How to stop being hungry (ALL.THE.TIME.)?

I agree with focusing on upping your protein. The more I started focusing on reaching over 100 grams of protein a day, the less hungry I feel.

But it sounds like your battle is more of a mental one, which is something I can relate to. In the beginning I would literally day dream about binge eating at buffets and what not. I would think about it all day and all night, fully like imagining how the food would taste. Eventually the thoughts just became less and less. I still think about foods I want or crave and now I just find a way to make it fit in my lifestyle.

Getting over your mental hurdle wont be easy, but keep on focusing on the end result. Best of luck :flowerforyou:

Hey if you can eat 3 lean chicken breasts or a full pound of tuna (both ~350 calories) and not feel full then yeah I suppose it is a mental thing but give it a try and see what you think. Not saying eat nothing but chicken but if you just add more lean meats or lean proteins to your diet it might help with that hunger.

Salad does not work for me personally but that doesn't mean I'm right and someone who says salad helps is wrong, everyone is different you just have to experiment and find out what works for you.

Portion meals by calories (like 300 calories for a meal) space those meals out regularly throughout the day (like 5 or 6 meals) and experiment with % macros. Try meals that are high protein one day and meals that are high carb (salads and such) another day and see how hungry you feel. Really the only one who can answer how your body will react to food is you and your experience.

Sounds like you've had a bit of compulsive overeating. It's okay, it happens to the best of us. You may have to spend some time analyzing your relationship with food. If food is going to be on your mind anyway, try to think smart. Anything dealing with your mental state is about changing your thoughts in a way that is believable to you. If you're really craving pizza, but you order yourself a salad, that salad is not going to be satisfying to you. BUT if you're craving pizza and you cook up some whole wheat cheesy garlic bread with bruschetta... you might find you don't need to eat more after it's gone.

I use to be really restrictive and go on binge every few weeks and really most it was based on what I would eat at the time. (you should maybe look up on binge eating. I use to do exactly what you decribe. I eat not too much during the day but then be starved at night anyway and I would eat 2 dinner or order food and keep eating)

Mentally restricting your food is really hard, our whole live revolved around food and meals so obviously not thinking about is not easy to do.

For the first time it's finally working for me, mostly because I balanced my diet enough to feel full. I'm at the point where i'm struggling to eat enough calories now because i'm just not hungry.

Don't go from 2500 cal a day to 1500 (or whatever your goal is), gradually shave off a few every other day/week. Wait and see how your body is responding. Make the right choices. If you like crispy snack for exemple, try to exchange chips for popcorn (the non butter one) as it's much less caloric. Eat more veggies and fruits. Just an apple doesn't make you feel full but if you dip apple slices in peanut butter, the fat and protein in it is harder to digest so it sustain you more. If peanut butter is not for you, try to eat a yogurt with fresh fruit. Lean protein is not all there is and if you look at your plate and are really bored with it it won't work out most of the time. Try and find stuff that are good for you but that you like. Otherwise yes you'll be at home at night thinking about ordering out food and restaurant are usually pretty bad
I love eggs for exemple but they add up in calorie really fast. So instead of 2 scramble eggs for breakfast I eat 1 and i mix 1 tbls of cottage cheese in it before i cook it. Taste the same, higher in protein but lower in calorie. It took me a while to switch things up enough to fill full and still like what i ate.

also eat in between meals. I eat every 2 hours or so from 7h30 in the morning until 8h-ish at night, hungry or not. That way i don't even get a chance to start getting hungry. If i wait before eating, that's when i start over eating and I just refuse to listen when my body tell me that i'm full.

If you find that you're craving carbs in particular, something may be off with your glucose/insulin. For example, this is commonly reported with those that have insulin resistance because their bodies create more insulin than they need, which triggers a hunger response. I have insulin resistance and I remember times when I literally was so full my stomach actually hurt a little and yet I was still hungry and craving carbs -- it was totally nutty to have those two seemingly contradictory feelings going on simultaneously.

I started on metformin for the insulin resistance and started restricting carbs (for me, that's 50-80 g per day and a low carb diet is often recommended with people that have insulin resistance to control the insulin/blood glucose levels). It helped such cravings immensely! I still get them from time to time, but so long as I keep the carbs low altogether (and I personally choose to avoid high glycemic carbs for this very reason -- flour, rice, certain fruits, most sugar, etc.), I rarely have such intense cravings.

I find when I eat more of the high glycemic carbs, I just want more of them so restricting them is the only thing I've found to work for me. I still have sweets from time to time, but it's much more rare and I couple them with some protein and fat (i.e. after a meal, not by themselves). It also evened out my energy levels -- I feel like I have greater, sustained energy throughout the day --- no more sugar crashes and fatigue.

what are you craving? Maybe you're low on iron/vitamins.

If it's not related to that, and because this happened after an illness, maybe try and stop and ask yourself whether you're actually hungry or if you want food to fill some other void. I can say I've often done this myself.

I'm afraid I don't know enough about the situation to say what to do though.