does anyone feel hungry sticking to their daily calories?

If I make bad choices definitely...yesterday I had a snickers bar :blushing: so left myself with fewer calories for food, I was hungry but it was worth it, first one in about a year!...but generally lots of veggies and lean meat, chicken breast, lean pork steaks...high protein definitely fills me up better and for longer, porridge for some reason leaves me famished later, painfully and noisily hungry...everyone in the room will hear my stomach growling for food a couple of hours after porridge. Very strange!

This is the same as me! Porridge eaves me hungry an hour or so later, but a plate full of protein and salad or whatever keeps me stuffed and I'm not hungry for hourrrs later. I'm often hungry a couple of hours after breakfast though, even though I have a high protein breakfast.

Having looked over your food diary I suggest you make sure your calorie goal is realistic. Most of the time, if a calorie goal is near 1200 it's because a person is trying to lose more than 1 pound per week. If this is true for you, change it. Losing 1 pound per week is both realistic and healthy. Once you've adjusted to eat fewer calories you can decide to increase your loss, but being so restrictive at first can be very difficult. You should also be logging your exercise and eating the calories you "earn" from it.

I also recommend you track your sugar and sodium in addition to fat, carbs and protein. You should also eat less processed foods as they are high in sodium, sugar and refined carbs and don't have much in the way of nutrition. Eating foods in their natural state (or as close to it as possible) is best. You should be eating lots of fresh vegetables and fruits, whole grains, lean protein and a little low fat dairy. You also need to make sure you're drinking at least 8 glasses of plain water every single day and more is better.

You should probably limit your carbs as well. MFP's recommendations are high for carbs and low for protein. Carbs and fats are used for energy and brain and heart function respectively. If you eat more of either than your body needs at that time the excess will be stored in your fat cells. You don't want to do a low-carb diet, but you don't want to be eating more carbs than you need. Try keeping your carbs intake to about 100-125 grams per day. Don't eat refined sugar and don't eat carbs within 3 hours of bedtime. Try not to have any carbs at dinner. Carbs and sugars make your body release insulin which stops the fat burning.

thank you! that helps a lot, actually my goal for weight loss was 1 lb a week though, so i am not sure what i can change to get more calories allowed???

I would say that's probably too high for what you have to lose. I'd set it to 1/2 lb per week. That adds about another 250 cals to your goal. When you're already relatively lean, it's much more difficult to lose fat. The body (especially for women) prefers to have a cushion of fat - so you have to coax those last few lbs off. The way to do that is to let it KNOW there will be enough fuel coming in by having a conservative deficit.

Also, you might want to rethink your daily activity level setting. A lot of women I've seen who have young kids tend to underestimate their activity level. But, I would just change one thing at a time, give it time to work and then go from there. If it was me, I'd go to 1/2 lb per week and see how it goes.

thank you! that helps a lot, actually my goal for weight loss was 1 lb a week though, so i am not sure what i can change to get more calories allowed???

I would say that's probably too high for what you have to lose. I'd set it to 1/2 lb per week. That adds about another 250 cals to your goal. When you're already relatively lean, it's much more difficult to lose fat. The body (especially for women) prefers to have a cushion of fat - so you have to coax those last few lbs off. The way to do that is to let it KNOW there will be enough fuel coming in by having a conservative deficit.

Also, you might want to rethink your daily activity level setting. A lot of women I've seen who have young kids tend to underestimate their activity level. But, I would just change one thing at a time, give it time to work and then go from there. If it was me, I'd go to 1/2 lb per week and see how it goes.

When you have less than 20 pounds to lose you do need to eat a little more and you can also spot reduce. The body will use either fat or muscle for energy depending on what is closest to the area that needs the energy. This is why you need to eat a little more and why you can spot reduce. So if you have specific problem areas work those more instead of doing just cardio. And of course, do lots of strength training!

From what I've seen of your diary, you might want to look into reducing your carb intake to 30% and upping protein to 40% and 30% fats. And drink water a little more. There are a lot of empty calorie high carb items, especially in your breakfast. Even your yoghurt is high carb, but if for instance you took 0% fat greek yoghurt with fresh strawberries, or blueberries, you would have a breakfast that would see you through a substantial part of the day without too much hunger. 175 g carbs is a lot, I think. I try to keep between 70G and 90G carbs a day, and try to make the carbohydrates I eat come from vegetables, whole grain bread, whole grain rice. Part of your hunger may be caused by the insulin response after a spike in glucose after eating carbohydrates.

I'm not really hungry when I watch my diet. I eat a lot of vegetables, and oatmeal every day for breakfast, sometimes with a teaspoon of peanut butter. It keeps me full until lunchtime. Mid afternoon, I need to have a snack like fat free pudding or yogurt, but it's usually something I would have eaten as a dessert for lunch if I had a longer lunch break. Finally, when I really can't afford the calories but am still hungry, I down a spoonful of soybeans (canned). They are hardly exciting, but they are full of good nutrients and they fill me up. I also use them on salads as a source of protein. With all that fiber, don't forget the water.

1) What made you decide to eat 1,200 calories a day (about)?
2) You are eating over 50% of your calories in carbs. I'd be hungry too.

If you're hungry, you need more food. Also eat more protein. All I really saw was: cereal, rice, muffins, cereal, etc.