Figuring out my bodies hunger habits.

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CassiCrafts
CassiCrafts Posts: 6 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So the first day I did this, along with tracking my food, I marked down when I got hungry. My body seems to get hungry at the same times each day, regardless of what I ate. So for example, I have severe insomnia and don't sleep until the sun comes up most nights, so I often miss breakfast and head straight into lunch. So my rhythm goes

-Lunch

-Mild hunger

-Dinner

-Hunger

The hunger in between meals seems to come no matter what I do or eat. Maybe my body just has a habitual habit? Or it's not used to the smaller meals. So I figured out, if I have a decent sized lunch, a munchie snack, a bigger dinner, and a munchie snack, it greatly reduces the hunger pangs. Even a small salad in between lunch and dinner keeps the pangs away. I think this works great for me. I also figured if I meal plan days ahead, I don't stress that day about what I'm eating. I already have today, Monday, and Tuesday planned out in terms of meals, so when I wake up hungry I'm not devouring the fridge while finding something to eat, I already have it written down and just go get it. One thing I need to work on is my drinks. I'm alright drinking water most days, but some days I really want juice or iced tea, so I have to work my calories into that. But I'm pretty happy with working this out about myself! Does anyone else have any helpful hints for those in between meals hunger pangs? Also if you want to add me, I'm happy to have more friends!

Replies

  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
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    You tracked this for one day?
    Hunger can be affected by how much/when you drink water and your macro choices. Protein and fat tend to be more satiating and carbs tend to leave you feeling hungry more quickly. Obviously this is not 100% true for every person, but if you're having frustrations, these are the first areas to tweak.
  • hipari
    hipari Posts: 1,367 Member
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    My hint for hunger pangs between meals: just plan your eating to fit the hunger pangs. There’s no point in going hungry.

    I personally get hungry approximately every 3-5 hours when awake, and it doesn’t matter whether my previous meal was 200 or 2000 calories. I know this will happen, so I plan accordingly. During weekdays I have breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack, and depending on other schedules either a pre-dinner snack followed by late dinner or earlier dinner followed by evening snack.

    The thing I’m currently working on is the lockdown-brought realization that I crave food more often when I’m home. I worked from home for 3 months, and snacked significantly more than at the office. It balanced out calorie-wise as my lunches were smaller, but it’s still both interesting and annoying and I’d like to have a more balanced meal rhythm at home as well.
  • CassiCrafts
    CassiCrafts Posts: 6 Member
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    lorrpb wrote: »
    You tracked this for one day?
    Hunger can be affected by how much/when you drink water and your macro choices. Protein and fat tend to be more satiating and carbs tend to leave you feeling hungry more quickly. Obviously this is not 100% true for every person, but if you're having frustrations, these are the first areas to tweak.

    I started noticing the hunger pangs coming at certain times before actually starting MyFitnessPal, this just helped me be more aware of it. When I joined the first day I marked down the precise time I was getting hungry, then went on for the next two and it seemed to fit with my previous eating habits as well. Sorry, I wasn't clear enough! My big thing is I don't eat a lot of protein rich foods, I tend to gravitate to carbs. You are right though, if I have a carb heavy dinner I'm more hungry later than I am if I eat more protein. That's something I need to work on!
  • CassiCrafts
    CassiCrafts Posts: 6 Member
    Options
    hipari wrote: »
    My hint for hunger pangs between meals: just plan your eating to fit the hunger pangs. There’s no point in going hungry.

    I personally get hungry approximately every 3-5 hours when awake, and it doesn’t matter whether my previous meal was 200 or 2000 calories. I know this will happen, so I plan accordingly. During weekdays I have breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack, and depending on other schedules either a pre-dinner snack followed by late dinner or earlier dinner followed by evening snack.

    The thing I’m currently working on is the lockdown-brought realization that I crave food more often when I’m home. I worked from home for 3 months, and snacked significantly more than at the office. It balanced out calorie-wise as my lunches were smaller, but it’s still both interesting and annoying and I’d like to have a more balanced meal rhythm at home as well.

    The lockdown thing is definitely true. Normally I'm out and about most days but since lockdown I've been home, and when I actually got COVID I was stuck in one room, and I gained a bit. I'm slowly working backward now to better habits, and now that I can go out again (if only to limited spaces) it's been helping.

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