Struggling with patience?

I think you might be impatient because you're planning on taking a year to lose 10-13 pounds. These forums are really big on telling people to go slower, and that's usually good advice, but in your case ...

Here's the thing. The weight loss challenge usually boils down to a struggle between getting a success that's big enough and fast enough to keep your motivation up, while not being so extreme that you do things, like ultra low calorie dieting, that sabotage the effort by causing you to give up because you feel deprived. That's the tension right there - going fast enough for a diet to be motivating, but not so fast that it backfires and leads to a binging cycle. Everyone has to find their right balance between those two extremes.

There must be 100,000 posts on these forums telling people to do 1/2 to 2 lbs a week, and in your case, 13 pounds at the minimum 1/2 pound a week shouldn't take more than 26 weeks, or six months.

So, March 1, basically.

So I would, personally, use the MFP goals tool, set your goal to 1/2 lb per week, find out how many calories to eat to make that happen, and then try to stick to that. See how it feels at that calorie level, and adjust as needed after you've tried it out for a few weeks.

My personal experience with food on a fixed calorie diet is that fat and protein are filling and make me not hungry. As are high fiber vegetables. But of all of that, protein is what makes me not think about food an hour later. The real culprit for excessive hunger, in my opinion, is empty calorie carbohydrates - refined carbs like white bread, pasta, etc. When I eat that stuff -- and I do love it -- I get a very temporary fill and then I'm hungry again pretty quickly. I now use full fat salad dressing, real mayo, and anything else that will give me a good amount of fat, and lots and lots of protein. Really trying to minimize empty calories like refined white flour is a very good starting point for beating back the hunger, imho.

Also, you will be less hungry if you get foods you really love. Even in small portions, a meal consisting of a favorite food can take your mind off food because you're satisfied and got what you wanted. So I'd think about the foods you love, and try to work some of them into your diet throughout the week. Absolutely anything can be eaten in a controlled portion. I love, love, love beef bourguignon and like making it too, original Julia Childs version with the whole sticks of butter and so on, but I know from making it that it's about a billion calories per plateful. Still, I can have a nice little serving of it and then I am basically done eating for the day LOL That is a very different approach than its opposite, with the diet salad dressings and vegetables that one pretends are delicious but aren't really, and never feeling sated, and it's definitely worth a shot to have smaller portions of more satisfying foods to see if it helps with the cravings.

It is slow if you’ve only got a little to lose but as others have already covered it sounds like your plan is not keeping you motivated.

You’ve not given us any information about your height, age, current/starting/goal weight, what calorie level you’re eating at and how you’re logging your intake. Also, what, if any, exercise you’re taking.

You don’t need to exercise to lose but if you are doing anything, are you eating at least a portion of those ‘gained’ calories? If not, that might explain your difficulty with hunger.

If you let us have all the above info, maybe we can be of more practical help! 😊

It took me 6 months to lose 18 pounds and I usually did not feel hungry. If I did, I would eat something like an egg or a carrot with some hummus or some protein powder with water to tide me over until the next meal. There were a few times when I was hungry and could not seem to get full, and those days ran completely off the rails, but that only happened like 3-4 times. I exercised moderately for extra calories (even 150 cals helped). I binged a few evenings (not TOO horribly) ate whatever I wanted for my special birthday dinner, and ate 100 cals or so over my daily allotment at least once a week. I tracked and logged pretty honestly but not minutely (“1 egg, large” or “corn on the cob, 1 cob”). They key for me is getting back on track as quickly as possible if something went awry but not sweating all the times I wasn’t perfect.

I fight the impatience by keeping my focus on the habits that I will carry forward long after I reach my goal weight.

I understand the "I feel a bit peckish let me grab a snack thing." I work from home too so a lot easier to get to stuff. That's when I go try on the t-shirt I bought at the Police Reunion Tour that hasn't fit right since 2009. Still doesn't fit right? Then I don't need a snack.