Learning to be hungry

I found, surprisingly, that using MFP I didn't suffer hunger, as I had on past diets. If you can get your calories and excercise calibrated correctly---you eat what you need to function---my body was satisfied with that. Now, I'm not saying that it is easy. You need to tweek here and there, especially at the end of your weight loss. In my opinion, being hungry is not necessary, and counter productive.

I don't really get "too hungry". If I'm hungry, it's because it's time to eat anyway so it's normal. Now I have some special days when I experience some extra true hunger, especially the day after I deadlift. Then-I eat. I'm not in a rush anymore. I log it and am prepared to see slower losses.

I'll get hungry when I'm stuck at work and it's an hour till dinner- I used to reach for the chcolate straight away. Now I just deal with and wait until I get home and cook dinner. If I really can't deal I have low cal snacks in my draw for those days. But if I know I have a meal waiting for me, it's a lot easier to ignore it.

I try to eat every 3-4 hrs (so that i don't get hungry).
I've always been like that.
Only now, i try to eat more healthier foods than before.
If i know i'm gonna be stuck somewhere without access to food, i'll bring snacks with me.

In losing 40 Lbs I rarely if ever had hunger pangs...and when I did it was usually shortly after waking up and needing breakfast. You don't have to starve to lose weight...I don't know why so many people think you have to go around being hungry to lose weight...it's sad.

Depends on the hunger for me. If it's hormonal, forget it, otherwise, yeah, I learn to deal with it.

Pu_239 wrote: »

rebprest wrote: »

I used to think the feeling of hunger was kind of like the feeling of pain: something to be immediately treated. Now I think it is kind of weird how low my hunger tolerance is. I'm just curious... do many of you think you should try to avoid feeling hungry during weight loss or have you learned to just accept feeling hungry during parts of the day?

If you're hungry, you're doing it wrong.

Can you show your work on that?

When I'm hungry, I eat. I know that when I don't eat in an hour of be being hungry (I get hunger pains - very mild cramps and growling), I will be in a lot of pain (about a 5) the rest of the day even if I do eat. I've also spent time being unable to buy food to eat and/or get to someone's house who would let me have some food. Being hungry sucks and I avoid it unless medically necessary.

If you can deal with feeling hungry, go for it. I can't so I don't.

I had to relearn hunger cues, because I didn't have a sense of what true hunger was going into this initially.

Learning to distinguish what true hunger was was a huge step for me. I used to be a very fast eater, and I've slowed down a LOT. That really helped. For me, intermittent fasting (I do a 18/6 protocol) has also helped manage my hunger signals.

The other important thing I've learned to manage my hunger is to not skimp on protein or fat. When I first started cutting calories, I cut back on fat to have as much volume in my food as possible to feel full. That worked for a while, but it eventually caught up to me. I've since cut back on some of the volume calories and put those towards fat calories and I feel so much more satisfied with my intake now.

The bottom line is that if you're feeling hungry all the time, there are measures you can take to address it. The first is to make sure that you're not eating at too aggressive a deficit. After that, you can tweak some things like I did and employ some strategies that might work for you.

I can't tolerate hunger pangs for very long. It gives me a headache that's very different from stress or being tired. So I've learned to eat when I'm hungry. The biggest lesson I had to learn was being able to tell the difference from bored "hunger" and actual "I need food now" hunger. I don't do the lowfat stuff either. I've learned that I need the fat to help with my overall health and weight loss. Listen to your body, be willing to make changes that might seem counter-intuitive, and be patient. You'll figure yourself out and you'll know how tweak things as needed.

It's ok to feel hungry - I made peace with it. I also attend to hunger, and eat to fuel myself and to enjoy the taste of food, too

I am hardly ever hungry unless I completely miss a meal and/or do more than 1500 calories worth of exercise in a day.

Getting lots of fiber, eating real food and being well hydrated seem to be the keys.

I am very tall and very active, but I feel fine on 1200 calories a day. Lately I've bumped myself up to 1400 calories and it feels like an enormous amount of food.

rebprest wrote: »

I am not starving myself! I'm trying to stay around 1,500 calories a day. I tried eating around 1,600-1,800 but I wasn't losing any weight. If I need to, I can go back up and try to fit in more exercise, but diet control seems more sustainable to me than ramping up my exercise.

There are really only a few hours out of the day that I'm hungry, usually right before lunch or dinner. I just used to feel like I needed to immediately eat when I was hungry, and now I'm getting more comfortable waiting, knowing that I will be fine and have lunch in an hour or two. Maybe that is "doing it wrong". I guess I'll find out.

I find this normal - to begin to feel hunger at some point before meals. It's not screaming, gnawing hunger, it's just the point between having eaten, and coming up to need to eat again.

I no longer feel the need to grab and stuff something the instant my stomach no longer feels completely full.