Do hunger pains go away?

The beginning stages of the "losing weight" process, you will feel like you can't get/stay full. You have to slowly decrease your calories. You can't go from eating close to 3000 calories to 1500 calories and expect your stomach to shrink. Nope doesnt work that way. Slowly decrease your calories. I dont know how many calories your are eating, but I can guess that you have cut your calories down to the bare minimum if your not feeling "full". Also drink water and get plenty of protein. Fill up on Veggies first, then fruits. Dont eat empty calories..."chips, candy, ect....Good luck!

Personally, and again this is totally personal, because every person is different and unique in their own way.

I really, really try NOT to drink my calories.

The act of chewing - for me - makes me feel full and satisfied.

Take a simple thing like a smoothie. There might be 1/2 a cup of blueberries, 1/2 a cup of strawberries, 1/2 a cup of milk, and a 1/2 a cup of yogurt.

I would never drink this - and on the few occasions that I have made a smoothie, I was hungry not long after.

But if you put a cup of blueberries and strawberries in front of me and I eat them. Chewing my food instead of letting a blender do the work, this is satisfying! I've "eaten". Then, to follow it up with another bowl with a 1/2 a cup of yogurt. I'd feel pretty full right there. Forget the milk! I'd have a coffee with a bit of cream and sugar for the same price/calorie cost of the milk.

So, to me, the actual act of eating instead of drinking, makes a huge difference. Is it just a psychological difference. Could be, but who cares. Same amount of calories, though.

On the other hand, I know that with horses (since I have horses and train horses) and colic (tummy upset) is the number one cause of death in horses, eating and food and nutrition is very important. When horses chew it's really important because the saliva that they make when they are grinding up their food, chewing it, is very settling to their tummies. So, there was a time, not long ago, when modern feed makers all got into this pelleted type food. Basically, it was sort of pre-digested, and it was sold to people because it was supposed to be "easy on the gut" because the grain had been processed and basically mashed up and then pressed into a pellet. It was supposed to be "easy to digest" with all the nutrients "more available". But guess what, many people are going back to just good old fashioned grains that the horses really have to chew a lot. By removing a lot of the chewing, they were removing the horse's saliva from the equation - a natural gut protector.

So, that's how I, personally, look at "liquid" meals. Some machine has taken the chewing (the work) out of eating the food for you, and when you are hungry, you need that work to do.

Same goes for fruit. Why drink orange juice. Just, eat the orange. In fact, it's a great meditation and awareness type exercise to do - close your eyes, peel and eat the entire orange, with your eyes closed. You will be very surprised at where this exercise leads you... the smells... the time... the peeling.... the eating of the orange. Although it's not an exercise about dieting, it's an exercise about "awareness" of day to day life and what it really contains, you will be surprised how much we don't really "experience" the act of eating.

Taking the time to actually experience your food (especially with your eyes closed) will make the whole experience more full and satisfying, and I'm also going to bet that you will be surprised with how full you get, too.

(I think they have done this experiment with pasta, and blindfolded some participants, and some were not. Participants were told to eat until full. Guess who ate less?) This can also teach you to eat more slowly, savoring not just taste but texture, and smell, and yes, the act of chewing the food, too, and swallowing... the whole deal. This gives your brain time to receive the signals from your tummy that you are, in fact, full. (This is also one of the reasons why it's a pretty big no-no to eat in front of tv. You don't give the food any thought at all, and people overeat. )