Is the hunger physical or psychological?

bathsheba_c
bathsheba_c Posts: 1,873 Member
edited December 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
I have had a crazy chaotic past few days, and it's making it impossible for me to tell if I'm behaving or not with my diet. So now I'm sitting here, wondering if I should have a handful of cherries as a snack before dinner when I apparently only have 300 calories left and I'm expecting dinner to be 400-500.

On the one hand, I know that physical and mental exhaustion leads to overeating. On the other hand, I also know that there is no possible way that my calorie count is accurate since there was simply too much random rushing around to put all of it in my diary.

What do you all do when things get crazy? Should I be listening to my body or overriding it?

Replies

  • littlepinkhearts
    littlepinkhearts Posts: 1,055 Member
    When things get crazy, I tend to NOT eat. So I just make myself stick exactly to my plan (which means eating even though I don't want to)until the stress or whatever goes away. I don't trust myself to be making any kinda changes to the plan while I feel those impulses may be directing my decisions. I just wait it out till the feelings go away and go from there. Hope this helps.
  • wackyfunster
    wackyfunster Posts: 944 Member
    If you are sleep deprived and eat as much as your body tells you, you will massively overeat. If you are having trouble with hunger, ditch some of the calorically-dense starches (e.g. bread/cereal) for less dense foods like brown rice or quinoa. Also, ditch some of the carbs for more protein... looks like you are eating >50% carbs and <25% protein, which is going to hinder your weight loss as well as making you hungrier. Try lean turkey and/or top sirloin.

    Note: Carbs are not bad, but eating lots of starch and not enough protein WILL reduce the effectiveness of your diet, as well as being less filling.

    You can eat about 4-5 pounds of fruits/veggies/brown rice/turkey for 1400 calories.
  • fatchiick
    fatchiick Posts: 105
    I say if you're hungry eat... have the cherries.. I'm not one for starving myself... I was just reading a thread where 100gs of protein was quoted and 400 cals... I laugh at that I eat 2-3 times that a day in protein alone... tje majority of my cals goes to things that I can eat on throughout the day to keep me full..so i wont have to say can i have this or that its already imcluded even.of.i dont eat it...I say if you're hungry choose something reasonable and add those little bit of cals :)
  • bathsheba_c
    bathsheba_c Posts: 1,873 Member
    If you are sleep deprived and eat as much as your body tells you, you will massively overeat.

    Yup. That's what I did at dinner. I didn't even finish adding in everything I ate because it would be too depressing. Maybe I should have had the cherries to curb the hunger . . .

    Oh well. Tomorrow's another day.
  • wrecktechno
    wrecktechno Posts: 145 Member
    Have a biiiig glass of water instead of the cherries. A lot of the time we confuse hunger with thirst.
  • _hi_hat3r_
    _hi_hat3r_ Posts: 423 Member
    Psychological for me, Thats why eating 10 meals a day like the majority on here suggests is not good for me. I like eating 2 to 3 meals hell sometimes just 1 meal a day. Keeps my mind off food and on other things.
  • squishycow7
    squishycow7 Posts: 820 Member
    It's hard to say :(
    If you're constantly "rushing around" I suppose I'd make sure your activity level (to set your calorie goals) is appropriate. If your calorie goal is generous, and you're still pushing it, perhaps it's just mental.
    On the other hand, if you're listed as "sedentary" but you keep having days bustling around like that, and you're pushing at the end of your calories, I WOULD listen to your body and give it those cherries (plus, that's a pretty healthy snack, you can only feel so guilty about fruit)

    so the answer- it depends. If you're at a very small defficit and you're still hungry... you're maybe not actually hungry. If you have a big deficit and you're still hungry... time to re-evaluate those calorie goals. Super low cal goals have their own host of problems, let alone the hunger :)
  • tuiccim
    tuiccim Posts: 689 Member
    A big thing to curbing the appetite is to make sure you are getting in your 8 glasses of water.
  • genuinely
    genuinely Posts: 10 Member
    Have the cherries. I agree you can't feel too guilty about fruit. And as far as eating meals,I agree everything should be nutritious. Many people are actually malnourished, so the hunger is physical.
  • bathsheba_c
    bathsheba_c Posts: 1,873 Member
    Can you temporarily change activity level? I mean, obviously you can change it, but I don't then want all my targets for the past month to retroactively change.
This discussion has been closed.

Categories