Hunger
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priara31
Posts: 27 Member
How long before you stop feeling hungry or "empty" all the time? 
I started eating healthier in May, but just started logging my calories in July with MFP and I notice that I'm hungry a lot. I eat a good breakfast, lunch and snacks, but it's like my body still craves CRAP or food.
Breakfast is usually eggs or oatmeal, between the 400-600 calories (depends on what I have in the fridge)
Lunch is protein and veggies, around the 400-500 range (usually fish and some type of green veggie) with a fruit for dessert.
Once I eat them, I'm good, but usually within the hour or so, I'm hungry again. Or at least I think I am. And I drink lots of water, (am on my 2nd 48oz container).
Is this normal? Does this feeling ever go away?
I started eating healthier in May, but just started logging my calories in July with MFP and I notice that I'm hungry a lot. I eat a good breakfast, lunch and snacks, but it's like my body still craves CRAP or food.Breakfast is usually eggs or oatmeal, between the 400-600 calories (depends on what I have in the fridge)
Lunch is protein and veggies, around the 400-500 range (usually fish and some type of green veggie) with a fruit for dessert.
Once I eat them, I'm good, but usually within the hour or so, I'm hungry again. Or at least I think I am. And I drink lots of water, (am on my 2nd 48oz container).
Is this normal? Does this feeling ever go away?
0
Replies
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Is it really hungry where your stomach is growling or is it just unsatisfied, where you just want something? I believe actual hunger goes away, after you body adjusts to less food. I don't know that unsatisfied ever really goes away. I just eat an extra fruit, or do some extra exercise.3
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Whether it's going away or not, depends on whether you're undereating or not. How many calories are you eating per day, and what's your height and weight? (Don't you eat dinner, or did you just forget to mention dinner?)3
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I personally find the amount of calories doesn’t have as much to do with how hungry I feel as what I am actually eating does.
I can have oatmeal for breakfast and be full until lunch, or have double the calories in toast and be starving an hour later. In the same way I can have a 300 calorie soup for lunch and be happy till my scheduled 3pm snack, or have a bagel which is the same calories and be starving by 2 pm.
Everyone’s different, so what satisfies you won’t satisfy the next person. Maybe think about the foods that fill you up most and try eating those? For example, I just recently found that a protein shake at 3pm keeps me full until dinner at 7pm. It’s 100 calories. I had been having a snack of a snack box of raisins which is 90 cals but didn’t fill me up.
Try different foods within your calorie allowance until you find what works for you.3 -
Could you give your stats, weight, goal weight, calorie intake, calorie goal, exercise, etc, and open your diary, please?
It is hard to give anything but general guidance with so little information.
Try adjusting your macros for satiation.
Try adjusting meal timing and frequency for satiation.
Try changing your loss by 0.5lbs a week to give you more food.
Try steady state exercise to give you more cals without making you more hungry, ie; walking.
Try increasing your NEAT to give you more cals.
Cheers, h.1 -
One thing I have noticed is that on days when I have fish at lunch, and at dinner, I get that hungry feeling, yet I am eating my 1200 calories. I started my weight loss at 224 on 2 July, and today I am 213. I'm 5'3", I'm following 1200 calories and I am exercising at least 30 minutes on the treadmill every day.1
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Are you sure count calorie the right way? When I was logging food at the beginning I was logging a bit blindly but when I ended up buying a kitchen scale I realized my portions were always under what I was actually logging in.
Maybe meat and veggies is just not the right food for you to feel full. I will be hungry short after a meal like that myself. To feel full longuer, I need to eat a lot of fiber and carbs. Days without carbs are days i'm both hungry physically and mentally so I try to avoid it. I choose whole food so the calorie is usually more forgiving, like potatoes or rice, where you get to eat quite a lot of it for the amount of calories, instead of pasta and bread.
For snack I try to eat high in fiber and protein food, like humus and veggies, yogurt with raspberries. If I eat an apple at 4pm, I'm starving by 5pm. If I eat an apple with a tbsp of peanut butter (which has fat and protein), i'll be fine until dinne time.
Also, by eating healthy do you mean eating more fruit and vegetable or do you mean drasticly restricting? When I started my journey I went from binge eating massive amount of food to under 1200 calories day (yes, under, I know), which was a bit crazy and totally not the right thing to do it, for me anyway. If you eat X amount of calories and you tried eating more carbs, more protein, less fat, keto, and all those diet out there, maybe it's just not enough food for you. Maybe eating 200 calories more everyday will slow down your weight loss but will help you stay on your journey for longuer.3 -
elsie6hickman wrote: »One thing I have noticed is that on days when I have fish at lunch, and at dinner, I get that hungry feeling, yet I am eating my 1200 calories. I started my weight loss at 224 on 2 July, and today I am 213. I'm 5'3", I'm following 1200 calories and I am exercising at least 30 minutes on the treadmill every day.
That's me too... I started at 224 (in May) and am 5'2 and am now weighing in at 209. I'm following 1470 calorie day plan. I bike every day to work, and map my fitness has me burning about 2000 calories a day, although it is probably less than that since I use an electric bike.2 -
kommodevaran wrote: »Whether it's going away or not, depends on whether you're undereating or not. How many calories are you eating per day, and what's your height and weight? (Don't you eat dinner, or did you just forget to mention dinner?)
Hi - I eat dinner, sorry...it is typically after breakfast and lunch that I feel like that. My dinners vary...more times than not they are healthy, (scrambled egg, avocado, toast) and I'm fine, not hungry after. It is usually my breakfast and lunch where my problem lies.0 -
middlehaitch wrote: »Could you give your stats, weight, goal weight, calorie intake, calorie goal, exercise, etc, and open your diary, please?
It is hard to give anything but general guidance with so little information.
Try adjusting your macros for satiation.
Try adjusting meal timing and frequency for satiation.
Try changing your loss by 0.5lbs a week to give you more food.
Try steady state exercise to give you more cals without making you more hungry, ie; walking.
Try increasing your NEAT to give you more cals.
Cheers, h.
Hi!
Starting weight: 224
Current weight: 209
Goal weight: 140 (and then see if I need to drop more)
Calorie intake: 1470
Calorie goal: ? 1470 ?
Exercise: Bike daily to work, 16 miles EACH way
What is NEAT ?0 -
When I get it right, I always eat until I’m full. But I don’t snack in between. So by the time the next meal comes, I’m hungry (properly hungry, not craving hungry). Then I eat until I’m full again.
When I’m properly hungry, it’s really easy to judge when to stop eating again.
It’s actually rather quite nice to feel properly hungry knowing I’m going to eat a good, healthy meal again.
(Cravings are a totally different matter and a psychological one at that).2 -
Are you sure count calorie the right way? When I was logging food at the beginning I was logging a bit blindly but when I ended up buying a kitchen scale I realized my portions were always under what I was actually logging in.
Maybe meat and veggies is just not the right food for you to feel full. I will be hungry short after a meal like that myself. To feel full longuer, I need to eat a lot of fiber and carbs. Days without carbs are days i'm both hungry physically and mentally so I try to avoid it. I choose whole food so the calorie is usually more forgiving, like potatoes or rice, where you get to eat quite a lot of it for the amount of calories, instead of pasta and bread.
For snack I try to eat high in fiber and protein food, like humus and veggies, yogurt with raspberries. If I eat an apple at 4pm, I'm starving by 5pm. If I eat an apple with a tbsp of peanut butter (which has fat and protein), i'll be fine until dinne time.
Also, by eating healthy do you mean eating more fruit and vegetable or do you mean drasticly restricting? When I started my journey I went from binge eating massive amount of food to under 1200 calories day (yes, under, I know), which was a bit crazy and totally not the right thing to do it, for me anyway. If you eat X amount of calories and you tried eating more carbs, more protein, less fat, keto, and all those diet out there, maybe it's just not enough food for you. Maybe eating 200 calories more everyday will slow down your weight loss but will help you stay on your journey for longuer.
Hi !
I haven't bought a food scale yet and you might be right about that. I'm eating healthier, meaning that I'm no longer eating fast food, eating out a lot and/or eating processed foods. I'm eating more whole foods as possible.1 -
So you’re biking 32 miles a day and only eating 1470? Or are you logging your exercise and eating your exercise calories (you should be doing this one).
Also-as someone else mentioned, the number of calories doesn’t necessarily correlate to whether or not I’m hungry - and I can be hungry eating “healthy” food or otherwise. It’s a matter of finding the mix that works for you. Some people need more volume. Some people need protein. Some people need fat. Some people need fiber. It’s all individual. I can eat 2000 of donuts and be hungry 1/2 hour later. I can eat 200 calories of oatmeal and be fine for hours. I see you’re already eating oatmeal (and maybe it’s not a good food for you from a satiety standpoint)-my point was only that the number of calories alone doesn’t indicate satiation.4 -
middlehaitch wrote: »Could you give your stats, weight, goal weight, calorie intake, calorie goal, exercise, etc, and open your diary, please?
It is hard to give anything but general guidance with so little information.
Try adjusting your macros for satiation.
Try adjusting meal timing and frequency for satiation.
Try changing your loss by 0.5lbs a week to give you more food.
Try steady state exercise to give you more cals without making you more hungry, ie; walking.
Try increasing your NEAT to give you more cals.
Cheers, h.
Hi!
Starting weight: 224
Current weight: 209
Goal weight: 140 (and then see if I need to drop more)
Calorie intake: 1470
Calorie goal: ? 1470 ?
Exercise: Bike daily to work, 16 miles EACH way
What is NEAT ?
MFP works off NEAT (none exercise activity thermogenesis) the calories you burn every day without exercise.
Any exercise you do gives you extra calories to fuel that activity.
If you have always ridden your bike to and from work that is part of your NEAT and you would have your MFP level at active even if you are sedentary most of the day.
If this is a new activity to get in some exercise to lose weight it should be logged and at least a portion of those calories eaten back. (Start with either a consistent 50 or 75%, then adjust as needed if calorie intake is accurate.)
Basically, you are probably not adequately fuelled and therefore hungry.
Aiming for a 1.5lbs per week deficit and eating back exercise cals should help.
Using a food scale consistently helps with logging accuracy.
After 4-6 weeks review your loss and revise your goal on your real life data.
Remember the less you weigh the less calories your body needs and your exercise burns, so adjust your goal every 10lbs.
Cheers, h.3 -
If you're biking 32 miles a day, maybe you need some more carbs and protein. You may be working out at an athlete level but still have a calorie intake at an average level. So maybe have two snacks at snack time or add some extra carbs and protein to your main meals.1
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So in about three months you've lost 15 pounds, with your current routine - maybe 1.25 pounds a week? (I'm approximating - you didn't say when in May you started.) Weight loss rate is a good guide to whether you're losing dangerously fast, and 1% of bodyweight weekly maximum is the risk-aversion rate you usually see people suggest here (slower if closer to goal). On that score, you seem to be OK, even with the exercise (I noted that you said you're biking, but it's an electric bike
).
But it's always fine to lose slower, if that makes the process go more easily.1 -
So in about three months you've lost 15 pounds, with your current routine - maybe 1.25 pounds a week? (I'm approximating - you didn't say when in May you started.) Weight loss rate is a good guide to whether you're losing dangerously fast, and 1% of bodyweight weekly maximum is the risk-aversion rate you usually see people suggest here (slower if closer to goal). On that score, you seem to be OK, even with the exercise (I noted that you said you're biking, but it's an electric bike ).
But it's always fine to lose slower, if that makes the process go more easily.
Hi!
I 'officially' started on May 6th with A LOT of stumbling and became more goal oriented mid-June and now July since joining MFP. I'm ok with slow weight loss, but I'm concerned if I'm 'starving' my body with my cycling and my 1470 calories. It's an electric bike (yay! easier on my knees), and my HR averages between 98 - 130ish, depending if I'm going to work (downhill) or biking home (more uphill). The other thing too is since it is an electric bike, I'm really burning about 20% less calories than an actual bike. Not sure if that makes a difference or not.0 -
Millicent3015 wrote: »If you're biking 32 miles a day, maybe you need some more carbs and protein. You may be working out at an athlete level but still have a calorie intake at an average level. So maybe have two snacks at snack time or add some extra carbs and protein to your main meals.
I'm thinking you might be right. 0 -
I think about my next weigh in when I feel hungry I chew gum and drink diet drinks with abandon 2
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So in about three months you've lost 15 pounds, with your current routine - maybe 1.25 pounds a week? (I'm approximating - you didn't say when in May you started.) Weight loss rate is a good guide to whether you're losing dangerously fast, and 1% of bodyweight weekly maximum is the risk-aversion rate you usually see people suggest here (slower if closer to goal). On that score, you seem to be OK, even with the exercise (I noted that you said you're biking, but it's an electric bike ).
But it's always fine to lose slower, if that makes the process go more easily.
Hi!
I 'officially' started on May 6th with A LOT of stumbling and became more goal oriented mid-June and now July since joining MFP. I'm ok with slow weight loss, but I'm concerned if I'm 'starving' my body with my cycling and my 1470 calories. It's an electric bike (yay! easier on my knees), and my HR averages between 98 - 130ish, depending if I'm going to work (downhill) or biking home (more uphill). The other thing too is since it is an electric bike, I'm really burning about 20% less calories than an actual bike. Not sure if that makes a difference or not.
Your weight loss rate should give you a hint whether you're "starving" your body in any literal nutritional sense (absent some kind of medical condition). If around 1.25 pounds a week is accurately your average loss rate, that doesn't sound unreasonably fast at your current body weight. It's slower than the "maximum 1% of body weight weekly" rule of thumb, which for you right now would be around 2 pounds a week. (The rule of thumb isn't magic or gospel, but it's a quite conservative, risk-management-oriented idea in light of relevant research . . . which isn't super definitive, admittedly).
That's a different question than whether it's a desirable or sustainable rate for you, though: That's subjective. Your data - which is kind of approximated if you aren't weighing food - would suggest that you could eat another 250 calories daily and still lose about 0.75 pounds a week. If you'd be happier eating 250 more, and that would make the process more manageable/enjoyable for you, and 0.75 pounds a week sounds OK to you, that's fine. If you're feeling draggy or fatigued currently, it might even be a little faster than 0.75 pounds/week, who knows.
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