Living the Lifestyle, (LTL) Friday 5 January
Jimb376
Posts: 106 Member
We meet here to explore, share, celebrate, and (sometimes) agonize over how we do (or don't) incorporate weight loss guidelines into our daily lives. "It's a lifestyle, not a diet" is easily and often said, but sometimes not so simply put into practice.
This is a thread for everyone. If you're new to GoaD, or to weight loss, your questions and comments are always welcome. If you're maintaining, or a long-term loser, your thoughts on the topic may be just what someone else needs to hear. If you're reading this, join in the discussion!
Each weekday, a new topic is offered up for discussion. Thread starters for January are:
Monday - GadgetGirlIL (Regina)
Tuesday - 88olds (George)
Wednesday - Beachwoman2006 (Cindy)
Thursday - Imastar2 (Derrick)
Friday - Jimb376mfp (Jim)
Today's Topic "I’m Starving!"
I have been seeing that phrase a lot on posts on WW Connect from people on Freestyle. I think they are feeling deprived because their daily SP total was reduced. The thought of people “starving” because they are trying to lose weight always makes me wonder... “When was the last time I was TRULY hungry?”
Has your personal definition of being “hungry” changed as you learned to LTL?
Do you think in terms of LTL when you say you are hungry?
Do you ask yourself questions such as “Am I really hungry or just bored?”
Is being “hungry” a real thing that you deal with?
If so, how often?
This is a thread for everyone. If you're new to GoaD, or to weight loss, your questions and comments are always welcome. If you're maintaining, or a long-term loser, your thoughts on the topic may be just what someone else needs to hear. If you're reading this, join in the discussion!
Each weekday, a new topic is offered up for discussion. Thread starters for January are:
Monday - GadgetGirlIL (Regina)
Tuesday - 88olds (George)
Wednesday - Beachwoman2006 (Cindy)
Thursday - Imastar2 (Derrick)
Friday - Jimb376mfp (Jim)
Today's Topic "I’m Starving!"
I have been seeing that phrase a lot on posts on WW Connect from people on Freestyle. I think they are feeling deprived because their daily SP total was reduced. The thought of people “starving” because they are trying to lose weight always makes me wonder... “When was the last time I was TRULY hungry?”
Has your personal definition of being “hungry” changed as you learned to LTL?
Do you think in terms of LTL when you say you are hungry?
Do you ask yourself questions such as “Am I really hungry or just bored?”
Is being “hungry” a real thing that you deal with?
If so, how often?
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Replies
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I remember a GoaD discussion on this when I was relatively new to GoaD/LTL. It made me stop and think how I was NEVER EVER hungry pre WW. I would eat in advance so that I wouldn’t become hungry! If I was going somewhere I would think “I better eat NOW, because there may not be any food there!”
Sort of like eating to PREVENT becoming hungry!
Now, after five years and learning how to LTL, I will ask myself “Why do you want to eat that _____ (fill in the blank).
Rarely is it because I’m hungry, especially if it is a snack item. I now control my mindless eating because if I’m bored a piece of fruit will do.
I think the WW programs are set up so people CAN EAT and still lose weight. The whole notion of going on a “starvation diet” is doomed to failure.
Recognizing WHY you think you are hungry is important. The use of food for reasons other than nutrition are many, varied and readily available. I really don’t think people who have money to spend on WL programs like WW are starving themselves!
If you follow the program and eat balanced, sensible meals you will NOT starve and you WILL lose weight. I say if you are “starving” you are not following the program correctly.
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In previous versions of weight watchers where the only "free" items were vegetables, I absolutely was starving. My daily points target was much lower than an active young 20s individual should have been eating, and it was not sustainable. That being said, how the heck are they "starving" on the new program?!?! Lean proteins, legumes, and ff greek yogurt are all FREE! Make a big pot of 0 pt turkey or veggie chili for goodness sakes! Make an egg and veggie omlette or combine a sliced banana with some FF greek yogurt (or heck eat both!) if you're hungry!
I have to ask myself if I am truly hungry all the time, because I LOVE eating for pleasure and I tend to eat my emotions. I have had to learn what my hunger cues are. Sadly, part of a caloric deficit is that sometimes you will feel your hunger cues, but that is NORMAL! I am currently reminding myself of this as I get back into the groove after my rough time on plan this Fall.2 -
I remember trying to retrain myself into believing that feeling of not being full is a good thing. That I was losing weight. It worked sometimes.0
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Learning to recognize true hunger and satisfaction was key to me losing weight.2
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I misjudged my snacks when I did a long session at the gym on Monday and did feel like I was starving during the last 30 minutes on the treadmill. When I finally got to eat a real meal, I ate too much to compensate :-(
The only other times I feel like I'm starving usually involved fasting for medical procedures.
I certainly spent a good portion of my obese life never feeling hunger.
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The less I eat the less I want to eat. By that I mean as I shrink my stomach the less I want to gourge myself. Then as @jimb376 says a piece of fruit will do. When I saw my new Pts with WW I didn't freak out at all. I have been following more of a Caloric diet anyway and tracking side by side MFP and WW I find that the items that I need to stay away from in the first place are high in points and high in kcal's as well.
There is no reason (in my opinion) for anybody to be starving. Just forget about the Fries and the fatty foods. I recently went out to eat at an Annual Christmas dinner with She's side of family and we went to Outback Steak house. Well there was an blooming onion or something like that ordered. I had recently looked that up for kcals and points are you ready? even though it's suppose to feed 6 it's a whoping 1954 kcals and 75 WW pts. I ate 3 tiny strips just to be polite. So for me its all about portions and self control which of late I've been very weak.
SW 400.8
CW 326.0
Next GW 300.0
Final GW 185.0
74.8 lbs Total lost
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If we’re going to discuss hunger I want to start by counting my blessings. I have never been capital H Hungry in my life, and probably never will be. I quit thinking in terms of “Starving” and such. My experience with hunger has never been more than some temporary discomfort.
That said, I think I’ve done pretty well managing hunger on WW. I generally avoid getting hungry. When working around time demands sometimes I ate when I wasn’t hungry to avoid getting hungry later.
I did allow for a designated hungry time on weekdays between work, ignoring the vending machines, and home, where my plan friendly snacks were. I told myself that feeling hungry then was what weight loss felt like. But the realization that I was experiencing temporary discomfort instead of suffering was a big help.2 -
While I will occasionally go too long without eating, and suffer a bout of low blood sugar, I rarely have been hungry on WW, and I have never been "starving."
The age of hyperbole.
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Hungry yes. Starving Mindlessly of course. That is were I have been of late. My mind say's things like that 1-2 hrs. after I eat. We all know it's impossible to be hungry /starving in such a short time. Post as this help with struggles or challenges we have and makes us aware of the reality in life. This came a good time for me with my struggles and help me be more mindful of what's going on in my head.0
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It has long been my contention that when you eat frequently (as in mindlessly and sometimes continuously) you're never hungry. And if you're never hungry you can't readily discern what you are feeling at any given time. So, because you like to eat and because you want to eat and because you're not feeling full to the point of sick, you must be...
HUNGRY.
It took me a long time to realize I didn't even know what it felt like to be hungry. Then, after I'd lost quite a bit of weight I had a crazy day in the office. Around 4 pm I felt very odd- I won't go through the entire set of sensations, but it was clearly a new sensation for me. It took awhile for me to figure out what was wrong when I finally realized I hadn't eaten lunch and I was very very hungry.
I did eat and felt better. But I tried to 'capture' that moment in memory so I could appreciate what hunger actually feels like.0 -
OTOH, I find the new program too constricting. While long term success pretty much drives eating decisions in the same direction, I would never have come to these decisions voluntarily if I was pretty much forced to eat this way from the get go.0
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Has your personal definition of being “hungry” changed as you learned to LTL?
Do you think in terms of LTL when you say you are hungry?
Do you ask yourself questions such as “Am I really hungry or just bored?”
Is being “hungry” a real thing that you deal with?
If so, how often?
Like others, I am fortunate to never really have been Hungry, though I used to use the term a lot more freely than I do since some of our earlier exchanges on this topic. Through the process of becoming more mindful I often ask myself now whether I'm hungry or eating for some other purpose (knowing that I'm a face-stuffer from way back). 90% or more of the time, I find it's the latter so I try to figure out if there's something I can do to actually address the trigger situation. By definition, eating doesn't do that (but it took me about 20 years to figure that out). This relatively new awareness is definitely part of LTL for me. Pre-WW, I would have just stuffed more food in!
I do now at times experience a much lesser type of hunger that is real, maybe along the lines of what others discussed. Occasionally, there's light-headedness and mild shaking to go with it but more often than not, it's a low-grade realization within my body first, then mind, that I do need a little something to calm that feeling. Back in the day, I would have eaten fatty, sugary or starchy stuff. Now I'm more likely to reach for a lean protein or piece of fruit. From my recollection, they actually satisfy far better than my old choices.
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OTOH, I find the new program too constricting. While long term success pretty much drives eating decisions in the same direction, I would never have come to these decisions voluntarily if I was pretty much forced to eat this way from the get go.
@countcurt -- Since I *still* haven't been able to make it to a meeting and won't make it to the one this Tuesday either and since you and I typically have similar thoughts, I'm curious about what you find "constricting" about the new program.1 -
OTOH, I find the new program too constricting. While long term success pretty much drives eating decisions in the same direction, I would never have come to these decisions voluntarily if I was pretty much forced to eat this way from the get go.
I have been sort of following the program since it rolled out and followed it closely last week (I tracked accurately and completely 7/7). I found it to be very freeing (pardon the use of the program name
). I too am curious about why you find it constricting?
@beachwoman2006 , Cindy, since you like core/SF I think you'll live it. If you ate 7 SP worth of eggs, seafood, chicken, or FF Greek yogurt a day, this program is a wash. Since i usually eat more than 7 SP of these foods, for me it's a win! Can't wait to hear what you think of it once you get going!0 -
Strange to me and others in our WW meeting Jim. Folks say just the opposite and are not starving. One lady bought shrimp as part of a new approach. She struggled for years on other versions but is doing better. Fewer points? Yes but a lot more no count AND point carryover. Always some loud voices on social media and behaviour validation requests. Makes it hard to judge overall. My best guess is this version is one of the best since I joined in 2007. We are all different of course.2
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linmueller wrote: »
@beachwoman2006 , Cindy, since you like core/SF I think you'll live it. If you ate 7 SP worth of eggs, seafood, chicken, or FF Greek yogurt a day, this program is a wash. Since i usually eat more than 7 SP of these foods, for me it's a win! Can't wait to hear what you think of it once you get going!
Well, I haven't counted points in YEARS so all of those things have always been "zero points" for me since switching to Core in 2004. Based on a lot of things I've seen, this program looks very much like Core -- except (again according to what I've seen) there are some things that are now zero points that weren't with Core. Like corn. Corn wasn't a Core food. There are a couple of others as well, but I can't remember them right now.
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@beachwoman2006 are you considering following the new plan and counting points? I'd be curious to hear if you found it less laborious since so many foods don't have to be tracked.0
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Hi All!
Long time no post.
I've been doing the new program for the past five days, and like it MUCH better than SmartPoints and feel like I can get back on track without whining with this program. I got to goal in 2013 on a combination of PointsPlus (the original where the minimum for women was 29 PP) and SFT. I gained a lot of weight back the past couple of years and tried to do SmartPoints a number of times last year but was never satisfied/sated with the amount of food based on what were usually decent choices and was frustrated by the huge penalty for sweets.
My criticism of the new program is that with so many zero point foods, a true newbie may not learn the relative caloric (point) value of these foods to other choices, and I think that knowledge is important in the long run. I would NOT like this program had I not first learned about "relative point values" via the original PointsPlus program. To me, that program allowed for a lot of experimentation and therefore learning. So while "zero point foods" may seem like a "gimme," one still needs to understand the relative caloric (point) value of 4 ounces of skinless chicken breast or fish to 4 ounces of steak or pork and the feeling of satiety and enjoyment brought by each in order to make sustainable choices over time.
"Zero" is relative to nothing. ☺
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linmueller wrote: »@beachwoman2006 are you considering following the new plan and counting points? I'd be curious to hear if you found it less laborious since so many foods don't have to be tracked.
Truthfully? I doubt it. The only points I had to track when following Core were non-core foods. And I *hated* even tracking those. So I don't see myself ever going back to tracking points. Right now I'm tracking calories on MFP. I've been doing it consistently for a week and it's already beginning to tire me.
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beachwoman2006 wrote: »linmueller wrote: »Truthfully? I doubt it. The only points I had to track when following Core were non-core foods. And I *hated* even tracking those. So I don't see myself ever going back to tracking points. Right now I'm tracking calories on MFP. I've been doing it consistently for a week and it's already beginning to tire me.
LOL That's what I thought (no judgement here), but wondered if you'd changed your mind about tracking. For what it's worth, tracking w/ WW now is definitely less laborious then MFP (I did that for awhile, but tracking fruits and veggies was just too much ).0 -
After todays WW meeting I did hear several complaints because of the lowered point count so I guess there is that amongst the troops. Honestly I don't know of a "perfect" diet plan/scheme.
We humans are hard to deal with that way.0
This discussion has been closed.