Always hungry?

There is a volume eater's thread somewhere here on the boards, if you plug it into the search you may find it. That would give you ideas of things to eat that isn't going to put you over your calories.

How long ago did you switch up from 1300-1400 to 1590? Was it in the last couple weeks? I find increased hunger/appetite when I increase calories but it goes away usually in a couple weeks.

The other thing is I 100% agree with lthames0810. I can psyche myself out if I start thinking, "Poor me. I need more food." On the other hand if I tell myself, "1600 calories is the amount of food I am eating today. It is enough food if I choose carefully," then I'm able to relax a bit.

And finally - you can eat more than 1590 if it's just too hard. I'm assuming you set your MFP Goal at, "Lose 2 pounds per week." If so, why don't you set it at, "Lose 1 pound per week," and then try sticking to that for a while. You may find that you lose faster than the setting, AND you may find yourself better able to eat less. A lot of this is psychological and finding our how your thoughts work.

I lose weight at 500 calories more per day than MFP suggests. If I try to use the MFP settings I can't stick to them. You may just have it set too low - For You. With your daily walking, 1590 may just be too low. You would still lose at 1800 or 1900, for instance.

jennabeauchesne1 wrote: »

Hi, all!

I'm having a problem. For starters, I'm 23, 5'8.5", and 279lbs. I have lost 19 lbs since March 7th. In the past I have lost 100lbs and then gained 150lbs (nothing surgery related, but rather restrictive disorder related to which I'm very much recovered from). The first month of my diet went well, I'd say. I was doing pretty well at staying between 1300-1400 calories with a few hiccups (my birthday, Easter, nephew's birthday party). The second month got a bit harder. I've upped my cals to 1590 (MFP's recommendation), yet I'm struggling HARD. I find that I am constantly hungry.
For reference, I am a volume eater. I can't eat a normal portion of anything and be satisfied. I need to feel stuffed to feel good and be able to focus. So, for a good while, I would eat a whole bag of veggies with my meals to try to help. I even tried drinking a full glass of water before my meals and then taking sips in between bites, but water just gives me the empty-full feeling so that I'm still craving food. I added more fiber and protein into my diet- nothing. The only thing thats somewhat helped is having more carbs in my diet, but even then I still get hungry quickly after. The only time I seem to be full and satisfied is having fast food- but, of course, the calories are so immense it makes up my day's calories (and I'm not satisfied unless its at least a medium-sized meal, getting a small would probably make me get an attitude lmao). I don't do much exercise, although I do plan on heading back to the gym and burning 300-500 calories 5x a week. My day job is dog walking so I walk daily but thats it right now. Anyone else have this problem? I know its definitely somewhat of a mental thing, but the physical hunger is also real and makes every day harder to deal with or find joy in my days because all I can think about is being hungry. SOS

I'm 6'2" tall, and currently somewhere in the 235lb range. I originally started with MFP in 2015 (weighed 305+ then), shot down to 187lbs in about 14 months, maintained it for a while (that was 1700 cals/day plus about 50% of exercise calories), then started bulking and cutting off and on for the next two years. Started a big bulk in the fall last year and am currently trying to cut back on that and start to lean out. I've always had a hard time gaining muscle. Fat, however, is easy for me.

I feel your pain, I've always been a big eater. Some of the things I tried in the past that worked that first year aren't working now for me. I've increased my activity level to working out like never (back in 2015) to 5-6 times a week which only increases the hunger. It seems my body's happy place is around 250 lbs. Unfortunately because of joint problems and high blood pressure when I get that heavy, I can't really stay at that weight even if I wanted to. Hunger is no joke, and the only way my body wants to release the fat stores is if I do a 1.5-2lb/week loss rate. I managed it back in 2015 but now couldn't even consider cutting my calories that low and still perform with my workouts the way I do now. It's been tough this year to find balance, because I tend to eat a lot in a setting. Even if I manage to keep breakfast and lunch to about 500 calories or less each, I tend to eat 1200-1500 calories for dinner. If there are snacks involved, and there usually are, that puts me up over my limits pretty easy.

I know how I did it before (I starved most of the time.. not literally, but I stayed hungry a lot), just have not done well with it yet this year. The volume of food I ate was done with substitution in 2015. I ate a lot of baked cauliflower as a side, usually a couple hundred grams or a bit more at dinner time, simply tossed with a tablespoon or two of EVOO and salt and pepper and baked until lightly browned. Adding that as a side, and any steamed veggies, always helped fill the void so to speak. So I'd eat 8-12oz (usually baked or grilled chicken) of protein, add in the veggies as a side, and if I ate anything else with it, it was usually a baked potato with very few toppings. I got so tired of it though I'm having trouble doing that again.

But do think about substitution. Look at what you normally eat, start changing out your sides with something lower calorie but with a lot of bulk. What also helped me before was drinking up to a gallon of water a day, and I'd always try to drink a bottle of water about an hour or so before a meal. Since 2015 though I can tell you this; people will tell you that your stomach will shrink.. it doesn't. You may get used to eating less at a sitting, or eating more steamed veggies to fill up, but you will always have the ability to eat what you do now in one sitting. Even when I was down to 187lbs I could eat like a horse if I let myself. Eating more veggies as sides or drinking more water can help, but you'll always likely need to be mindful of what you are eating and practice portion control. I use a scale, try to log all my food, and that keeps me somewhat in check anyway.

CiaraCatch wrote: »

Your calories seem absurdly low for your stats!! Can you just decrease your rate of loss and up them?

Although I understand trying to lose weight as quick as possible I'd have to agree. The OP could probably move up to around 1800-2000 cals/day and still lose weight at a decent pace. If the OP is going to add in the gym the calories will need to increase anyway, likely a couple hundred a day on average for what is mentioned above. Then again, that will depend on how motivated someone is in the gym. Someone who walks dogs every day should likely have a larger TDEE than someone who is sedentary anyway.