I'm Always hungry!

I'm always hungry, i can just eat a good size, healthy meal and within 30 minutes i want to eat more. I drink plenty of water, i was thinking of trying those pills to keep you full but i don't know if they are healthy. So I guess I wanna know :

1. Foods that will keep me full, longer.
2. Pills option
3. How you deal with your hunger?
4. Anything Else that may help me.

I really want to continue losing weight but i feel like i can't do it when i'm always hungry and over-eating.

1. PROTEIN or FAT are the most satiating. I can inhale a whole bag of sweets or a loaf of bread, but I'd struggle to eat more than a couple of steaks or boiled eggs.

2. A broad multivitamin. Maybe fish oil also.

3. If I am truly hungry, I eat something high in fat and/or protein. If I am bored, stressed or tired, I drink herbal tea, zero calorie cola, water, black coffee, sugar free sweets and/or chew gum.

4. Don't eat in front of a screen - computer/tv/windscreen. Sit at a table with no distractions when you are eating whenever possible.

Make sure your calorie goal is set accurately and you're eating enough for your stats/activity level. That means using at least some of your exercise calories if you're using MFP's set up.

Look for foods higher in protein, fat, and fiber.

Play with your meal sizes and timing. Some people do really well on small meals throughout the day and others prefer fewer, larger meals.

Don't eat anything with HFCS, as studies have shown your brain doesn't realize you have eaten those calories and tells you to eat still.
On the physical side, try more protein and fat, particularly earlier in the day. Carbs are processed pretty quickly and give you a quick spike, but are gone within a few hours (or less, depending on the specific food).
Protein won't give you any energy now, but it will give you spikes from 2-5 hours.
Fat isn't as much energy, but what little you get is spread out over several hours (around 8-12 hours).

Combine some of these things... eat a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich for breakfast - carbs for now, protein for until lunch, and fat for into the afternoon. At lunch, do the same - stack carbs and protein onto the fat already in your system, and some additional fat to get you to bedtime. Dinner would be almost exclusively carbs, maybe a bit of protein as well. You don't need a lot of energy to sleep, so get a spike until bedtime (carbs and maybe protein, depending on how long it is until bed).

I'm not an expert, but I have type 1 diabetes and have to time insulin to blood sugar spikes based on digestion times, so I'm suggesting this based on my education and experience with various types of foods and a little bit of random research from time to time.

Yep, eat protein, plenty of saturated fat, little in the way of carbs, and hunger will be a thing of the past. I no longer think one meal to the next, nor am I tempted by everything I see (office birthday cake for example doesn't interest me).

What you eat will make more of a difference than how much.

dumb question but what is HFCS? Nevermind.... i found it..

Lots of great insight already here.

I also find I am hungry a lot, and a lot of that has to do with getting used to eating a waaaaaay smaller amount of calories than my body is used to. Counting now, I am realizing I regularly ate/drank 3000+ calories a day. Taking in between 1200 and 1500 a day now is a huge change.

Some of my tricks:

- lots of water
- stevia sweetened soda fills my tummy but has no calories and makes me feel like I'm having a sweet treat
- good amounts of fat and protein. Some days it feels like half my calories are cheese, lox and peanut butter
- huge green salads with fat and protein added fill me up and give me the feeling of eating a massive meal
- I usually eat four meals a day, plus a snack sometimes
- I rarely eat things like nuts that are high in calorie but I don't find very filling. Peanut butter on celery or carrots and hummus goes further for me

I also have a standing deal with myself that if I am too hungry too often, or my energy levels are effected, OR I am thinking of quitting because I'm too hungry, I would raise my calories a bit. Have you considered adding 100 or so calories a day? You might end up feeling more satisfied but might still lose weight.

when i cant stop my hunger i eat collard greens. After two servings my appetite is gone!

If you have been very overweight or eaten extremely large portions (6,000 plus calories a day as some people do), your body may take some time transition from your caloric wants to your nutritional needs and suffering some hunger for a while may be part of that process unfortunately. When I transitioned from eating more than 4,000 calories a day with zero physical activity to less than 2,000 it was rather painful for probably about a week. If you are under the caloric intake you need to stay healthy, you should eat healthy snacks to reduce hunger.

If you have been very overweight or eaten extremely large portions (6,000 plus calories a day as some people do), your body may take some time transition from your caloric wants to your nutritional needs and suffering some hunger for a while may be part of that process unfortunately. When I transitioned from eating more than 4,000 calories a day with zero physical activity to less than 2,000 it was rather painful for probably about a week. If you are under the caloric intake you need to stay healthy, you should eat healthy snacks to reduce hunger.

6,000? Wow. Congrats on the transition

they're really good to dip in to hummus

If you have been very overweight or eaten extremely large portions (6,000 plus calories a day as some people do), your body may take some time transition from your caloric wants to your nutritional needs and suffering some hunger for a while may be part of that process unfortunately. When I transitioned from eating more than 4,000 calories a day with zero physical activity to less than 2,000 it was rather painful for probably about a week. If you are under the caloric intake you need to stay healthy, you should eat healthy snacks to reduce hunger.

6,000? Wow. Congrats on the transition

Not from 6000, from 4000 a day. I just used 6000 as an example, but I probably did reach that some times.

What are your stats and what are your daily calories set at? Be sure that your not eating at a too aggressive deficit.

I have the same issue when following a typical diet that is higher in carbs. I switched to a lower carb diet and my calorie limit is higher than MFP suggested by 200 calories. Following a lower carb eating plan I'm am not hungry and so far I'm struggling to get in the amount of calories I was aiming for (which is great!). I eat 3-5 times a day. If I get hungry I eat protein and/or lower carb/high fiber veggies.

I only joined MFP a couple days ago but I have used the lower carb diet before and not only had more energy but I seem to do better than on WW or other plans like that. I always end up gaining on WW.

I used the following keto calculator to get a guideline as to what I wanted to aim for. http://keto-calculator.ankerl.com/

If your deficit is too aggressive then you may experience this - recheck your numbers and maybe reduce calories slowly rather than jumping straight down to a smaller goal.

Protein and fat are great.

Pills aren't necessary.

We also often get 'hungry' for a number of other reasons - you could be thirsty or bored, emotional, tired etc. One trick I do is I say to myself 'would you eat a giant bowl of carrots right now', if i'd rather have something else, then i'm not really hungry hungry

I would often prefer a whole bowl of carrots to almost anything else, I can't keep them in the house because I eat them as soon as I buy them.

Make sure you're getting enough fiber in your diet, fiber helps with feeling full. This means loading your plate full of veggies.. You can add extra fiber in with supplements from the vitamin section if you need to.

As your metabolism increases and you get fitter, it is normal to be hungry/want to eat more often... but of course you need to stick within your nutritional goals. For me, I have a drink on the way to work, breakfast at 8am, snack at 10am, lunch at 12pm, snack at 1pm, then i'm usually busy and not hungry again until dinner at 6pm. If I do get hungry before dinner it's usually around 4pm and I have a snack. Breakfast is my biggest meal of the day, everything is fairly small and then dinner usually consists of meat & veg or salad.

You just need to find a meal routine that works for you. I think you'll find a lot of people prefer 5-6 smaller meals per day rather than 2-3 big meals. Eating small amounts more often also helps by not overloading your body all at once.

And a lot of it is mental. Reminding yourself that whilst you might crave something naughty, it has no health benefit to you, therefore you're going to make a choice to have something healthy instead which benefits your body, and helps you feel positive by making that decision. That said, at the end of the day if you still have enough room in your nutritional requirements to squeeze in a treat that you really enjoy, totally go for it.

You'll get there, you've come this far, that should be enough motivation to keep going on this journey Good luck x