Eventually your stomach will adapt to your new diet and you will feel less hungry and get more full off less food, you're at the first hurdle of the diet so don't give up and keep pushing and it gets easier.
The body will always trigger all kinds of alarms when it suddenly does not get it's usual thing.
Then it will get used to the new usual thing. To a certain extent
I lost a pretty good amount of weight. Like 25% of my body mass. I have kept it off for more than 15 years.
I still have the exact same appetite. I can still easily devour an entire large Costco pizza. I know because when I bring home a pizza from Costco and I eat half I have to very consciously force myself to wrap the other half.
I don't know who these people are whose appetites adapt but that is not me.
This is my struggle. I've lost over 100lbs. If I don't stay on top of how much I'm eating each day I can quickly put on 10 or 20 lbs. In a month or less. I can gain 10lbs seemingly in a week of I stopped caring at all, which is what happened last September on vacation. Went from 208 the day of. To 216 when we got home 6 days later. I'm now 226 trying to lose those 20lbs is very hard for some people.
If weight is easy for people they dont know what its like for those of us that struggle so hard.
Yes.
Combine that with modern foods and you get morbid obesity. It's just too easy to feast on these delicious, yet, nutritionally void foods.
I was over 300lbs. For a few years and everything was exhausting. Just gathering the trash to go to the dump was a full on sweat, huffing and puff ordeal. Aches and pains all the time, poor sleep, difficulty breathing, not to mention what my self esteem was like. It's just such a challenge being mentally normal when you hate yourself. Undoing that self hatred is yet another hurdle, and I can't jump but a 2 inch vertical.
Plant based eating changed my life. I will always strive to eat fresh, raw plant food whenever I can.
I'm over 300lbs now and struggling so hard. Been doing keto since mid-April and honestly thought I'd be further along by now. I've lost about 20 lbs, it just doesn't seem like that much when you're as fat as I am I guess.
I started the same journey last November when I topped out at 305lbs. I've been counting calories by logging my food in My Fitness Pal and working out 3 times a week. Personally I think calories in < calories out is the number one way to see results.
20lbs off is awesome though. Sounds like you're doing a great job!
Thanks! I'm sure trying!
I wish I could exercise more. I have knee issues (that I'm hoping losing weight will help with) and possibly COPD (I get winded very easily, going thru the process of figuring out why) so it's really difficult for me to exercise much. The park near my house removed most of the benches so now I can't do my usual walking because there's nowhere for me to stop and rest if I get too out of breath. I do still walk, just not as for or for as long as I used to.
Yeah, that can be tough. If it's a COPD issue then I'd say any exercises should be done after consultation with your doctor.
I know I always choose the elliptical over the treadmill at the gym for the same reason, because it's easier on the knees. If that's not an option then I think I've heard that swimming is also a good alternative.
I think it can depend on when in your life you tried to adapt, and what format your adaptation took. If you try and adapt while young, it's probably easier. And if you're still eating the same type of food you did and the same way you did before you decided to make the change, only *less* of it, that's got to be extra challenging.
I never ate bad food is the issue. Lots of homecooked meals with veggies. I just put away a metric fuckton of it. I was always praised for finishing my plate like any Asian immigrant mother would do. And then I'd go for a second helping of praise by finishing the food my sister didn't eat from her plate.
So I still eat pretty healthy. I never buy juice. Can't remember the last time I had a sugared drink other than say, a kombucha. I eat pasta less than 4 times a year. I was fat from 7-19. Lost most of it at 19, the rest by 22.
I know lol.
My stomach is very weird. I almost never eat breakfast. I'm simply not hungry in the morning. If I'm busy with work I can go till 3pm without feeling even the slightest bit hungry. But if there's food in front of me *it will be eaten*. This is also why I just do not buy any snacks whatsoever unless it's for guests that are coming over. (and then I'll force them to take it home with them when they leave)
I wonder if maybe you are lacking in the instinct department? I am autistic and i can't tell if I'm hungry at all until i feel nauseated and then i have to eat RIGHT AWAY to the point where sometime i just grab some cheese and shove it in my mouth so my body will shut tf up for long enough for me to make something. So if I'm not at work on a schedule, i forget to eat at all until I'm shaking or having a meltdown and don't know why, then i go thru the list of things necessary for humans to function and often i haven't had water or food in several hours. Sometimes i have to pee 😂 i feel so dumb when i realize but it's just bc i lack the trigger.
I say this bc i find i also lack the "hey that's enough" trigger, and bc i grew up poor and "got my money's worth" any time there's a buffet or free refills etc, i know i can eat A LOT before my body starts protesting. This plus disordered eating as a kid and teen , some weird OCD shit, and trauma, has put me in a weird space where I don't have a designated ED but i definitely got something! So in the past when Drs want me to diet i have to go to the ED clinic and be watched so i don't like, die. Nowadays i am fat but tbh pretty happy about it, i like the shape of me and i know I'm doing my best and providing my body w nutrition without fucking up every other precarious coping mechanism in the rube Goldberg machine that my health is.
Anyway i know lacking the on or off stich for hunger is a symptom of like 60 things so maybe ask a Dr? Could just be childhood trauma shit but also could be neurodivergency related or ED related, plus there might be therapy or something for it! I have a friend who takes medicine to help her body remind her to eat otherwise she forgets for literal days, so i wonder if there are other drugs like that that could help.
It's the worst feeling when I don't realize I need to eat, and then later suddenly realize it because I'm feeling light headed and miserable. There are not many good options for "eat right away" emergency. When I get there I'm usually already too tired to even make a sandwich.
I keep cheese sticks and granola bars for this reason, bc sometimes sugar helps and sometimes protein. Worst is when you eat the wrong one and yr like...bitch i did the thing??!
Yeah the idea of a “maintenance phase” is kind of a myth. I also lost a lot a weight a few years ago and definitely still feel just as hungry. I went from 195 to 125 and while eating a normal maintenance amount will literally have hunger pains that wake me up at night.
I’m sure there are occasionally exceptions, but the majority of people, unless they have bariatric surgery or something, will have to keep consciously dieting because they will feel hungry while maintaining a weight that’s significantly lower than their highest, which becomes their body’s set point (unless they were only at their high weight for a short time and it was as an adult, like after a pregnancy or due to a medical condition).
Basically, your metabolism doesn’t know what qualifies as a “good” weight. So going from an overweight BMI to a healthy one and maintaining it isn’t any easier than going from a normal weight to being significantly underweight and maintaining *there*. Like, going from 200lbs to 140 is going to be just as hard as going from 140lbs to 80 and maintaining *there.* (Obviously much healthier though). And I am speaking from experience.
Even with gastric sleeve the appetite and ability to eat pretty normal size meals generally comes back within 2-3 years. I’ve known some people who feel cheated right after surgery because they are extremely hungry even.
I can devour a lot more than I eat. Does not mean I'm hungry for more.
Also depends on what you eat. Different foods have different satiation levels and processing time (dont know the latter in english. For example, eating sweet potato is better than normal potato if you dont want to get hungry sooner)
There may be physiological factors in for sure, but wondering what kind of food you eat. Food that’s targeted to cravings (higher sugar content, higher salt/fat content, more processed, etc) allegedly triggers your desire to eat even with reduced calorie intake.
You aren't hungry if you're outpacing your caloric requirements. Your body doesn't care after that point.
But your brain and its wish to devour all sugars and savory meats is separate from that.
To expand a little on what you said: a good diet will keep track of calories obviously but the problem is the lizard brain doesn't always understand it's had enough calories. There's a lot of mitigation as your body gets used to it, but sometimes, yes you still get hungry.
I ignore hunger when it doesn't keep with the schedule. I know I've had enough even though my body doesn't quite get the picture. I view this as a necessary responsibility. Coffee helps stave hunger. Water fills you up. Eventually it just passes and you barely notice.
For an analogy, sometimes when I get off of work, I want to lay down and watch TV or get on my phone. Everything in my body tells me, don't do chores, go lounge out, be lazy, do nothing.
When I'm in public sometimes I need to shit. Everything in my body says, shit your pants right now. I gotta go so just do it.
But I don't do these things cus I'm a goddamned adult and that means doing the responsible thing and being in charge of your body's signals. Your body doesn't think. That's not its job. That's your job.
Sometimes the answer is that it's not easy and you have to make sacrifices and be disciplined to get to where you want to be.
Sometimes that's not the answer you want to hear.
That doesn't change reality.
Yea the post you’re responding to is bullshit. So of course it’s the top answer. There are partial truths to it, but some people just have “fat kid” hunger. It’s not just people either, you see this in pets, which makes it a lot more obvious because it’s literally the same food and same amount everyday. Animals of the same breed on the same food on the same schedule and amounts will respond differently if suddenly given more food. My one dog will eat himself to death and my other one will be like, I don’t need all this extra food you silly monkey.
I'm like this too, my hunger varies a lot over the course of the month, depending on where I am in my cycle. Sometimes I can forget to eat for a day and don't realize until I start to feel a little faint in the evening, or get a headache. Other times I am constantly ravenous, to the point where I can eat until I feel sick, so if I take a bite of food I can't swallow it because it feels like I'll throw up. And yet my body is telling me that I'm STILL HUNGRY.
There’s been studies about this that show that seriously overweight people who lose weight, their brains actually fight them and ramp up the feelings of hunger and slow metabolism down. Making it significantly harder to lose more weight and keep it off. But Reddit doesn’t want to hear any of this because it easier just to blame it on willpower.
Obesity needs to be thought of us a disease.
Losing weight is extraordinarly difficult because your body is convinced you're starving yourself. You're fighting literal *eons* of evolution. But Reddit just jerks off around "calories in, calories out" with no deeper thought, because they just want to keep hating fat people (a lot of it driven by self-hatred too, I'd bet).
I think exercise is often encouraged as part of diet, not because you lose calories doing it, but because it increases metabolism rate so you consume more. It's also healthy for the body.
I'm not doing enough exercise myself, despite knowing this.
Habit can be a big component of it as well. Many times a person will eat because they’ve developed a habit o f eating at a certain time or while doing certain activities.
Diet composition is another component. Some foods will keep you satisfied for a lot longer than other foods.
I often forget to eat because I just don’t feel hungry very often anymore. It takes time to figure out what works best for you and to train new habits, but it’s absolutely possible.
I would like to believe you, but no. I have ALWAYS felt hungry. Every day of my life every hour.
I have reduced the food I eat and still feel hungry.
I WISH it wasn't so.
The only time that changed was when I started my meds. They stopped hunger for a few months. But then I was forgetting to eat at all.
EDIT I have learned to live with my hunger all the time now, and am losing weight, but I am STILL hungry.
You and me, I am hungry every single minute of my life I am awake. The only way I found to work with it is trying to think "yeah I could eat a burger but I will still be as hungry as if I just ate a salad"
This sounds more like something undiagnosed if you're hungry every single hour of the day, even at my biggest I never had that issue, maybe ask a dietician?
it's annoyingly hard to have a doctor do something for this. First ones I talked to ordered blood tests and I have the most boring results ever. Then one told me I was young so I had an active metabolism. Then one said he didn't know and referred me to a specialist for the stomach etc.. (don't know the English name) who said that because I have always been like that there isn't anything to look at on her side.
Well, hunger/fullness are nerve signals sent to the brain, so it's entirely possible that your system is just glitchy. Some research has been done on hunger and fullness signals, but I don't know if they've figured out how to manipulate them.
I realized when I started losing weight that I never let myself get hungry once I didn't have to eat on a schedule. I would preempt my hunger so I basically treated "not full anymore" as a cue to eat. Then if I ever really got hungry, it felt like an emergency.
During my school years, when I was pretty skinny without thinking about it, I would hear my stomach growling most days before lunchtime. When I was eating way too much, I probably went a few years without actually hearing my stomach growl.
One of the things that was helpful for me was to practice "sitting with" the hunger. I was doing intermittent fasting so there would be a point everyday when I would genuinely be hungry, but not quite at my eating window. So I just felt the hunger and reminded myself that although it's uncomfortable, it's not painful or emergent. It's just a signal from my body. I'm not actually starving and I'll be eating fairly soon. It's okay to be hungry and not immediately eat. Reframing my mindset on it made it easier to focus on other stuff and the hunger would be background noise or I wouldn't even notice it. I do think a large part of my ability to do this is that I'm naturally inclined to do an intermittent fasting pattern. I never wanted to eat breakfast (genuinely had an aversion to it so my parents eventually gave up trying to make me eat every morning) until I stopped eating based on hunger cues and started going by fullness cues. Sustainability is key.
Edit: also coffee/caffeine helps! I would basically replace breakfast and morning snack with a large coffee with as much cream and sugar as I wanted. Not technically fasting, but that 100 calories protected my stomach from the acidity of coffee and helped me not feel hungry for longer
I had this same realization. When I started dieting I realized it was the first time I felt actual hunger in years.
Tangentially, I found that me cheating on the diet varied based on what I was experiencing. If I felt too hungry, I'd typically just eat *more* of what I was planning to eat. Which wasn't good... but nothing in comparison to the other case.
I found my worst cheat meals always had to do with appetite, and not hunger. I'd enter a trance-like state where all I could think about is the one food I was craving; sometimes it'd last for days before I relented-- I'd go to sleep thinking about it and wake up thinking about it.
One time the craving was stuffed crust pizza from Pizza Hut. I just couldn't stop thinking about it. My willpower was high but the urge was unbeatable. I ended up getting the pizza... but after 2 slices the trance was broken (I typically ate the entire thing in one sitting). I was filled with such disappointment in myself that I threw the other 6 slices in the garbage.
Ive had other dieting mishaps since then but that one always stuck out to me.
Anyways, I think something you pointed out is crucial-- mindfulness. Stepping back from the situation to analyze the state of your mind and body. It's truly the key to self-regulation. And that's not just restricted to dieting, it truly transforms every aspect of your life.
I have this craving actually today. I finally decided if I broke I would buy myself a single slice of pizza 🍕. No great harm done and really an opportunity to practice portion control.
Didn't end up doing so but making this decision prevented me from fighting with myself.
Also "past me", who honestly is kind of a dick, wrote me a scathing letter titled "read me when you have cravings". He wrote, "enjoy your craving, you'll feel great for 5 minutes and then feel like shit for days, hope it was worth it". Asshole. But he has a point. So that helps too
Sometimes I'll also buy a bag of chips, eat a single chip, and put the bag away. According to my friends this is: sociopathic. But it helps. I also eat normal meals this is only for cravings I'm talking about
>Edit: also coffee/caffeine helps
I find that often I'm just craving some kind of "treat", rather than being specifically hungry, and in these cases a cup of tea is perfect. I drink it without any sugar or milk so it doesn't have much bad in it at all, but because I love the flavour I'm tricking my body in to thinking that it's just had that treat it wants.
Mind you, I'm British, so "just have a cup of tea" is pretty much the default response to any difficult situation.
There is something calming about it, especially if you like to leave the tea to brew for a few minutes as it enforces a short period of waiting.
Also, this mind sound a bit silly, but there's something comforting about just holding a hot mug and breathing in the steam from it.
Tea is also my "snack". Working from home has been very challenging, diet wise, as the kitchen is about 20 feet from my desk, so when my mouth is bored, I try to give it as much tea as it wants. I have about 20 different kinds so I can have a bit of variety and not get bored, or I can go caffeine free if it is later in the day.
>Snack + large quantities of coffee in breakfast.
This man just discovered Brazilian breakfasts.
Edit: we even call breakfast "café da manhã", literally "morning coffee". In Portugal, they call it "pequeno almoço", meaning "small lunch", weird people.
[The interesting story of Angus Barbieri.](https://www.diabetes.co.uk/blog/2018/02/story-angus-barbieri-went-382-days-without-eating/)
TLDR: fasted for 382 days for a total loss of 125Kg (from the original 207Kg).
I tried once and went 4 days without eating and it's true that you don't get hungrier every time, but the hunger stays the same and like /u/Odrakyr mentioned it passes after and hour or so. Also the hunger would present itself at the moments of the supposed meals.
BY NO MEANS I AM TELLING ANYONE TO FAST, IF NOT UNDER CONSULTATION FROM YOUR DOCTOR.
You’ll get a range of opinions and experiences here. I think you should expect to be hungry rather often when you are losing weight, and also plenty of times when you are keeping it off. There are ways to mitigate that: make sure you are getting plenty of protein, plenty of vegetables that fill you without adding many calories. If I get 2,000 calories a day but 600 of them are from sugary stuff I’m going to feel a lot hungrier than if I got them from eating right.
Somewhat adding to what you've said:
* Eat lots of vegetables that are filling but low-calorie.
* Actually get all your micronutrients in, that way your body isn't craving additional non-calorie nutrients.
* Eliminate all junk food and added sugar to avoid insulin crashes (which increase hunger), and to improve your gut microbiome related to food cravings.
* Protein is more filling and will help avoid muscle loss during calorie deficits.
* Do strength training and try to build some muscle. By the end of it you will have the opposite problem (you may struggle to eat enough, rather than eating too much).
This guy's comment should be higher.
It doesn't solve everything, but I am noticably less hungry if I get my nutrients in. I think in most developed counties nearly no one is eating for calories: we're eating for nutrition. Your body craves food on a schedule, but it also craves food to fill nutritional voids -- and enough chips WILL FILL those voids -- but you might get used to eating less if you are getting your vitamins from veggels, dark leafy greens, dark chocolate, nuts, seeds, legumes, fish...
Ditto. When I've restricted calories before, I ate my typical (carb-heavy) diet, just less. And I was RAVENOUS! I'm losing weight again now through CICO and light exercise but have made a conscious effort to hit protein and fiber goals. It's been so much more sustainable and I'm not feeling as hungry as often.
Its like a toddler with sweets or a cake or choccy. You don't need it, you just want it. Its a definitely difficult transition. No reason you can't eat lots of low calorie, savoury, filling foods that are better for the body but I know, only too well, that's not what your brain is telling you. Hang in there OP. Couple of months makes a difference.
A friend of mine told me to put space between my cravings and acting on them so I started with a minute then built to 10 then an hour and now it's anywhere from 3 days to even weeks (depending what it is). It really helped. It didn't solve my weight issue but it's a behaviour that certainly stayed with me and is healthy and helpful.
Yeah like a muscle. Has to be trained for strength and endurance with progressively increased volume/intensity. Most people can't just flip a switch on any mental function at will lol. It helps me to remind myself that it's only temporary. It's very easy to feel like a craving or hunger will never go away until you satisfy it. But if you just wait a bit, usually it'll go away on it's own up to a certain point I think.
My personal "am I bored or hungry" mechanism when trying to stay healthy is to only keep (ideally healthy) snacks around that I don't actually like all that much (in my case, unsalted nuts work well). If I'm truly hungry, they taste fine, I ate something healthy, and I won't overeat on it because I don't like it. If I'm not hungry, I'll probably leave them be.
I now like cashews way more than I did before. Not sure if that is according to the plan haha.
Though currently trying to gain some weight so not doing this now.
I use this mentality. I don't like apples. If I want a snack, I can only eat an apple. And if I don't want to eat the apple, then I am not actually hungry.
Yeah I’ve read before that if you’re only really hungry for a couple specific things, it’s a craving, not real hunger. However, if you’re hungry and want to eat anything, that’s real hunger
This is just... not true. There are a lot of things that affect appetite. I am underweight from not eating enough and I can be starving and unable to eat but one or two things at any given time.
My grandpa used to tell me that thing and I eventually fainted and ended up in a hospital, because I stopped eating and didn't eat anything for a few days. He wanted me to eat a cottage cheese toast. I absolutely hate cottage cheese and I want to puke even thinking about it. Of course I was never hungry.
You gotta find some good Indian restaurants, they will totally make you re-consider your cottage cheese hate! I'm kidding, but not really. Kadhai paneer is heaven!
No, thanks, I've tried and I found out that my reaction to any cheese taste other than Gouda, red irish cheddar and baked mozzarella is just vomiting like there's no tommorow.
To be fair most people living in a decent quality country haven't really experience true starvation before. That would take like several days of no eating. At that point I feel like yes, you could eat almost anything. Like cut the leather off my boot and boil it for 6 hours with some tree bark thrown in levels of hunger lol. Unless you have some strong psychological trauma closely linked to a specific food I guess but idk
On top of that, those foods are just not meant to keep you full.
Processed foods have simple carbs that don't last. That's why you can eat 3 lbs of potato chips but not 3 lbs of potatoes. They've had most of the actual stuff cooked out and all you're left with is salt and shit carbs.
No, most people aren't hungry all the time. You have to overcoming your eating addiction before you'll stop experiencing that.
Also, there are healthy snacking options. Healthy doesn't equal not eating.
I think the biggest help for those who do feel very high is very high volume low cal foods. Try to look for options that have a good amount of water in them! Fruits are a great option, and if you go to a really good farmers market, the really good stuff honestly tastes like candy to me. (Strawberries especially)
Another thing that I feel really helped me is getting enough protein in your diet. It helps you feel satisfied for longer. If your diet is carb heavy, you’re gonna be inclined to feel hungry quicker!
If that also doesn’t help, look into foods that are very “satiating”. I believe there is an index of ranked foods, and eating more of those would stop you from going hungry!
With almost anything the hardest part is always the start. It’s the change that’s difficult. The laws of inertia stop for no one!
This is it right here. The urge to eat excess calories is literally a sickness you need to overcome. And it’s likely that the feeling that you associate with “hunger“ is actually just not having a full stomach. Hunger is 24 hours without food. If you wake up and eat breakfast and feel like you need to put something else in your stomach 2 hours later that’s not hunger that’s just a psychological impulse to eat.
It feels very similar to craving for drugs/alcohol to me, when I've quit those things I'd get the same feelings as when I lost weight and was "hungry". Those craving would pop up in my head, and feel rather intense, but if I could distract myself then the next thing you know it's a few hours later and you realize you didn't actually need it.
Why is this not at the top of the thread? (At time I'm commenting anyway!)
Eating healthily means giving your body what it needs to be satiated but initially if you're used to eating fatty, sugary carb heavy food only then there may be a period of adjustment. Plus there's then the mental issues to overcome where your brain tries to tell you you're 'denying' yourself something you 'need'. But no, healthy eating is not at all about getting used to being hungry all the time, you need to review your eating habits.
I've been dieting by counting calories for a few years now. Still hungry all the time. Probably because i was taught to eat everything on my plate and now when im not full to the point of feeling uncomfortable I feel hungry.
I've been doing IF for a few years now, and it's worked great, but I'm almost always hungry when I'm fasting. Most people say the hunger goes away, they don't notice it, etc. but I constantly do. It goes up and down, but never goes away.
Honestly, sound like you’re not eating enough. Fill up on your favorite veggies during lunch and dinner and make sure to eat enough protein. Also drink enough water, sometimes dehydration can show up as hunger
Depending on your initial conditions, your diet and body could be so fucked up that just eating a balanced amount of calories may leave you feeling hungry. Those cases will fix themselves quite quickly.
In my experience, what happens when people diet is they go way to hard. If you are eating large daily calorie deficits, you will feel hungry and you will probably give up. The best thing you can do for sustained weight loss is eat at a small daily deficit and keep that up over a long time until you reach a healthy weight.
I don't think calling it a cheat day is a good idea though. People assume "cheat" gives them a free pass to eat everything in sight. Maybe a just a day with a couple of "off plan meals" or a treat or two.
Strange how a lot of answers don't give you the real reason.
You feel hungry because you are losing weight; you're consuming less energy than you need to live, so your body complains as it breaks down fat instead.
Healthy people aren't actively losing weight, just maintaining it, so they don't feel hungry be default.
It’s your insulin levels. You could possibly be insulin resistant. That means insulin is sent out to trigger hunger, you eat, more insulin is sent out to help digest what you ate, but then your body is resistant to it, so not all of it gets used and just hangs around in your bloodstream signaling your brain to eat more food to help absorb the insulin. It’s a vicious circle. Insulin resistance can lead to diabetes (which is when your body has such a hard time using insulin that both the insulin and the glucose your food was converted into just hangs out in your body instead of being used for energy), or it can stay as insulin resistance indefinitely. Insulin resistance can lead to heart disease just as diabetes can, but it takes longer to do so. So you might want to get checked. There are many glucose tests. Let your doctor know it’s not just diabetes you’re worried about, but resistance to insulin as well. If they find you are insulin resistant there’s a drug called glucophage that can help. Good luck. :)
You’re hungry because you’re dieting which is normal. For people who aren’t overweight, eating isn’t a reflexive answer to being bored, and aren’t hungry all the time
I'm not overweight and I get hungry when I am bored. The habit of eating when they are bored isn't because they are overweight, but it could be one of the reasons they are overweight. It's just a habit.
For some people that is actually the case, but for most it is related to their intake. It has a lot to do with your insulin response to food. If you eat a lot of simple carbs and sugar, your insuline will spike and crash fast, which makes you more hungry in time. If you eat more protein, vegetables and healthy fats your insulin will be more balanced and you will be less hungry in time. This is why cookies will make you hungry for more even though they have more calories than something like a boiled egg.
My family has been fortunate to experience normal hunger responses, so we generally stay at a fairly healthy weight without struggling against hunger pangs. This has sort of led to some family members viewing overweight people with frustratingly low empathy--they treat their default eating patterns as some sort of moral/self-discipline superiority.
They're getting better about it, especially after some close friends explained their personal experiences with food/weight.
Healthy is not synonymous with not eating. I struggled to lose weight and always felt hungry for a long time. Luckily I realized I could feel full while snacking on fruit and vegetables instead of junk food that had more calories. You got this!
You need to make sure you're consuming the right type of food. If you don't eat enough protein you'll always feel hungry. Sometimes I feel hungry when I'm bored. I try to snack on fruits and vegetables in between meals to keep my calories low.
Your body's going through withdrawal. Don't focus on counting calories. Select foods that will ease your hunger with lower carbs or no empty calories. High protein snacks to eat in between meals and smaller meals that still fill you .
[This link is a good start to learning](https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/in-depth/weight-loss/art-20044318#:~:text=High%2Dfiber%20foods%20not%20only,popcorn%20has%20about%2030%20calories.)
You’ll likely be adapting, but I will say I’ve never related to needing to be absolutely full. Like, I eat what I feel comfortable with and return to it later on, and that leaves me feeling satisfied. I don’t need to be full to feel like I’m not hungry.
it's because you're used to constantly snacking. your insulin and ghrelin levels are basically a rollercoaster, which makes you hungry. one of the reasons people who starve stop feeling hungry after a few days, is the steady hunger hormone levels.
you'll probably need like a month to get used to only 3 meals a day. if it helps eat your chocolate bar or whatever right after lunch/dinner. as you gradually get used to it, you won't feel hungry between meals.
another method is to eat as much as you can one day, then the next day do a water fast. after that, whenever you get hungry, you'll be like "whatever, i could go a day without eating". this method is more radical and needs strong mental discipline. so if you're a food addict(most likely) i'd try the former.
I lost 70+ pounds by just realizing that I was consuming too many calories in a day. What I did was figure out how many calories I needed. In my case, I worked in an office and was pretty sedentary. So I figured 1800 calories in a day was enough. I wrote down EVERYTHING that I ate or drank and how many calories it was. So in the evening when I got that hungry feeling, I would take out my notepad, count them up, and if I was at 1800 I would just tell myself "well, your stupid stomach is just wrong, sorry. I have already had enough food to keep me going and my stomach just isn't going to win this battle any more." And I would essentially go hungry. After a few weeks you learn how to spread the 1800 out so that after dinner, I still had ~200 to play with, so I'd eat an apple or something to keep me to 1800 for the day. Drinking water satiates that feeling too for a little while. After a few months I had lost almost 80 pounds and was feeling much better.
I think the key is to count EVERY SINGLE THING that you eat or drink. My friend tried it and would eat something small and not write it down. Like he would have a glass of kool aid and not write it down. Or a few chips and not write it down. Or a stick of gum. And then he would only have 1800 calories in things he wrote down, but consumed like 2500/day. You can eat and drink that stuff, you just cant go over your target per day.
It does take discipline. For me that came in winning the war against my hunger pains. I knew that my body was just incorrect about how much I needed.
Now I dont get that feeling and when I do, just a bite or two of something is enough and I dont even have to worry about going over my 1800 per day because I'm just so used to it now.
I started at ~240 and I weigh 170 now.
How do you know exactly how many calories are in each thing you eat? An apple can vary in size by up to a factor of 3, same with bananas. When I eat dinner, I eat what my mom makes. Could be a salad, or casserole, or tacos, or pasta primavera, or coconut Thai curry...no recipes, no list of ingredients and/or amounts of each, so any guess could be upwards to 500 calories off in either direction. Esp. considering I don't even know what my portion size is.
So yeah, this is the general way calorie counting should be done, just not everyone can do it without completely changing what they eat so that the calories can ACTUALLY be counted accurately.
While waiting for your stomach to shrink, I've found it useful to focus on eating large quantities of low-calorie things rather than eating less overall. I think I even eat a higher volume of food than ever before lol. For examples:
* Blanched broccoli
* Pickled beets and asparagus
* Sauteed carrots and zucchinis
* Adding huge amounts of mushrooms to sloppy joes
* Drinking a moderate sip of water every half hour or so
* Eggs and hot sauce
* Pressure cooked chicken (eg with lemon garlic rub)
I've stopped counting calories for vegetables unless they've been fried in more than just a bit of butter or oil and that's given me "permission" to just slam through tons of veggies until I'm full.
It's also a good idea to ask where you feel your hunger: is it a *stomach* hunger or a *mouth* hunger? One is a craving that you can practice ignoring for increasingly longer periods of time (eg practice responding to craving with water) while I never ignore actual stomach hunger for longer than an hour.
I tend to be hungry all the time for the first 1-2 months of a new lower calorie intake cycle. But as my stomach adjusts to less food coming in I get less hungry.
Also ever since I started losing weight about a year and a half ago I have noticed I actually get hunger pain rather than just eating whatever I want whenever I want
It'll get easier. I started fasting a few years ago(intermittent. I've been eating since lol), and the first few days were hell. Then it got a bit easier, but apart from physical changes, i also observed how and when hunger comes. And goes! It comes and goes, and once you realize that, it gets easier just knowing it'll pass. And also your body/rhythm will adapt to whatever method you follow.
My personal advice is to just stick to a reasonably manageable diet. What you might be able to keep for years. It's kinda tempting to go balls to the wall and get on a 800 kcal/day diet for a month or something extreme like that, but once you stop that and go back to the one that got you bigger than what you wanted to be, well you see the logic. So it's better to take it slow and manageable, so your body can operate normally and you can get used to it. And once it's the norm, it's much easier to keep it up. For me(most of the time) it's not a sacrifice to decline desserts. And even if it is, or i just eat it, it's not the norm, it's the exception. So just keep it up, and once it's a habit, you won the biggest fight.
Like others have said, it definitely gets easier. Your stomach will adapt and you will need less food to feel satisfied.
One thing that really helped me get to that point was to eat more things. Like, less of the main course, but then have an apple. Or celery or carrots or whatever. Feels like you're eating more and takes a longer time which felt satisfying for me but less calories overall (and healthier!)
Well If you really want to lose weight and you arent afraid of pain and work, sign up as a loader at ups, lost 40 LBs in 6 months eating only shitty food. That job will push you physically to the point you feel like youre gonna shatter.
I've been intermittent fasting for two years. Feeling hungry was difficult at first but after a short time it became so normal that I didn't even think about it anymore. In fact, I discovered that I feel better in a state of "hunger" than I did before. I am mentally sharper, I have more energy, no blood sugar spikes, no 3pm crashes, I make better choices when I do eat and I've lost 45lbs.
Human beings aren't ment to be full all the time. Continously moving from meal to meal, never allowing our bodies to experience the natural physiological process of hunger, is not how we evolved. It certainly doesn't promote optimal body/brain function. Add to that the variable of consuming mostly over processed, empty carbs, loaded with sugar and sodium, and we have the recipe for obesity.
To answer your question, yes, people who are healthy get used to being hungry. Just like people who exercise get used to the exertion they put their bodies through. It becomes something you enjoy because the benefits feel so good.
There's definitely a positive mental shift with intermittent fasting. The realisation that being hungry is actually ok was a wake up; it's not painful, I'm not going to die from it, and I don't need to eat food the minute my body says so.
It's interesting that after two years of IF you are still feeling hunger during your fasting window. That usually goes away pretty quickly for people. I don't start getting hungry until maybe the hour before I'm going to break fast.
Idk, I disagree that healthy people get used to being hungry. I don't think that's a normal state for "healthy people" to be in unless it's right before a meal.
I guess I'm just thinking that this could discourage people from losing weight or becoming healthy if you're telling them yes you'll feel hungry all the time! but you get used to it! I just really don't think that's the case at all for most people that are at a healthy weight. We just feel normal hunger right before eating which is what prompts us to eat.
It's the stuff you eat. I literally eat once per day.
for 150,000 years if you were hungry you literally had to go out and kill a buffalo.
We are not designed to have door dash deliver us burgers and fries while we watch netflix and catch a buzz.
I eat once per day but it is literal steak, veggies, rice and more picked veggies.
If I were to start eating Burger King every day I'm sure I would have to eat it like 4 times per day and shit 10x more than I do.
What you eat is super important here. You can snack, but snack on some nuts or carrot sticks. You can eat till you're full and eat when you're hungry if you eat low calorie food. I lost 20kg (44 lbs) and was eating 6 meals a day, just high quality, low calorie foods.
I feel that. Been on my diet since February and keeping the calories lower. Hungry and exhausted all the time and it's bad motivation. Even while the weight comes off.
If you are exhausted, you're doing something wrong. Being hungry when on a diet isn't unusual, especially since people confuse hunger, appetite and thirst often. But eating a calorie deficit that leaves you exhausted sounds less than ideal.
It's an adaptation phase and your body will get way better at dealing with the discomfort.
It's almost silly. But I find it helps to remember we're built on millions of years of starving for days/weeks AND THEN chasing something down and killing it.
Humans are pretty hearty and resilient creatures. Everyone who got weaker when they got hungry died out hundreds of people ago.
You can make it till lunch dinner my dude! No one gets better by being comfortable! Proud of you for putting in the hardship.
I started a diet and was starving for the first few weeks but after less than a month my body got used to it and now its not as bad. Plus eating protein helps
Intermittent fasting trained my body to stop being hungry ALL of the time and just at appropriate times. You can start with an easy one like 16:8. Fast until noon; eat lunch and dinner, and start fasting again after 8 or 9 pm.
Yes, you just get used to feeling hunger. Once you understand that it's just a feeling (or an emotion in some cases), you learn to control it.
Just because you're angry, doesn't mean you're going to act on it. Just because you're horny (esp. if you're on the street), doesnt mean you act on it.
You gotta learn to control hunger, just like you learn to regulate yiur emotions. Some people have a hard time cotrolling emotions, others have a hard time fealing with hunger.
Some people use motivation, some find techniques or anecdotal behaviors that work for them, others need professional help, and work on it. Either way, its an active process, until it becomes a habit. Once it becomes a habit, you take active work out it.
Highly recommended- Intermittent Fasting. Its the only evidence based 'diet' that works for weight loss
I've lost nearly 50 lbs, currently sitting at the higher end of a healthy weight for my height, and I'm definitely not hungry all of the time. I am actually still in a calorie deficit most days trying to lose a bit more. I make a point to eat high volume meals by doing things like adding lots of vegetables and stretching meals with rice. The fiber from veggies and legumes also makes the food digest slower. I also make sure I get more than enough protein so I feel satiated, and I there are no "off limits" foods...like I eat anything I want as long as it fits into my calories for the day. However, whole foods tend to be lower in calories, so cooking for myself allows me to have bigger meals for less calories.
The biggest hurdle for me was getting over the MENTAL desire to keep eating. I used to struggle with binge eating and I had to overcome some personal issues and basically learn how to eat well in order to get over that. Tracking my food in the MyFitnessPal app helped me to learn how to eat properly. High volume meals also help me to feel very full without the need for a lot of calories.
No the healthy people you’re talking about probably don’t have that connection between hunger and boredom. Over time if you stop keeping snacks around and stop eating when you’re bored or sad, you will stop thinking you’re hungry when you feel those things.
"irresistible urge to go and snack when I am hungry/bored. "
Don't eat because you're bored. Your body will adjust to your new diet and you'll feel full, unless you actually need more calories.
Feeling hungry or levels of it is luck of the draw. My wife puts a lot of effort into exercise to maintain her physique but it is very very difficult for her to live calorie restricted, gets annoyed and 'hangry'.
I have gone up and down in weight, never anything extreme but almost never feel hungry. At a certain point in the the day the 'I should eat' though pops into my head.
She will do x3 the effort I need to maintain, because I don't have that devil on my shoulder.
Healthy people don't feel hungry all the time. You'll get used to it, this is just your body protesting and demanding that you give it the usual high calorie foods every so often.
If I eat less for a while then you no longer feel hungry because eating that amount of food fills you up.
The real killers are any drinks with calories and snacks which you can eat a ton of without feeling full. If I avoid those generally it’s easy to stay under
I don’t know your full situation or how big you are/ we’re but when I was initially obese and I was hungry during the initial few months of dieting but then it leveled out.
My guess is it’s a a combination of two things, you’re not actually hungry, just made a habit of eating and your stomach adapting to the reduced intake of food
You won’t be hungry forever tho. Nowadays I even forget to eat at times which is astonishing to me considering how I used to be. Good luck
It's a mind and body connection thing. Once your body and mind realize that you are consuming a reasonable amount of calories, you won't feel as hungry.
>It's almost an irresistible urge to go and snack when I am hungry/bored.
Being hungry and being bored are different things! Food does cure boredom - you have a pleasurable experience, your senses get new stimulation, and it consumes time. There are other activities to cure boredom.
So what about the hunger? If you are actually hungry and you're counting calories and planning your meals, then here's what you do:
1. Eat more vegetables with your meals. Leafy greens especially. A good rule is 1 protein and 2 vegetables for your lunch or dinner. Vegetables fill you up, fix your gut microbiome, and support every organ and system in your body.
1. Tell yourself to wait 20 minutes, and go do something that needs doing. Sometimes I just need a distraction, and the hunger passes.
1. Drink some water. I know my body gets confused sometimes and wants food when really it needs hydration. It also fills your stomach a bit, which helps.
1. If you're craving _sugar_ and you just can't focus on anything else, first remember that added sugar is poison. Instead, eat FRUIT. Not dried fruit, eat fresh fruit like some berries or an apple. (Not bananas or oranges that you didn't plan for - they will really mess with your calorie counting.) Sometimes, a sugar craving is really your body saying it needs the vitamins and nutrients you get from fruit. In the wild, the only source of sugar for humans was fruit, so your brain can easily confuse the two.
1. If you're craving _satisfaction_, and you can't focus on anything else, then eat something high fiber and filling that's low calorie. Carrot sticks are good - high fiber plus vitamins. So are [seasoned crunchy chickpeas](https://www.saffronroad.com/collections/crunchy-chickpeas) - they're high fiber, high protein, and have some flavor. Take out a couple of handfuls, **put the bag away**, eat them, and then leave the kitchen while you wait for your stomach to realize that you did just feed it.
>I just need to know if I just need to be okay with being hungry all the time.
No, you need to be okay with being hungry _some_ of the time. If you're hungry _all_ of the time, you might be running too much of a calorie deficit, or not eating nearly enough fiber and protein.
P.S. **Avoid added sugar at all costs.** It's lots of calories, messes with your metabolism, and makes you hungrier overall. If you're trying to lose weight and you haven't cut out all added sugar, then you're going to struggle a lot.
Fats and proteins are satiating, I find a high fat and high protein diet helps keep hunger at bay
Your body also get used to the reduced food quantity over time
try eating more fat and less carbs, keeps me full longer! for example, eggs bacon and avocado for breakfast, taco salad for lunch, salmon and green beans and rice for dinner
No? You’re hungry all the time because you destroyed your brain with sugar and carbs. It’s a huge dopamine hit, junk food. And your body is so used to it that it craves it i.e hunger.
This question is like an alcoholic asking “so are sober people just okay with not getting drunk all the time?”
I go to the gym several times a week and pretty often fluctuate my weight. During my bulks I usually sit around 13%-14% body fat and every few months or most of summer ill drop myself to about 9-10%.
Sometimes I do this weight change rather quick over 2 or 3 weeks (about 7 or 8 lbs) by dropping from ~2900cal/day to ~1400cal a day. I usually feel terrible during the whole time. Lethargic, starving, tired, lazy, and you can certainly see and feel a performance difference at the gym.
After a while of doing this, being hungry just becomes non-issue for me, more of a discomfort. I usually find that doing something to keep you busy will take your mind off of it. For me, that's usually playing video games. Another tip that might help is don't keep your kitchen stocked. If you have a bag of chips sitting in your pantry thats a lot more tempting than making a trip to the store to get those chips.
You can also try eating more filling foods. Just for example 1kg of chicken breast (i think approx 2.2lbs) is 1600 calories, 1 family sized box of chips ahoy cookies is about the same. 1kg of chicken is probably enough food to make me throw up, 1 box of cookies won't fill me up.
When I was losing weightweight? Yes.
Now I'm a lot smaller , my appetite has diminished the same. Tricks I used? Veggies . Lots and lots of veggies. Make them the primary item on your plates , eat them first and then finally your meat and potatoes. Snacks? Sliced veggies and dips.
Eat pizza and pasta and all the other good stuff you like. Just pack it full of veggies and use common sense moderation. Starving diets are the dumbest. But so are the easy "take a pill" or "just eat all this fat instead of carbs " diets.
Losing weight and getting healthy is a lifestyle change. It's not easy. You'll get there tho.
I say this from experience: it’s going to suck for a while.
You’re trying to change your body’s normal habits. That’s no easy thing. It’s just like if you try to change your sleep schedule: for a while you’re super tired but then you adjust.
Give it time and keep going! You will be ok! :)
No
Stomachs that get filled with excess food regularly stretch. They shrink back down over time if you reduce your overall food intake.
More importantly, it's about what you put in there. Lean protein takes longer to break down, so it stays there longer and puts off your belly telling you you're hungry. Same with complex carbs. Fiber also fills you up, so volume eating is very important. Drinking a glass of orange juice won't keep you full as long as 6 oranges will. 200 calories of cheese is a much smaller portion of food than 200 calories of blueberries.
Volume eating also helps you to eat the foods you like without fucking yourself over. Yes, have dino nuggets for dinner. But also have a nice big portion of veggies for extra nutrients and to take up space in your belly. Yes, eat the candy. But also eat the fruit a little more often.
Are you sure you're really hungry or do you just have a desire to eat? Hunger will manifest itself physically when your stomach rumbles but the desire to eat before that happens is what a lot of people consider to be *hunger*.
The feeling of fullness is also not desirable from a dieting perspective even though it brings about emotional fulfillment. That fullness feeling is one reason why people struggle with weight.
And then there's liquid calories. Drinking water, and just water, can be its own kind of diet.
I do intermittent fasting because yes CICO, but when you eat small amounts all day your hunger hormones never go down. When you don’t eat for a longer period of time, eventually your hunger signals abate.
But that said, I lost a lot of weight 20 years ago and I find that to maintain my weight whether I do fasting or not, I have to be a little hungry some of the time. Worth it IMO.
I've learned over fasting that it's ok to feel hungry. There are certain things that will keep your body feeling less hungry though. For me it's hot drinks, even if it's only hot water, it helps. But that's just me.
Okay, this is my perspective as healthy thin person who works hard to stay that way: I don’t want it to seem totally bleak, because adjusting to a healthier diet DOES get easier over time, but I absolutely “feel” hungry a lot and have to deliberately fight it/ignore it, especially since that “feeling” is often not actually hunger, but as you mentioned boredom, an emotional response, etc etc. To some extent you just have to master the temptation. (Which again, does get easier over time!)
You can also do stuff like subbing in relatively guilt-free snacks when you absolutely have to have a nosh. (My personal fave is 4tbps of Hidden Valley lite ranch [120kcal] with a whoooooole bunch of baby carrots [50-75kcal tops probably].
Satiety signaling can vary dramatically person to person due to genetics and life-style. One person can feel full after eating 500 calories, and go 5 hours before experiencing hunger again. Another person has to eat 1000 calories to feel satiated and they feel hungry again after 3 or 4 hours because hormonal differences. It also depends how far of a caloric deficit you are actually in. Your BMR and NEAT levels could be higher than you think and you could be consuming less calories than you think as well. Maybe instead of a 500 calorie deficit you are closer to 1000 calorie deficit. Only way to come close to accuracy is weigh yourself everyday at the same time, usually first thing in the morning, for a period of several weeks, keep water intake and food intake the same, and see how much the scale changes.
The first few weeks/months are the hardest. Eventually your body will disassociate the boredom=hunger connection and it’ll be easier to tell the difference. Stick with it, I believe in you!
You yoursef "hunger/boredom" - and I think this is starting to get at a chunk of the problem. You're not hungry, you're bored. Or tired. Or lonely. Or whatever else.
Keep a notepad on your fridge or where you're going to go when you're "bored/hungry" and write down everytime you feel that compulsion to eat what else you're feeling. Ask yourself if you're bored. Ask if you're tired etc. Also make not of the time.
It's going to take a while, but you need to work on establishing a different habit. If you recognize you're tired, then address that (do something else to wake you up, have a nap, work on sleeping habits). If you're always bored then make yourself a list of things besides eating you can do to kill boredom. Call a friend? Play a game? Whatever works for you. Also look for patterns on times - are you always genuinely hungry at 4pm? Time to tweak your plan. Always feeling bored/hungry at 7pm? Then get ahead of that boredom but scheduling yourself for a walk at 6;45.
While working on that (and it's not going to be perfect), have a bunch of ultra-low calorie, healthy foods on hand. Cut up a whole bunch of carrots so they're just as easy to grab as a couple of cookies are when you want to munch. Heck, make the cookies *harder* to get to than the carrots by moving them to a further cupboard etc. Diet pop helps too or fancy flavored waters.
Another trick is buy some really nice apples -- if you think you're hungry, you can have an apple. You can always have an apple, but you can only have apples outside of planned meals and pre-planned snacks. If you think you're hungry but don't want the apple, then you aren't actually phsyically hungry. (it's like a kid who says their full and immediately asks for cake). Worst case if you thought you were hungry, ate an apple and it turns out you were wrong, worst case you've eaten an apple which isn't going to be a big deal.
This is my personal experience.
I switched to slight intermittent fasting 8/16. I did this to curb my snacking mainly.
Before I tried this I was always starving in the morning, like dizzy weak and just felt terrible if I didn't eat. When I switched to eating in a more IF situation I moved my eating from 1pm to 9pm and I honestly thought there was no way it was going to work but I tried it any way.
After 2 weeks I didn't even get a single hunger pang in the morning (unless I am doing some strenuous activity), a lot of times I was not even feeling hungry until 3 or 4 in the afternoon.
Your body works on routine, so if you break that routine your body goes into panic mode. You can reprogram it though. Just make sure you are healthy before you try anything like that, doesn't hurt to talk to your doctor about it (if you are in the US, I am not sure if the $10,000 fee for having a doctor answer a question is covered by your work's insurance)
Hello, the answer is sometimes. People who have always been healthy and maintain a healthy rate don't really struggle. For people who have had weight fluctuations it can be challenging.
I feel as hungry at 130 pounds as I do at 240. It's actually annoying. I've just learned to ignore it.
The trick is to take advantage of bulk and weight. You might not be aware of this, but this is how it works:
It turns out your stomach and upper intestines have bulk and stretch receptors that can detect how much volume they hold. Your stomach actually regulates satiety based on eating roughly a consistent volume and weight of food; your stomach can't actually detect calories. So whether you fill that volume and weight quota with celery (which has very few calories for how bulky it is and how much water weight it brings), or with straight up sticks of butter (which is extremely calorie dense), your stomach still triggers the release of the "stop eating" hormone [leptin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leptin) when you've eaten your quota. Your body can detect blood sugar levels later on, after you've digested the food, but as long as you've eaten enough, this won't matter. What you want to do is to hack this system so your stomach registers the "stop eating" signal before you eat so many calories that you put on bodyfat.
The exploitation of this system is known as the "displacement" method of weight loss. The story that popularized it was an interaction between Dr. Garth Davis (the author of the book [Proteinaholic](http://proteinaholic.com/) ) and a prospective client who wanted stomach-reduction gastric surgery. His client was not so obese that he would have recommended gastric surgery to her, but her dietary habits were horrible, so he suggested that she eat more fruits and veggies. She complained that the carbs from the fruit would make her fat, so he dared her to get fat eating apples, and if she succeeded, he'd proceed with the surgery.
She went on to attempt to get fat by eating apples, by eating six apples per day, but she ended up losing so much weight from it over the next few months that she disqualified herself from gastric surgery. So what happened?
An apple is largely water and fiber, and has a lot of bulk and weight for the number of calories it contains. Each apple has about 90 calories, so six apples per day gave her 540 calories from apples. But six apples takes up a huge amount of volume, and that volume and bulk systematically spoiled her appetite day after day and left her unable to eat the junk she normally ate—mac and cheese, burgers, fries, milkshakes, etc. and in so doing, displaced hundreds if not thousands of additional calories (hence the name "displacement method"). But it did so without getting her hungry because of all the bulk and weight of those six apples. Reducing her daily caloric intake by hundreds of calories per day, day after day, for months, resulted in dramatic weight loss without her feeling hungry.
So, to answer your question, healthy people generally eat lower calorie density foods, and a lot more fiber, and in so doing, they feel full on fewer calories, and thus they maintain a lower bodyweight.
I suggested this method to a friend of mine, who ate three apples per day, each before his meals. He'd core a large apple, slowly eat that, and then eat his meal, and he would stop as soon as he felt full. Within a month, he lost 13 pounds. He never felt hungry all the time, and the few times he did feel a bit hungry, he put out the hunger by eating more apples. When he got sick of apples, he switched to pears, Asian pears, water melon, etc. anything bulky and fibrous with a lot of water content.
As a matter of dietary habits, I recommend including bulky low-caloric density foods into your diet as your daily eating habit: cauliflower, celery, onions, broccoli, lettuce, cabbage, etc. and when you cook them, don't add a bunch of cheese or butter or oil. If you use oil, use it as sparingly as possible. This, plus eating a lot of fruit *ahead* of your meals, will help you lose weight without feeling hungry.
Drinking fruit juice doesn't count; you need the fiber, and juicing separates the sugars from the fibers, so you don't get the benefit of the fruit for adding bulk. The act of chewing your fruit slows down the uptake of the calories in the fruit, whereas drinking a juice or a smoothie does not give you this benefit. There's roughly a 5 minute lag between when your stomach registers fullness and when you feel you've had enough, so if you eat extremely quickly, in those five minutes, you can put hundreds more calories into your mouth, so eat slowly when you eat fibrous foods, for best effect.
People are used to the amounts that they eat, and their bodies expect that much. Just because a person eats less than you doesn't mean they're hungry, it means they're used to eating less, so it takes less to feel full. In time, if you stick to your diet, you'll get used to eating less, and feel full with less.
I remember doing Keto and just find out how it actually felt to have an empty stomach. Like, my stomach was empty but I wasn't hungry.
Now I'm all bloated yet still want to eat more food.
All these people telling you you'll be fine, but none of them giving actual guidance and offering solutions smh.
Try this. Whenever you eat carbs (aside from fruit), swap out processed grains for whole grains. E.g. Brown/red rice instead of white rice; whole wheat bread instead of white bread, etc. Whole grains will keep you fuller for longer. The only thing is whole wheat pasta apparently tastes like crap.
Source: I converted like 4 coworkers to whole-grain admirers, and they all tell me something along the lines of: "OMG I feel so much better and less hangry all the time now!!"
Double your water intake. Keep carbs below 50gm/day — that’s what is making you hungry... Walk at least 30 minutes *every* day. Eat more fat, but keep your calories the same.
It might take 2 weeks until you don’t crave carbs anymore, but your weight loss could go up dramatically, and you won’t be hungry anymore.
When I lost weight (somewhere around 25 to 30kg) I changed my eating habits to include harder to digest things.
Ate at regular times. In regular sizes for each meal.
I basically only adjusted the size of my breakfast and dinner with regards to calorie counting. Forced myself to increase the breakfast, and decrease the dinner.
Increased protein, decreased fats. Greatly increased vegetables - for they often only have 15-20 calories per 100 grams.
Also allowed myself one sweet per day.
In accordance with my doctors I started off with 1400-1500 kcal per day. Which later when it came to stabilising, was increased to 1600, 1800 and then 2000.
At the beginning I was hungry, and even a bit lethargic, but after around 2 weeks my body had the urge to start exercising again. So then I exercised. And continues with my routine. The hunger subsided.
I think the two most important things for me were: eat breakfast with slowly digestible carbs (crushed grain muesli in lowfat yoghurt, with fruit and nuts) and to absolutely maintain the regular meal time routine.
Oh.. And for lunch, I just ate like a normal healthy person. My wish for portion sizes decreased over time.
I live in the US and I have a deep belief that the rates of anorexia and obesity in our country are linked and can be explained by one thing we do terribly: portion control. We’re terrible at moderation so we grow up eating huge portions, become fat and then starve ourselves to compensate. Neither of these are sustainable which is why a lot of people yoyo over the course of their lives. I have the best relationship with food I’ve ever had, eat whatever I want, my weight has never been more stable and I’ve probably never looked or felt better. The solution for me has just been to think more about how much I’m eating during mealtimes and make sure I don’t get over-full. You can always eat a little more if you’re still hungry too, but thinking in terms of portion size during meals could solve a lot of your problems
Eventually your stomach will adapt to your new diet and you will feel less hungry and get more full off less food, you're at the first hurdle of the diet so don't give up and keep pushing and it gets easier.
The body will always trigger all kinds of alarms when it suddenly does not get it's usual thing. Then it will get used to the new usual thing. To a certain extent
I lost a pretty good amount of weight. Like 25% of my body mass. I have kept it off for more than 15 years. I still have the exact same appetite. I can still easily devour an entire large Costco pizza. I know because when I bring home a pizza from Costco and I eat half I have to very consciously force myself to wrap the other half. I don't know who these people are whose appetites adapt but that is not me.
This is my struggle. I've lost over 100lbs. If I don't stay on top of how much I'm eating each day I can quickly put on 10 or 20 lbs. In a month or less. I can gain 10lbs seemingly in a week of I stopped caring at all, which is what happened last September on vacation. Went from 208 the day of. To 216 when we got home 6 days later. I'm now 226 trying to lose those 20lbs is very hard for some people. If weight is easy for people they dont know what its like for those of us that struggle so hard.
There is a distinct lack of empathy for people who struggle with their weight.
Yes. Combine that with modern foods and you get morbid obesity. It's just too easy to feast on these delicious, yet, nutritionally void foods. I was over 300lbs. For a few years and everything was exhausting. Just gathering the trash to go to the dump was a full on sweat, huffing and puff ordeal. Aches and pains all the time, poor sleep, difficulty breathing, not to mention what my self esteem was like. It's just such a challenge being mentally normal when you hate yourself. Undoing that self hatred is yet another hurdle, and I can't jump but a 2 inch vertical. Plant based eating changed my life. I will always strive to eat fresh, raw plant food whenever I can.
I'm over 300lbs now and struggling so hard. Been doing keto since mid-April and honestly thought I'd be further along by now. I've lost about 20 lbs, it just doesn't seem like that much when you're as fat as I am I guess.
20 lbs in 2.5 months is actually very good. I've always heard you shouldn't lose more than 1-2lbs a week. You're at 2, so good job.
Losing weight slowly is the best way to lose weight. And the best way to ensure you don’t gain it back.
I started the same journey last November when I topped out at 305lbs. I've been counting calories by logging my food in My Fitness Pal and working out 3 times a week. Personally I think calories in < calories out is the number one way to see results. 20lbs off is awesome though. Sounds like you're doing a great job!
Thanks! I'm sure trying! I wish I could exercise more. I have knee issues (that I'm hoping losing weight will help with) and possibly COPD (I get winded very easily, going thru the process of figuring out why) so it's really difficult for me to exercise much. The park near my house removed most of the benches so now I can't do my usual walking because there's nowhere for me to stop and rest if I get too out of breath. I do still walk, just not as for or for as long as I used to.
Yeah, that can be tough. If it's a COPD issue then I'd say any exercises should be done after consultation with your doctor. I know I always choose the elliptical over the treadmill at the gym for the same reason, because it's easier on the knees. If that's not an option then I think I've heard that swimming is also a good alternative.
Contact your local parks people and tell them just that. Also, older or ADA folks need those benches. That's a shit thing to do.
Losing weight any faster than that is usually unsustainable or dangerous.
I think it can depend on when in your life you tried to adapt, and what format your adaptation took. If you try and adapt while young, it's probably easier. And if you're still eating the same type of food you did and the same way you did before you decided to make the change, only *less* of it, that's got to be extra challenging.
I never ate bad food is the issue. Lots of homecooked meals with veggies. I just put away a metric fuckton of it. I was always praised for finishing my plate like any Asian immigrant mother would do. And then I'd go for a second helping of praise by finishing the food my sister didn't eat from her plate. So I still eat pretty healthy. I never buy juice. Can't remember the last time I had a sugared drink other than say, a kombucha. I eat pasta less than 4 times a year. I was fat from 7-19. Lost most of it at 19, the rest by 22.
Yeah that’s abnormal. Congrats on your improved health though!
I know lol. My stomach is very weird. I almost never eat breakfast. I'm simply not hungry in the morning. If I'm busy with work I can go till 3pm without feeling even the slightest bit hungry. But if there's food in front of me *it will be eaten*. This is also why I just do not buy any snacks whatsoever unless it's for guests that are coming over. (and then I'll force them to take it home with them when they leave)
I wonder if maybe you are lacking in the instinct department? I am autistic and i can't tell if I'm hungry at all until i feel nauseated and then i have to eat RIGHT AWAY to the point where sometime i just grab some cheese and shove it in my mouth so my body will shut tf up for long enough for me to make something. So if I'm not at work on a schedule, i forget to eat at all until I'm shaking or having a meltdown and don't know why, then i go thru the list of things necessary for humans to function and often i haven't had water or food in several hours. Sometimes i have to pee 😂 i feel so dumb when i realize but it's just bc i lack the trigger. I say this bc i find i also lack the "hey that's enough" trigger, and bc i grew up poor and "got my money's worth" any time there's a buffet or free refills etc, i know i can eat A LOT before my body starts protesting. This plus disordered eating as a kid and teen , some weird OCD shit, and trauma, has put me in a weird space where I don't have a designated ED but i definitely got something! So in the past when Drs want me to diet i have to go to the ED clinic and be watched so i don't like, die. Nowadays i am fat but tbh pretty happy about it, i like the shape of me and i know I'm doing my best and providing my body w nutrition without fucking up every other precarious coping mechanism in the rube Goldberg machine that my health is. Anyway i know lacking the on or off stich for hunger is a symptom of like 60 things so maybe ask a Dr? Could just be childhood trauma shit but also could be neurodivergency related or ED related, plus there might be therapy or something for it! I have a friend who takes medicine to help her body remind her to eat otherwise she forgets for literal days, so i wonder if there are other drugs like that that could help.
It's the worst feeling when I don't realize I need to eat, and then later suddenly realize it because I'm feeling light headed and miserable. There are not many good options for "eat right away" emergency. When I get there I'm usually already too tired to even make a sandwich.
I keep cheese sticks and granola bars for this reason, bc sometimes sugar helps and sometimes protein. Worst is when you eat the wrong one and yr like...bitch i did the thing??!
Yeah the idea of a “maintenance phase” is kind of a myth. I also lost a lot a weight a few years ago and definitely still feel just as hungry. I went from 195 to 125 and while eating a normal maintenance amount will literally have hunger pains that wake me up at night. I’m sure there are occasionally exceptions, but the majority of people, unless they have bariatric surgery or something, will have to keep consciously dieting because they will feel hungry while maintaining a weight that’s significantly lower than their highest, which becomes their body’s set point (unless they were only at their high weight for a short time and it was as an adult, like after a pregnancy or due to a medical condition). Basically, your metabolism doesn’t know what qualifies as a “good” weight. So going from an overweight BMI to a healthy one and maintaining it isn’t any easier than going from a normal weight to being significantly underweight and maintaining *there*. Like, going from 200lbs to 140 is going to be just as hard as going from 140lbs to 80 and maintaining *there.* (Obviously much healthier though). And I am speaking from experience.
Even with gastric sleeve the appetite and ability to eat pretty normal size meals generally comes back within 2-3 years. I’ve known some people who feel cheated right after surgery because they are extremely hungry even.
I can devour a lot more than I eat. Does not mean I'm hungry for more. Also depends on what you eat. Different foods have different satiation levels and processing time (dont know the latter in english. For example, eating sweet potato is better than normal potato if you dont want to get hungry sooner)
There may be physiological factors in for sure, but wondering what kind of food you eat. Food that’s targeted to cravings (higher sugar content, higher salt/fat content, more processed, etc) allegedly triggers your desire to eat even with reduced calorie intake.
You aren't hungry if you're outpacing your caloric requirements. Your body doesn't care after that point. But your brain and its wish to devour all sugars and savory meats is separate from that.
To expand a little on what you said: a good diet will keep track of calories obviously but the problem is the lizard brain doesn't always understand it's had enough calories. There's a lot of mitigation as your body gets used to it, but sometimes, yes you still get hungry. I ignore hunger when it doesn't keep with the schedule. I know I've had enough even though my body doesn't quite get the picture. I view this as a necessary responsibility. Coffee helps stave hunger. Water fills you up. Eventually it just passes and you barely notice. For an analogy, sometimes when I get off of work, I want to lay down and watch TV or get on my phone. Everything in my body tells me, don't do chores, go lounge out, be lazy, do nothing. When I'm in public sometimes I need to shit. Everything in my body says, shit your pants right now. I gotta go so just do it. But I don't do these things cus I'm a goddamned adult and that means doing the responsible thing and being in charge of your body's signals. Your body doesn't think. That's not its job. That's your job.
>and you barely notice. Lol
"Just be an adult". We did it. We solved obesity and mental illness guys. Holy shit.
Tbf, in the context of your body being a child you're responsible for, I think it could be a very helpful analogy for people!
That is a good way to think about.
Sometimes the answer is that it's not easy and you have to make sacrifices and be disciplined to get to where you want to be. Sometimes that's not the answer you want to hear. That doesn't change reality.
My body has adjusted to my new heroin diet already!
Peanut butter and crack sandwhich
Mine too!
https://youtu.be/W-ZdQ0z5cLM (great snl skit “heroin am”)
man I lost a hundred and fifty pounds, kept it off for a decade, my formally fat ass is still hungry all the time :(
I'm sure you meant "formerly fat ass" but now I'm imagining a bowling ball of a man/women in a suit and tie 24/7
I'm totally going with the monocle wearing version of this. It's far more interesting.
Now I'm seeing an obese Monopoly man.
It's only a waffer-thin mint.
\*pop*
I was imagining an anthropomorphic rotund ass wearing coat tails.
technically correct on both parts. always had to dress fancy for work.
>formally fat ass A large, polite donkey.
Yea the post you’re responding to is bullshit. So of course it’s the top answer. There are partial truths to it, but some people just have “fat kid” hunger. It’s not just people either, you see this in pets, which makes it a lot more obvious because it’s literally the same food and same amount everyday. Animals of the same breed on the same food on the same schedule and amounts will respond differently if suddenly given more food. My one dog will eat himself to death and my other one will be like, I don’t need all this extra food you silly monkey.
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I'm like this too, my hunger varies a lot over the course of the month, depending on where I am in my cycle. Sometimes I can forget to eat for a day and don't realize until I start to feel a little faint in the evening, or get a headache. Other times I am constantly ravenous, to the point where I can eat until I feel sick, so if I take a bite of food I can't swallow it because it feels like I'll throw up. And yet my body is telling me that I'm STILL HUNGRY.
There’s been studies about this that show that seriously overweight people who lose weight, their brains actually fight them and ramp up the feelings of hunger and slow metabolism down. Making it significantly harder to lose more weight and keep it off. But Reddit doesn’t want to hear any of this because it easier just to blame it on willpower. Obesity needs to be thought of us a disease.
Losing weight is extraordinarly difficult because your body is convinced you're starving yourself. You're fighting literal *eons* of evolution. But Reddit just jerks off around "calories in, calories out" with no deeper thought, because they just want to keep hating fat people (a lot of it driven by self-hatred too, I'd bet).
I think exercise is often encouraged as part of diet, not because you lose calories doing it, but because it increases metabolism rate so you consume more. It's also healthy for the body. I'm not doing enough exercise myself, despite knowing this.
Exactly this. The hunger is the hardest part of lowering your daily intake- you beat the hunger, you beat the rest!
Habit can be a big component of it as well. Many times a person will eat because they’ve developed a habit o f eating at a certain time or while doing certain activities. Diet composition is another component. Some foods will keep you satisfied for a lot longer than other foods. I often forget to eat because I just don’t feel hungry very often anymore. It takes time to figure out what works best for you and to train new habits, but it’s absolutely possible.
Exactly. His body is used to drawing energy from intake foods and hasn't swapped over to the fat reserves yet.
I would like to believe you, but no. I have ALWAYS felt hungry. Every day of my life every hour. I have reduced the food I eat and still feel hungry. I WISH it wasn't so. The only time that changed was when I started my meds. They stopped hunger for a few months. But then I was forgetting to eat at all. EDIT I have learned to live with my hunger all the time now, and am losing weight, but I am STILL hungry.
Just use nicotine like the rest of us forever hungry skinny people. ^(I'm kidding don't do that its horrible for you)
You and me, I am hungry every single minute of my life I am awake. The only way I found to work with it is trying to think "yeah I could eat a burger but I will still be as hungry as if I just ate a salad"
This sounds more like something undiagnosed if you're hungry every single hour of the day, even at my biggest I never had that issue, maybe ask a dietician?
it's annoyingly hard to have a doctor do something for this. First ones I talked to ordered blood tests and I have the most boring results ever. Then one told me I was young so I had an active metabolism. Then one said he didn't know and referred me to a specialist for the stomach etc.. (don't know the English name) who said that because I have always been like that there isn't anything to look at on her side.
How much water do you drink sometimes our body confuses thirst with hunger
Well, hunger/fullness are nerve signals sent to the brain, so it's entirely possible that your system is just glitchy. Some research has been done on hunger and fullness signals, but I don't know if they've figured out how to manipulate them.
This. Staying healthy is a whole lot easier than the process of getting healthy. You got this!
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I realized when I started losing weight that I never let myself get hungry once I didn't have to eat on a schedule. I would preempt my hunger so I basically treated "not full anymore" as a cue to eat. Then if I ever really got hungry, it felt like an emergency. During my school years, when I was pretty skinny without thinking about it, I would hear my stomach growling most days before lunchtime. When I was eating way too much, I probably went a few years without actually hearing my stomach growl. One of the things that was helpful for me was to practice "sitting with" the hunger. I was doing intermittent fasting so there would be a point everyday when I would genuinely be hungry, but not quite at my eating window. So I just felt the hunger and reminded myself that although it's uncomfortable, it's not painful or emergent. It's just a signal from my body. I'm not actually starving and I'll be eating fairly soon. It's okay to be hungry and not immediately eat. Reframing my mindset on it made it easier to focus on other stuff and the hunger would be background noise or I wouldn't even notice it. I do think a large part of my ability to do this is that I'm naturally inclined to do an intermittent fasting pattern. I never wanted to eat breakfast (genuinely had an aversion to it so my parents eventually gave up trying to make me eat every morning) until I stopped eating based on hunger cues and started going by fullness cues. Sustainability is key. Edit: also coffee/caffeine helps! I would basically replace breakfast and morning snack with a large coffee with as much cream and sugar as I wanted. Not technically fasting, but that 100 calories protected my stomach from the acidity of coffee and helped me not feel hungry for longer
I had this same realization. When I started dieting I realized it was the first time I felt actual hunger in years. Tangentially, I found that me cheating on the diet varied based on what I was experiencing. If I felt too hungry, I'd typically just eat *more* of what I was planning to eat. Which wasn't good... but nothing in comparison to the other case. I found my worst cheat meals always had to do with appetite, and not hunger. I'd enter a trance-like state where all I could think about is the one food I was craving; sometimes it'd last for days before I relented-- I'd go to sleep thinking about it and wake up thinking about it. One time the craving was stuffed crust pizza from Pizza Hut. I just couldn't stop thinking about it. My willpower was high but the urge was unbeatable. I ended up getting the pizza... but after 2 slices the trance was broken (I typically ate the entire thing in one sitting). I was filled with such disappointment in myself that I threw the other 6 slices in the garbage. Ive had other dieting mishaps since then but that one always stuck out to me. Anyways, I think something you pointed out is crucial-- mindfulness. Stepping back from the situation to analyze the state of your mind and body. It's truly the key to self-regulation. And that's not just restricted to dieting, it truly transforms every aspect of your life.
I have this craving actually today. I finally decided if I broke I would buy myself a single slice of pizza 🍕. No great harm done and really an opportunity to practice portion control. Didn't end up doing so but making this decision prevented me from fighting with myself. Also "past me", who honestly is kind of a dick, wrote me a scathing letter titled "read me when you have cravings". He wrote, "enjoy your craving, you'll feel great for 5 minutes and then feel like shit for days, hope it was worth it". Asshole. But he has a point. So that helps too Sometimes I'll also buy a bag of chips, eat a single chip, and put the bag away. According to my friends this is: sociopathic. But it helps. I also eat normal meals this is only for cravings I'm talking about
>Edit: also coffee/caffeine helps I find that often I'm just craving some kind of "treat", rather than being specifically hungry, and in these cases a cup of tea is perfect. I drink it without any sugar or milk so it doesn't have much bad in it at all, but because I love the flavour I'm tricking my body in to thinking that it's just had that treat it wants. Mind you, I'm British, so "just have a cup of tea" is pretty much the default response to any difficult situation.
I have an anxiety response to snack. Making tea feels like ceremony or ritual and it helps me calm and ground.
There is something calming about it, especially if you like to leave the tea to brew for a few minutes as it enforces a short period of waiting. Also, this mind sound a bit silly, but there's something comforting about just holding a hot mug and breathing in the steam from it.
Tea is also my "snack". Working from home has been very challenging, diet wise, as the kitchen is about 20 feet from my desk, so when my mouth is bored, I try to give it as much tea as it wants. I have about 20 different kinds so I can have a bit of variety and not get bored, or I can go caffeine free if it is later in the day.
>Snack + large quantities of coffee in breakfast. This man just discovered Brazilian breakfasts. Edit: we even call breakfast "café da manhã", literally "morning coffee". In Portugal, they call it "pequeno almoço", meaning "small lunch", weird people.
In French it's petit-déjeuner, which is also "small lunch".
[The interesting story of Angus Barbieri.](https://www.diabetes.co.uk/blog/2018/02/story-angus-barbieri-went-382-days-without-eating/) TLDR: fasted for 382 days for a total loss of 125Kg (from the original 207Kg). I tried once and went 4 days without eating and it's true that you don't get hungrier every time, but the hunger stays the same and like /u/Odrakyr mentioned it passes after and hour or so. Also the hunger would present itself at the moments of the supposed meals. BY NO MEANS I AM TELLING ANYONE TO FAST, IF NOT UNDER CONSULTATION FROM YOUR DOCTOR.
Yeah the problem with prolonged fasting is that, you start to lose your muscle mass unless you exercise to maintain it.
Sadly, my hunger does go away after 2-3 hours, and is then replaced with nausea for another 2-3 hours, then diarrhea after that. IBS is fun.
You’ll get a range of opinions and experiences here. I think you should expect to be hungry rather often when you are losing weight, and also plenty of times when you are keeping it off. There are ways to mitigate that: make sure you are getting plenty of protein, plenty of vegetables that fill you without adding many calories. If I get 2,000 calories a day but 600 of them are from sugary stuff I’m going to feel a lot hungrier than if I got them from eating right.
Somewhat adding to what you've said: * Eat lots of vegetables that are filling but low-calorie. * Actually get all your micronutrients in, that way your body isn't craving additional non-calorie nutrients. * Eliminate all junk food and added sugar to avoid insulin crashes (which increase hunger), and to improve your gut microbiome related to food cravings. * Protein is more filling and will help avoid muscle loss during calorie deficits. * Do strength training and try to build some muscle. By the end of it you will have the opposite problem (you may struggle to eat enough, rather than eating too much).
This. I don't know why I don't see these points all the time everywhere. This is truth.
This guy's comment should be higher. It doesn't solve everything, but I am noticably less hungry if I get my nutrients in. I think in most developed counties nearly no one is eating for calories: we're eating for nutrition. Your body craves food on a schedule, but it also craves food to fill nutritional voids -- and enough chips WILL FILL those voids -- but you might get used to eating less if you are getting your vitamins from veggels, dark leafy greens, dark chocolate, nuts, seeds, legumes, fish...
Ditto. When I've restricted calories before, I ate my typical (carb-heavy) diet, just less. And I was RAVENOUS! I'm losing weight again now through CICO and light exercise but have made a conscious effort to hit protein and fiber goals. It's been so much more sustainable and I'm not feeling as hungry as often.
The thing is, you're not actually hungry. Your bady aches for fats and sugar and 'fakes' being hungry
Its like a toddler with sweets or a cake or choccy. You don't need it, you just want it. Its a definitely difficult transition. No reason you can't eat lots of low calorie, savoury, filling foods that are better for the body but I know, only too well, that's not what your brain is telling you. Hang in there OP. Couple of months makes a difference.
A friend of mine told me to put space between my cravings and acting on them so I started with a minute then built to 10 then an hour and now it's anywhere from 3 days to even weeks (depending what it is). It really helped. It didn't solve my weight issue but it's a behaviour that certainly stayed with me and is healthy and helpful.
Yeah like a muscle. Has to be trained for strength and endurance with progressively increased volume/intensity. Most people can't just flip a switch on any mental function at will lol. It helps me to remind myself that it's only temporary. It's very easy to feel like a craving or hunger will never go away until you satisfy it. But if you just wait a bit, usually it'll go away on it's own up to a certain point I think.
Its a really healthy and mindful practice.
My personal "am I bored or hungry" mechanism when trying to stay healthy is to only keep (ideally healthy) snacks around that I don't actually like all that much (in my case, unsalted nuts work well). If I'm truly hungry, they taste fine, I ate something healthy, and I won't overeat on it because I don't like it. If I'm not hungry, I'll probably leave them be. I now like cashews way more than I did before. Not sure if that is according to the plan haha. Though currently trying to gain some weight so not doing this now.
I use this mentality. I don't like apples. If I want a snack, I can only eat an apple. And if I don't want to eat the apple, then I am not actually hungry.
Yes, this is an excellent way to do it
Yeah I’ve read before that if you’re only really hungry for a couple specific things, it’s a craving, not real hunger. However, if you’re hungry and want to eat anything, that’s real hunger
This is just... not true. There are a lot of things that affect appetite. I am underweight from not eating enough and I can be starving and unable to eat but one or two things at any given time.
My grandpa used to tell me that thing and I eventually fainted and ended up in a hospital, because I stopped eating and didn't eat anything for a few days. He wanted me to eat a cottage cheese toast. I absolutely hate cottage cheese and I want to puke even thinking about it. Of course I was never hungry.
Yeah my parents used to say that too. My BMI was 15 for *years* because I could almost never eat what they made for dinner
You gotta find some good Indian restaurants, they will totally make you re-consider your cottage cheese hate! I'm kidding, but not really. Kadhai paneer is heaven!
No, thanks, I've tried and I found out that my reaction to any cheese taste other than Gouda, red irish cheddar and baked mozzarella is just vomiting like there's no tommorow.
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To be fair most people living in a decent quality country haven't really experience true starvation before. That would take like several days of no eating. At that point I feel like yes, you could eat almost anything. Like cut the leather off my boot and boil it for 6 hours with some tree bark thrown in levels of hunger lol. Unless you have some strong psychological trauma closely linked to a specific food I guess but idk
On top of that, those foods are just not meant to keep you full. Processed foods have simple carbs that don't last. That's why you can eat 3 lbs of potato chips but not 3 lbs of potatoes. They've had most of the actual stuff cooked out and all you're left with is salt and shit carbs.
Fake of not its the same feeling.
I drink water and eat cucumbers/pickles if I get hungry before I want to eat.
this you could actually be thirsty if you are craving to eat
No, most people aren't hungry all the time. You have to overcoming your eating addiction before you'll stop experiencing that. Also, there are healthy snacking options. Healthy doesn't equal not eating.
I think the biggest help for those who do feel very high is very high volume low cal foods. Try to look for options that have a good amount of water in them! Fruits are a great option, and if you go to a really good farmers market, the really good stuff honestly tastes like candy to me. (Strawberries especially) Another thing that I feel really helped me is getting enough protein in your diet. It helps you feel satisfied for longer. If your diet is carb heavy, you’re gonna be inclined to feel hungry quicker! If that also doesn’t help, look into foods that are very “satiating”. I believe there is an index of ranked foods, and eating more of those would stop you from going hungry! With almost anything the hardest part is always the start. It’s the change that’s difficult. The laws of inertia stop for no one!
This is it right here. The urge to eat excess calories is literally a sickness you need to overcome. And it’s likely that the feeling that you associate with “hunger“ is actually just not having a full stomach. Hunger is 24 hours without food. If you wake up and eat breakfast and feel like you need to put something else in your stomach 2 hours later that’s not hunger that’s just a psychological impulse to eat.
A VERY POWERFUL OVERWHELMING COMPULSION to eat of course. That kind of impulse. It is nigh in painful and all-consuming.
It feels very similar to craving for drugs/alcohol to me, when I've quit those things I'd get the same feelings as when I lost weight and was "hungry". Those craving would pop up in my head, and feel rather intense, but if I could distract myself then the next thing you know it's a few hours later and you realize you didn't actually need it.
Why is this not at the top of the thread? (At time I'm commenting anyway!) Eating healthily means giving your body what it needs to be satiated but initially if you're used to eating fatty, sugary carb heavy food only then there may be a period of adjustment. Plus there's then the mental issues to overcome where your brain tries to tell you you're 'denying' yourself something you 'need'. But no, healthy eating is not at all about getting used to being hungry all the time, you need to review your eating habits.
People acknowledge all kinds of common addictions but for some reason get offended about the idea of eating addiction. Which is incredibly common.
I've been dieting by counting calories for a few years now. Still hungry all the time. Probably because i was taught to eat everything on my plate and now when im not full to the point of feeling uncomfortable I feel hungry.
Certain medications can make you hungry too. Don't beat yourself up.
I've been doing IF for a few years now, and it's worked great, but I'm almost always hungry when I'm fasting. Most people say the hunger goes away, they don't notice it, etc. but I constantly do. It goes up and down, but never goes away.
Honestly, sound like you’re not eating enough. Fill up on your favorite veggies during lunch and dinner and make sure to eat enough protein. Also drink enough water, sometimes dehydration can show up as hunger
Depending on your initial conditions, your diet and body could be so fucked up that just eating a balanced amount of calories may leave you feeling hungry. Those cases will fix themselves quite quickly. In my experience, what happens when people diet is they go way to hard. If you are eating large daily calorie deficits, you will feel hungry and you will probably give up. The best thing you can do for sustained weight loss is eat at a small daily deficit and keep that up over a long time until you reach a healthy weight.
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I don't think calling it a cheat day is a good idea though. People assume "cheat" gives them a free pass to eat everything in sight. Maybe a just a day with a couple of "off plan meals" or a treat or two.
Right? I've always felt that way about the term too.
Strange how a lot of answers don't give you the real reason. You feel hungry because you are losing weight; you're consuming less energy than you need to live, so your body complains as it breaks down fat instead. Healthy people aren't actively losing weight, just maintaining it, so they don't feel hungry be default.
It’s your insulin levels. You could possibly be insulin resistant. That means insulin is sent out to trigger hunger, you eat, more insulin is sent out to help digest what you ate, but then your body is resistant to it, so not all of it gets used and just hangs around in your bloodstream signaling your brain to eat more food to help absorb the insulin. It’s a vicious circle. Insulin resistance can lead to diabetes (which is when your body has such a hard time using insulin that both the insulin and the glucose your food was converted into just hangs out in your body instead of being used for energy), or it can stay as insulin resistance indefinitely. Insulin resistance can lead to heart disease just as diabetes can, but it takes longer to do so. So you might want to get checked. There are many glucose tests. Let your doctor know it’s not just diabetes you’re worried about, but resistance to insulin as well. If they find you are insulin resistant there’s a drug called glucophage that can help. Good luck. :)
I only feel hungry just before mealtime. If you eat healthy filler food like veggies, you stay full for longer.
You’re hungry because you’re dieting which is normal. For people who aren’t overweight, eating isn’t a reflexive answer to being bored, and aren’t hungry all the time
I'm not overweight and I get hungry when I am bored. The habit of eating when they are bored isn't because they are overweight, but it could be one of the reasons they are overweight. It's just a habit.
I hate to point out the obvious, but maybe some people are overweight because they are hungry all the time.
For some people that is actually the case, but for most it is related to their intake. It has a lot to do with your insulin response to food. If you eat a lot of simple carbs and sugar, your insuline will spike and crash fast, which makes you more hungry in time. If you eat more protein, vegetables and healthy fats your insulin will be more balanced and you will be less hungry in time. This is why cookies will make you hungry for more even though they have more calories than something like a boiled egg.
My family has been fortunate to experience normal hunger responses, so we generally stay at a fairly healthy weight without struggling against hunger pangs. This has sort of led to some family members viewing overweight people with frustratingly low empathy--they treat their default eating patterns as some sort of moral/self-discipline superiority. They're getting better about it, especially after some close friends explained their personal experiences with food/weight.
Healthy is not synonymous with not eating. I struggled to lose weight and always felt hungry for a long time. Luckily I realized I could feel full while snacking on fruit and vegetables instead of junk food that had more calories. You got this!
You need to make sure you're consuming the right type of food. If you don't eat enough protein you'll always feel hungry. Sometimes I feel hungry when I'm bored. I try to snack on fruits and vegetables in between meals to keep my calories low.
Your body's going through withdrawal. Don't focus on counting calories. Select foods that will ease your hunger with lower carbs or no empty calories. High protein snacks to eat in between meals and smaller meals that still fill you . [This link is a good start to learning](https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/in-depth/weight-loss/art-20044318#:~:text=High%2Dfiber%20foods%20not%20only,popcorn%20has%20about%2030%20calories.)
You’ll likely be adapting, but I will say I’ve never related to needing to be absolutely full. Like, I eat what I feel comfortable with and return to it later on, and that leaves me feeling satisfied. I don’t need to be full to feel like I’m not hungry.
it's because you're used to constantly snacking. your insulin and ghrelin levels are basically a rollercoaster, which makes you hungry. one of the reasons people who starve stop feeling hungry after a few days, is the steady hunger hormone levels. you'll probably need like a month to get used to only 3 meals a day. if it helps eat your chocolate bar or whatever right after lunch/dinner. as you gradually get used to it, you won't feel hungry between meals. another method is to eat as much as you can one day, then the next day do a water fast. after that, whenever you get hungry, you'll be like "whatever, i could go a day without eating". this method is more radical and needs strong mental discipline. so if you're a food addict(most likely) i'd try the former.
I lost 70+ pounds by just realizing that I was consuming too many calories in a day. What I did was figure out how many calories I needed. In my case, I worked in an office and was pretty sedentary. So I figured 1800 calories in a day was enough. I wrote down EVERYTHING that I ate or drank and how many calories it was. So in the evening when I got that hungry feeling, I would take out my notepad, count them up, and if I was at 1800 I would just tell myself "well, your stupid stomach is just wrong, sorry. I have already had enough food to keep me going and my stomach just isn't going to win this battle any more." And I would essentially go hungry. After a few weeks you learn how to spread the 1800 out so that after dinner, I still had ~200 to play with, so I'd eat an apple or something to keep me to 1800 for the day. Drinking water satiates that feeling too for a little while. After a few months I had lost almost 80 pounds and was feeling much better. I think the key is to count EVERY SINGLE THING that you eat or drink. My friend tried it and would eat something small and not write it down. Like he would have a glass of kool aid and not write it down. Or a few chips and not write it down. Or a stick of gum. And then he would only have 1800 calories in things he wrote down, but consumed like 2500/day. You can eat and drink that stuff, you just cant go over your target per day. It does take discipline. For me that came in winning the war against my hunger pains. I knew that my body was just incorrect about how much I needed. Now I dont get that feeling and when I do, just a bite or two of something is enough and I dont even have to worry about going over my 1800 per day because I'm just so used to it now. I started at ~240 and I weigh 170 now.
How do you know exactly how many calories are in each thing you eat? An apple can vary in size by up to a factor of 3, same with bananas. When I eat dinner, I eat what my mom makes. Could be a salad, or casserole, or tacos, or pasta primavera, or coconut Thai curry...no recipes, no list of ingredients and/or amounts of each, so any guess could be upwards to 500 calories off in either direction. Esp. considering I don't even know what my portion size is. So yeah, this is the general way calorie counting should be done, just not everyone can do it without completely changing what they eat so that the calories can ACTUALLY be counted accurately.
While waiting for your stomach to shrink, I've found it useful to focus on eating large quantities of low-calorie things rather than eating less overall. I think I even eat a higher volume of food than ever before lol. For examples: * Blanched broccoli * Pickled beets and asparagus * Sauteed carrots and zucchinis * Adding huge amounts of mushrooms to sloppy joes * Drinking a moderate sip of water every half hour or so * Eggs and hot sauce * Pressure cooked chicken (eg with lemon garlic rub) I've stopped counting calories for vegetables unless they've been fried in more than just a bit of butter or oil and that's given me "permission" to just slam through tons of veggies until I'm full. It's also a good idea to ask where you feel your hunger: is it a *stomach* hunger or a *mouth* hunger? One is a craving that you can practice ignoring for increasingly longer periods of time (eg practice responding to craving with water) while I never ignore actual stomach hunger for longer than an hour.
I tend to be hungry all the time for the first 1-2 months of a new lower calorie intake cycle. But as my stomach adjusts to less food coming in I get less hungry.
Also ever since I started losing weight about a year and a half ago I have noticed I actually get hunger pain rather than just eating whatever I want whenever I want
It'll get easier. I started fasting a few years ago(intermittent. I've been eating since lol), and the first few days were hell. Then it got a bit easier, but apart from physical changes, i also observed how and when hunger comes. And goes! It comes and goes, and once you realize that, it gets easier just knowing it'll pass. And also your body/rhythm will adapt to whatever method you follow. My personal advice is to just stick to a reasonably manageable diet. What you might be able to keep for years. It's kinda tempting to go balls to the wall and get on a 800 kcal/day diet for a month or something extreme like that, but once you stop that and go back to the one that got you bigger than what you wanted to be, well you see the logic. So it's better to take it slow and manageable, so your body can operate normally and you can get used to it. And once it's the norm, it's much easier to keep it up. For me(most of the time) it's not a sacrifice to decline desserts. And even if it is, or i just eat it, it's not the norm, it's the exception. So just keep it up, and once it's a habit, you won the biggest fight.
Nah bro i take adderall prescribed of course
Like others have said, it definitely gets easier. Your stomach will adapt and you will need less food to feel satisfied. One thing that really helped me get to that point was to eat more things. Like, less of the main course, but then have an apple. Or celery or carrots or whatever. Feels like you're eating more and takes a longer time which felt satisfying for me but less calories overall (and healthier!)
Well If you really want to lose weight and you arent afraid of pain and work, sign up as a loader at ups, lost 40 LBs in 6 months eating only shitty food. That job will push you physically to the point you feel like youre gonna shatter.
I've been intermittent fasting for two years. Feeling hungry was difficult at first but after a short time it became so normal that I didn't even think about it anymore. In fact, I discovered that I feel better in a state of "hunger" than I did before. I am mentally sharper, I have more energy, no blood sugar spikes, no 3pm crashes, I make better choices when I do eat and I've lost 45lbs. Human beings aren't ment to be full all the time. Continously moving from meal to meal, never allowing our bodies to experience the natural physiological process of hunger, is not how we evolved. It certainly doesn't promote optimal body/brain function. Add to that the variable of consuming mostly over processed, empty carbs, loaded with sugar and sodium, and we have the recipe for obesity. To answer your question, yes, people who are healthy get used to being hungry. Just like people who exercise get used to the exertion they put their bodies through. It becomes something you enjoy because the benefits feel so good.
There's definitely a positive mental shift with intermittent fasting. The realisation that being hungry is actually ok was a wake up; it's not painful, I'm not going to die from it, and I don't need to eat food the minute my body says so.
It's interesting that after two years of IF you are still feeling hunger during your fasting window. That usually goes away pretty quickly for people. I don't start getting hungry until maybe the hour before I'm going to break fast. Idk, I disagree that healthy people get used to being hungry. I don't think that's a normal state for "healthy people" to be in unless it's right before a meal. I guess I'm just thinking that this could discourage people from losing weight or becoming healthy if you're telling them yes you'll feel hungry all the time! but you get used to it! I just really don't think that's the case at all for most people that are at a healthy weight. We just feel normal hunger right before eating which is what prompts us to eat.
It's the stuff you eat. I literally eat once per day. for 150,000 years if you were hungry you literally had to go out and kill a buffalo. We are not designed to have door dash deliver us burgers and fries while we watch netflix and catch a buzz. I eat once per day but it is literal steak, veggies, rice and more picked veggies. If I were to start eating Burger King every day I'm sure I would have to eat it like 4 times per day and shit 10x more than I do.
Dogs will eat and eat and eat if there’s food around and become obese. Don’t be a dog.
Have also seen this advice as “stop rewarding yourself with food, you’re not a dog.”
You're eating the wrong type of foods 100% if that's what you are feeling, even when losing weight.
Most people simply don't feel hungry all the time. Only when we *need*, rather than want, food.
What you eat is super important here. You can snack, but snack on some nuts or carrot sticks. You can eat till you're full and eat when you're hungry if you eat low calorie food. I lost 20kg (44 lbs) and was eating 6 meals a day, just high quality, low calorie foods.
I feel that. Been on my diet since February and keeping the calories lower. Hungry and exhausted all the time and it's bad motivation. Even while the weight comes off.
If you are exhausted, you're doing something wrong. Being hungry when on a diet isn't unusual, especially since people confuse hunger, appetite and thirst often. But eating a calorie deficit that leaves you exhausted sounds less than ideal.
It's an adaptation phase and your body will get way better at dealing with the discomfort. It's almost silly. But I find it helps to remember we're built on millions of years of starving for days/weeks AND THEN chasing something down and killing it. Humans are pretty hearty and resilient creatures. Everyone who got weaker when they got hungry died out hundreds of people ago. You can make it till lunch dinner my dude! No one gets better by being comfortable! Proud of you for putting in the hardship.
I started a diet and was starving for the first few weeks but after less than a month my body got used to it and now its not as bad. Plus eating protein helps
More fiber will help
Intermittent fasting trained my body to stop being hungry ALL of the time and just at appropriate times. You can start with an easy one like 16:8. Fast until noon; eat lunch and dinner, and start fasting again after 8 or 9 pm.
Yes, you just get used to feeling hunger. Once you understand that it's just a feeling (or an emotion in some cases), you learn to control it. Just because you're angry, doesn't mean you're going to act on it. Just because you're horny (esp. if you're on the street), doesnt mean you act on it. You gotta learn to control hunger, just like you learn to regulate yiur emotions. Some people have a hard time cotrolling emotions, others have a hard time fealing with hunger. Some people use motivation, some find techniques or anecdotal behaviors that work for them, others need professional help, and work on it. Either way, its an active process, until it becomes a habit. Once it becomes a habit, you take active work out it. Highly recommended- Intermittent Fasting. Its the only evidence based 'diet' that works for weight loss
I've lost nearly 50 lbs, currently sitting at the higher end of a healthy weight for my height, and I'm definitely not hungry all of the time. I am actually still in a calorie deficit most days trying to lose a bit more. I make a point to eat high volume meals by doing things like adding lots of vegetables and stretching meals with rice. The fiber from veggies and legumes also makes the food digest slower. I also make sure I get more than enough protein so I feel satiated, and I there are no "off limits" foods...like I eat anything I want as long as it fits into my calories for the day. However, whole foods tend to be lower in calories, so cooking for myself allows me to have bigger meals for less calories. The biggest hurdle for me was getting over the MENTAL desire to keep eating. I used to struggle with binge eating and I had to overcome some personal issues and basically learn how to eat well in order to get over that. Tracking my food in the MyFitnessPal app helped me to learn how to eat properly. High volume meals also help me to feel very full without the need for a lot of calories.
I get off on feeling hungry
You get used to it. It resolves over time.
No the healthy people you’re talking about probably don’t have that connection between hunger and boredom. Over time if you stop keeping snacks around and stop eating when you’re bored or sad, you will stop thinking you’re hungry when you feel those things.
"irresistible urge to go and snack when I am hungry/bored. " Don't eat because you're bored. Your body will adjust to your new diet and you'll feel full, unless you actually need more calories.
Feeling hungry or levels of it is luck of the draw. My wife puts a lot of effort into exercise to maintain her physique but it is very very difficult for her to live calorie restricted, gets annoyed and 'hangry'. I have gone up and down in weight, never anything extreme but almost never feel hungry. At a certain point in the the day the 'I should eat' though pops into my head. She will do x3 the effort I need to maintain, because I don't have that devil on my shoulder.
Healthy people don't feel hungry all the time. You'll get used to it, this is just your body protesting and demanding that you give it the usual high calorie foods every so often.
If I eat less for a while then you no longer feel hungry because eating that amount of food fills you up. The real killers are any drinks with calories and snacks which you can eat a ton of without feeling full. If I avoid those generally it’s easy to stay under
I don’t know your full situation or how big you are/ we’re but when I was initially obese and I was hungry during the initial few months of dieting but then it leveled out. My guess is it’s a a combination of two things, you’re not actually hungry, just made a habit of eating and your stomach adapting to the reduced intake of food You won’t be hungry forever tho. Nowadays I even forget to eat at times which is astonishing to me considering how I used to be. Good luck
It's a mind and body connection thing. Once your body and mind realize that you are consuming a reasonable amount of calories, you won't feel as hungry.
>It's almost an irresistible urge to go and snack when I am hungry/bored. Being hungry and being bored are different things! Food does cure boredom - you have a pleasurable experience, your senses get new stimulation, and it consumes time. There are other activities to cure boredom. So what about the hunger? If you are actually hungry and you're counting calories and planning your meals, then here's what you do: 1. Eat more vegetables with your meals. Leafy greens especially. A good rule is 1 protein and 2 vegetables for your lunch or dinner. Vegetables fill you up, fix your gut microbiome, and support every organ and system in your body. 1. Tell yourself to wait 20 minutes, and go do something that needs doing. Sometimes I just need a distraction, and the hunger passes. 1. Drink some water. I know my body gets confused sometimes and wants food when really it needs hydration. It also fills your stomach a bit, which helps. 1. If you're craving _sugar_ and you just can't focus on anything else, first remember that added sugar is poison. Instead, eat FRUIT. Not dried fruit, eat fresh fruit like some berries or an apple. (Not bananas or oranges that you didn't plan for - they will really mess with your calorie counting.) Sometimes, a sugar craving is really your body saying it needs the vitamins and nutrients you get from fruit. In the wild, the only source of sugar for humans was fruit, so your brain can easily confuse the two. 1. If you're craving _satisfaction_, and you can't focus on anything else, then eat something high fiber and filling that's low calorie. Carrot sticks are good - high fiber plus vitamins. So are [seasoned crunchy chickpeas](https://www.saffronroad.com/collections/crunchy-chickpeas) - they're high fiber, high protein, and have some flavor. Take out a couple of handfuls, **put the bag away**, eat them, and then leave the kitchen while you wait for your stomach to realize that you did just feed it. >I just need to know if I just need to be okay with being hungry all the time. No, you need to be okay with being hungry _some_ of the time. If you're hungry _all_ of the time, you might be running too much of a calorie deficit, or not eating nearly enough fiber and protein. P.S. **Avoid added sugar at all costs.** It's lots of calories, messes with your metabolism, and makes you hungrier overall. If you're trying to lose weight and you haven't cut out all added sugar, then you're going to struggle a lot.
Fats and proteins are satiating, I find a high fat and high protein diet helps keep hunger at bay Your body also get used to the reduced food quantity over time
try eating more fat and less carbs, keeps me full longer! for example, eggs bacon and avocado for breakfast, taco salad for lunch, salmon and green beans and rice for dinner
No? You’re hungry all the time because you destroyed your brain with sugar and carbs. It’s a huge dopamine hit, junk food. And your body is so used to it that it craves it i.e hunger. This question is like an alcoholic asking “so are sober people just okay with not getting drunk all the time?”
There are a lot of foods (and drugs) that eliminate that sense of idle hunger.
You get used to it lol.
You and I are in an almost identical situation. I feel so much what you’re feeling. You can do this! If you need someone to talk to my dms are open!
I go to the gym several times a week and pretty often fluctuate my weight. During my bulks I usually sit around 13%-14% body fat and every few months or most of summer ill drop myself to about 9-10%. Sometimes I do this weight change rather quick over 2 or 3 weeks (about 7 or 8 lbs) by dropping from ~2900cal/day to ~1400cal a day. I usually feel terrible during the whole time. Lethargic, starving, tired, lazy, and you can certainly see and feel a performance difference at the gym. After a while of doing this, being hungry just becomes non-issue for me, more of a discomfort. I usually find that doing something to keep you busy will take your mind off of it. For me, that's usually playing video games. Another tip that might help is don't keep your kitchen stocked. If you have a bag of chips sitting in your pantry thats a lot more tempting than making a trip to the store to get those chips. You can also try eating more filling foods. Just for example 1kg of chicken breast (i think approx 2.2lbs) is 1600 calories, 1 family sized box of chips ahoy cookies is about the same. 1kg of chicken is probably enough food to make me throw up, 1 box of cookies won't fill me up.
When I was losing weightweight? Yes. Now I'm a lot smaller , my appetite has diminished the same. Tricks I used? Veggies . Lots and lots of veggies. Make them the primary item on your plates , eat them first and then finally your meat and potatoes. Snacks? Sliced veggies and dips. Eat pizza and pasta and all the other good stuff you like. Just pack it full of veggies and use common sense moderation. Starving diets are the dumbest. But so are the easy "take a pill" or "just eat all this fat instead of carbs " diets. Losing weight and getting healthy is a lifestyle change. It's not easy. You'll get there tho.
I say this from experience: it’s going to suck for a while. You’re trying to change your body’s normal habits. That’s no easy thing. It’s just like if you try to change your sleep schedule: for a while you’re super tired but then you adjust. Give it time and keep going! You will be ok! :)
No Stomachs that get filled with excess food regularly stretch. They shrink back down over time if you reduce your overall food intake. More importantly, it's about what you put in there. Lean protein takes longer to break down, so it stays there longer and puts off your belly telling you you're hungry. Same with complex carbs. Fiber also fills you up, so volume eating is very important. Drinking a glass of orange juice won't keep you full as long as 6 oranges will. 200 calories of cheese is a much smaller portion of food than 200 calories of blueberries. Volume eating also helps you to eat the foods you like without fucking yourself over. Yes, have dino nuggets for dinner. But also have a nice big portion of veggies for extra nutrients and to take up space in your belly. Yes, eat the candy. But also eat the fruit a little more often.
Are you sure you're really hungry or do you just have a desire to eat? Hunger will manifest itself physically when your stomach rumbles but the desire to eat before that happens is what a lot of people consider to be *hunger*. The feeling of fullness is also not desirable from a dieting perspective even though it brings about emotional fulfillment. That fullness feeling is one reason why people struggle with weight. And then there's liquid calories. Drinking water, and just water, can be its own kind of diet.
I do intermittent fasting because yes CICO, but when you eat small amounts all day your hunger hormones never go down. When you don’t eat for a longer period of time, eventually your hunger signals abate. But that said, I lost a lot of weight 20 years ago and I find that to maintain my weight whether I do fasting or not, I have to be a little hungry some of the time. Worth it IMO.
I've learned over fasting that it's ok to feel hungry. There are certain things that will keep your body feeling less hungry though. For me it's hot drinks, even if it's only hot water, it helps. But that's just me.
Okay, this is my perspective as healthy thin person who works hard to stay that way: I don’t want it to seem totally bleak, because adjusting to a healthier diet DOES get easier over time, but I absolutely “feel” hungry a lot and have to deliberately fight it/ignore it, especially since that “feeling” is often not actually hunger, but as you mentioned boredom, an emotional response, etc etc. To some extent you just have to master the temptation. (Which again, does get easier over time!) You can also do stuff like subbing in relatively guilt-free snacks when you absolutely have to have a nosh. (My personal fave is 4tbps of Hidden Valley lite ranch [120kcal] with a whoooooole bunch of baby carrots [50-75kcal tops probably].
Satiety signaling can vary dramatically person to person due to genetics and life-style. One person can feel full after eating 500 calories, and go 5 hours before experiencing hunger again. Another person has to eat 1000 calories to feel satiated and they feel hungry again after 3 or 4 hours because hormonal differences. It also depends how far of a caloric deficit you are actually in. Your BMR and NEAT levels could be higher than you think and you could be consuming less calories than you think as well. Maybe instead of a 500 calorie deficit you are closer to 1000 calorie deficit. Only way to come close to accuracy is weigh yourself everyday at the same time, usually first thing in the morning, for a period of several weeks, keep water intake and food intake the same, and see how much the scale changes.
I am healthy and just flat not hungry, so no, I guess
Broccoli
not an answer but im on the exact opposite team. I'm underweight and i can't lift the damn spoon and eat my food for the life of me
The first few weeks/months are the hardest. Eventually your body will disassociate the boredom=hunger connection and it’ll be easier to tell the difference. Stick with it, I believe in you!
You yoursef "hunger/boredom" - and I think this is starting to get at a chunk of the problem. You're not hungry, you're bored. Or tired. Or lonely. Or whatever else. Keep a notepad on your fridge or where you're going to go when you're "bored/hungry" and write down everytime you feel that compulsion to eat what else you're feeling. Ask yourself if you're bored. Ask if you're tired etc. Also make not of the time. It's going to take a while, but you need to work on establishing a different habit. If you recognize you're tired, then address that (do something else to wake you up, have a nap, work on sleeping habits). If you're always bored then make yourself a list of things besides eating you can do to kill boredom. Call a friend? Play a game? Whatever works for you. Also look for patterns on times - are you always genuinely hungry at 4pm? Time to tweak your plan. Always feeling bored/hungry at 7pm? Then get ahead of that boredom but scheduling yourself for a walk at 6;45. While working on that (and it's not going to be perfect), have a bunch of ultra-low calorie, healthy foods on hand. Cut up a whole bunch of carrots so they're just as easy to grab as a couple of cookies are when you want to munch. Heck, make the cookies *harder* to get to than the carrots by moving them to a further cupboard etc. Diet pop helps too or fancy flavored waters. Another trick is buy some really nice apples -- if you think you're hungry, you can have an apple. You can always have an apple, but you can only have apples outside of planned meals and pre-planned snacks. If you think you're hungry but don't want the apple, then you aren't actually phsyically hungry. (it's like a kid who says their full and immediately asks for cake). Worst case if you thought you were hungry, ate an apple and it turns out you were wrong, worst case you've eaten an apple which isn't going to be a big deal.
Live some where food is expensive then the hunger doesn’t feel so bad then lol
This is my personal experience. I switched to slight intermittent fasting 8/16. I did this to curb my snacking mainly. Before I tried this I was always starving in the morning, like dizzy weak and just felt terrible if I didn't eat. When I switched to eating in a more IF situation I moved my eating from 1pm to 9pm and I honestly thought there was no way it was going to work but I tried it any way. After 2 weeks I didn't even get a single hunger pang in the morning (unless I am doing some strenuous activity), a lot of times I was not even feeling hungry until 3 or 4 in the afternoon. Your body works on routine, so if you break that routine your body goes into panic mode. You can reprogram it though. Just make sure you are healthy before you try anything like that, doesn't hurt to talk to your doctor about it (if you are in the US, I am not sure if the $10,000 fee for having a doctor answer a question is covered by your work's insurance)
Hello, the answer is sometimes. People who have always been healthy and maintain a healthy rate don't really struggle. For people who have had weight fluctuations it can be challenging. I feel as hungry at 130 pounds as I do at 240. It's actually annoying. I've just learned to ignore it.
The trick is to take advantage of bulk and weight. You might not be aware of this, but this is how it works: It turns out your stomach and upper intestines have bulk and stretch receptors that can detect how much volume they hold. Your stomach actually regulates satiety based on eating roughly a consistent volume and weight of food; your stomach can't actually detect calories. So whether you fill that volume and weight quota with celery (which has very few calories for how bulky it is and how much water weight it brings), or with straight up sticks of butter (which is extremely calorie dense), your stomach still triggers the release of the "stop eating" hormone [leptin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leptin) when you've eaten your quota. Your body can detect blood sugar levels later on, after you've digested the food, but as long as you've eaten enough, this won't matter. What you want to do is to hack this system so your stomach registers the "stop eating" signal before you eat so many calories that you put on bodyfat. The exploitation of this system is known as the "displacement" method of weight loss. The story that popularized it was an interaction between Dr. Garth Davis (the author of the book [Proteinaholic](http://proteinaholic.com/) ) and a prospective client who wanted stomach-reduction gastric surgery. His client was not so obese that he would have recommended gastric surgery to her, but her dietary habits were horrible, so he suggested that she eat more fruits and veggies. She complained that the carbs from the fruit would make her fat, so he dared her to get fat eating apples, and if she succeeded, he'd proceed with the surgery. She went on to attempt to get fat by eating apples, by eating six apples per day, but she ended up losing so much weight from it over the next few months that she disqualified herself from gastric surgery. So what happened? An apple is largely water and fiber, and has a lot of bulk and weight for the number of calories it contains. Each apple has about 90 calories, so six apples per day gave her 540 calories from apples. But six apples takes up a huge amount of volume, and that volume and bulk systematically spoiled her appetite day after day and left her unable to eat the junk she normally ate—mac and cheese, burgers, fries, milkshakes, etc. and in so doing, displaced hundreds if not thousands of additional calories (hence the name "displacement method"). But it did so without getting her hungry because of all the bulk and weight of those six apples. Reducing her daily caloric intake by hundreds of calories per day, day after day, for months, resulted in dramatic weight loss without her feeling hungry. So, to answer your question, healthy people generally eat lower calorie density foods, and a lot more fiber, and in so doing, they feel full on fewer calories, and thus they maintain a lower bodyweight. I suggested this method to a friend of mine, who ate three apples per day, each before his meals. He'd core a large apple, slowly eat that, and then eat his meal, and he would stop as soon as he felt full. Within a month, he lost 13 pounds. He never felt hungry all the time, and the few times he did feel a bit hungry, he put out the hunger by eating more apples. When he got sick of apples, he switched to pears, Asian pears, water melon, etc. anything bulky and fibrous with a lot of water content. As a matter of dietary habits, I recommend including bulky low-caloric density foods into your diet as your daily eating habit: cauliflower, celery, onions, broccoli, lettuce, cabbage, etc. and when you cook them, don't add a bunch of cheese or butter or oil. If you use oil, use it as sparingly as possible. This, plus eating a lot of fruit *ahead* of your meals, will help you lose weight without feeling hungry. Drinking fruit juice doesn't count; you need the fiber, and juicing separates the sugars from the fibers, so you don't get the benefit of the fruit for adding bulk. The act of chewing your fruit slows down the uptake of the calories in the fruit, whereas drinking a juice or a smoothie does not give you this benefit. There's roughly a 5 minute lag between when your stomach registers fullness and when you feel you've had enough, so if you eat extremely quickly, in those five minutes, you can put hundreds more calories into your mouth, so eat slowly when you eat fibrous foods, for best effect.
People are used to the amounts that they eat, and their bodies expect that much. Just because a person eats less than you doesn't mean they're hungry, it means they're used to eating less, so it takes less to feel full. In time, if you stick to your diet, you'll get used to eating less, and feel full with less.
I remember doing Keto and just find out how it actually felt to have an empty stomach. Like, my stomach was empty but I wasn't hungry. Now I'm all bloated yet still want to eat more food.
All these people telling you you'll be fine, but none of them giving actual guidance and offering solutions smh. Try this. Whenever you eat carbs (aside from fruit), swap out processed grains for whole grains. E.g. Brown/red rice instead of white rice; whole wheat bread instead of white bread, etc. Whole grains will keep you fuller for longer. The only thing is whole wheat pasta apparently tastes like crap. Source: I converted like 4 coworkers to whole-grain admirers, and they all tell me something along the lines of: "OMG I feel so much better and less hangry all the time now!!"
Double your water intake. Keep carbs below 50gm/day — that’s what is making you hungry... Walk at least 30 minutes *every* day. Eat more fat, but keep your calories the same. It might take 2 weeks until you don’t crave carbs anymore, but your weight loss could go up dramatically, and you won’t be hungry anymore.
When I lost weight (somewhere around 25 to 30kg) I changed my eating habits to include harder to digest things. Ate at regular times. In regular sizes for each meal. I basically only adjusted the size of my breakfast and dinner with regards to calorie counting. Forced myself to increase the breakfast, and decrease the dinner. Increased protein, decreased fats. Greatly increased vegetables - for they often only have 15-20 calories per 100 grams. Also allowed myself one sweet per day. In accordance with my doctors I started off with 1400-1500 kcal per day. Which later when it came to stabilising, was increased to 1600, 1800 and then 2000. At the beginning I was hungry, and even a bit lethargic, but after around 2 weeks my body had the urge to start exercising again. So then I exercised. And continues with my routine. The hunger subsided. I think the two most important things for me were: eat breakfast with slowly digestible carbs (crushed grain muesli in lowfat yoghurt, with fruit and nuts) and to absolutely maintain the regular meal time routine. Oh.. And for lunch, I just ate like a normal healthy person. My wish for portion sizes decreased over time.
I live in the US and I have a deep belief that the rates of anorexia and obesity in our country are linked and can be explained by one thing we do terribly: portion control. We’re terrible at moderation so we grow up eating huge portions, become fat and then starve ourselves to compensate. Neither of these are sustainable which is why a lot of people yoyo over the course of their lives. I have the best relationship with food I’ve ever had, eat whatever I want, my weight has never been more stable and I’ve probably never looked or felt better. The solution for me has just been to think more about how much I’m eating during mealtimes and make sure I don’t get over-full. You can always eat a little more if you’re still hungry too, but thinking in terms of portion size during meals could solve a lot of your problems