Getting started- always feel hungry

Hi --
I've only been on MFP for a week, so I can't really address the part about being motivated to log my foods. (For me, keeping the food diary is comforting because it's a way to somehow make this whole dieting project feel real. I find it to be reassuring to have a record of the hard work of eating less.)

Answering your second question: I've been eating 1200 calories a day for a couple of weeks (6 days on MFP) and have lost a total of around 2 or 3 lbs. (1 lb on MFP). At first I was constantly hungry. Then I switched my eating schedule to consume most of my calories in the morning. I divide up the day into Part 1 (7 am to 1 pm, 500 calories), Part 2 (1 pm to 6 pm, 400 calories) and Part 3 (6 pm to 11 pm, 300 calories). This leaves me a LOT less hungry.

This article has been super-helpful to me about why to eat our heaviest meal for breakfast:
http://genetics.doctorsonly.co.il/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Jakubowicz-at-al-Obesity-2013-oby20460.pdf

Also, plenty of protein first thing in the morning. Eggs and/or beans and rice. A good 500-calorie breakfast sets me up for hours and makes me feel like I can handle the challenges of the day.

Also: beans in general. With some rice or corn, they are a great source of nutrients and fat-free protein.

And: high-fiber foods so that they don't disappear from my body right away.

Finally: I practice having positive feelings about background hunger. (Not the can't-think-straight, can't-function ravenous kind... just the background hollow kind.) A low level of hunger is my body's way of telling me it's burning off fat. It's like a little feedback signal that tells me I'm doing it right. And it's not actually outright pain, after all -- you can teach yourself to embrace it.

Best of luck!

I'm fairly new on here too. But my trainer is going to review my food log weekly. It's keeping me motivated to start (day 2 logging but have been at this for over 5 weeks lol). Her point is when I weigh in she can help me determine what food triggers I have that cause me to gain or what is working to lose. And, then also figure out why I ate THAT. But, another point is she is not going to 'shame' me if I do over eat or fail occasionally. Instead using it as a learning tool to get me headed in the right direction. It took me weeks to agree to it because I was afraid of failure and how embarrassed I'd be if I ate a cookie. I have found that instead I have been really good the last two days. The other thing that helps is to just enter what you think your daily menu will be...you can delete, add, change. I find it helps me stick to my dinner menu.

Find a friend that would review your log and encourage you to continue might help if you are not self motivated enough. Or set up a "treat" (monetary, food, me time) for completing X amount of days. So for example for every 7 days of filling out your food log put a couple bucks in your "new wardrobe when I get slim" jar.

For a few days I was very hungry, but increasing my protein and making sure I have protein with every meal and snack helps. Today I didn't have as much early in the day and I could tell a huge difference on how hungry I was all day. And, it took me quite a few days to finally feel full most the day and hard to get all my calories in, and that my cravings for chocolate and sweets started to lessen.

The one thing I'm getting better at but still struggling is finding when and what to eat to fuel my body to go workout. If I eat too soon or drink too much water before I am very queasy...and if I don't eat soon enough though I poop out quickly. Then balance my meals and snacks around that to eat timely...lol.


Good luck!

try to eat protein with every meal it will make you feel fuller for longer and to stay motivated stick with it for a month and you will see results it will keep you motivated and sticking to a healthy diet and exercise that will make you feel better and give you energy. hope that help and if thats no enough what i do is look at a fat pic of me and that gives me the motivation to never look like that again

1. I log so that if there are no changes/I'm not hitting my goals I can go back and see what I'm doing so I know where to make changes. If I'm over on my fats 6 out of 7 days every week for the last month maybe work harder on keeping that MACRO in check.

2. "especially at work" makes it sound more like boredom than true hunger. It takes a while to learn the difference.

Also if you're hitting your 1600/day (how I read your post is that you eat 1000-1100 during the day leaving 500ish for dinner) then you're probably feeling hungry because you're doing it right.

I used to be able to eat TONS of food at a time by myself: an appetizer, meal, dessert, and at least 1 refill, now most of the time it's hard for me to finish off just a meal and drink at a restaurant.

If you're used to overeating then yeah, your body is going to complain when you start eating the "right" amount. Eventually your body will adjust and your stomach will get smaller naturally and not insist on as much food.


All in all it's a rough road. The motivation to keep going has to come from within. But changes will come- both physical and mental, and when they happen it gets easier to find the motivation to keep going.

Best of luck.

Work out and eat the exercise-calories back. That is the only way I keep from feeling hungry. Im on 1200 calories but I eat back 400 more per day. I've maintained it for 60 days in a row because I eat the additional exercise calories.