STARVING AND NEED HELP

It's not just that you need to eat more food, in general -- which is true as everyone else has said -- but you need to eat more filling foods!! English muffins and frozen meals are highly processed and loaded with quick carbs that will burn off fast and leave you hungry a short time later.

Try to build meals around slow-burning carbs and protein. For instance, for around 450 breakfast calories, you could have a bowl of old-fashioned oatmeal (150), an apple (70), and 6 egg whites (120ish) even cooked in 1 TB of real butter (100) if you want, or olive oil (120). Or you could mix 1 TB peanut butter (100) into the oatmeal instead and use nonstick cooking spray for the eggs.

That would be a TON of food for the same amount of calories as a couple measly English muffins, and you'd stay really full until lunch.

That's just one example. For lunch, you could have a huge salad full of vegetables, beans, lean protein, etc. dressed again with REAL oil and vinaigrette... Or you could have a sandwich with lean protein and a TON of veggies on high-fiber bread, and fruit on the side, etc... All for about the same calories as a sodium-packed frozen meal.

The benefit, too, of eating these kinds of simple, fresh, non-packaged foods is that you will also save a ton of money if you shop wisely. That seems to be a concern for you based on reading your profile.

You are lucky living in New York because even though it has a reputation of being expensive, there are actually lots of great places to get affordable fresh food because you're so close to so many farms upstate and in LI. Not sure which borough/part of the city you're in but when it gets warm again, you must check out some of the awesome farmers' markets like the one in Union Square.

I used to live in Manhattan, and now spend a decent chunk of the year living in Brooklyn, and my food costs in NY are about the same as they are at home in Florida.

Good luck!!

Try a high fiber diet! Fiber fills you up and take longer for the body to process. Drinks Lots of Water! Helps curb the appetite.

If you are not on any medication, try Chromium Picolinate. Read about it first, this mineral supplement helps to regulate your blood sugar so you don't feel hungry as a bear between meals.

I usually eat 3 meals and 3 snacks a day. 1 snack is 4 cheese cubes, 1 snack is pounch of 100 calorie almonds, 1 snack is yogurt.

Remember, You can and You will succeed!

Take care and be well
Rebecca

Upping your calories should definitely help. You don't want to send your body into shock. Also remember that you should eat back the calories you burned from working out. So if you burn 300 calories during exercise, that means you should be taking in an extra 300 calories from food.

And this may sound silly, but sometimes when I think I'm hungry, I tell myself that there are starving people all over the world who have not eaten for days. THEY are starving, I ate an hour or two ago, I'm NOT starving. Silly, but it helps

Okay, I went and looked at your logs. First of all, you need to let MFP or a nutritionist help you determine your calorie needs based on your BMR, normal daily activity, and exercise. Then you will get an amount of calories that will help you not feel so hungry all the time. Second, you need to start eating some more filling foods, like more fruits and veggies, lean meats, and complex carbs, so that you can eat at a calorie deficit without feeling hungry. Prepackaged meals like the Weight Watchers things are great for a quick portion controlled meal while you're on the go, but they can't be the cornerstone of your eating or you won't be able to stick to the changes long term without dying of boredom with your meals. And lets face it, you don't want to get to your goal weight just to regain it all back plus some because you haven't learned to make healthy eating a lifestyle you can stick to for life. That's the secret to long term success....being able to live with your healthy habits for life. If you'd like to chat privately about setting your calorie goals so that I can help you get a number more specific to you, please feel free to PM me.

Are you logging the peas correctly?

Peas - Green, frozen, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt, 2.5 package (10 oz) yields -- 400+ calories

I saw this a couple of times. I would think you were eating .25 packages of peas, not 2.5.

Anyway, I'm glad you got some good advice here and upped your calories! I agree, 1200 was way too low.

It's not normal, it's not human...I keep looking at my diary. I have been eating all day. I had an english muffin breakfast from weight watchers for lunch, then another one for snack...then a healthy choice lunch, 3 chocalate nuggets, 2 oragnes...that shoudl be more than enough for normal human beings! I have only 270 calories left for the rest of the day (its only 4:07) and I am literally staving to death...I can chew through my desk right now. I am not particularly stressed or unhappy, and I am aware of my boredom since office is dead due to holidays, but I am feeling physical achy starvation signals. How can I keep this up for a year in order for me to lose weight? anyone else go through this?

My weight is 240
I have managed to lose 10 lbs from start
Goal weight is 160
I am 5'7 female

HELP PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEE

It goes away, but it's just painful at first. Make sure you are eating enough good, nutritious foods. Your dairy reflects too much of a deficit, and you need to rework that. Get some help if you need it. And as for the hunger, under the best of circumstances, it's still hard.
Most don't make it through.

I was JUST LIKE THAT! And most days I failed, then little by little it got better. I still remember that first night I did not fix another supper right before bed. Anyway, some will say eating this or drinking water will help...BULL!

It's hard, painful and miserable. That's reality.
You must fight through this, remembering why you started in the first place.

While I agree with some of this (it's a struggle, it's hard, etc) I don't think someone who feels too weak to work out (barring other health issues) is in a good place. You can lower your calorie intake, eat nutritious foods, and don't necessarily have to "suffer"

My doc-recommended-program has me on 30g of protein by mid morning. You stack up on protein first thing and you won't get so hungry throughout the day! It really does work!

I could not live on your meal diary without wanting to gnaw my own arm off by 4pm.

Try to get more Protein and Fiber so you feel fuller for a longer period of time -- Fish, Eggs, or a Protein drink powder. You might want to try to get away from carbs from bread, pasta because they are processed in the body like sugar so you have a spike then a crash in energy sometime. Try greek yogurt instead of "whipped" and real fruit with skin on etc.

You may want to consider getting out of the habbit of buying frozen Weight Watcher/Lean Cuisine meals and 100 calorie packs. Leaning on these is a crutch and not a good long term solution because "we" don't eat like this long term and it won't last. It's swapping one bad habbit {eating take-out from a paper sack for a premade frozen paper box}. The frozen meals and snacks are a trap. They are loaded with sodium and preservatives which will make you feel bloated and sluggish. They are expensive compared to making up the same exact thing yourself. Buy some Gladware storage containers, use the Recipe Builder feature, use sites like AllTheCooks (dot com) web site for free recipe ideas and see how easy it is to make your own meals so you have better control over what you are consuming and have more options (more variety). Don't settle for stuff that you think you have to have on a diet. You have to make this experience REAL or you won't stick with it.

Experiment with your grocery list. Just for some ideas.... look at other people's food diaries...
If you haven't tried Diamond brand Almond Milk (Unsweetened Vanilla). It is NOT a soy milk and it tastes great in cereal and significantly less in calories than regular milk. To satisfy a need to crunch I buy Special K Cracker Chips and they have several flavors at Walmart (Sea Salt, Sour Cream, Cheddar, and Southwest Ranch). You get 27 - 30 chips for about 110 calories verses 11 - 13 Lays chips and they are super tasty!!! I used plain light yogurt instead of sour cream with dry ranch dressing and dip veggies.

You can eat more than you are consuming and still be successful.

I like Kashi cereials and I like V8, Progresso Light, microwave popcorn,.... and Imake a lot of home made soups for the exact same reasons I don't ever buy any more frozen WW/LC meals or Lean Pockets...they aren't healthy for me...

I took a quick look at your food dairy . I think you should eat more lean proteins , and foods that are more filling. Looks like you eat alot of weight watchers meals. I try to stay away from prepackaged meals as they do not keep me full. If I have to have them I always add extra vegetables .

This ^

When I eat prepackaged meals, I NEVER feel satisfied at all! I am set at 1200 cals a day and I feel full most of the time because I've tried to change what I eat to be more filling foods. For breakfast, I eat yoplait greek yogurt which is packed with protein and keeps me full until into the afternoon. It's about 140 cals. It also sets me up to eat well the rest of the day. Try limiting the prepackaged meals if possible and adding more lean protein, fruits, and veggies with your meals. Good luck.

Hi yes it was set manually. I was trying to go by weight watchers points and calories. trying to stick to 24 points (50 cals each)

If I can lose on more I will! I will change to 1 lb a week! thank you

FWIW--You aren't supposed to be at 24 points on WW anyway, your points would be a lot higher than that--I'm at 26-29 (I'm trying to lose 5 pounds) and that's the absolute lowest anyone on WW is supposed to go. It's no wonder you are starving... good luck working it out. Be patient, you will find a happy calorie zone. And also, my first 2-3 weeks on a calorie deficit I was ready to chew my own arm off, then I started to feel really good and started to find more foods that fit into what I was allowed to eat.