Always hungry..

yankeefamily05
yankeefamily05 Posts: 657
edited September 20 in Health and Weight Loss
seriously, I feelhungry all the time...Its always around 5pm-9pm...I feel like I could eat a darn cow...What is going on with me:(?...i drink a ton of water everyday...What else can I do?

Replies

  • It could be from boredom...But I sincerly feel hungry..And I always have a craving for chocolate..(humph)..lol....
    I eat a ton of fiber....Its just been really bad tonight..Maybe its because I switched my plate to a smaller one to try and eat less...
  • amtrust
    amtrust Posts: 178
    Increase fiber. The Fiber One 90 calorie bars are really good.

    I also love the Green Giant steamed green beans with almonds (frozen food section).

    Have a little protein throughout the day.

    Best wishes!
  • mirgss
    mirgss Posts: 275 Member
    Try more protein and/or more fiber. Those things help you feel satiated better and longer :)

    Good luck!
  • If anything i go OVER on my protein everyday.....
  • PapaPolarBear
    PapaPolarBear Posts: 459
    the after dinner hunger, i hate it. I usually make some air popped popcorn and snack on that at night, it's usually only around 20 calories per cup.
  • Yeah..So true...That is probably it..Im a huge emotional eater also..I have had a VERY stressful day so I am sure that doesnt help. I am used to siting in front of the tv and gorging myself:)
  • eat a really big fiber-filled breakfast, but don't forget to drink, drink, drink water!!
  • dbhagat
    dbhagat Posts: 4 Member
    Hello,
    you may want to get your fasting blood sugars checked ( I am a physician). Try to keep away from carbs as they increase insulin levels in the body and that in turn stimulates hunger.
  • LuckyLeprechaun
    LuckyLeprechaun Posts: 6,296 Member
    If anything i go OVER on my protein everyday.....

    this is fine because MFP has the levels for protein set very low. Protein is your best friend for eliminating true hunger pangs...won't help in the category of emotional eating though...:ohwell:

    Go Protein!
  • LuckyLeprechaun
    LuckyLeprechaun Posts: 6,296 Member
    double post :blushing:
  • Hello,
    you may want to get your fasting blood sugars checked ( I am a physician). Try to keep away from carbs as they increase insulin levels in the body and that in turn stimulates hunger.


    Do you know how much a simple blood test for that would cost?.... When I was pregnnat with my daughter I failed the 1 hour and had to do the 3 hour glucose test and I was this close to failling it.....It was quite high.
  • ryoung25
    ryoung25 Posts: 5
    I used to be hungry all the time also when I would diet. It made it so difficult to lose weight. I have made the following changes and it has been the key to losing weight.
    1 - Make breakfast your biggest meal of the day (30-40% of daily calorie total)
    2 - Make dinner your smallest meal (about 20-25% of daily calories). Also, eat mostly protein and nurtient dense vegetables. Do not eat higher carbs foods like rice, pasta and bread at dinner.
    3 - Do not snack between meals. This does not allow your stomach to empty the food and you never really burn from fat stores if you always have food in your belly.
    4 - Elimanate refined sugars from your diet (sugar from milk and fruit is okay)
    5 - Do not use sweetners like equal, instead use natural sweetners like Purevia or Stevia
    6 - Eliminate as many processed foods from your diet as possible. Most processed foods are low in nurtients that your body needs. Your body alot of nutrients and it is hard enough to get them when you eat normally. When you diet, you are getting even less nutrients. This could be the real reason you are hungry. Eat more fruit, veggies and organic foods like milk, eggs, yogurt. Kashi cereal is a great cereal because it is high in fiber and is made from whole grains.
    7 - Do not drink a bunch of water when you eat food. This only makes your stomach bigger to allow for the food and water. Drink the water between meals and only drink water or milk (no fruit juices).
    8 - Do not eat within 3 hours of bedtime. If you stomach is empyt when you fall asleep, you will burn fat while you are sleeping. If you have food in your stomach, it will be converted to fat.
    9 - Excercise, excercise excercise. This is the absolute key to losing weight. If you have ever watched the biggest loser, you see what excercise does. Excercise also helps curb your appettite. I tend to come home after work, eat something light for dinner and head off to the gym for my workout. I then come home (AND DO NOT EAT) and go to bed a couple of hours later.

    Doing all this has helped me lose over 30 lbs in about 6 weeks. I am rarely hungry and i feel so much better.

    Hope all this helps.
  • MattySparky
    MattySparky Posts: 771
    I dont get this that often anymore but you know what is really filling and great for you?? Raw Broccoli. Seriously. Fiberous carbs and super low calories for the volume you can consume to make you full. I ate 1 1/2 cups last night because I had this hunger that just wouldn't go away. I was full and totally guilt free.
  • MattySparky
    MattySparky Posts: 771

    8 - Do not eat within 3 hours of bedtime. If you stomach is empyt when you fall asleep, you will burn fat while you are sleeping. If you have food in your stomach, it will be converted to fat.

    Not true,

    it takes at least 6 hours for food in your stomach to even get half way through it's journey in your intestines where the action happens. The whole "Going to bed with food in your stomach is bad" thing is a myth and not something you should be giving out as advice.
  • MattySparky
    MattySparky Posts: 771

    3 - Do not snack between meals. This does not allow your stomach to empty the food and you never really burn from fat stores if you always have food in your belly.

    Ok, now you're just making stuff up. You're making me laugh. Food is not absorbed in your stomach and the food in your stomach has absolutely no bearing on your body's ability to burn fat etc. Where do you get this stuff from?

  • 3 - Do not snack between meals. This does not allow your stomach to empty the food and you never really burn from fat stores if you always have food in your belly.

    Ok, now you're just making stuff up. You're making me laugh. Food is not absorbed in your stomach and the food in your stomach has absolutely no bearing on your body's ability to burn fat etc. Where do you get this stuff from?


    Good thing i dont listen to everything i read on the internet LOL......I have to snack in between meals..if not, I am STARVING by the time a meal comesaround...
  • MattySparky
    MattySparky Posts: 771
    There is a good reason many people take their caloric needs and spread it out over the course of the day. It comes down to your metabolism. The more often you feed, the better off your metabolism is (keeping within the limits of your caloric and nutritional needs that is). I think it's funny when people try and give the advice about how food in the stomach while sleeping is somehow making you pack on pounds. TOTAL BULL. I actually drink casein before bed because of the fact that I typically go 8 hours without eating while sleeping. Keep eating those healthy snacks girl. Boost that metabolism and drink lots of water too.
  • lculian
    lculian Posts: 313 Member
    I don't know if this ever happens to you or if you notice you're even hungrier on days where you don't snack. I find when I skip snacks or even worse a meal then I am starving all night and tend to fall of my game plan. I have a very busy lifestyle and it took me a few weeks before I noticed what I was doing wrong. Now I always carry a Zone protein bar with me in case I get to busy to pause and make a real meal/snack. For the most part I have noticed eatting 3 moderately sized meals and two snacks seems to keep me feeling satisfied.
    The only other big thing I have done is I gave up all soda and all artificial sweeteners. I've noticed my chocolate cravings have deminished significantly:wink:
    Hope this helps, Good luck!!
  • sonjavon
    sonjavon Posts: 1,019 Member
    A couple things for the chocolate cravings...
    I'm a fan of the new chocolate cheerios... I don't eat them with milk, I just eat them dry, one at a time. They're chocolatey and have fiber.
    Also - the Skinny Cow Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream is really good (just ate a single serve cup) - 150 calories, 2 g fat, 4 g fiber, 70mg sodium.

    Make sure that you're eating plenty of fruits and veggies throughout the day. Snack on apples, broccoli, cauliflower... can you eat too much of these? Yeah - I'm sure you can... but if I'm going to go over my calories on any given day - I'd prefer to go over by eating too many fruits and veggies. LOL

    If you are making good food choices - you won't be as hungry because you'll constantly be eating. When I'm eating "correctly" (ie - focusing on the nutrition, not just calories) - I'm rarely hungry. I say rarely because I think we all have occasional days when nothing will fill us up. Snack!!! Snack often. I eat 5-6 times a day and I've lost 4-5 pant sizes since February.

    Make sure that you're not eating a lot of refined sugar... and I also try to stay away from most artifical sweeteners too - they tend to make you crave more sweets. Some sugar is ok...but limit it.

    You can do this!!!
  • sonjavon
    sonjavon Posts: 1,019 Member

    3 - Do not snack between meals. This does not allow your stomach to empty the food and you never really burn from fat stores if you always have food in your belly.

    Ok, now you're just making stuff up. You're making me laugh. Food is not absorbed in your stomach and the food in your stomach has absolutely no bearing on your body's ability to burn fat etc. Where do you get this stuff from?

    I can always count on you to call it out when it happens... I was thinking the same thing. I don't buy into all the "tricks and tips". I eat when I'm hungry... I exercise, I drink my water and I do my best to make good decisions... guess what? It works! Whodathunkit?
  • ryoung25
    ryoung25 Posts: 5
    MattySparky,

    My post does not give other people advice as to how to diet. I strickly noted things that have worked well for me.

    As far as me "making stuff up", I have been a yo - yo dieter my entire life and I have read many books on dieting. Although many books contradict each other, alot of them have similar ideas. You stated that I was making up the whole "not eating between meals and not eating close to bedtime" thing. This is not my theory, it is Jillian Michaels, you know the trainer on biggest loser. She has written this in her book (among other things I listed). I think she probably knows a thing or two about dieting.

    I struggled for years with my "grazing throughout the day" eating habit. Since I have changed over to this new eating plan, I have lost 30 lbs and I am having no problems dieting. I realize that not everything works for everyone. I was just stating what has worked for me.
  • ra86
    ra86 Posts: 12 Member
    I'm really new to all of this stuff, and my head's swirling with all the different pieces of advice you'll get from different sources, so I wouldn't even try to recommend things to eat that quell your appetite, at least until I've found something that works for me.

    But I have noticed that when I'm feeling a bit hungry, a light workout really just makes me feel better and pushes the hunger away for a little while. And when I've added it to MFP, I get a couple of hundred calories back that I can have when the hunger comes back in a couple of hours.
  • aippolito1
    aippolito1 Posts: 4,894 Member
    Eat your bigger meals early in the day. Biggest meal breakfast, big meal lunch, small meal dinner, with medium-size snacks. The more energy you put in your body EARLY on in the day, you won't have to eat as much during the day and at night, you should have no hunger. Also, it could be the quality of your foods. I'm constantly hungry if I eat crap all day because it's not food that fuels me. It just feeds my tastebuds.
  • dbhagat
    dbhagat Posts: 4 Member
    Test at a doctors office for HBAIC ( hemoglobin A1c) which gives you the idea of the mean blood sugar for the last 3 months is about 25-30$. And fasting blood sugars should be about $ 20.
    But you can get a self test kit for HBAIC from walgreens
    http://www.walgreens.com/store/catalog/Diabetic-Supplies/A1CNow-SelfCheck-At-Home-A1C-System/ID=prod5825101&navCount=1&navAction=push-product?V=G&ec=nt_&srccode=cii_9324560&cpncode=18-56906495-2

    its about $ 24.
    If yr HBAic is > 5.7, you possibly have insulin resistance and hence a higher level of insulin and hence the hunger,
    Over the counter Chromium Piconolate is known to help with insulin resistance and you may want to try it,
    Metformin ( Glucophage) is the first line of treatment ( and most inexpensive) $ 4 for a month supply. and you will surely see results with it., You will need your family doc to give you a prescription for 500 mg twice a day,
  • spicy618
    spicy618 Posts: 2,114 Member
    Are you PMSing? :laugh:

    I can't get full, especially 1 week before TOM. Between 7 - 11 this morning I've already eaten 600+ calories :noway: (oatmeal, raisins, banana, peanut butter on a Bagel thin) I've already drank about 6 cups of water too... :ohwell: and I'm anxiously awaiting Lunch time at 1:00. Luckily, I've gone to the potty about 5 times already, must of burned some calories walking back and forth and squatting :laugh:
  • questionablemethods
    questionablemethods Posts: 2,174 Member
    This seems both obvious and also a little "taboo" on these boards but how about.... eating more? :laugh:

    It's a little hard to give specific advice without being able to see your food log. Assuming you are eating lots of fibrous vegetables, lean proteins and enough good fats, then my next thought would be that your goal is getting to be too aggressive as you have lost weight. If you are trying to lose 2 lbs/week and you are less than about 50-60 lbs from your goal, you might be trying to create too large of a deficit. You could try dialing back your goal to 1lb/week if it is not already there. Or take a high calorie day one day/week where you add an additional 500 or so calories. I too have experienced feeling completely RAVENOUS around the same time that you talk about and this is on days that I have done everything "right".

    On the one hand, I take it as a good sign that my metabolism is revved up when I get hungry often, but I know if I go too long, I will start to feel cranky, weak, lightheaded, and then I'll just snap and eat a box of donuts. That doesn't help anything. I feel like it is important to find a good balance: feeling nicely satiated is good, feeling overly full means I've eaten too much and feeling totally starving means my body needs a bit more calories. It's important, of course, to distinguish between actual hunger and just wanting to eat (it can be really hard to separate the two).
  • This seems both obvious and also a little "taboo" on these boards but how about.... eating more? :laugh:

    It's a little hard to give specific advice without being able to see your food log. Assuming you are eating lots of fibrous vegetables, lean proteins and enough good fats, then my next thought would be that your goal is getting to be too aggressive as you have lost weight. If you are trying to lose 2 lbs/week and you are less than about 50-60 lbs from your goal, you might be trying to create too large of a deficit. You could try dialing back your goal to 1lb/week if it is not already there. Or take a high calorie day one day/week where you add an additional 500 or so calories. I too have experienced feeling completely RAVENOUS around the same time that you talk about and this is on days that I have done everything "right".

    On the one hand, I take it as a good sign that my metabolism is revved up when I get hungry often, but I know if I go too long, I will start to feel cranky, weak, lightheaded, and then I'll just snap and eat a box of donuts. That doesn't help anything. I feel like it is important to find a good balance: feeling nicely satiated is good, feeling overly full means I've eaten too much and feeling totally starving means my body needs a bit more calories. It's important, of course, to distinguish between actual hunger and just wanting to eat (it can be really hard to separate the two).

    you sound JUST LIKE ME!!!!....I get REALLY CRANKY....Its so bad....And you are right when it happens I would so eat a box of donuts or a butt load of chocolate...Maybe I do need change my goal. I am also going to get some of those Skinny Cow ice cream things..for those times when i really just want some chocolate..I am going to make my food diary public. So if you would like to take a look and give me some ideas I would really appreciate it :) Thank you so much!!!
  • questionablemethods
    questionablemethods Posts: 2,174 Member
    you sound JUST LIKE ME!!!!....I get REALLY CRANKY....Its so bad....And you are right when it happens I would so eat a box of donuts or a butt load of chocolate...Maybe I do need change my goal. I am also going to get some of those Skinny Cow ice cream things..for those times when i really just want some chocolate..I am going to make my food diary public. So if you would like to take a look and give me some ideas I would really appreciate it :) Thank you so much!!!

    I'm guessing you already upped your calorie goal because, as it looks right now, you appear to be typically eating waaay under your goal. But, I'm assuming that your goal has recently been upped, so it just sort of messes up how the previous entries look. :happy:

    The food aspect looks pretty good to me. The one thing I would say is with the fiber aspect. I don't know what the "typical lunch" entry is, but is the fiber accurate for that? It looks to have only 1 gram of fiber, which is pretty low for that many calories. I would try to shoot for 25 grams of fiber a day, if not more. The best low-calorie way to do that is going to be cramming in as many vegetables as you can, basically. There are some supplements and some bread can have a lot of fiber and whatnot, but I've found vegetables to be the most filling-per-calorie.

    But yeah, if you were aiming for 2 lbs/week, try knocking it back to 1lb/week. This gives you the room to eat more and not feel guilty about it but, if you end up being under calories a couple of days because you aren't hungry, you might lose a little more. I just think that slow and steady is the way to go instead of eating so little that you binge! (I'm going through something similar right now. I'm very close to my goal and my body fat is pretty low, so I feel like I can't lower my goal much more and still lose but yet I feel hungry ALL the time! I have been taking more and more "high calorie days". Not a bad thing in theory, but it is if it ends up being the norm. :happy: )

    Hope you start feeling a little less ravenous!
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