I agree with Shmead, calorie density is probably a good part of the problem, and TOM could definitely be a big part of it too.
There's not much you can do about TOM (at least not at this point). Keep a food journal, and if you notice that you get unmanageable hunger at a certain point in your cycle, talk to your doctor about meds that can help (usually birth control).
But bc can make you hungrier too, so sometimes it's a gamble and you may have to experiment.
Just knowing which days are your hungry days in your cycle helps. A food journal really helps you discover which days those are, so you can plan ahead. Don't record only what you eat, but when you eat and how hungry you are before and after every meal or snack. Note what you're craving too (you can find lower calorie versions of what you're craving).
I crave red meat and chocolate and volume. It's really even more important for me to find high volume, low calorie foods during hungry time of the month, because I get the "munchies" really bad. My salvation is veggies like bell pepper, raw cauliflower, baby carrots (at least twice the amount of the lower calorie veggies than of the carrots) and light ranch dressing for dipping (I make my own, using reduced fat mayo and sour cream and double the ranch seasoning mix called for on the package, and add skim milk or skim butter milk so the dressing is well-flavored, but really thin).
TOM hunger was a HUGE problem for me, and still is significant. Birth control helped ALOT. Especially the type that reduced the number of periods you have per year (but those types are expensive, and have become controversial. There's talk of removing some of them from the market, because of increased risks).
I had to change my bc back to the regular monthly kind, and it still is helpful, but not as much as the previous type.
The volume thing isn't just a TOM thing. Eating larger portions of lower calorie foods really works well all month long.
Be really aware of liquid calories, because they don't satisfy hunger nearly as well as solid foods. So, the coffee and creamer "didn't count" to your stomach. It was gone too fast (only one of the reasons liquids don't satisfy is because they leave the stomach too quickly).
Another food combination that can increase hunger rather than decrease it is some combinations fo protein/fat/starch (especially the fat/starch part of the combination). Have you ever noticed how you can eat a lot more cheese and crackers than you can eat either alone? The cheese and potato would have worked the same way.
I want to be clear that I'm not advocating any rigid food combining rules, it's just a tip I've found helpful - to be very careful eating starch and fat together. The protein in the cheese and chicken did help, so it could have been worse.
There's actually science behind the foods that are filling, and foods that are not (I'll recommend some books at the end of the post).
The condensed version of the information is that volume satisfies, and volume is usually it's water and fiber that add filling power.
Fiber and water content in the food, contribute to volume. Air can too, but not as much, because your stomach will remove the air. For example popcorn is more satisfying than chips because you get a lot more for your calorie - but the moisture and acid in your stomach and the churning of your stomach push the air out of the popcorn very fast (pour some water on a big bowl of popcorn and you'll see what I mean, it's shrinks really fast).
You might find the book Volumetrics helpful. I never followed the books diet as written, but after reading it, I applied many of the principles to my own exchange-based plan.
I'd also recommend Good Calories, Bad Calories (or really any of the healthy lifestyle books written by Gary Taubes).
In essence, both books are based on research on what makes food filling, and what foods are likely to increase rather than decrease hunger and if you're still not bored, The End of Overeating, is really good too - essentially explaining why flavor/texture combinations, such as flavors that combine salt/sweet/fat can inspire us Iand even lab rats to feel hungrier and eat a lot more than we would of other flavors.
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