eating healthy but feel hungry all the time

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.

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

This content has been removed.

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.

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.

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?