[ncuneo]

I'm still finding myself hungry from time to time and I think it's cycle related because it's usually in week long spurts. Like this week I'm generally hungry, but last week I wasn't at all. Nothing is different about my activity or food. But I though it might be good to get some feedback on my food to see if there might be a problem with it.

Breakfast (low GI complex carb w/ protien, fruit and coffee)
Examples: oatmeal w/ milk and banana, kashi w/ milk, high protien fruit bread w/ flaxseed and wheat germ
My coffee is costing me 120 cals, it's the SF creamer I use, I need a lot of creamer in my coffee and I just can't seem to kick the caffine fix I need in the am.

Morning Snack (if I need it)
Yogurt

Lunch (low GI complex carb, protien and veggie)
Examples: turkey sandwich w/ low cal bread and low fat cheese sometimes so avocado on it, leftover dinner from the night before, then I have some carrots w/ humus or salad w/ 1 tbsp of low cal dressing

Afternoon Snack (fruit and protien)
Apple w/ 2 tbsps of almond butter or Apple w/ FF cream cheese

Dinner (low GI complex carb and veggies)
Examples: Turkey chili w/ beans, Enchilada caserole (3FC recipe), Turkey Sausage Jambalaya w/ black beans, Meat Loaf, then I always have 2 cups of steamed brocolli and cauliflower with it.

Evening Snack
Skinny cow bar or weight watchers ice cream

I zig zag my cals and they are as follows:

M,Th,Su 1650
T 1400
F 1550
Sa 2100

I lose 1-4lbs a week on this plan. So you think my hunger levels are just ovulation/period related or does my meal plan need some work? I might be able to sneak an extra 100 cals in there on some days but that's a slippery slope.

Edited to add: I'm drinking 60-100oz of water a day.

[WarMaiden]

Eat more protein (doesn't look like you're getting a lot), cut out fruit until after lunch (concentrate on protein and veggie carbs earlier in the day), definitely consider cutting out caffeine altogether (caffeine makes insulin surge and thus drives down blood sugar which causes hunger, also even 1 cup can lead to poorer sleep which leads to hunger).

[Wild Vulpix]

I agree that you should save the fruits for the evening. They tend to make me hungry throughout the day if I eat them early on.

[astrophe]

If you think it is cycle related.... could it be a yen for more iron rich food?

What about exercise? Has that changed? Doing more? Could be not enough fuel to support the workout?

A.

[ncuneo]

I might be exercise a little more intensly and it is getting warmer here. I know when my intensity increased on my exercise the last time I was hungrier so I did up my cals accordingly and my weight loss sped up. My loss has slowed down a bit (but barely), but I find it hard to believe that I could be lucky enough to need to increase them again, but who knows. I may consider a 100 cal increase next week...but I'm hesitant and think I'll wait it out a little longer. I'm going to start a hunger journal first and see if i can figure it out.

My fruit in the am is only at most 1/2 a banana or 1/2 an apple. I doubt that that would have much effect on my hunger levels. The coffee probably. At this point though I'm not sure I'm willing to forgo my morning cup, so I may rather just tough it out. I get to work at 6am and that cup of coffee holds me over till 8am for my breakfast and if I eat breakfast earlier I'd be in big trouble. I'm finding on bad days that I'm hunger within 1/2 hour of my am snack (usually have that about 10am so I'm hungry sometimes starving for 90mins before lunch which means I'm still a little hungry after lunch because I was over hungry before lunch) and then in the evenings after the day is done (usually around 8pm) I'm hungry again. I'm also hungry well before dinner time. I've just been toughing it out lately, drinking extra water and chewing a lot of gum and trying to stay busy.

[LizR]

I use a 25 calorie diet Swiss Miss hot chocolate pack to sweeten my coffee. If you like the idea it might save you some calories to use on food. The other thing you might do is replace your evening dessert with more filling calories although I can see why it would be hard to give up your one treat of the day.

Hang tough. You've done INCREDIBLE to lose 90lb.

[ncuneo]

What I was considering was cutting my cup of coffee in half (my cup is pretty big) this would take it down to 60 cals and then I could have a hard boiled egg or other protien (I hope I can find more options as I'm not a huge fan of the hard boiled egg). I think the goal would be to cut out the coffee all together, I know I'd feel better and wouldn't worry about that coffee hang over if my caffine fix isn't met by 9am It's just a major comfort in the morning though...but I think I could do well with 1/2 a cup.

[ncuneo]

Something else I just noticed today is that I've been way over estimating my cals on my veggies, generally because I don't measure them too carefullly. I think I'll start getting more accurate on that and I'll probably be able to add more veggies for more volume and that should help my hunger levels.

[Fatter Fitter]

Hey, instead of eating the egg, try buying a carton of egg whites. Egg whites don't have as much fat as the yolk and contain a lot of protein for a smaller number of calories. Google for some ways to make a tasty egg white omlette since the egg white has no flavour. You could try baking it in the oven so there's no oil.