Eating when Hungry

Hey! I know what you mean. Sometimes I can manage with the calories that I am allowed for the day and other times I am still so hungry so I will go over my calorie intake but only with healthy foods that I know are going to hit the spot. I haven't noticed a big change by doing this. I also find though that if you eat wholesome nutritious filling foods througout the day I am least likely to be hungry later on. Hope that kinda helps

If you trust your body & think you can do it, then go ahead and give it a go. I think most of us log our food because we either cannot trust ourselves to know when we are truly hungry vs emotional eating, and plus, at least for me, I am working on trying to eat better quality foods. Course, maybe you just need a mental break from it too. Either way, it's not wrong to quit the logging if you feel like giving it a try. Good luck! :flowerforyou:

Well.... I reached my original goal a couple of months ago and kept on losing. Even after I was happy with my weight I had trouble STOPPING myself from continuing losing weight. At 14 lbs less than my original goal I realized that it was the stress from tracking that kept me from eating enough to stop losing. I didn't like seeing the calorie numbers go up and up. So I decided to stop tracking. I haven't tracked for a week and a half now and have maintained the weight I was at the time that I stopped tracking. So... I think it's a good thing to do once you reach you reach your goal weight. Just keep track of your weight and if you go up then start tracking again before it gets out of hand. That's my plan, anyways.

I seems to help for me also, but I find it tedious! On the other hand, I find that I am cutting down my portions significantly. Doesn't it seem like 3 oz of chicken is hardly enough for dinner? I just feel hungry all the time! I think I will stop tracking once I have an idea of what a portion size should be and what I really need to be eating to keep my caloric count under 1,500 calories a day.

Counting is good for checks and balances. If you don't want to track that's up to you. But if you hit a week where you don't lose, you have nothing to look back on and see where things may have gone wrong. Eating when you are hungry is an easy enough concept and if you go that way I hope it works for you. I think where the problem might lie, at least with me, is that I don't know how to stop once I'm not hungry.

I think it is fine if you are the type of person who can do it. I can't. Otherwise I wouldn't be where I am. For me this site is not stressful rather it has been very helpful for me but we are all different and for some I could see how counting calories like we do here could be stressful. It's helping me to really see what I am putting into my body both good/bad as well as how much water I'm drinking and because it allows us to chart drinks and such I log sodas everything so if I go over my calories I can see where I can make cuts. I don't need 3 sodas a day. That is an easy cut. Or Hershey kisses....1-5 is ok but sometimes you start eating them and loss track and end up eating more then you really wanted to. Here by logging it I can see all of that. By tracking my exercise I find I'm more motivated to go to the gym. For me this site really has helped motivate me.

Eating when hungry is a good thing, unless you're overeating when you do.

I have the blessing or curse of being a hypoglycemic. That means that my pancreas overreacts to glucose by manufacturing excessive levels of insulin. If I eat primary sugars (sugar, syrup, candy, honey, fruit juice, or any beverage made with sugar) without backing it up with protein or fat, my insulin will start pumping and continue to the point of me passing out. I have to eat if I'm hungry, or my blood glucose will drop dangerously. I've trained myself to eat smell, frequent meals that limits or excludes sugar content.

There are times I feel a little shaky, or forgetful, especially when I'm ill. That means that I need to eat "right now" or I'll pass out. This can also be triggered by a high stress level, even when I'm eating normally. When I have to eat right now, sometimes I've been near passing out, and have to eat sugars to use up the insulin, which, in turn, stimulates more insulin, so I end up overeating to balance my body's blood sugar; then I have to eat almost constantly after the incident for about three days to normalize things. Unfortunately, this has put me through cycles of weight gain, followed by careful dieting.

Talk about stress, this is my life: My husband has badgered me for years about anything & everything he can think of, from money to meals. We've had severe financial problems the last several years since I became disabled. We're losing our house, and I'me divorcing my husband. I can't afford to move out of our house until our bankruptcy is completed. No stress there! To avoid stressful cycles, I've trained myself to analyze any situation that most people would find beyond tolerating, and I form an action plan, and take whatever steps to avoid severe stress and solve the problem; if I don't let myself get stressed out, I can function just fine. People I've worked with have called me "unflappable" when things get dicey at work because of my focus on the problem with the goal to find steps to a solution.

In current days, the hypoglycemia diagnosis is called "pre-diabetic", but I've had this all of my life, my mother had it for life, and my son has it, also. I'm a senior citizen, and I'm still just hypoglycemic, not diabetic, which is the supposed end result of hypoglycemia: yes, we do exist! This MFP website has made it possible to easily track my eating, and it makes me more responsible with my meals so I can lead a more normal life.