Help I'm hungry all the time

hi jen. I find that juicing is better to fill you up and last for longer and you can add not only fruit but veg as well give it a try and see if it works for you

Keep in mind your monthly cycle could be affecting your eating habits. I know the week before my period, I would eat my arm if I had pepper! I don't know about your stomach shrinking but I do know as I control my eating more, it gets easier not to over-eat. Also, don't put yourself at 1200 calories if you struggle with this. Up it to 1500 - 1800, which should still be less than what you eating now if you eat all the time. Stay strong - you can do this!! Beth

Do you tend to crave carbs and sweets in particular? And if you don't eat them (i.e. maintain your willpower) do you find yourself fatigued despite meeting what is a good calorie goal for you?

If so, you may want to look into being tested for insulin resistance. It's a process where your cells are resistant to insulin so they won't let the blood glucose in. As a result, your pancreas pumps you full of more insulin -- which triggers a hunger response because your body thinks you have low blood sugar (when you don't) and results in either eating more and gaining weight (as a higher proportion of glucose ends up stored in adipose tissue) or your fight the cravings and feel fatigued, cranky, etc.

I had a very similar experience for years and thought it was all will-power, then a doctor tested my glucose and insulin levels and they were in the pre-diabetic range (and I was only 30 lbs or so overweight)! Once I got the insulin resistance under control and my thyroid (I also had thyroid issues which likely caused the insulin resistance), my hunger cravings subsided, it was soooo much easier to eat well accordingly and I finally started to lose like a "normal" person.

They estimate the prevalence of insulin resistance to affect as many as 80 million Americans or 25% of the American population -- you see it with a host of other issues (thyroid, PCOS, diabetes, etc.). If this sounds like you, it may be worth checking out as they're simple blood tests.

What worked for me when I started was when I would get hungry I'd chew on a stick or two of gum. The act of chewing and the slight flavor tricks the brain I think. I try to save that for when nothing else works (first I'll drink water, then I'll wait 10 minutes for my stomach to feel full - sometimes just not thinking about it gets rid of that hunger feeling) since I don't want to chew too much. A couple weeks later, now that I'm used to eating less, I almost never reach for the gum.

I totally had this problem. From what ive seen in various documentaries from doctors and scientists there is no solution to this although once you start maintaining instead of losing it should fade.

Your eating less to try to convince your body to consume itself for energy....it doesn't like doing that, especially if you are a woman it wants to keep all the fat in case you get pregnant. So instead your body tries to convince you to consume more food through various chemical means.

My solution for myself was to prepare filling low calorie meals to get me through it like vegetable soups or spaghetti squash casserole, shirataki noodle stir fry etc etc.

This is the conclusion I've come to. I echo the shirataki noodle recommendation!

Edit to add, I've tried all of the following with no real effect on hunger:

- Making sure I eat 1g of protein per pound of body weight, with at least some protein at every meal. (Still do)
- Eat mainly whole foods, with the majority being meat and vegetables. I rarely eat grain or grain-derived products now, because they're all trigger foods for me. I rarely eat fruit, but that's mainly because I forget to buy it.
- Exercising a lot. I currently burn 600-800 calories a day from a daily cycling commute of 20 miles and then additional daily activity here and there.
- Taking multivitamins, trying the "if you crave this you must want that" solutions. No, I just really want all my trigger foods all the time (bread, pasta, grains). Some studies show that if you enter caloric deficit you are more predisposed toward craving carbs, though, so I suppose this makes sense.
- Drinking water. Drinking a lot of water can help me withstand hunger for longer to make it to the next meal, but dehydration is not the cause of my hunger.
- Upping calories to an almost negligible deficit (e.g. TDEE - 250 calories, for someone whose TDEE is around 2300-2500).

Anyway, when you think about it, if you are eating below TDEE, why wouldn't you be hungry? Our bodies aren't dumb. We've evolved to be hungry when we are eating less than we burn. Our bodies inherently recognize when we have an unsustainable daily calorie consumption. No way around it, I feel. The hunger can just be more or less terrible -- indeed my hunger would be a lot worse if I only tried to get all my calories from cookies.

Still, fighting a primal urge is really hard, and some days it just really sucks.

Edited again to add that this may all be because I am a normal BMI (just above middle of the range, trying to get lower in the range, which from your picture I'm guessing might also be true?). I would totally buy that my body thinks I have a great set point of 140-145, but hey, my body is dumb about these things seeing as it makes me hungry for more than it needs.

Break up your meals so you can eat every few hours. It keeps the fire burning without smothering it (boosts metabolism). Your body uses energy to break down the food which gives you that warm feeling, it's a natural thermogenic.

If you're curious about thermogenics ("fat burners") you may want to take a look at them because most are used as appetite suppressants. They are pretty powerful but they work. Hydroxycut is an example of one, just make sure you are eating the calories that MFP suggests.

working on my car works

The percentage of calories your body needs has much much more to do with maintaining your body temperature and operating your major organs than it does with how "active" you are. If you are alive you are burning at least 1200 calories.

Personally my BMR (basal metabolic rate) is about 1800 and that is if I stayed in bed 24 hours. Getting up, moving around and then going for a jog for 30 minutes will probably only burn off an extra 600 calories. The majority of your calorie usage is just your body maintaining itself.

I'm not discounting the benefits of exercise but do understand that unless you are running marathons your daily calorie expenditure comes much more from just being alive and breathing than it does from how "active" you are.

Hey Connie-

I think the MFP calculator gives you just the number of calories you'd have to consume to reach your goal if you didn't exercise at all. If it tells you 1350 and you go for a run and burn something like 400 calories that means on that day you would want to eat 1750 calories to stick with your goal.

At least that is my understanding of the MFP system calculator.