Always hungry because of meds

mwood1234
mwood1234 Posts: 60 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I take a medication that unfortunately increases my appetite and I am always hungry! I'll eat a meal and literally an hour later my stomach will growl. I'm eating at a deficit and following MFP 1200 cal a day. I cant stand this hunger. It makes it so hard to stay in the 1200 cal mark. Anyone else take meds that do this? If so, what do you do to ease the hunger pains in between meals?

Replies

  • Lillymoo01
    Lillymoo01 Posts: 2,865 Member
    How did you arrive at a calorie goal of 1200? Most (ie anyone that is not vertically challenged and sedentary) women can eat more than that and still lose at a reasonable pace. Make sure your goal is to lose 1/5-1 pound a week. You are better off losing slowly rather than restricting too much that you give up because you are hungry all the time. Also, make sure you are eating back at least 1/2 of your exercise calories.
  • mwood1234
    mwood1234 Posts: 60 Member
    I am 5'2" and sedentary. MFP calculated this at 1 lb per week.
  • zeejane03
    zeejane03 Posts: 993 Member
    edited March 2019
    Lillymoo01 wrote: »
    mwood1234 wrote: »
    I am 5'2" and sedentary. MFP calculated this at 1 lb per week.

    Change your goals to 1/2 pound loss a week and see if that makes a difference.

    This.

    Having a goal of 1lb a week means nothing if you can't actually follow through with it for any length of time. Adjusting your goal down to .5lb will give you more calories to work with.

  • RowingBill
    RowingBill Posts: 36 Member
    The bit of a food trigger I have is the massive amount of FOOD advertising on tv. They just blast us with delicious looking burgers, fries, steaks...wow, no wonder overweight prevails. I too found drinking coffee (decafe) helps with the hunger urges.
  • mbaker566
    mbaker566 Posts: 11,233 Member
    you can try changing your goals so you can get a few more calories.

    you can try adding exercise and eating a portion of the exercise calories back

    you can try focusing on what you are eating. fatty foods make me feel full longer. some people feel like protien helps. or fiber.

    you can try focusing on hydration. sometimes, good hydration helps you feel less hungry. it doesn't work for me but it's a common suggestion
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
    First, are you really sedentary? I believe that's considered fewer than 5,000 steps a day. If you are, is it possible to see if you can become a little more active?

    Do you do any exercise, and are you logging it and eating back some of your exercise cals?

    Are you hitting your fat, protein, and fiber goals? Some combo of those three are typically filling for most people, so if one or more are low, bringing them up may help.

    One lb per week is reasonable with 25 lbs or so to lose, but 0.5lbs per week is still progress, so it's possible you might just have to lose more slowly for now.

    Is the medicine new? Is eating at a deficit new? It's possible that over time your appetite will even out.

    I know it's not always possible, but depending on the medicine you could ask your doctor if their are alternatives that might not have that side effect.

    Hang in there!
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,889 Member
    RowingBill wrote: »
    The bit of a food trigger I have is the massive amount of FOOD advertising on tv. They just blast us with delicious looking burgers, fries, steaks...wow, no wonder overweight prevails. I too found drinking coffee (decafe) helps with the hunger urges.

    Stream with no commercials :smiley:
  • tcunbeliever
    tcunbeliever Posts: 8,219 Member
    You might try something like SANE or Eat More, Weigh Less as these plan focus on large volumes of non-starchy vegetables which can be satisfying while still relatively low in calories. Being able to eat a large volume of food may help to satisfy the hunger and still keep you within your calorie goals.

    Being miserable is definitely not a plan anyone can stick with.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    Paging similarly short @WinoGelato who lost weight on considerably more calories by adding exercise to her life, despite it being a busy one.

    Gee thanks.... ;)

    Yes @kshama2001 is correct. I'm 5'2 and when I started, I too selected 1 lb/week as I was trying to lose about 25 lbs. I also thought I was sedentary, because I had an office job. And I was, pretty much, other than a couple short walks a week. But I started reading on here about eat more to weigh less and how it really isn't a given that just because you are petite you need to be set that low in order to lose. So I started trying to steadily increase my activity, and through concentrated effort, by the time I got my FitBit I realized I was averaging 8-10K steps a day, which really isn't Sedentary at all. Then I kept getting more active as I lost weight, changing my goal to 0.5 lb/week when I had about 15 lbs to lose, and introducing some strength training as well.

    I lost most of my weight (the original 25 plus about 5-8 extra) eating b/w 1600-1900 calories. I had a couple of years at maintenance and that same high activity level where I was able to eat around 2200 and keep my weight under 120. I'm actually busier with work, but unfortunately less active now because of it (as well as winter and just life craziness) so my activity level has gone down and between holidays and aforementioned life craziness, I'm back up to around 123-125 (right around my original goal weight) and my current TDEE according to my Fitbit is around 1900.

    So yeah, the extra activity definitely enables you to increase your TDEE and therefore the calories you can eat to lose and maintain. It also goes for me at least, that when I'm less active it is harder for me to keep the weight under a certain level, as I have grown accustomed to the higher cals and plus, just shifting priorities right now.

    Good luck!
  • emmamcgarity
    emmamcgarity Posts: 1,593 Member
    I am also short and sedentary due to my job. My Fitbit really helped motivate more activity for me. I eat many of my exercise calories. I average 1600 calories daily even though myfitnesspal sets my goal at 1200 before exercise. I lose approximately 0.5 lbs every 7-10 days.

    I do find that adding a little protein to each meal helps with hunger. Drinking plenty of water helps as well. I often add nuts or cheese to a fruit or vegetable snack. A cup of skim milk is fairly low calories but adds protein and helps keep me satisfied. You might find experimenting with different macros helpful to see what you find more satisfying. On days where I am extra hungry, I eat at maintenance calories to avoid “going off the rails” and binging.

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