How to beat hunger?

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Tiptoetherat
Tiptoetherat Posts: 56 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have asked a lot of people this question. Now I ask all of you in hopes of getting more ideas.

Simply put I'm ALWAYS hungry. If I'm doing my diet right I'm hungry to the point of not being able to think straight in most cases. Worse yet, I'm not loosing weight so I'm going to cut my cals even more in the coming weeks (from 1700 to 1500). This has been going on for years, so I don't think there is any getting used to this, nor do I think its going to go away. My doctor refuses to give me an appetite supressent. So...any ideas on what to do to get my hunger to go away?

I have tried the following.

Drinking LOTS of water
Drinking hot beverages like tea and coffee
Splitting my food up into 6 or even 8 meals per day
Chia seeds
pounding salad and veg
Fiber supplements
Spacing out my protein during the day.

Any other ideas folks? I could sure use some help.

John.
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Replies

  • nixxthirteen
    nixxthirteen Posts: 280 Member
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    Hmm.

    I eat 1400-1600 per day and always feel quite full.

    My typical workday schedule looks like:

    1.) Toast and cream cheese, a banana, a coffee 6:30am
    2.) Coffee 8:30am
    3.) A Special K Nourish bar, or a Kashi bar 10-11am
    4.) Lunch is either a ww tortilla with canned chicken and salsa and spinach, or a lean meat sandwich on light rye, or a chicken caesar salad with 100g shredded seasoned chicken. Then I have a couple 100 cal snacks like Snappea Crisps and yogurt, or string cheese with lunch. This is usually 1-2pm
    5.) Dinner (400-600 cals)
    6.) Small snack before bed if I have calories left

    Drinking flavoured Mio water in between all of it.
  • hiyomi
    hiyomi Posts: 906 Member
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    Are you absolutely sure you are hungry and not bored? Just have to make sure! If not and if its really that bad, you may want to see a doctor for it and tell him your problem. :)
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,575 Member
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    Have you messed with your macros? More fat? Less fat but high volume? Less carbs/more carbs? What I do might not help you at all. I don't eat until 1, then I keep protein high at about 1g per pound of body weight, moderate fat, lowish carbs. Diet soda, hot tea, high volume veg. 1300 calories during the week and I'm not every terribly hungry.
  • AmyRhubarb
    AmyRhubarb Posts: 6,890 Member
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    How much do you have to lose? Curious why as a 35 year old dude, you're eating 1700 cals a day, and considering cutting to 1500? I'm a 48 year old woman and I lose on 1800-2000 cals a day. Your numbers seem low, and might explain the hunger.

    Looking back through your diary for the past week or so - are you logging everything? Some days are really low, some days close to goal, but still don't seem like much food. I think I'd ditch that Starbucks egg salad sandwich - for 500 cals you could do a lot better than one lousy sandwich!

    Didn't see much if any "pounding salad and veg" either, unless they just aren't getting logged.

    Maybe try more home prepared meals that you could take to work? Cook meals on weekends and pack them up for lunches and dinners during the week? Lean Cuisines are small portions (at least they were when I tried them 20 years ago - haven't touched one since!), and very high in sodium, and not super filling as I recall.

    Easy meal - cook up a batch of rice (white or brown, whatever you prefer), and portion out half cup scoops into small ziplocs, and then freeze them. Easy to pop into a bowl with some chicken (leftover or even the canned stuff is decent, I get it at Costco), some canned black beans, salsa, avocado, a little cheese, a little plain Greek yogurt or sour cream - easy lunch, inexpensive and filling with good protein, carbs, fat and fiber to keep you feeling satisfied and full. Change it up by skipping the salsa and drizzling with a little BBQ sauce, maybe toss some corn kernels in there if you like. Add romaine lettuce to either one for more volume.



  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,182 Member
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    Well, sir, you have lost 32 lb. I'm going to hazard the guess that your diary is just not accurate because it doesn't resemble your comments in this conversation. The "TRY HARDER!" speech qualifies you for a refund because it's not going to work for anyone, not you, not me. Human will power is a finite and vanishing resource. Some people just do have greater production and sensitivity to the leptin and ghrelin signals of hunger regulation. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17212793

    One strategy I offer is to prepare all your meals at home and without salt. I suspect that the salt in your restaurant food is triggering you to want to eat more.
  • EddieP50
    EddieP50 Posts: 192 Member
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    Get a lot of Protein and Fiber. Eat foods that have more volume but low calories.
  • Mike02209
    Mike02209 Posts: 301 Member
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    May sound a bit crazy, but if you are hungry and you think shouldn't be (cause you have eaten recently) , try playing Tetris or something similar on your phone. After a couple of minutes you forget about food.
  • kirstinethornburg
    kirstinethornburg Posts: 300 Member
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    protein shakes, water, salads with lunches and dinners and nuts for snacks help me
  • kirstinethornburg
    kirstinethornburg Posts: 300 Member
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    working out also helps with hunger
  • endlessfall16
    endlessfall16 Posts: 932 Member
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    Maybe you have a very low "pain" tolerance and willpower. Could you remember any instance (not related to foods) that tested your willpower? Like hiking 5 miles in 90 F degree, something like that? It's hard for anyone to know another person's "feels"
  • matuskap
    matuskap Posts: 131 Member
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    I dont think beating hunger is the way to go for you from what i read. I got it fixed for myself with uping my calories (or more like accepting daily binge that came as part of the day anyway) and up the cardio a little more. Body doesnt crave back as much energy as it gave out with cardio. So burn 500, eat back 350 and you are good to go :) Slow but VERY effective.
  • angerelle
    angerelle Posts: 175 Member
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    Tiptoetherat wrote: »
    The egg salad sandwiches that I have in my log are NOT from starbucks I typically use that sandwhich because I figure its best to estimate high with what I eat. But no I go very much out of my way to not eat out.

    I'm sorry, I don't have anything particularly helpful to add, but this confused me. The *best* thing to do is log accurately, not estimate high. I don't understand why you can't log your sandwich properly if you are making it yourself, which is what your comment implies.
  • skbird50
    skbird50 Posts: 6 Member
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    I will get hungry after a work out, and the stresses from work get my too. I find that when I add a 1/4 of an avocodo to a meal, and also I use GG bran crispbreads as a subtitute for bread whith plenty of water, I no longer have those distracting hunger panges. GG and non fat cream cheese are a staple in my diet and cost me very few calories. I keep my fiber and protein high. I eat 1100 to 1300 calories a day.
  • grubb1019
    grubb1019 Posts: 371 Member
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    Have you had medical tests run? Maybe there is a medical reason for your constant hunger.
  • tlflag1620
    tlflag1620 Posts: 1,358 Member
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    You could try playing with your macros. My personal experience is that when I eat high carb, I'm hungry all. the. time. Dropping the carbs and eating more fat works for me - I was able to eat fewer calories (went from averaging 1800 per day to 1600 per day) without feeling hungry, some days I struggle to reach 1600 (that said, I'm a 35 female, I'm not saying you should only eat 1600). If you don't want to try carb restriction, you can always try to up the protein and/or fiber- many people find that helps (I wasn't one of them).
    I do think whatever you decide to do you should log accurately. No sense in eating less than you are allowed to! That will make anyone hungry.
  • _benjammin
    _benjammin Posts: 1,224 Member
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    I'll second the more protein and fiber recommendation. Also, maybe intermittent fasting. I don't eat til noon, 2 or 3 cups of coffee keeps hunger at bay for me.

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