious, we tend to not feel full (even though we probably are) just because we want to keep eating. My dangerous (yes, food gets dangerous) pleasure is cheese; so I tend to not feel full whenever there is pizza, cheeseburgers, quesadillas or mac and cheese around. Thankfully, I am getting a lot better and disciplining myself.

A couple tips, from someone who has and does go through this from time to time.

Eating 1/2 of a family sized bag of frozen veggies with almost every meal helps.

White potatoes are frowned upon by many, but they are very satisfying per calorie.

I recommend "rotating" your regular foods...so if you eat a lot of chicken for a week or two, get something else.
Or instead of rice, go potatoes. Switching it up can make you feel full. I do tend to eat the same foods more or less for weeks at a time, due to simplicity.

Find foods that make you feel full. For instance, peanut butter is often touted as a great way to shut down your appetite. For me personally, i can sit down and eat an entire jar of peanut butter with a spoon because I love the stuff so much... It doesn't make me feel full nearly as well as eating a couple potatoes cooked in coconut oil.

**Edited**...and i don't follow this as well as I should...drink a lot of water before, during, and after your meals. Coffee works as well, and perhaps even better (from a satiety standpoint).

What do you mean by "normal" healthy food? I eat normal, everyday meals, I don't shop for "diet" foods or "health" foods...just got done eating a serving of mixed seafood gumbo with a serving of whole grain farmers bread...very healthy and filling. Am I stuffed? No...but I'm satiated. That's just an example...I don't really deprive myself of things that I enjoy...I just log everything and stick to serving sizes for portion control. I also eat throughout the day...breakfast, AM snack, lunch, PM snack, dinner. Being at a deficit, it's that much more important for me that I'm eating nutrient dense foods to keep me feeling satiated.

Also, what kind of deficit do you have? Just my two cents, but you really shouldn't be having hunger pangs, even if you're at a deficit. That tells me that a.) you're not eating nutrient dense foods; and/or b.) you're not eating enough calories. Remember that the MFP numbers are just estimates based on your data input and statistcal data...not everyone is the same. I was having hunger pangs when I first started because MFP had me a little low. I upped my calories by a mere 50 and that took care of that and I"m still on my 1Lb per week pace.

I don't know if you're doing it or not, but personally I'm not a big fan of the obligatory 1,200 calorie/day diet. For most I think it's completely unnecessary and they would have a more enjoyable experience and still lose weight at 1,400-1,500.