How to deal with calorie limit when you still feel hungry?

It may be the NutritionBlast that isn't filling you. Liquids tend to get digested faster than solids, and do not give you the same full feeling. Also,for me at least, I need to chew food to feel satisfied. A drink, no matter how full of proteins and nutrients, just wouldn't do it for me.

You may want to re- arrange when you eat your calories. Timing doesn't matter, so if the evening is when you are most hungry, save the majority of your cals for then.
Salads are low cal and filling. Have a salad before lunch and/or dinner.

Lastly re assess your calories and weekly goal. If you are constantly hungry you may want to aim for a lower loss per week.

Cheers, h.

- What are your stats?
- What are you eating?
- What activities are you doing?

I plan to eat protein fluff in the evening if I'm cutting/hungry. Huge bowl can be only 100-200 calories and it's difficult to finish.

GroovyLord wrote: »

Thanks all so far!

What you're saying about the smoothie makes sense, I've heard that about drinking your calories. That's the main way I find to get fruits and veggies in my diet though, it's just kind of easy that way. Still, that's only about 300 calories out of the day.

I could try to maybe make smaller one, and have a salad later on too.

tomatoey wrote: »

- What are your stats?
- What are you eating?
- What activities are you doing?

Today I had a Bruegger's bagel egg pastrami sandwich (whole grain wheat at least), 460 cals there. Also a Nutriblast smoothie I made about 330 cals, 760 cals of Freschetta brick oven pizza, cashews, a 35 cal rice cake with about 150 cals of natural peanut butter, etc. To a total of 2,587. No exercise today, but I do get it tin maybe half of the week.

My stats, I guess 29 years old, 6'1, 227 pounds. Used to be about 50 pounds heavier four years ago, but I've been at the plateau of the 220s for years at this point.

Ok, thanks.

For reference, I am a 39 year old woman, 5'7, 139 lbs. People differ, but I personally maintain on 1800-2200 (no exercise), and a meal under 500, that doesn't have what I think is a reasonable amount of protein, fat, and fiber in it, will make me hangry. I don't know, but I'm pretty sure that if I were a 6'1 dude at 227 pounds, I would be crying every night if I had to eat the amount I currently eat.

I'm going to judge your day

Bagel egg pastrami - totally fine. Would have added something else here - 1/2 a cup of yogurt would probably be my pick. Would shoot for at least 500 for breakfast, myself.

Smoothie - up to you if you want the protein. Can you reduce the calories in that a bit to make room for dinner later? Maybe use almond milk?

Pizza - super tasty to me too, but hard to fit into a regular day with the macros I personally try to shoot for, I find. Would pick something else with more meat & more veg. (What are your macros?)

Rice cake and peanut butter - that's 200 calories, ok. Personally - *all* this is "personally", ok - that wouldn't be that filling to me (rice cake especially). Peanut butter is good (I like it & have it), but for the same calories, I might go for more protein than you'd get in that. That snack is mostly carbs and fat.

Cashews - how many did you have? I eat walnuts every day, love them, but I try to cap it at 15 - so many calories! I like them with a bit of yogurt, rounds off the hunger (for me).

***Overall: would add more meat & veg for the same calories.***

Here's something interesting, to me - someone bumped a thread with a link to a BBC doc the other day. One of the points in it was that if you take a regular meal and make into a **thick** soup, that soup will keep you fuller for longer than the same meal would as solid food. (Here's a related video, not the one I saw: https://player.vimeo.com/video/87951871 )

I thought that was a *crazy* idea (and it totally is!) but was curious, so I tried it to check. (I sauteed some leftover chicken, zucchini, peppers, onion, garlic, bit of quinoa in olive oil and 1/2 a cup of bouillon, then threw that into a blender.) I did find that I lasted a fair bit longer than I normally would after dinner. Usually I need an evening snack, this time I didn't. I just tried it the one time, and didn't have the same meal the day before - obviously not scientific, lol! - but maybe it's an experiment you could try.

I only have a protein shake in the morning for breakfast because I'm not hungry when I get up and it's low calorie, provides a lot of protein and it holds me over until lunch. I don't think liquid drinks were ever really meant to fill you up. If you're feeling constantly hungry you need to play around with food combinations and meal sizes to find out what works best for you. Everyone is a little different. But I personally don't think you could do a diet long term if you're having to go hungry. The only time I'm ever hungry is if I'm getting home from work a little later than normal. I don't believe in starving yourself. That's not going to be beneficial in the long run. A diet should be easy to do. If it's easy to do you'll do it forever.

GroovyLord wrote: »

d_thomas02 wrote: »

I'd suggest you read through some of the pinned post on this forum discussing "metabolic adaptation" (often mis-termed "starvation mode"). In short, eating too little for too long can possibly cause the plateaus.

Will do, thanks!

tomatoey wrote: »

Pizza - super tasty to me too, but hard to fit into a regular day with the macros I personally try to shoot for, I find. Would pick something else with more meat & more veg. (What are your macros?)

Rice cake and peanut butter - that's 200 calories, ok. Personally - *all* this is "personally", ok - that wouldn't be that filling to me (rice cake especially). Peanut butter is good (I like it & have it), but for the same calories, I might go for more protein than you'd get in that. That snack is mostly carbs and fat.

Cashews - how many did you have? I eat walnuts every day, love them, but I try to cap it at 15 - so many calories! I like them with a bit of yogurt, rounds off the hunger (for me).

***Overall: would add more meat & veg for the same calories.***

Thanks! In general I try to leave out empty calories like pizza and refined grains etc, so that should help on those days. I had cashews a few times throughout the day so it added up for sure there.

What vegetables do you find are good snacks? In general the spinache, romaine, cucumber, and baby carrots in my smoothies are pretty much it for veggies. Though I sometimes buy bellpeppers. I should get more into that for sure.

I usually have either 1-1.5 cups of steamed or boiled green veg that has some fiber in it (asparagus, broccoli, brussel sprouts - topped with a bit of lemon juice) or a green leafy salad (spinach usually - nice with sliced red onion and 1/2 an avocado, could put some cashews in there too if you want).

If I have the salad, I also have 1/2 cup of beans or legumes to add more fiber and fill me up. The beans or legumes can go into the salad, or a soup (I sometimes just throw them into minestrone [canned]). Or, I might make a warm bean or lentil side dish - just with sauteed onions & garlic, maybe a bit of red wine or bouillon. That is also nice as a main dish, if you add a bit of chorizo sausage when the onions & garlic are browning.

^^ not snacks though, I have that with my lunch or dinner.

Red and orange veg are good to add in when you can - good source of A, C, E vitamins and some other stuff. I do fresh tomatoes with breakfast. Or red peppers with zucchini (they go together, to me).

Decent rule of thumb - the more brightly or intensely coloured the veg or fruit, the more good stuff is in it.

Berries are really nice as a little snack - raspberries have a ton of fiber.

But carrots and spinach and lettuce are good, too!

If you're still hungry and your weight loss goal / calorie limit is reasonable for your weight and height, then you may need to look at making different food choices. Different foods satiate different people. I allocate 1/5 of my calories for breakfast (300), one fifth for lunch (300) 1/4 for dinner (~400) and the remainder (500-600) for healthy snacks such as berries, greek yogurt, cottage cheese, small tins of flavoured tuna, shrimp with cocktail sauce, and my emergency on the go Welch's fruit snacks at 80 calories per pack (always keep one or two in my gym bag / car / work bag for when I get hungry, keeps me out of the vending machines etc)

i don't think you're getting enough protein or fiber (depending on your smoothie). I was always hungry until I started hitting 150g+ of protein a day. Most of the food you listed is just carbs and fat, with a tiny amount of protein. If you got rid of the pizza and nuts, and added some sort of meat, veggies, and a carb, it might help.

Another tactic is to delay your first meal. I found for myself that it's critical when I first start eating. Now I start eating around 4pm, and fit in my 2000 calories from then to about 10. Makes feel much less hungry at night (though doesn't completely eliminate it).

So in summary:
1. More protein, more fiber (need to decrease fat content to allow for the calories)
2. Delay your first meal until as late as possible

Good luck!

More protein, fat, veggies and fruit, and less carbs. That's what works for me. I'd be starving with your diet and I'm a 5'5" 37yo 135 pounds woman.

I definitely don't drink my calories and aim for a good balance of protein, fat, and fiber, at every meal/snack.

Personally, I love Scooby (to http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/). It worked great for me. I think your goal is not very realistic and a goal of 1800 is way too little for your stats. For a guy like you, assuming you're moderately active (3/5 hours of exercise a week), you could eat 2700 calories a day and still lose 1.5 pound a week, probably.

Find a reasonable goal. Eat more protein, fat, and fiber.

You might want to check out the book "Volumetrics" by Barbara Rolls. It's all about what science shows is more satiating for fewer calories. Basically, add more raw and cooked veggies, beans, and soups/salads.

I've been trying to learn which foods help me feel full longer. Besides that, I always save a couple hundred calories for the end of the day in case I'm in need of a snack.

As far as hunger pangs go, I'm learning that they come in waves - at least for me they do. Sometimes I will have a cup of green tea or glass of sparkling mineral water and make myself busy for about 20 minutes and the pangs will subside.