Hunger ...grrr.....I'm always hungry!

I've been doing a lot of thinking about this lately myself. I'm one of those people who eats around 1200 a day.

I used to need to eat to feel stuffed. That was always my signal that I was full. And I'd have to carry that comfortably stuffed feeling between meals with me, otherwise my body would interpret it as "hunger".

Obviously, this is disordered thinking, because "not full/stuffed" doesn't mean "empty".

I've been misinterpreting hunger signals for years, all because I wanted to retain that "full" feeling. It gave me a sense of security.

I'm still learning. Sometimes a big glass of water helps. Thirst is often mistaken for hunger. And I get thirsty a lot.

I know I'm eating enough to sustain me. I'm slowly learning what true hunger feels like. I'm learning the difference between want and need.

You can too, but it will take time. Just tell yourself that you can get there and you will.

Set your goal. Allow yourself regular meals and snacks. A small bit of chocolate is okay, it will fit into your calories and doesn't mean you've blown it. No foods are bad. It's all about total calories consumed.

It will take time, but you can get there.

I eat regular food and pre-log my whole day. I've found it helpful to see the calories I'm consuming. I tell myself that I am eating enough to support my life so it is easier to drink a glass of water and wait 20 minutes or an hour to see if the hunger feeling goes away. If it doesn't go away then I eat a bit.
I don't freak out or give up when I go over my calories a bit one day. I stop eating. I might exercise more or just log it and do better the next day.

Try to eat foods that are satisfying. Foods with protein, fiber, and somes fats will help.
If you like eating then save your calories for food and drink mostly water or tea without anything added.

I used to eat really big portions, I was hungry at first but I find my body got used to the smaller portions and then that is all I need. I have water or tea if I feel like I want more food to see if I really need it or just want it because it tastes good. I do go over my 1200 calories some days but I try to exercise those days. I do eat back some of my exercise calories. I am not always in a deficit but I try to stay within my limit each day. Planning helps and I find the type of food I eat makes a difference too.

Oh, it's very simple to log home made items! There's a recipe builder feature on the site. Go to the foods tab on your diary and you'll see recipes. There's an option to add your own.

Just weigh and measure each ingredient you include while you're making your dish, then weigh the finished dish. That will be the number of servings. Weigh your portion and that's how many servings you eat. Say that you make chili. Measure the container, tare your scale, add the chili. The finished yield weighs 800 grams. You'd enter it as 800 servings, take your portion, note the difference in weight... say it now weighs 650. Yeah... go ahead and eat 150 servings of chili!!!!!

Make sure you eat enough protein, it helps a lot! and since you're a volume eater, eat high volume foods! Things like broccoli and mushrooms--you can eat a ton of them and stay within your goals. Also, just try and do a search for high volume foods, things like protein fluff help me when I want that nice full content feeling after a *kitten* day. The "suck it up, buttercup" method does not work for me personally--thinking like that is what causes me to binge later. Work on finding out what foods actually make you feel full instead of feeling like you need to deprive yourself to stay under your calorie goal.

Hey I used to be the same way. Here's what I did, and after only a week I could feel the difference. Maybe it will help you.

I used to eat twice a day. Breakfast and Dinner. Pretty much every 12 hours. I've split it up and eat less, more. So instead of 2 1200 calorie meals, I'll have 4 500 calorie meals.

Part of what you're experiencing is stomach size. Your stomach is elastic and will stretch out to accommodate what you're used to. By eating smaller portions more often, you'll still get the calories you need to function, but also you'll get that full feeling from a much smaller portion. I split MFP up to Breakfast(7am), Lunch(12pm), Dinner 1(5pm), Dinner 2(9pm). I intersperse it with healthy snacks - baby spinach (I love the stuff), peach cups, I buy cans of peanuts and portion them out in sandwich bags. I get the desire to chew food so I've started chewing on Sunflower Seeds. A lot of chewing, so I get the feeling I want, but only a little seed and I spit the shell out.

Sunday night I went to a Chinese Buffet with my mother. I had one plate of food, mostly chicken, and half a roll of sushi. I used to put back 3-4 with no problem. But now, off one plate I was nice and comfortably full. I've lost 117lbs since last January.

Here's what I did to start: I took whatever I was going to have for breakfast, cut it in half. I ate half then, and half at lunchtime. Then I did the same for dinner - cut it in half, have half then, and half an hour or so before bed. Then I slowly started cutting down the size of those portions, a little bit each week.

Also, portion distortion: some foods have a much higher concentration of calories than others. A banana is about 100 calories, for instance, but 2 hotdogs (similar in volume and consistency) is 240 calories. They'll give you the same feeling of fullness, for almost 2.5x the cals.

ONE LAST THING and this might be the most important. It's something I never knew until I talked to a personal trainer (dieticians never revealed this to me). If you feel hungry, you might just be dehydrated. I never knew, but dehydration feels like hunger. I stopped drinking pop as much as I used to and mostly drink water now, and I think that's been a huge contributing factor as well. So have a glass of water instead of pop with dinner, and when you're going about looking for a snack, have a drink of water and see if that makes you feel better. Best part is, water fills you up, fuels you, is good for you, and has no calories, sugar, fat, or sodium!

babaontheway wrote: »

I'm also very much of the - oh well I've had one chocolate so that's today messed up so I might as well order a chinese takeaway type person.

This was the hardest thing for me to get over before I started counting calories. Eventually you realize you CAN have the chocolate and work it into your day. It's very liberating.

healthygreek wrote: »

Keep your deficit small or you will be hungry and there is no need for hunger except of course when you're close to mealtime. Start with setting MFP to losing 1/2 pound per week. In addition eat back at least half of your exercise calories.

^^^This helps!! I started with mine set to 1lb and was losing 2lbs/week. Currently I switch between 1/2lb (to make sure I don't go overboard) and maintenance depending on what's going on with my week.

While you're getting the hang of it there's nothing wrong with exercising to create a bigger deficit so you can eat more (I do it if I know I'm going to be drinking or eating a lot of sweets) and any deficit is a step in the right direction. Don't get discouraged!

Dont eat less!!! Eat more food that is dense in nutrition if you eat less processed food its actually a challenge to eat enough calories because you can eat so much and it fills you up so much more

Superlissaanne wrote: »

I manage my hunger by managing the type of food I eat. I could eat 1500 cals of carbs and still be starving. But, eat those same cals in protein and healthy fat and i will be full. My goal is 40% carbs, 30% protein, 30% fat. I don't always hit those goals, but I try.

Interesting. I will have to take a look at my stats daily to see if I can do some tweaking there.

rybo wrote: »

My tips to try and see if any work for you...try not to eat empty calories (processed junk), eat nutrient dense foods
Learn to identify true hunger
Drink more water
Eat less often (skip breakfast) I have found that makes me less hungry.

What is "processed junk?" Food is food, and what one chooses to eat has nothing to do with weight loss. Type of food is personal preference. Type of diet has a lot to do with nutrition, however.

Eating less often is not the answer. That also is personal preference.

babaontheway,

Eat whatever you like whenever you like, as meal timing, how many meals you eat, and type of food having nothing to do with weight loss. Weight loss is calories in/calories out.

I eat six small meals a day from 4:30 a.m. to whenever I feel like it at night (usually around seven on weekdays), and I lost over 40 pounds and have been maintaining for over a year. My diary is open, feel free to peruse.

SLLRunner wrote: »

rybo wrote: »

My tips to try and see if any work for you...try not to eat empty calories (processed junk), eat nutrient dense foods
Learn to identify true hunger
Drink more water
Eat less often (skip breakfast) I have found that makes me less hungry.

What is "processed junk?" Food is food, and what one chooses to eat has nothing to do with weight loss. Type of food is personal preference. Type of diet has a lot to do with nutrition, however.

Eating less often is not the answer. That also is personal preference.

babaontheway,

Eat whatever you like whenever you like, as meal timing, how many meals you eat, and type of food having nothing to do with weight loss. Weight loss is calories in/calories out.

I eat six small meals a day from 4:30 a.m. to whenever I feel like it at night (usually around seven on weekdays), and I lost over 40 pounds and have been maintaining for over a year. My diary is open, feel free to peruse.

You have your opinions i have what works for me that I suggested may work for someone else. You are just being argumentative.

mamapeach910 wrote: »

Oh, it's very simple to log home made items! There's a recipe builder feature on the site. Go to the foods tab on your diary and you'll see recipes. There's an option to add your own.

Just weigh and measure each ingredient you include while you're making your dish, then weigh the finished dish. That will be the number of servings. Weigh your portion and that's how many servings you eat. Say that you make chili. Measure the container, tare your scale, add the chili. The finished yield weighs 800 grams. You'd enter it as 800 servings, take your portion, note the difference in weight... say it now weighs 650. Yeah... go ahead and eat 150 servings of chili!!!!!

I second the recipe builder. I use it A LOT and have logged many of the meals my family eats. It is incredibly useful and I love that I am still able to eat the meals my family eats but in smaller portions

The only way I have found to manage my hunger is to eat a lot of protein and ditch the carbs, sugars etc. I am doing low carb right now and I have to force myself to eat.