Staying on the diet, losing weight - but always hungry

Try adding more protein. I have that same hungry issue when I eat too many carbs. I'm not a big meat eater (or wasn't before) but I have found that when I eat protein w/my meals that I can go a longer period of time before eating again.,

Not much advice... I'm bumping for you to see what responses you get. You see, after losing 75 pounds and doing wonderfully on my diet I plateaued... Big Time and since then I am at a relative stand still and I am starving All the time!!! Still have a little over 20 to lose, eating over 100 grams of protein a day but over all a balanced diet and still starving!! Good luck and hope you find some answers!

Interestingly enough I have a running joke that whenever anyone asks me if I'm hungry. I.e should we eat soon, my standard response is the joke that I've been hungry for years now, ever since starting this diet!

And its not a complete lie. I think that to a certain extent however that it might be psychological. I have been told that my appetite will naturally shrink and all the rest of it. I think that objectively it must have, theres no way I could eat what I used to without being quite ill now. But like you, whenever I eat, I always feel I could eat more. It's had to be a battle not to , not a natural feeling of full...even when I should be!!

But, I guess sometimes I kind of like the feeling. Knowing that I havn't stuffed myself means that I will lose weight, which I like(its a control thing) and which I see the effects off!

Also, I only feel hungry when I think about it (which again suggests its a psychological thing for me) so I try to distract myself and keep busy doing things - like gym/classes/reading, not being surrounded by nice food (i avoid visiting my mother as much as possible purely becasue of the sheer amunt of terrible (amazing) food she always has in the house), and generally keeping myself from getting bored and eating to pass the time.

I just wanted to share a similar experience, sorry I can't really give you any advice on how to fix it though

Like the other people who responded, I would look at adding more protein and aiming for smaller meals and more snacks. The other thing to consider is to look at your sodium intake. I am personally more sensitive to sodium, and if I eat one wrong food, it can make me crave more food until my body can get rid of the excess sodium. MFP recommended sodium level at 2500mg. Those with hypertension aim for 2000mg daily. Personally, I aim for 1500mg to 2000mg daily, and when I stick with it, I do not crave food nearly as often. Hope this helps:happy:

Hi Doug..
My wife and I felt and feel the same. I don't know if the following is of any value, but I hope there might be one little thing you get out of it.

1. Keep trying ideas and asking others, something might help. Surf the internet and read the forums.
2. We searched for foods or pills or anything that would suppress hunger. There is stuff out there but when we happened to read a forum that said something like "you need to accept that you're going to be hungry", we came to accept the fact and somehow that seemed to make it bearable.
3. Keep using my fitness pal. We think it helps to plan your day. Make a fitness and diet routine.
4. Exercise early in the day. We do this first thing. I hear that it gets your metabolism running higher for the whole day.
5. Exercise using "interval training" if you can. That is timed bursts of exertion then a resting rate, For instance we use a cycling machine for 30 minutes or more each morning. We have a timer and we pedal as fast as we can "comfortably" sustain for 30 seconds then at a moderate speed for 30 secs and repeat. (You can build up the fast pedaling slowly by starting with 10 secs, then 15, 20, etc over a couple of weeks).
6. We use the low energy shake replacement meals and have about five meals a day with a total of 1200 calories.
7. We have a "bad meal" once or twice a week. This might be a burger or something (We don't go silly and have chips, ice cream, etc with the bad meal).
8. Vegetables as good to fill you up. They can be boring after a while so we added salt and some light sauces or gravies. We figure that we will reduce the salt, etc after we loose the weight. If the vegetable don't do the trick then eat fruit rather than fatty stuff or breads, or chips, etc.
9. Diet with a friend for support. Plan meals together. .Let others (friends, workmates, etc) know you're on a diet. they'll encourage you.
10. Warning - this next one is a gross suggestion - I even tried chewing some really tasty food and not swallowing but spitting it all out. It helped for a while.
11. Have a couple of ideas and be ready to change as soon as one doesn't seem to work anymore.
12. Be obsessive. walk whenever you can, use the stairs. make more than one trip when you carrying thing from one place to another, take the long way if you walk. Be obsessive and read all the food labels. Look for different stuff that is low calorie / joule and tastes good. (We look like nerds in the supermarket with our magnifying lens as we're reading all the labels)
13. Find an exercise that you like doing and do it more often. If you find it hard to get started or it 'hurts' a bit, remind yourself that the first 5 minutes ALWAYS hurts, so get over it. [That helps me everyday].
14. And remember, you HAVE already lost weight. you are actually doing it. It happens by little percentages not by kilograms. In a while you (and others) will notice and you'll feel great.

Good on you for trying, it's a tough job. It took us 30-40 years to put the weight on but we're getting there bit by bit and now we've lost about 50kg between us and still going.

Hope this helps you.

Beans are a really great protein source and they're also relatively low in calories and full of fill-you-up- fiber. I have had the same problem in the past and it helped me to eat a handful of raw almonds (about 100 calories) 1/2 an hour before eating. I read that the (good) fat in these nuts helped to turn off your appetite halfway through the meal.

I may not be very experienced in this part of what to do, but I found something that really helps me out quite a bit. I drink a glass of water before I start eating and a glass or 2 during eating and this really gets me full. I also double my veggies and eat them first then to the meat and sides.

Not sure if will help ,but it works for me.

Hi Doug!
Good for you for sticking with this through the hunger pains and trying to find a solution instead of ditching! Hunger is NO FUN!!

I don't know how you ate in the past, but if you are dieting you should never really feel completely full like after a big holiday meal. You should be able to feel satisfied and not hungry after eating meals and snacks though. For some of us overweight people, we have gotten used to gorging ourselves and feeling full enough to pop at every meal, and honestly that's just something you've got to learn to say goodbye to if it is an expectation (don't know that it is).

Well, I don't know what percentage of fat you have been eating, but I have a suspicion that it's pretty low. The Mayo Clinic recommends you eat 20-35% of your calories from fat. So even if you're eating 20% it may be too low for you, you could increase to 25%, etc.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/fat-grams/HQ00671

Why is that relevant? Well, fat is really important to a variety of different things your in your body (cell membrane walls, brain function, among others). The idea is to send a message to your brain. If you're eating lots of fruit as snacks, it doesn't matter if they are bulky, you probably just get a temporary blood sugar elevation and then nothing, so your brain is given the message that all the potential energy of a food has been used up.

Having a snack of five or six almonds doesn't sound like much, but can actually give your body some nutrients it was in need of, and thus signal to your brain that you aren't hungry anymore.

Bulk is really only half the story for feeling full. If you just feel like you need to be able to chow down on something, air pop a bunch of popcorn, and don't add anything to it. Super low in calories for a large amount of food to eat.

The thing is, if the majority of your calories come from simple carbs you aren't eating things that takes a long time to digest, and thus your body is always giving you the signal that you will soon need more food. Eating more complex carbs, protein and fat will mean that your body has to spend more time on all its food and won't be telling your brain to procure more food.

My recommendation is to give eating high calorie foods in small portions a try. Eat some almonds as a snack. If you only want 84 calorie snacks, only eat enough almonds to equal 84 calories. Portion control is everything. One almond has roughly 7 calories in it, so that's 12 almonds!! In the past that wouldn't have sounded like much to me, but now I know that 12 is actually a lot, and I usually just have five or six and feel good. Don't discriminate against any healthy food just because it is high in calories, eat a small enough portion that it is a low calorie snack or a decent amount for a meal.

Avocado is very calorie dense, but that's because it has lots of healthy fats, and if you eat it with some complex carbs and protein, say brown rice and beef, you will hopefully feel satisfied after eating that.

Fruit is great (tasty and nutritious!), but I would only expect it to make you feel satisfied for about 30 minutes before you are going to want something with protein and fat in it, and ideally complex carbs for some good fiber.

Anyway, based on what you said, I pretty much eat a similar amount of calories each day when exercise calories are added in (around 500 exercise calories) and I usually only feel hungry right before meals, but I really enjoy that I now feel hungry everyday. Before I literally never felt hungry - I ate so much so frequently my body never ever sent my brain the hungry message, and now it does! Of course, I try to eat soon after I'm hungry so I don't get grumpy, but it is still a blessing to me to know that I have really changed my entire outlook on food