Eaten all day - stomach feels full, mouth craves more?!

behappylivehappy
behappylivehappy Posts: 1
edited November 12 in Health and Weight Loss
I've eaten all day, at different time intervals, yet I'm still HUNGRY. My stomach feels bloated and full, but my mouth and throat almost like crave more. This is what I've eaten today - I try to watch my calorie intake a little and I eat pretty healthy in general, trying go include healthy fats, carbs, and protein...yet my mouth just wants MORE. It is getting to the ridiculous point!

Breakfast:
-2% plain Greek yogurt
-1 banana
-5 strawberries
- 2 egg whites with cinnamon

Snack:
- 1 large peach

Lunch:
-3/4 cup brown rice
-Portion of homemade vegetable stir fry made with green pepper, celery, cabbage, onion, and sauteed in a little olive oil and paired with around 1 1/2 grilled chicken finger
-10 or so left over green bean
-3 long slices of grilled sweet potato

Snack (this is when I came home and exploded my fridge...its very random because I literally would have something and would then just crave more...and this is not long after I ate lunch because I wasn't able to eat lunch at work today. I'll try to be as thorough as possible):
-1/4 cup dry cheerios
-handful of baby carrots (maybe around 10?)
-around 1/4 cup blueberries
-10 snap peas
-A large slice of grilled zucchini
-2 almonds
-a ton of small cherry tomatoes (maybe around 10)
-a spoonful of that crappy arctic zero ice cream ...because I wanted chocolate and something sweet

Dinner:
-spinach salad topped with about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of chopped cabbage, 10 baby carrots, 1/4 onion, 1 large chicken filet, 1 tbsp + 1 tsp sliced almonds, a few chunks of green pepper, and 1 tsp olive oil for the sauteeing

To drink today, Ive had about 4 large cups of black coffee (3 with breakfast...I know its not good!) and one with ice when I came home from work and about 4 8 oz glasses of water

Besides the coffee and cheerios, I feel like this is a pretty dang-filled food day, and my days look relatively the same - fruits, vegetables, nuts, and lean protein/eggs. Occasionally ill have a treat like ice cream or pizza, but i follow the portion size and it is not too often. At one point, I thought that I ate too much fruit and the sugars from that made me crave more, but even when I try to limit them (and I eat berries and apples), I still was hungry.

I don't hardcore keep track of my calorie intake, but it is probably around 1500-1700 a day.

At work, I do a mixture of sitting and standing - a little more standing, but nothing extraneous. I don't hardcore workout where I'm losing a ton of calories that I've consumed.

This sounds kind of stupid, but after I take a bath, the cravings seem to diminish.

I also try to take a multivitamin and vitamin d (I was deficient a while ago) tablet daily to see if that helps, but it doesn't seem like it does.

Why do I keep craving food then?! Serious question!
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Replies

  • Hildy_J
    Hildy_J Posts: 1,050 Member
    I have 'craving days', too - and 'craving weekends'!

    Logging every single calorie has helped me enormously, weighing, measuring every morsel. Then I know when I can give in to the cravings, because they're logical ie due to a calorie deficit, and when I don't need to.

    Don't know what to tell you - but I really admire your food choices, very nutritious. :-)

    Good luck! x
  • Joebob8
    Joebob8 Posts: 69 Member
    I find that upping protein and fat helps enormously with killing cravings. The more carb/ sugar rich food I eat the crazier I get . plus i get bloated easily. your diet seems fine but try cutting back on the brown rice and Cheerios and swapping for chicken, fish, etc and some butter or raw veggies with mayo and see if it helps.
  • jayjay12345654321
    jayjay12345654321 Posts: 653 Member
    since you're not hungry, i don't think adding high density calories will change your urge to munch on something. i keep a large 5 lbs bag of whole carrots in the fridge and will eat 2 or 3 back to back when i just want to crunch on something. by then, my jaw is tired. plus it adds a ton of vitamin A and fiber for only 5 net carbs per carrot (30 total calories).
  • Vailara
    Vailara Posts: 2,467 Member
    I think I know what you mean. Now, I don't know if this is the same for everybody else, but I've found that if I do what's generally advised and eat large quantities of low-calorie veg, I get a kind of empty feeling as if there's something missing, and want to eat more of other things. I know that physically I've eaten a large volume of food, but I don't feel satiated.

    Personally, I've found it helps me not to overdo things like veg and salad (obviously I still aim to eat a good amount of veg, but not to "fill up" on it, if you know what I mean), and add in some denser foods like nuts, meat, cheese, etc. in smaller portions. I end up eating smaller platefuls of more concentrated foods. Somehow it feels to me that the calorie/volume balance is better that way .... or something. I don't know - maybe it's just me. But it does seem to help, and I just hate that post-salad craving feeling.

    Another thing I do is try to have a hot drink when I have a food craving. It doesn't always work, but sometimes it does!
  • Ninkyou
    Ninkyou Posts: 6,666 Member
    I brush my teeth. Seriously. After I brush I don't even want to go anywhere near food for a couple hours.
  • maillemaker
    maillemaker Posts: 1,253 Member
    I've eaten all day, at different time intervals, yet I'm still HUNGRY.

    How long have you been dieting?

    For me, the first 6 weeks were insane - I thought about food all the time and was hungry all the time. I would go to bed early some nights to avoid thinking about food.

    Now I still think about food all the time but it's controllable.

    Eating more protein can mitigate hunger.
  • 1stday13
    1stday13 Posts: 433 Member
    Happens to the best of us ! For me I just want to munch on something even though I am not hungry. I save enough Calories during the day, that if that feeling hits me I c an have a bowl of grapes or 100 cal. popcorn or something 150 cal or less. Then I eat it very slowly. I make it last for and hour or so. That usually works for me.
    Good Luck :flowerforyou:
  • ktsimons
    ktsimons Posts: 294 Member
    Higher carb foods will make me even hungrier than I was before I ate! Try cutting the carbs down a little bit...go to 150 grams per day for a week or so and see what happens. You are eating decent "types" of food, but it looks to me that you are not eating enough protein. By protein, I don't mean sweetened yogurt or cheese...you need Chicken, low fat beef & pork, fish, eggs, nuts etc.

    Try building your meal around 4oz to 6oz of lean protein and a green veg...not so much sweetened dairy...plain yogurt with fresh fruit and teeny tiny sprinkle of stevia.

    However, at other times, I just want to EAT, so I drink a cup of really good quality hot tea and go directly to BED!! LOL...
  • gmelli97
    gmelli97 Posts: 1 Member
    Yo puedo desayunar frutas pero mi problema son las harinas que consumo durante el dia.
  • JesterMFP
    JesterMFP Posts: 3,596 Member
    I find that I do better when I'm not snacking/grazing all day. When I do that, I tend to feel hungrier and feel pre-occupied by food. I prefer having more structured meals, and intermittent fasting some days. I usually have a small lunch, and I make sure I leave several hours between lunch and dinner. It helps that I usually run in the late afternoon/early evening, and I can't run on a full stomach, so even if I'm tempted to snack mid afternoon, I resist so I don't ruin my run.

    I save most of my calories for the evening, so I have a large dinner and then snacks between dinner and bedtime, so I go to bed feeling satisfied. I don't feel hungry in the morning, so I usually skip breakfast and don't eat until about 1pm.
  • NonnyMary
    NonnyMary Posts: 982 Member
    Maybe for you, since you are eating a lot of meals/snacks, you are turning on the appetite too much during the day even though you are eating great food choices. I was watching Dr Fuhrman talk about this, roughly it means that when you see delicious food, your mouth waters because the digestive juices are starting to work, seeing the food, getting ready for digestion. so perhaps when you eat too much during the day, you are turning that natural body's reaction to the food.

    Maybe you are not waiting enough time after eating to let the body tell your brain it has eaten enough.. it takes 20 minutes for that to happen.
  • wayander
    wayander Posts: 21 Member
    Glad i am not the only one that wants to graze even if i am not hungry.

    Pop corn has become go to for grazing.
  • Fullsterkur_woman
    Fullsterkur_woman Posts: 2,712 Member
    If that's something that goes on all the time, try tracking your calories more rigorously. You might need a few more. If you try that and it still happens all the time, I'd say counseling is in order.
  • Joannesmith2818
    Joannesmith2818 Posts: 438 Member
    Big glass of water!!
  • Would really like to reach the place where I see the pounds falling.
  • HeidiCooksSupper
    HeidiCooksSupper Posts: 3,839 Member
    Yup, it's mouth and mind. My mouth wants that good feel. My mind wants that instant gratification. Giving in to it is the habit we have to break. I succumbed a bit last night. Brushing teeth, going to bed early, exercising, doing something that takes your mind off it. Try them all! I find if I say, "Oo-oo, well I'll just have a little" therein lies disaster. So I need not to start even with a healthy snack when I'm in that kind of mood.

    Take time to analyze what is going on in your own head. Each of us is different. I had a psych counselor a few years ago who said I needed to bring my behaviors in sync with my beliefs to feel content. It's taken me years to understand what she was talking about. For me, at least, it's a conflict between the instant belief that a whole mess of bread and butter will make my head happy and the long term belief that being healthy and feeling fit will make me happy. I have had a tendency to be too easily distracted by the short term belief and to give in to it. I need to listen to my wiser self that sees the long picture.
  • shezzzzz
    shezzzzz Posts: 119 Member
    I call this "mouth hungry". When my stomach is not hungry, but I still want to eat more with my mouth.

    In cases like this I try a few things, chew gum, brush and floss my teeth, or eat something with a very strong flavor and try to savor it as long as I can.

    I learned when I quit smoking that our mouths get used to a certain amount of attention, and if not stimulated on a regular basis, get bored, and can cause us to think we want to eat.
  • clepant
    clepant Posts: 3,545 Member
    What you experience is some ways no different from a person who gives up cigarettes. For me a lifetime of over eating has been my bodies message. Its not your mouth that is craving food, it is your brain. When you have these cravings, go do something to distract. I go off and do another activity or start cleaning or organizing my closet for all those nice new clothes that it will need when I have lost all my weight.
    I often drink more water and feel filled. Your body is saying, hey feed me so I don't starve. It does not know that you are really not starving. It is going by what it has become use too. It will get better. I agree with other people, cutting out the sugar will greatly reduce that urge especially in the beginning of weight loss. Your body will develop a new love for other foods and it may even find that those other things don't taste as good to you.
  • Fuzzipeg
    Fuzzipeg Posts: 2,301 Member
    I looked at your days foods and noticed you seem to be taking in a large amount of salicylate. don't worry not many people have or only in respect of aspirin.

    The medical profession tend to disregard salicylate but is is toxic but not everyone has problems with it. I am sensitive to it and anyone like me can find it "addictive". Unfortunately it is in the foods we are told are good for us. for me it only got out of hand in the last few years and I am in my sixties. Someone in their 20's 30' even 40's should be better able to take control and not experience too many problems.

    There is a website " food can make you ill" I don't have shares in it nor the book which can go with it. this discusses other possible food related. Try looking it up. see what you think.

    Please message me if I can help
  • lynalinda
    lynalinda Posts: 37 Member
    Consider adding beans, lentils, chickpeas to your diet along with nice fats like avocado. I am vegan, and when i eat grains or potatoes i keep feeling hungry until i add some beans, lentils or chickpeas to my dish. I don't bother counting my carbs i just try to eat plenty of high protein plant based foods and i feel fine :)
  • sophorae
    sophorae Posts: 17 Member
    I get this really bad. It's as if I'm looking for a food but I don't know what it is, and I keep eating to find it. Sometimes I'm not even aware that I'm eating. I've just started here so I'm no expert in losing weight, I'm an expert in being fat.

    I notice your meals are very low on protein. If I am aware the craving is starting, I have meat, red meat works best particularly on the bone. A very small grilled T bone with the fat removed but not the gristle or connective tissue, seems to work best. A small steamed or microwaves sweet potato and perhaps a few greens is all you need with it. There's something about the non muscle parts of the meat and chewing the bone that works. I guess it's my cave woman thing. But I think I would be much fatter if I hadn't read about using protein to stop the cravings.

    A 225gm/8 ounce T bone is about 500 calories. It sounds a lot but I have tried fitting it into my 1400 calorie diet and it seems to work easily. Chewing gum also helps and I'm going to try the suggestion of some of the other commenters to brush my teeth when I have that feeling.
  • good ideas here....I experienced this just today. My stomach was quite full after lunch, but I still felt I wanted to chew something. I'm going to go for protein instead of the potato chips from now on....
  • Hildy_J
    Hildy_J Posts: 1,050 Member
    Fibre really helps, too, baked potatoes, oranges etc.
  • sybrix
    sybrix Posts: 134 Member
    This sounds weird but making my food spicy makes me eat less of it and drink more water. It works for me because I love spicy food. Jalapenos and tomatoes with hummus on pita bread is one of my fav lunches. Also chewing gum helps. Brushing my teeth also turns me off to eating for the rest of the night. Protein really does make a difference too.

    Toasted seaweed is an awesome snack if you want to something to nibble on. It has that satisfying crunchiness and comes in a ton of great flavors. The kind I get that's cut into rectangular slivers are 10 calories for 10 slivers, and it's packed with vitamin A and low in sodium. Great for potato chip cravings!
  • carlyhaycraft3
    carlyhaycraft3 Posts: 2 Member
    You should check out this book: Overcoming Overeating

    Overcoming Overeating: How to Break the Diet/Binge Cycle and Live a Healthier, More Satisfying Life Paperback – December 13, 2010
    by Jane R. Hirschmann (Author), Carol H. Munter (Author)

    This is a fantastic book and distinguishes the difference between mouth hunger and stomach hunger. It is very inspiring and encouraging and promotes loving and caring for your body. It has helped me so much! The topics are something I used to know when I dropped about 50 lbs and was a very healthy and active weight but then I got in an abusive relationship and forgot all of my natural eating habits.

    I was so happy to find this book to reinforce what I used to know and am dropping weight quickly again but in a healthy way without feeling deprived at all. This book is honestly a game changer and a life changer. I really hope you read it. It's able to be purchased for kindle as well so if you have a smart phone you can download the kindle app and read it on your phone!
  • phobiep
    phobiep Posts: 15 Member
    I BARELY see ANY protein in your menu. When I eat that many carbs, I crave food all day and can never get satiated. IMO, you should be having a minimum of 4 oz. of protein in every meal!
  • wilpri
    wilpri Posts: 1 Member
    You should know that coffee (among other foods) is very acidic and your natural body pH is alkaline, so if you consume a lot of coffee (and other acidic foods), your body will continue to crave alkaline foods to balance itself out.
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 18,234 Member
    edited June 2017
    wilpri wrote: »
    You should know that coffee (among other foods) is very acidic and your natural body pH is alkaline, so if you consume a lot of coffee (and other acidic foods), your body will continue to crave alkaline foods to balance itself out.

    Coffee has a pH of 5. Stomach acid has a pH of 1.5 to 3.5. How is the coffee not making your stomach acid more alkaline, in the short term after drinking it?
  • SarahLascelles1
    SarahLascelles1 Posts: 95 Member
    Flavoured teas help me with this. They help fool my mouth without adding extra calories :)
  • inertiastrength
    inertiastrength Posts: 2,343 Member
    edited June 2017
    Right before my period my stomach is an empty pit. I ate SO MUCH yesterday and I was legit hungry for it all. I also went way overboard on chocolate but since I walked 20K that day I was actually still in a tiny deficit. Some days I just go up to maintenance that day and I don't sweat it. When my period does come I tend to lose my appetite completely and I'll have 1 or 2 low days naturally. I figure it evens out and it hasn't caused me any issues thus far.

    ETA didn't even see if OP was female, sorry if dude lol
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