What do YOU do when you feel hungry (but know you're not)?

2

Replies

  • mrsburghart
    mrsburghart Posts: 166 Member
    I have to eat more than that to feel full. If you are still feeling hungry, it's because you probably are. If you aren't feeling hungry but want to eat, that's a different story! In those cases I do things like take a warm shower, take a walk, play with my dog, read a book, etc. The feeling will usually pass in 15-20 minutes if it's not true hunger.
  • tiger4nikki
    tiger4nikki Posts: 112 Member
    Eat more protein, it will keep you full longer :smile:

    ^^^THIS! Lots of protein keeps me full for HOURS. I don't even have to snack!
  • LiftHeavyWeights
    LiftHeavyWeights Posts: 336 Member
    agree with those who said to drink water. If still hungry, 1st check macros pie graph in MFP App. Then select what's fits into your macros.
  • sstolii123
    sstolii123 Posts: 205 Member
    +1 Drink Water
    I start off the day with a protein and fiber shake, ( fiber helps keep blood sugar stable, helps with weight loss)
    I always keep sliced celery or cucumbers around for my 9:00 and 2:00 snack ( a gut busting pound of cucumber is like 30 calories!)
    Tea or Coffee helps caffeine is a natural appetite suppressant
    Stay away from simple carbs, your body processes them up quickly then you are hungry again.
    +2 Drink Water
  • action_figure
    action_figure Posts: 511 Member
    Well, if you're eating enough calories, and your food is well balanced, and you've just started out, give your body time to adjust. I was super hungry for a week or so when I went from eating all the things to tracking and paying attention. But, I'd gone from binging at around 4,000 calories a day to following MFP's recommendations of 1760 a day. If you're trying to survive on 800 calories a day or some other stupidity, don't do that. But if it's just that you've gone from eating waaaaay too much to cutting back to normal human sized servings, tough it out for a couple of weeks then reevaluate. To distract myself I like to make sure I'm drinking enough water and doing activity. Hard to eat when you're biking or walking.
  • JenD1066
    JenD1066 Posts: 298 Member
    I drink water, and eat something crunchy, like carrots or celery.
  • AnnaCVis
    AnnaCVis Posts: 5 Member
    protein, water, gum, or veggies. :)
  • b_roche
    b_roche Posts: 23 Member
    Yep, same as a lot of others are saying. I just drink a glass of water and that usually clears that pseudo-hunger truly-thirst sensation away.
  • xMrBunglex
    xMrBunglex Posts: 1,121 Member
    A wise man once said:

    "If you are still hungry, eat a salad. If you aren't hungry for a salad, you aren't hungry."
  • feliscatus84
    feliscatus84 Posts: 80 Member
    Eat more fat and a little bit of carb. I find that when I don't include enough fat into my meals I get hungry faster. Even if I have just carbs and a lot of protein.
  • MegE_N
    MegE_N Posts: 245 Member
    Clementines. I must eat 5 of those a day when my hands are idle. They're nothing in calories and honestly super good for you. Find your empty-handed munchie and go nuts!
  • lizc0616
    lizc0616 Posts: 68 Member
    Here are my reasons:

    Most of the time: I am thirsty/dehydrated

    sometimes: I am tipsy (oooh alcohol makes me eat)

    and other times:

    because I need more food lol!
    :drinker: :drinker: :drinker: :drinker: :smokin: :laugh:
  • ziggypop93
    ziggypop93 Posts: 133 Member
    drink more water. if you feel weak, eat. if not, fight it. unless of course its unbearable, but it will get easier
  • hollyhopes2
    hollyhopes2 Posts: 5 Member
    Porridge is a good filler,... make it with water and then a slight taste of milk :o)
  • timberowl
    timberowl Posts: 331 Member
    I am always hungry. 24/7. I think about food constantly, ESPECIALLY when I'm on a diet.

    The last few days I've been losing weight and sticking to my diet. I don't have much of a secret except "sucking it up."

    I'm starving right now.
  • dreawest
    dreawest Posts: 208 Member
    I noticed you said you don't normally eat breakfast and I know that the first time I tried this I was working on the whole breakfast is the most important meal of the day assumption and the problem for me was eating breakfast jump started my hunger and made the day a challenge.
    This time around I am doing the simple calories in versus calories burned and I don't eat until later in the morning and then just a yogurt or something which means lunch isn't a long wait and I have plenty of calories left for a nice dinner and treat in the evening if I want.

    I LOVE not needing to force myself to eat breakfast each morning. Even though I feen my family.
  • leighqt
    leighqt Posts: 14 Member
    I snack on carrots. am craving choc , even though I didn't before my healthy eating
  • AliciaStinger
    AliciaStinger Posts: 402 Member
    I rarely get hungry between decent meals if I keep busy. I've eaten a full meal and I'm hungry too soon, it's usually boredom. I notice that when I'm at work, I could eat a thousand calories worth of junk all too easily - but if I eat the same breakfast, lunch and dinner on my day off, which I usually use to run errands and see friends, I don't get hungry.

    Cardio and abs workouts usually makes me feel less like eating. When I get hungry and I know I shouldn't be, I get on Facebook for a distraction, walk up and down the stairs at work when I have a few minutes, or go to MFP or other websites for both a distraction and inspiration. (That's actually why I'm on here now.) Water is a good one, too; I keep a 3-cup bottle of water at my desk and chug between customers if I don't have time to do stairs or invest in other distractions.

    Quick side note: as others have mentioned, your diary isn't open, so I can't determine if your hunger has to do with your calorie limits (and really, only you could do that anyway). I will tell you that when I started on MFP, the website recommended someone my height (5'2") should only be eating 1200 calories. I stopped losing weight and I was hungry all the time anyway. This website can only give you a best guess; I know this sounds counter-intuitive to losing weight, but if your stomach is growling, it may be because you're not eating enough.
  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,149 Member
    If I feel hungry, I eat. If I think I'm hungry, I do something do distract myself.
  • llg1966
    llg1966 Posts: 19 Member
    I find that I am an emotional eater. Check how your feeling, are you anxious, feeling down, bored?
  • wpwarrior88
    wpwarrior88 Posts: 1,503 Member
    A lot of great advice has been listed in the above posts.

    Are you are eating a well balance 1400 cal diet and drinking your 8+ glasses of water? Is 1400 cal a realistic intake for your height/weight/activity level?

    If your answer to either question is no, begin tweaking your food/water intake.

    If your answer to both is yes, then what is wrong with being hungry? You know when your next meal/snack is; forget about being hungry and focus on something else. If you were driving on the freeway and felt the need for the bathroom, you would hold it until you could find a suitable place to stop; that can take some time depending on where you live. You learn to train your bladder to hold it until you can get to the bathroom. Hunger is somewhat the same. We can control our mind and thoughts; retrain your brain.

    You have been skipping breakfast for a while (or so it seems from one of your posts) and now you are waking up your digestive system earlier in the day. It will take time for the adjustment to become routine. Perhaps you need to have more of a breakfast and less at lunch or dinner. You can do this!
  • JaneLane33
    JaneLane33 Posts: 80 Member
    being hungry and thinking you are hungry are two different things. If you just ate and still feel hungry then wait a bit and go do something that will be a distraction. if you still feel hungry in 30 minutes than get some veggies or an apple with a bit of protein.
    I tend to think I am hungry if I am bored so I go for a walk, I work on a sewing or knitting project, or I start a new book on my kindle for at least 30 minutes.
  • awaywiththeFairys
    awaywiththeFairys Posts: 100 Member
    Drink herbal or fruit tea also a cup of veg stock fools your body and mind .I started doing it in the evening also try to follow this:
    ‘Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper.’ have porridge with fruit and a bit of honey in the morning will keep you full till dinner/lunch.
  • fittoday14
    fittoday14 Posts: 128
    go for a walk

    blast some music and dance

    drink water - 2-4 cups to be exact

    get motivated : watch inspirational stories of weight loss

    shop for clothing.. online and in your closet (if you have smaller sized clothing)
  • Bekahmardis
    Bekahmardis Posts: 602 Member
    1. Drink water
    2. Wait 20 minutes.
    3. If still hungry and not a meal time, eat some lean protein.

    This exactly. Wait for 20 to 30 minutes and then reassess.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    I don't understand how someone can feel hungry but not be hungry... totally baffles me. I'm either hungry or not.

    I suspect that reading lots of other signals as hunger signals is really common with people who tend to gain weight. I know being tired is one thing I can read as hunger, and it makes sense, as raising the blood sugar makes you feel more energetic. That has actually stopped mostly, since I changed my diet, but I still get the stress thing infrequently. Had one day when work was stressful and yet there was enough waiting around for things that I wasn't too busy to think about it where I felt like eating constantly, despite meals that were not meaningfully different than otherwise. At the end of the day when I had a chance to do a brief workout that helped with the stress, I immediately stopped feeling hungry at all, even though it was closer to dinner and I'd burnt calories yet not done anything vigorous enough to kill real hunger. Part of this is just my mind's associations--for years if I was stressed at work I'd grab something to eat (there's always food around) or especially if I came back to the office at 5 after a stressful day I'd have a snack to make the rest of the evening at work bearable. Stop doing that and at first the mind misses it, independent of real hunger, and yet it gets sometimes perceived as hunger or a desire to eat.
  • KatherineMichelle72
    KatherineMichelle72 Posts: 52
    here is what I find.. I started at 294 lbs not sure exactly how much I have lost but the first 2 and 1/2 weeks I lost 10 lbs.. that was a month ago and I do my weigh in tm.. when I fisrt started I was starving!!!! it took about a week for my body to adjust to not stuffing my face every 20 mins... then it evened out.. then I started working out.. 6 days a week for at least 30 mins a day... I found the more I worked out the more I needed to eat.. I now have 5 to 6 smaller meals a day (every 2 to 2 1/2 hrs).. I find if I am choosing healthy food options I get to eat so much more and still stay under my calorie goal.. I have just over 1900 calories a day I can eat and I never usually eat more than 1300... try, if you can, to eat smaller meals 5 to 6 times a day.. see how that works.
  • enterdanger
    enterdanger Posts: 2,447 Member
    Okay, so I'm not that healthy and I'm here to lose weight. Weight loss is the primary goal for me and health is secondary. That might be a crappy attitude, but I'm being honest. That being said, I am a total breakfast hater. I feel like as soon as I eat a fair amount 200-300 calories, that starts the feeding frenzy all day. Usually, I drink a ton of water and coffee ( I love coffee) and eat maybe a yogurt for breakfast and that does me until noon. I get up around 6am.

    When I eat a larger breakfast I feel hungrier all day. It's like I broke the seal or something. I'm also taking that garcinia cambogia stuff and I'm pretty sure it is suppressing my appetite. I stopped taking it for a week and was totally off my diet that week. That could be a mental thing, but I'm willing to pay the $20 a bottle to fool myself if that is what it takes.

    I know I won't continue to take it forever so eventually I'll have to learn to manage a healthier alternative. Its helpful to see what healthier people are doing.
  • EllieB_5
    EllieB_5 Posts: 247 Member
    I drink water, for me often it's actually thirst. If I'm craving potatoes I increase my potassium intake, if I crave processed foods I increase my sodium; I've begun drinking daily electrolytes and it seems to be helping with certain cravings so far.
  • fittoday14
    fittoday14 Posts: 128
    When I eat a larger breakfast I feel hungrier all day. It's like I broke the seal or something.

    I'm the exact same way when it comes to eating breakfast! That's why I tend to make a latte, cappuccino or coffee at home and have 2-3 cups of that for breakfast. If I eat a "real breakfast meal" I will end up eating 2-3k of food for the day! On the weekends I'll add a boiled egg to that or one waffle from Trader Joe's frozen waffles (130 cal). Then, I'll eat a later lunch OR dinner. Definitely walk more, too.

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