New, nervous and confused.

I was told to eat six small meals a day.

If you exercise you will not only get more calories to eat for the day, you are less likely to be as hungry. You should spread out your calorie intake throughout the day instead of eating them all at supper. Eating one large meal causes fat storage while several small meals will actually rev up your metabolism and help you burn calories more efficiently.

You need to eat more than fruit all day to have a well balanced diet but besides that, fruit is what I would call a quick burn and better saved for a snack/dessert than a meal. To use your calories wisely you need to eat more protien, fiber, whole grains etc which burn slower and keep you fuller longer that way you aren't running out of calories too soon.

Hi Emily,

don't get dicouraged!

Hunger may come from two factors: low blood sugar level, and your stomach signalling emptyness. Not to be hungry with less calories than you used to eat is easier, if you pay attentntion to these factors.

As for the first, there are foods with sugar that quickly reach you blood (like fruits chocolate and sweet tasting things, for example): they are useful if you need something quickly to energize you. The other type of sugar is a long-distance runner: won't appear as fast, but you can rely on it for a longer period -- for this, you need to eat carbohydrates, which eventually becomes sugar as well, and you find a lot of it eg. in bread, paste, rice or potatoes (try to chew a piece of bread as long as you can: it will taste sweet in the end).
You need to balance these in a day, for the sake of keeping your blood sugar level (and yourself :-) ) contented.

For your stomach, you need food that takes lost of place, and do not contain too much calories. You might like to google these; I usually use vegetables for that (a carrot on its own, lettuce and tomatoes with my bread, or steamed broccoli for something warm). Water can be a quick fix, but it won't stay there long...

And another tip: it shall take some time to get know the foods. I just got shocked recently how one tablespoon of my beloved olive oil has 120 Kcals. Browsing foods here, if you have a little free time, can help with that, and also reading the info on the foods BEFORE they got eaten - behold, and learn from my many falls! :-)

Oh, and the most evident: I often ate something that I should have not. But if you go for a 20-30 minutes long walk, or close your room and dance (or just jump and wave, like me), for your favourite songs for 15 minutes, that burns enough to allow you to eat a piece fo bread, and stay within your goal. Check our the excercise database, you shall find cleaning and cooking as well, and you most likely will find something you can enjoy doing.

Good luck, and keep on you diet!

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you,

Melinda

Fruit is great, but like everything, all things in moderation!

Fruit is usually high in sugar so yes your blood sugar will peak and drop leaving you looking for a sugar fix and feeling hungry quite quickly.

And although fruit has a lot healthy things in it, fruit alone doesn't make a complete diet.

And skipping breakfast is only goinf to add to the cycle of sugar lows an highs.

You might need to experiment with a few different things. Some people swear by cereal for breakfast keeping them full longer, other don't. A piece of fruit and a tub of yoghurt are an easy light breakfast if you don't like to eat much in the morning.

You need to vary you diet a bit. Make sure you include healthy amounts of fruit, vegetable, grains/cereals, meat, dairy.

If you find your maxing out your calories by dinner time, You can alway have a big salad with some protien like cheese or meat.

I'm sure there are some healthy meal idea's on here somewhere, but I'm new to this particular site so havn't looked yet :-)