eating healthy but feel hungry all the time

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nikkit1202
nikkit1202 Posts: 3 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hello everyone! So, lately I've been trying my best to eat healthy but I often find myself feeling hungry and shakey in between meals. Yesterday for breakfast I had 2 over easy eggs, 1 piece of wheat toast and a banana and about an hour after that I started to get shakey and hungry. Any suggestions on how to prevent this? Perhaps I'm doing something wrong? Thanks!

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  • _John_
    _John_ Posts: 8,641 Member
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    For one, when losing weight, you're almost always going to have some feeling of being hungry.

    Maybe you respond better to a different distrubution of calories in a day. Have you tried eating more calories at breakfast than more towards the evening?
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
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    These are my really general tips for hunger:

    1. Make sure that your calorie goals are actually set appropriately. Don't skip this step. A lot of people set goals that are too aggressive and then wonder why they're having a hard time. http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/819055/setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets

    2. Look for foods higher in protein, fat, and fiber. These help us stay full and more satisfied longer. If you're using MFP's default settings, try to consider protein, fat, and fiber as minimums to reach every day rather than maximums to stay below.

    3. Drink plenty of fluids. Some people really do confuse thirst and hunger.

    4. Get plenty of rest. This includes sleeping enough and taking rest days from the exercise. Sometimes our bodies look for food when they're exhausted.

    5. Play around with your meal timings. Some people do really well on 5-6 small meals a day and others feel like they want to gnaw their own arm off eating like that. Skipping breakfast, eating breakfast, 16:8 fasting, 6 small meals, 3 larger meals, snacks, no snacks, meal timing won't make a big difference to your weight loss, but it may help your hunger levels, mood, concentration, gym performance, etc. throughout the day. Don't be afraid to try a different way and see if it helps.

    6. Wait it out. If you know you're eating enough and the other steps above aren't helping, you may just have to wait it out. Our bodies send out hunger signals partially out of habit. If you eat at a certain time every day your body will start to get hungry at that time. The good news is that these signals can be retrained to stop telling you to be hungry all the time. The bad news is that you may just have to be hungry for a little bit while that happens.

    7. I also think it's important to remember that there's a habitual component to hunger. This goes along with point #6, but if you eat because you're bored or you're used to eating in front of the TV or in the car or whatever it is, then you can replace those habits with others that are better for you. Things like keeping water on hand to sip instead of snacking or picking up hobbies that keep your hands busy or that get you out of the house more can help out a little while you're retraining your hunger cues. You might need to pay attention to why you're eating/hungry or what you're feeling when you eat and try to replace food with other things, but it can be really beneficial over time.

    That said, weak and shaky can be bad. If it keeps up you might need to check in with a doc.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
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    Maybe try adding a teeny bit more fat, like peanut butter on the toast. See if that lasts longer.
  • nikkit1202
    nikkit1202 Posts: 3 Member
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    Thank you for all of the suggestions. Unfortunatly, I have fallen off of the MFP bandwagon and haven't logged anything recently so there's not much to see in my diary. The weakness and shakey feeling happen a lot which causes me to grab the nearest thing to snack on between patients at work and unfortunately they aren't always healthy choices.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,150 Member
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    Lot's of fats and protein for satiety.
  • saladcrunchy
    saladcrunchy Posts: 899 Member
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    nikkit1202 wrote: »
    Hello everyone! So, lately I've been trying my best to eat healthy but I often find myself feeling hungry and shakey in between meals. Yesterday for breakfast I had 2 over easy eggs, 1 piece of wheat toast and a banana and about an hour after that I started to get shakey and hungry. Any suggestions on how to prevent this? Perhaps I'm doing something wrong? Thanks!

    Have you ever tried fasting? I don't mean complete abstinence but something like the 2/5 diet? This can switch off the hunger hormone and reset your hormonal defaults. It worked for me. Here are two progs about it:

    Horizon – BBC - Eat, fast, live longer,
    bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01lxyzc/horizon-20122013-3-eat-fast-and-live-longer

    or watch and download from Vimeo
    https://vimeo.com/103656060


    and this

    The health benefits of a 24 hour fast.
    Neuroscientist Prof Mark Mattson
    Today Programme Monday 6th August 2012 - Scroll to 8.47am
    news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9743000/9743014.stm

  • jaga13
    jaga13 Posts: 1,149 Member
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    Are you drinking a lot of coffee ? Sometimes that gives me a shakey feeling when I drink too much or it's too strong.
  • caseylizbeth
    caseylizbeth Posts: 112 Member
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    I have the same problem! Its something to do with blood sugar/blood pressure. Whenever that type of feeling hits I eat something small but nutritionally dense, like dried fruit with nuts, a couple crackers or apple slices with peanut butter, or some beef jerky. 100 calories or less. I find the best way to prevent that feeling is to eat small meals frequently. Normally I will eat breakfast, then a snack an hour or two later. Same with lunch or dinner. And keep healthy snacks nearby to keep from grabbing junk.
  • rankinsect
    rankinsect Posts: 2,238 Member
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    How many days into your actual calorie restriction were you? You mentioned being off the bandwagon - was this one of the first days back on?

    For me, the first three days are always the hardest, I feel like crap, I'm starving, but they pass and I feel fine afterwards. The body isn't fast to mobilize fat stores when you start having a calorie reduction, but it will eventually respond if you wait it out.
  • nvmomketo
    nvmomketo Posts: 12,019 Member
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    It sounds a bit like reactive hypoglycemia, which can be a symptom of insulin resistance: fatigued 1 or 2 hours after eating, shaky, brain fog. dizzy.

    If that is the case, I would eat more often of switch to a lower carb diet which will not cause a large blood sugar swing. Best wishes.
  • saladcrunchy
    saladcrunchy Posts: 899 Member
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    Seriously, fasting helps with huger pangs-

    Not at first, of course, you have to go through the pain threshold BUT

    That fasting hunger is so short lived, just two days a week rather than the constant battle with cravings that come with a sustained diet and eventually derails so many good intensions.

    Fasting switches on the hormone Leptin that tells us we are full. Fasting kind of restores the 'hormone factory', default settings and the 2/5 diet can do this within about 2-3 weeks is all it took for me to stop feeling hungry all the time. That is just six days of feeling hungry rather than every day on the usual diet. I did have to go on to a normal sustained diet to lose what I need to lose but starting with the 2/5 diet, got my hunger pangs under control and enabled me to get into a more committed weight loss plan. Worth a watch anyway;

    If you don't have time to watch the following documentary on fasting, I have listed the key points from it below.

    Horizon – BBC - Eat, fast, live longer,
    bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01lxyzc/horizon-20122013-3-eat-fast-and-live-longer

    or watch and download from Vimeo
    https://vimeo.com/103656060

    • Dr Michael Mosley; outwardly healthy but genetically, predisposed to diabetes.
    • Fasting mice live longer
    • IGF1 [Insulin like growth factor 1] is a key factor that links calorie restriction and longevity.
    • Why a low level of IGF1 gives immunity to diabetes and cancer regardless of poor diet and smoking!
    • Alternate day [or two days of back to back] fasting [not total abstinence that is not good] causes more weight loss than a constant diet and you can eat as much as you like on feed days and still lose weight.
    • Fasting switches the body cells into ‘repair mode’ rather than multiplying in ‘go, go mode’.
    • Fasting also switches the leptin [I’m full] hormone back on and has the paradoxical effect of reducing appetite
    • Fasting may be a means to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s as it has been shown to stimulate brain cells into repair and grow.
    • The importance of sustaining the fast days.
  • babbsisthebest
    babbsisthebest Posts: 18 Member
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    I had the same problem. This is what I've been eating for breakfast and lunch for the last three weeks and have lost 7 lbs. I have not felt hungry at all. I have a homemade smoothie for breakfast and lunch. This has really helped with some gastrointestinal problems I have been having as well.
    Recipe: In a blender mix
    1 cup original or vanilla soy milk
    1 cup frozen blueberries or mixed berries
    2 tablespoons old fashioned oats
    1 tablespoon peanut butter
    1 tablespoon ground flax seed

    Delicious, healthy and very filling. Hitting nutrients on my food log. Eat healthy meal in the evening. A little cheating on the weekends. Haven't had the weak shaky feeling since. Good luck.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
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    That breakfast should not leave you hungry. If anything, you could swap the 100-120 banana calories for another egg or some bacon and you may be more full.

    What were you eating before?

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