Murdering hunger

You don't need pills. They don't do anything anyway.

You don't need a special diet either (unless you have medical issues). Reasonable calorie deficit, some exercise, and a lot of patience will get you where you want to be.

i LOVE the ( alot of patience will get you where you want to be) thats that part i need to tell myself everyday!!!

I've found a protein smoothly is more filling calorie for calorie than anything else I eat. I use PB2, unsweetened almond milk, frozen blueberries. If I have the extra calories I add one or two tbsp of ground flax or hemp seeds. One scoop protein powder.
Also, I follow an idea that I took from the South Beach book. That is to have at least one veggie every meal including breakfast. My go-to breakfast is a poached egg on a bed of stir-fried spinach, chard or arugula. I also like making frittatas loaded with veggies like hot peppers, scallions, mushrooms and spinach.
Lunch is usually the smoothie.
Dinner varies greatly.

I LOVE fast food and use to order out quite frequently. Food is like a drug in the since that the temptation to over eat
is going to be there, especially if, like me, you've been doing it most of your life. Change doesn't come quickly but if you adjust your eating habits over time slowly then you have a better chance of making it last. Give your mind and body time to get use to the change.

You're getting mostly excellent advice here. I'd like to also add to see a nutritionist. I saw one about 5 months into my weight loss and wish I had seen her earlier! She helped me not only with my food (personalized for me and my health) but also with my workouts. She kept up with me up until the time I was laid off of work. She would still be keeping up with me if I had given her my personal email vs my work email! It was not expensive and MORE THAN worth the money I spent! She even reviewed my MFP diary to offer suggestions/corrections/recommendations.

Personally, I do not recommend pills. I do recommend fresh food vs prepackaged/processed/frozen/etc. but I know that's not always possible. Look at labels. Look at calories, fat, carbs, sodium... high sodium content means you may retain water. So try to lay off the salt and use other spices in place.

Good luck! With determination & drive, YOU CAN DO IT!!! :flowerforyou:

ETA: and try to cut soft drinks - TOTALLY 100%. drink LOTS of WATER!!! and I mean LOTS! but I do think some have already mentioned this...

FIBER! Ultimate macro to keep hunger at bay. It can bring along some farts, but you won't be hungry. I have been loving Quest bars lately. Got them at GNC, full of protein and fiber and after I eat one I am SO full! I normally just eat half of a bar for a 100 calorie snack.

I also work at a desk job, and have a 45min drive each way.

Fast food is ok on occasion, but it doesn't satisfy hunger as well because it tends to use up calories faster. If you love your FF then save it for days you work out and have more calories to spare.

Reduce frequency, but you don't have to eliminate.

My advice...

- don't go for rapid loss... Go for sustainable loss. It will take longer to achieve... But you WILL get there, and will be way more likely to STAY there.

- you don't have to exercise for hours and hours a week... But when you DO exercise... BUST YOUR *kitten* doing it. Push hard. Sweat hard.
- remember WHY you are doing this. Figure that out, and use it to push you. Hopefully it's a long term goal worth long term commitment

" I only drink diet soda. No sugar, for sure, but they seem to boost my appetite"

Artificial sweeteners have been linked to increased cravings and appetite according to my doctor.

I haven't seen the science to back this up... but personal experiences leads me to believe it's true. Anytime I've stopped drinking Diet Coke, my appetite and cravings have been curbed. Since I've started exercising and eating healthier foods, I'm finding my energy levels are higher, so I don't "require" caffeine any more. I'm only drinking water and protein smoothies.

I am exactly like you. IT job, sitting 9-11 hours every day.

On June 2013 I got my driver license renewed. Here were my vitals at that time:
Male
31 years old
5'10"
250 lbs

Then in July, I decided to start dieting and exercising in more earnest, despite my IT job and difficulties with willpower.

By December (6 months) I was down to 210 lbs. 40 pounds in six months.

How did I do it?

1. Get an app
2. Get a chest-strap heartrate monitor
3. Log EVERYTHING
4. Calorie restrict and STICK to it
5. Exercise 3-5 times a week - 30-45 minutes minimum

Logging helps you understand how to optimize YOUR PERSONAL restriction plan. There is simply no way to make it work over a long term without doing this. Atkins/Paleo/Whatever....these are not one-size-fits-all plans. They're untailored suits, and you've got to get your measurements and make the appropriate changes so it works for you.

The heartrate monitor means you can do exercising anywhere, not just at a gym. You just get your heartrate UP and keep it UP.

As an example. Here's my plan for the day:


Meal 1 - Two protein bars - 320 cal/20g protein
Meal 2 - carton egg whites (nasty) 250 cal/50g protein
Gym Time: 15 minutes chest strength, 35 minutes on the treadmill (minimum heartrate 150 bpm)
Meal 3 - post-gym shake - 240 cal/40g protein
Meal 4 - 6oz chicken+5oz rice (with chili lime sauce, yum) - 377 cal/40g protein
Meal 5 - 6oz chicken+5oz rice (with chili lime sauce, yum) - 377 cal/40g protein
Meal 6 - 6oz chicken+5oz rice (with chili lime sauce, yum) - 377 cal/40g protein

Total calories in:1974
Total calories out: about 500 (I only count the cardio calories, and I typically round down to the nearest 100 from whatever score MyFitnessPal gives me)

Calorie deficit (based on a 2000 cal lightly active/sedentary diet): 526

If I did that 3 times a week: 1560 calorie deficit. That's almost half a pound.

If I offset my non-workout day diets by just 300 calories (that's one less protein bar in the morning and half a portion of the chicken/rice meal at night), that's another 1200 calorie deficit in a week. 1200+1560= 2760. Getting closer to a pound a week by making a smallish change here and there.

And what if I just went for a 30 minute walk (120 bpm average) on my non-gym days? That's another 300 calories per walk. Or basically, another 1200 to the week total if I did it 4 times.

Now I'm 3960 deficit. That's easily a pound off in the week, every week, if I roughly stick to this goal.

It even allows some wiggle room, if I got my numbers off a little bit or if I snuck some chocoloate covered almonds in a moment of weakness.

The key is to really remember and believe and commit to this not being merely a diet. It's the new you. You don't have to obsess too much about it, but you DO have to think about it, way more than you used to. Sorry them's the breaks.

You're trying to form new habits. Health habits.

A word on the chicken+rice thing. I mention this because I'm like you, no time to make and weigh meals. There's a fairly easy way to solve this on a nice relaxing Sunday night at home:

BIG CROCKPOT+CHICKEN BREASTS+TIME=MEAL PLAN UNLOCKED

1. Grab 5-6 pounds of chicken breasts, thawed
2. stick'em in a crockpot - LOW heat
3. Oh yeah throw something yummy in there, like a cup of Pace salsa or a cup of Chili Lime marinade sauce or some broth and taco seasnoning (the crockpots needs about 8oz or liquid to keep your chicken from dessicating horribly)
4. 7-8 hours on LOW

Cook up some rice
Or green beans
Or broccoli

Measure these bad boys into containers
Mark the calories on the containers
You now have 6-10 meals planned out from one crockpot session

It can be done. You CAN do this. You can be a total dieting badass. I know it, because I did it.

I'm 210 pounds now. I've got 20 more pounds to go. It's going to take me awhile, but I'm cool with it because this isn't just a diet, it's a better way of life.

You're off to a good start focusing on natural ways to feel full. One of the recipes I do is a ground beef/turkey/chicken bowl with a TON of vegetables... it's really easy and can be reheated for leftovers for days. (I love it for breakfast, too.) Given your schedule and goals, it might be worth a try. I saute any vegetables on hand (usually chopped carrots, onion, red pepper, and zucchini) in 1 tbsp of butter (you can use olive oil too), remove from the pan, brown a pound of ground meat (or 2 lbs if I'm cooking for my husband too), add spices to the meat (usually 1 tbsp chili powder, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, and 1/2 tsp paprika), and then mix the cooked vegetables in. This keeps me full for hours and is a great way to get in protein with more vegetables than one might normally eat at a sitting.

Don't forget, too, that even walking a few minutes at a time adds up. If you can't do a 30 minute walk at a time because of your job, 3-55 minutes per hour will still get you there fast!

Best of luck!

Personally I find that if I am really hungry, eating a protein and fat based snack with a large glass of water really helps - I could eat carrot sticks all day long without it filling me up at all - but as you can see everyone's experiences are different.

If I were you I would definately track everything I eat, but also track how satisfied you felt immediately after eating and how long it took before you were hungry and want to eat again. From that you'll get an idea of what works for you in terms of keeping you satisfied for longer.

Just as a reality check though - whatever you do you will have to either reduce the volume of food that you eat, or change the type of food that you eat (or a combination of the two) and at first it will be difficult. You have to want to lose weight enough to make these changes and over time (just a few weeks) it will get easier. Your appetite will adjust and your tastes will change.

Good luck!

I was starving last night after eating all I logged, so I drank water, waited 30 minutes, then ate a hard boiled egg and a slice of ham....I woke up this morning over a pound lighter. Even with only eating back half my exercise calories I was in the low 1300's...but I was not losing much for a few weeks there and I think it was because I wasn't eating enough. I don't think my hunger signals are messed up, I think my body says it is hungry when it is really hungry (although I know sometimes recognizing hunger signals is a problem). Anyway, I concur on the protein, I eat more protein than carbs, about 45% protein, 35% carbs, 20% fat.

Editing to add I eat lean protein, I eat lots of fish and poultry, not that I dont' eat other things. I was low yesterday becasue I chose Chilean Sea Bass for my Mother's Day dinner my husband grilled for me, and I had Swordfish for lunch, but it was really good.

I work from home in a sitting job, which is like being sedentary at the office, but with a fully-stocked kitchen right next door.

The first 2 weeks of actually monitoring and carefully watching what I was consuming wasn't fun. I drank a lot of weak tea. Having to get up to make it distracted me and it meant that I drank loads of water. 2 weeks seemed to be enough to break me from the grazing habit.

Beat the hunger with coffee. In the morning I have no breakfast, cup of coffee when I wake up and then one an hour or so later. Lots of water too. Sees me through to lunch at 12:00.

Then if I'm on a mini-fast day (<1000 calories) I have homemade soup/stew for lunch. This comes in at about 60 calories, hot and filling, all veg.

Then throughout the afternoon if I need it I'll gave an apple or maybe a boiled egg, but try to get the coffee in to help me though.

You get used to it.

Then when I get home I have a fair amount of calories I can consume, harder I find in the house as not busy like in work so the nagging feeling to eat, eat, eat is always there!

That's how I do it anyway, it is on the way to an extreme way of doing things mind. But then I'm on an 8 week cutting body fat mission.