Not enough to eat?

Keep carbs lower.

More vegetables, less grains, low sugar. Sufficient protein. Get those steps in. I find if I don't exercise I eat way past my calorie goal. Even a 20 minute walk will blunt my appetite sufficiently. Can you do some at-home calisthenics or resistance work? That will help.

Are you attempting too steep of a deficit? Maybe try increasing your calories.

Are there foods that help you feel full more than others? Eat more of that. Bread helps me feel full, so does rice, and especially potatoes. That's the exact opposite of what many people experience, so experiment with foods and see what helps you. In general, most people feel fuller when they increase their protein. Try that and see if it works. Some people feel fat is satisfying, others can't feel full unless they eat high volume foods, some are satisfied by starches...etc. Try and see.

Food timing and frequency can also help. Some people are more satisfied with smaller but more frequent meals, others feel better eating fewer but larger meals.

Are you just starting? If so, maybe you'll benefit from going back to basics. Forget dieting for a couple of weeks. Eat your usual foods until you are satisfied at an activity level you feel is sustainable to you and log everything. This will help you a. figure out what foods fill you up and b. notice any calorie trends and cut calories from places that are easiest to cut.

Have you been dieting for too long? If so, take a break. Prolonged dieting can mess up your hormones and increase your hunger.

It's so individual: Different people find protein satiating, or fats, maybe specific foods (oatmeal, baked potatoes are common ones, but those aren't universal).

Two things I haven't seen mentioned:

1. Volume eating. That can be huge portions of high-fiber low cal veggies, but there are other things people like. This thread runs the gamut:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10563959/volume-eaters-thread/p1

2. A research study about individual foods, surveying people about what they found most filling. Results here:

http://ernaehrungsdenkwerkstatt.de/fileadmin/user_upload/EDWText/TextElemente/Ernaehrungswissenschaft/Naehrstoffe/Saettigung_Lebensmittel_Satiety_Index.pdf

Yeah, it's a scary-looking German link. The actual PDF is largely in English.

Also, some people find that:

A. Slowing down eating makes food seem more filling. This can be things like making it a point to chew more consciously, or eating (for example) frozen grapes instead of regular grapes, or nuts like pistachios that you have to shell vs. regular nuts (bonus: they look bigger in the shell).
B. Crazily, using smaller plates can help psychologically, for some.
C. It's worth experimenting with eating timing, i.e., number of meals and snacks, which are biggest, etc. Different people do everything to one meal a day (OMAD) to all-day small-snacks grazing, and find it best for them.

Also, review your diary on days when you feel a little more hungry or a little more satisfied, at similar calorie intake. What made the difference? Food timing, food choices, exercise types that day or day before, stress levels, sleep the night before, boredom, social triggers related to eating habits, . . . it can be many things.

For me, the satiation formula is a solid breakfast with good protein, protein through the day, having a snack (usually protein) if I start getting hungry very long before the next meal so appetite doesn't get out of hand, at least one meal with high volume (usually in the form of *lots* of veggies). Poor sleep doesn't make me hungrier, but it does deplete my ability to resist temptations. Strength training makes me hungry, but having a snack around the time I do it helps. Your formula will be different: That's just an example.

neffyworld wrote: »

Does the thing set up to lose a certain amount of weight guarantee you will lose that much weight, or will you lose more in the beginning? because I feel like I'd be disappointed if I lost a bit slower but maybe a 250g deficit would work better for me?

Well, there are no guarantees. It depends on how accurate your logging is, how you take into account your daily activity/exercise, but also on how average your metabolism is (the calorie goals are based on statistical averages). You might lose less or more. The only way to find out is to try 🙂

10000 to 20000 steps a day is a lot. How are you accounting for this? What activity level did you choose on MFP? And /or are you logging those steps as exercise?

If you choose the slowest rate of loss, you'll get a higher calorie goal, which could be helpful for you. I chose that rate myself from the start of my weight loss (now 65+ lbs lost so far) and while it lets you eat more, it does require being accurate with logging (weighing foods, making sure to use correct/precise foods database entries,...) and using a weight trending app (Libra for Android, Happy Scale for IOS) is also very useful, to filter out the normal weight fluctuations and determine your weight trend.
It requires patience because it weight naturally fluctuates more than 0.5lbs, so you might not see a loss every week (because it's masked by weight fluctuations). You need to stick to your calorie goal for at least one month/menstrual cycle, preferably longer, to determine the rate of your loss.

I suggest you replace Sodium with Fiber here:

https://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

And work towards hitting your fiber goal every day.

Also, for some meals your protein is very low in relationship to carbs, and you often undershoot your daily protein goal by a lot.

Increasing fiber and protein can help tremendously with satiety.

Before I started paying attention to protein I got the munchies all the time and thought I wanted carbs, when in fact I wanted protein.

You may crave the cappuccinos, tea with milk, and hot chocolate less after upping your protein and fiber.

I agree that milk substitutes may not save you many (or any) calories.

One thing you could try is putting protein powder and a source of fiber in one of your drinks (and cutting back on other drinks.) For example, chocolate protein powder in hot chocolate could be yummy. I would also add soaked chia seeds for fiber. (Note: many protein powders clump if directly added to hot liquid so you may need to "temper" the PP by adding it to a small amount of room temperature liquid first and then add the hot liquid.)

When I add protein powder to coffee I can skip the milk and sugar. I just add a half scoop, but many people add a full scoop.

I took a look at a recent day that you logged the whole day earlier this week....Did you use MFP to calculate your calorie goal?

If so, the goal it sets is ALREADY at a deficit ... that's why it automatically adds back in your cardio exercise calories, you should be eating at least some of those calories back. Or all of them, you'd still be at a deficit based on how MFP calculates. If you figured your calorie goal some other way, this may be irrelevant.

But, if you used MFP - you are hungry because you have a quite a large deficit. Eat more. The calorie goal is a GOAL, not a limit.