Always Hungry

badtastebetty
badtastebetty Posts: 326 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I hate to post another one of these posts, but I am having difficulty being constantly hungry.

I drink at least 90oz of water daily, I eat a wide variety of food including a healthy dose of fats, and protein, and I try to stay around 1500 calories a day as I work a desk job, my carbs are low as I am gluten intolerant and avoid processed foods, and only just started working out 20min most everyday (eating back my exercise calories most days). My weight is floating between 170-165 depending on the day and I am 5'3.

Some days, I can mostly hit the spot, but it's getting frustrating maintaining a deficit, eating healthy, and wanting to devour everything. Originally I started off eating 1350calories with no exercise and at the time I found that to be fine, and then I bumped it up as I wanted to incorporate exercise. My game plan, is to up my exercise so I can eat more, but I have to wait for my tattoo to heal (just got it this week). In the interim though, does anyone have some suggestions on what I can include in my diet, or recommendations on where I can research what may help? I'm wondering if I need more carbs, or if my body is just adjusting to this new-ish way of eating (though it seems strange to start 3 months in)

My diary is open. Thanks guys.

I should add, I feel healthy and I have lots of energy (rarely requiring caffiene)

Replies

  • aestheticsxo
    aestheticsxo Posts: 1
    chew gum or pop a mint and try to keep your mind off of food. get more sleep also :)
  • dbmata
    dbmata Posts: 12,950 Member
    Embrace the suck, it will go away.
  • TiaFerrera
    TiaFerrera Posts: 93
    I have this really depressing song I sing in my head as I lay sprawled out on my desk wasting away. It's very dramatic, that usually makes me laugh after a while, doesn't help with the hunger, but it gives me that can-do attitude and i pull myself back up with my bootstraps.
  • badtastebetty
    badtastebetty Posts: 326 Member
    I have this really depressing song I sing in my head as I lay sprawled out on my desk wasting away. It's very dramatic, that usually makes me laugh after a while, doesn't help with the hunger, but it gives me that can-do attitude and i pull myself back up with my bootstraps.

    GIRL, YOU ARE AN INSPIRATION!

    haha, but seriously this is the best.
  • MeganKSchultz
    MeganKSchultz Posts: 73
    I have been adding benefiber (well, the wal-mart version) to my drinks. It's tasteless and adds a lot of fiber, which helps me feel full longer. I notice the days I add less, I'm hungrier. It works best for me when I do it regularly through out the day, as drinking a glass of water w/ it after I'm hungry doesn't satisfy the hunger, but drinking it before I get hungry keeps the hunger at bay.
  • DeeBrownBaker
    DeeBrownBaker Posts: 145
    I have been adding benefiber (well, the wal-mart version) to my drinks. It's tasteless and adds a lot of fiber, which helps me feel full longer. I notice the days I add less, I'm hungrier. It works best for me when I do it regularly through out the day, as drinking a glass of water w/ it after I'm hungry doesn't satisfy the hunger, but drinking it before I get hungry keeps the hunger at bay.


    I've never thought of using benefiber to help keep hunger at bay! thanks for the tip!
  • twinketta
    twinketta Posts: 2,130 Member
    A couple of things, you have been on the site since February so you are only a few weeks into it?

    Are you making a drastic change from what you were eating before and the amount of calories or types of foods you are now eating?

    Tips, if you are feeling hungry and if you can take the time out then go for a quick walk 10 minutes or so,or drink a half cup of water.

    Eat every 2 hours, eat a high protein breakfast, change things around to find what works best for you?

    If it is a totally new regime from how you used to eat then it is going to take time to adjust.

    It can be difficult for a while but just stick with it x
  • littlebudgie
    littlebudgie Posts: 279 Member
    It will probably be a matter of experimentation to figure out what leaves you feeling the most satiated.

    That said, fiber can make you feel more full. Since you're trying to avoid processed foods, I don't know if you'd want to go with a fiber supplement, but fruits and veg can give you lots of fiber. Have you tried making your own smoothies? If you're not using fruit juice (lots of sugar and minimal fiber compared to the whole fruit) or dairy, they can easily be around 150 calories while being packed full of nutrients and fiber. Adding leafy greens isn't to everyone's taste, but they can boost the fiber content of your drink even more while adding very few calories, and spinach at least has a very mild flavour that is easily masked by fruit.
  • castelluzzo99
    castelluzzo99 Posts: 313 Member
    There's another idea that totally goes against the grain when it comes to diets, but that is eating all needed calories in two meals instead of 3-5. The idea is that you eat a late breakfast (around 9 or 10 in the morning) and then a late lunch or early dinner, whatever you want to call it (around 2:30 or 3:00 pm). I'm supposed to be eating 1900 calories (taller and breastfeeding), so I can eat almost 1,000 calories per meal. That sounds like a lot, but if you eat a high-fiber, low sugar diet, it's actually quite filling. Of course, you wouldn't need that many calories per meal. Because it takes longer for your stomach to process, say, 700 calories (in your case) than it does to process 4-500, you will feel full longer and more satisfied. You'll get used to not eating in the evenings (which is really pointless, since all you're going to do afterwards is sleep anyway), and if you are really hungry in the evenings, a glass of fiber and maybe some low-sugar veggie juice will take the edge off so you can sleep.

    I read somewhere about someone who went from 5 meals a day to eating within a window of time (it's a form of intermittent fasting), and he said that even though his caloric intake was the same, he wasn't hungry anymore. So if the 5-meals-a-day or eating-every-two-hours idea doesn't work, try this and see if it doesn't help.
  • kevinrbarger
    kevinrbarger Posts: 87 Member
    The thing is, is that it's really really hard to distinguish between hunger and appetite. Hunger is a physical response that your body makes when it needs to digest food. Appetite is psychological phenomenon that mimics the effects of hunger even when your body doesn't actually require food. Even when eating at a deficit, you should have enough mass in your stomach throughout the day to keep from being hungry for several hours, especially if you are eating enough slower to digest proteins.

    So my bet is that it's not hunger you're feeling, but appetite. Your brain knows what you are doing. It knows that you are "dieting," and therefore is in panic mode because it wants to keep doing the easy thing that it has been trained to do throughout your entire life. It's fighting against you right now. The first step is to acknowledge this.

    The second step is to show your brain that there is nothing to freak out about. This is exactly why I allow myself cheat days and don't deny myself foods that I enjoy. You have to work with your brain's natural instinct instead of against it or you set yourself up for failure. Or, if not failure, then a food blackout where you end up sitting on the floor in front of an empty fridge taking the last bite out of a quart of Ben and Jerry's Chunky Monkey with absolutely no idea how you got there.

    I kid, but this is where binging stems from. It's when instinct overrides will power. Don't fall into that trap. Work with your instincts instead of against them. Don't make huge drastic changes all at one time, but instead make small changes and work your way up to where you want to be.

Categories