How to beat hunger?

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  • DanSTL82
    DanSTL82 Posts: 156 Member
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    First off, when most people think they are hungry, they're actually just bored and want the entertainment of eating something delicious. There's a saying that goes, "If you're not hungry enough to eat an apple, you're not hungry." When you are really hungry, does an apple sound appetizing to you, or are you wanting chips, etc.?

    Secondly, eat less bread-y stuff. Carbs like bread, pasta, and chips will make you hungrier faster. Set your protein and fat macros to 40% and 35%, with carbs being 25%. You'll notice you eat much more meat and veggies and much less bread that way.
  • Alluminati
    Alluminati Posts: 6,208 Member
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    Intermittent fasting works for me, as well.
  • AliceAxe
    AliceAxe Posts: 172 Member
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    here is an article I foudn that I hope helps.
    http://www.thehealthsite.com/diseases-conditions/suffer-from-excessive-hunger-12-reasons-you-need-to-take-it-more-seriously/

    I have hypoglycemia. my blood sugar can go dangerously low if I dont eat all the time like a damn shrew. it makes me ravenously hungry all the time and it hell trying to lose weight like this. I have to take nutrition bars with protien and such everywhere I go , eat before bed and in the middle of the night. Ive found that I can get away with constant snaking to keep it up and things at bay but every so often I have to have a big meal, usualy at least one per day. it realy helps to be on a low glycemic diet. it stablised things a lot so I dont get realy bad attacks out of the blue. I used to go down into the 20s and pass out. now I just get disoriented and the shakes if Im not careful or my body decides I havent had enough food, but Im good at knowing the signs.

    sounds like youve tried everything with little relief. I would definatley find a differnt doctor that will take your problem seriously.
  • endlessfall16
    endlessfall16 Posts: 932 Member
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    Tiptoetherat wrote: »
    endlessfall16 wrote: »
    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"

    This is a fair question! And here is a fair reply. I used to wrestle in High school I finished a match with a broken arm.

    Nowadays I race cars, I have done three 24 hour endurance races and finished two of them.

    I have my faults, but I don't think lack of will is one of them. ;-)

    Those things certainly tested most people's willpower.

    One of my strategies with hunger is to IGNORE IT when I know I get enough nutrition in the day and am not getting dangerous symptoms (headache, dizziness, shaking, etc). But you said your hunger kept you from thinking straight, I suppose you can play around with previous meal's time and your macros.

    I also correspond my calorie intake with activities that I can see ahead. If I know I'll sit in the office for the next 4 hours, a creamy coffee will be enough. If I have an exercise session, I'd load up a bit of carbs 1 hours before.

    Good hunger, appetite suppressants for me are: coffee, excitement, brazil nuts with water, jicama, psyschology, visualization (my cravings go away when I imagine how salty bacon is, or how greasy, dirty burger patty comes off the grill).

    These days I'm actually not craving or hungry a lot. That's because I eat fully when I like, and I don't eat when I want to lose weight. Wanting and desiring is the keyword here. It's very strong and the driving force. So much that I don't even need to count or log anything.
  • Kamikazeflutterby
    Kamikazeflutterby Posts: 775 Member
    edited May 2016
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    Tiptoetherat wrote: »
    Ok folks a bit more info.

    I have pretty much given up on food because after years of dieting I have grown to hate and resent eating. That's another conversation though!

    I don't eat a lot of veg nowadays because I hate them the most and eating lots of them didn't help, so why eat them?

    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 use a 1700 cal diet because that seems to be the only thing that KINDA works...which makes me think that 1500 is more like what I need to be at. I have gone as high as 2500 in the past, and the hunger is still there.

    NONE of my health professionals (and yes I have seen more then one) will give me anything to help with the constant hunger they ALL just tell me to "try harder!" when it comes to loosing weight.

    How much do I want to loose?? ALL OF IT!!

    hope that helps

    John

    Your profile says you've lost 32 of 34 pounds. Is this accurate? How much are you trying to lose a week? If the answer isn't "only .5lbs or less" then I think that's your problem. The less you have to lose, the slower you should be trying to lose it. Near the end you should be eating so close to maintenance that poor measuring will blow your calories for the day. Sounds like you could be overcompensating by overestimating, and making yourself miserable.

    That "high" egg salad estimate is bad. Enter your egg salad recipe with the ingredients weighed, then weigh the amount of egg salad it makes. Make one "serving" equal one ounce/gram/kropog/whatever, weigh the volume you'd normally eat, then eat the crap out of it. I bet you'll be surprised at the difference between a high guess and reality.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,668 Member
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    Weigh your food. Your log shows only cups and eyeball estimates. Yes, some entries don't have gram options... but I still measure in grams and convert back... just saying.

    Lose the banana and peanut butter... try apples instead of banana (unless using a banana for a smoother smoothie experience... but think of it as luxury when you compare cals and staying power compared to apples) and plain Greek yogurt which you can flavour with a 0% artificially sweetened yogurt instead. Or in which you can mix PB2 if you really need to have the taste of peanut butter in your day.

    So, yeah... use your logs to optimize your day.

    And use a trending weight app or program.

    Because if you're not losing fast you really do need something like that to keep you sane and stop you from over-reacting to water weight changes.

    Oh, and if you only have 2lbs to lose... ignore everything I've just been babbling about and realize that the correct deficit for you is 0.5lbs a week or even 0.25lbs a week... not 2lbs like you are currently set at.... 2lbs is suitable if you're clinically obese.
  • 85Cardinals
    85Cardinals Posts: 733 Member
    edited May 2016
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    Intermittent fasting has helped me deal with hunger issues, yes. It wasn't easy at first but it get better after a couple of weeks. And then you actually start to enjoy eating more cause you don't take it for granted anymore.
  • lemonychild
    lemonychild Posts: 654 Member
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    feed it
  • AnneCathrineChristie
    AnneCathrineChristie Posts: 1 Member
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    Maybe you have a lack of some vitamins or minerals or the like, when the body miss some of this, it gives you a hungerfeeling / compultion to eat, but possibly your food does not contain those vitamines and minerals.....which makes the body continue to give you hunger signals to get what it needs of those.

    Food today are often very commercialized an have often a lack of important vitamins and minerals, but still contains kalories....

    So it is best to eat ecological grown food as far as possible :-) I do take vitamin and mineral supplies and use the advices given from others up above, like drinking a glass of water every hour, and it is also important to be conscious about what was in my mind just before the hunger got horrible...then it is often emotional distress...like a phonecall I worry about, or things I had to or should....have done, or have to do...something that I do not have time for in my shedule, but which is expected form me, either by others or myself.

    It is easy to live up to others expectations. But being a people pleaser.....makes a lot of distress, so it has been important for me just to admit my limitation of what is possible to fullfill of others expectations and tell them in a friendly way that I do appreciate them asking me for.....whatever....but I do not hve the capacity to help them...meet them...go to the movie...or whatever that is too much for me... I find by test that I am a Higly Sensitive Person, which is true for about 15-20% of the population.... there are tests at the internett, this charactertrait explaines that HSP are higly empatical persons and have difficulties in saying "no"....and that I have to work on that issue...to loose weight ;-) Loosing weight is not just about calories in and calories out...when it is so difficult for some of us to loose wight it is because it involves emotional issues. Being aware of that is tough, but has helped me a lot ;-) Going to a Psycologist can be very helpfull :-)

    So be true to yourself, in a positive way, ( which others may consider as selfishness, because they cannot "use" you the way they are used to), and you can be at lot better friend because your yes comes from the heart, because you are taken care of yourself at the same time ;-) All the best to all of you :-)
  • EmilyEmpowered
    EmilyEmpowered Posts: 650 Member
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    I feel like many people who come to the forums looking for advice hate to have person after person telling them they need to weigh everything they are eating. And I get it, I really do... Before you start weighing your food, you think it sounds tedious and ask yourself how much of a difference it can really make.

    Well, I can tell you honestly that once I started weighing my food I saw the light! I got my kitchen scale at walmart for around $12, and it has made a HUGE difference in my daily eating. Of course you will still have days where you eat out, or at a friends house, etc and can't weight everything.... But once you start weighing things, you will realize that eyeballing it or even measuring with cups and spoons is so inaccurate. Even the serving sizes listed on packages are way off. For example, I had a tortilla yesterday morning. The package says 150 calories for one tortilla or 49 grams. Well, I weighed my tortilla and it was 62 grams. That is a difference of about 40 calories. Which over the day can add up to hundreds of extra calories. It can also impact your hunger levels if you are eating substantially less than you think you are. You mentioned logging the Starbucks sandwich because you wanted to "over estimate" well, if you are doing that on a regular basis-- I would say that is why you are hungry. You area already restricting yourself to a very low calorie number, so if you are on top of that overestimating by a few hundred calories... Makes sense to me.

    Point is, no matter how accurate you think you are being, if you aren't weighing on a regular basis, it can have a big impact, in either direction.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,913 Member
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    Kamikazeflutterby wrote: »
    Tiptoetherat wrote: »
    Ok folks a bit more info.

    I have pretty much given up on food because after years of dieting I have grown to hate and resent eating. That's another conversation though!

    I don't eat a lot of veg nowadays because I hate them the most and eating lots of them didn't help, so why eat them?

    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 use a 1700 cal diet because that seems to be the only thing that KINDA works...which makes me think that 1500 is more like what I need to be at. I have gone as high as 2500 in the past, and the hunger is still there.

    NONE of my health professionals (and yes I have seen more then one) will give me anything to help with the constant hunger they ALL just tell me to "try harder!" when it comes to loosing weight.

    How much do I want to loose?? ALL OF IT!!

    hope that helps

    John

    Your profile says you've lost 32 of 34 pounds. Is this accurate? How much are you trying to lose a week? If the answer isn't "only .5lbs or less" then I think that's your problem. The less you have to lose, the slower you should be trying to lose it. Near the end you should be eating so close to maintenance that poor measuring will blow your calories for the day. Sounds like you could be overcompensating by overestimating, and making yourself miserable.

    That "high" egg salad estimate is bad. Enter your egg salad recipe with the ingredients weighed, then weigh the amount of egg salad it makes. Make one "serving" equal one ounce/gram/kropog/whatever, weigh the volume you'd normally eat, then eat the crap out of it. I bet you'll be surprised at the difference between a high guess and reality.

    Hi John - I'm also wondering how much weight you have to lose and what you've set your weekly weight loss goal to. If less than 25 pounds, chose 0.5 pounds per week.
  • Cindy01Louisiana
    Cindy01Louisiana Posts: 302 Member
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    John, I just read your other thread about giving up and now I see this one. If I were in your shoes, honestly, I would see a therapist to check out a psychosomatic connection to the hunger panGs and issues within my psyche.
  • cerise_noir
    cerise_noir Posts: 5,468 Member
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    For me, I need to have the right amount of calories, and that means not losing weight too fast for my current weight - goal. Also, I find that if I have an equal-ish split of my macros (35c-35p-30f) and I'm much more satisfied and have energy, and I am still losing weight.

    By the way, I saw your other post.. I am sorry that you're going through a rough time, but eating the right amount of calories can help boost the mood and regulate hormones... food is not the enemy.
  • cerise_noir
    cerise_noir Posts: 5,468 Member
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    Tiptoetherat wrote: »
    cerise_noir wrote: »
    For me, I need to have the right amount of calories, and that means not losing weight too fast for my current weight - goal. Also, I find that if I have an equal-ish split of my macros (35c-35p-30f) and I'm much more satisfied and have energy, and I am still losing weight.

    By the way, I saw your other post.. I am sorry that you're going through a rough time, but eating the right amount of calories can help boost the mood and regulate hormones... food is not the enemy.

    LOL thanks for the support and ideas. Food IS the enemy if you are me, its always been my stumbling block and I think its getting worse as I get older. ANYWAYS I'm gonna see my doc on Saturday (in case you missed it) and see if he can help with my hunger issues. I'm also taking a break from the forum here, seems I have soured people with my negative waves. Take care.
    You don't need a doctor to figure out why you're hungry... And no one is being negative. I'm sure your doctor will tell you to eat more. You've been asking for advice and spitting it back and laughing in everyone's face. Everyone had been trying to help you, but you obviously know better. If you ask me, you're pointing the enemy finger in the wrong direction. The only enemy is you....against you.

    I used to eat very little because I thought that was the only way to lose weight. I ended up in hospital, lost a lot of hair, my skin looked like hell, my nails stopped growing, my face looked haggard and older, eyes sunken in, my teeth were breaking, IBS got worse, my hormones were all over the place and my depression and anxiety were worse... Oh, did I mention that I ended up in hospital? Was I thin? Yeah, but I looked so nasty, tired, angry. I looked sick. It was NOT a hot look. Not to mention, I could barely lift up anything that had weight to it and I had absolutely no energy.

    Take it as you will....there are huge benefits to losing weight the healthy way...you'll look healthy, too. Being thin with hair falling out, no muscles, weak and haggard is not a great look.

  • DearestWinter
    DearestWinter Posts: 595 Member
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    OP may be gone but just wanted to say I appreciate all of the feedback since I struggle with hunger sometimes too.
  • steponebyone
    steponebyone Posts: 123 Member
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    Try buying Premier Protein drinks from Costco. The chocolate ones taste so good, and they're only 160 calories per bottle, 30 grams of protein. I used to have 2 a day. While they are a bit pricey, I noticed they really helped with hunger and I wasnt dying for pizza or junk food or crap in the middle of the night. Anyway, worth the try!
  • sheilaraesch
    sheilaraesch Posts: 6 Member
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    If your trying to loose weight you will be hungry. But I agree with the more protein and fiber. Maybe a fiber drink? If I am hungry and have eaten what I should as up to that point I try things like going for a walk, or getting outside and the fresh air helps, reading a book, anything to distract my mind from food. Some of it could be habit and your body expects more food... Hope you find some helpful advice!

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