I ate my breakfast which may have been my first mistake of the day.. I cut it back by 1 egg white and 1 slice of ham (have been eating 3 whites, 1 whole egg with 2 slices of ham and a slice of cheese), I realized a few minutes later my stomach still felt empty.. so I had a mini bagel with some fat free cream cheese. At that point I was at my calorie limit for breakfast (I divide my daily allotment between meals). I ate my morning snack.. which is usually friut, but since I felt so hungry I decided to eat a left over piece of chicken breast.. which fit into my calorie allotment for that snack. I just ate a peanut butter sandwhich.. which was my lunch calories (so lunch will be a pretty plain salad ).
What do you do on days like this? I still feel like I could eat
I take a step back and get away from the kitchen. I go for a walk. I pick up my knitting. I think about WHY I am hungry. Is my stomach rumbling telling me it needs food? Do I have any hunger queues besides my brain? If not, I just don't eat. I chug a few glasses of water and keep myself busy elsewhere.
I used to be an "eat when I'm bored" type person. So, I really have to think about the why's and not give in to them.
If you have eaten the things you said, you probably are not hungry for food, but for something else. Get your mind occupied on other things. Balance the checkbook, or clean your bathroom. If you find you are truly hungry after completing another project, go get a head of cauliflower, wash it and cut it up into pieces and eat that. If you are really hungry, anything will do, if you are bored, lonely, sad, etc. you are just looking for something to "fill" your emotion. Easier said than done...I know.
First, I drink extra water to make sure I'm not mistaking thirst for hunger. But if it's really, truly physical hunger and not boredom, comfort, etc. I allow myself to have larger portions of my usual healthy foods. I'd rather have 100-200 extra healthy calories over being hungry and potentiall setting myself up to binge on something less healthy. I test whether it's true hunger by seeing if having some extra fruit or veggies works - if I want something besides those, chances are that I'm looking to eat for reasons besides physical hunger, so then I address those reasons instead of eating more.
I figure a lot of people have good weight loss success with zigzagging calories - I don't specifically do that since I feel like I use a range anyway and that provides enough variation. But I also figure that if I'm really hungry, it's my body's way to create it's own zigzag!
If I have the calories, I make a cup of tea, let a teaspoon of chia seeds sit in it for at least 10 minutes (to allow them to swell and gel), then add a teaspoon of real cream and enjoy. If I don't have the calories, I leave out the cream, but it really does help with satiety.
I'm pretty low-carb in my diet, so a bit more fat really helps when I'm hungry.
Chia seeds (yes, like the ones from the Chia Pet) have a lot of fiber and Omega 3s. They can be eaten whole (unlike flax which needs to be ground), and if you let them sit in a liquid they gel. The texture is like drinking something with tiny "bubble tea" (tapioca pearls). I get them in the seed/spice area of my local Salvadoran grocery store.
I drink a bunch of water and chew a piece of gum, them I start working on something that requires a lot of concentration. Usually the task helps me to forget I was so hungry.
I've noticed that I am hungrier than usual on days after I've done more strenuous activity. I've been eating extra protein on those days and it seems to help. The one thing I don't do is go over my calories no matter what! I go to the higher end of my range, but NOT over limit. Changing the kind of food I eat seems to help.
I'm not always sure if it's hunger or just wanting food, but if it's on a day after an uphill hike, I presume it's my body's way of letting me know I had some extra activity. I think the protein is impotant to keep my muscles happy. And protein seems more filling than carbs or fruit or veg, at least to me.
If the above doesn't apply, then you need to find some distractions just like everyone else said. Drink wter and go for a walk. See if that helps. No? Repeat until it is either *time* for food or until you forgot about eating. It doesn't have to be walking, just something that takes you away from food and keeps your mind busy with other things.
I think it has passed.. at least for now. I still could eat.. but I'm not hungry. The I could eat is a mental thing.. and some gum is helping.
I'm trying to stay busy today.. tomarrow is my little ones 1st birthday.. and I'm sure my MIL will show up to eat cake with him (we never invite anyone but she insists on coming), so I'm trying to clean the dining room up of all of our school stuff (the joys of homeschooling )
Last edited by findingfawn; 05-11-2010 at 11:29 AM.
I do have days when I am legitimately hungry all day long--grumbling stomach, empty feeling, low blood sugar. Those days, I eat more. I choose things to eat which are higher in protein and good carbs with some good fat too.
There are other times when I just want to have something in my mouth, in which case a drink of water or a mug of tea or a piece of sugarless gum helps.
It's important to me to listen to my body. The days when I am extra-hungry, it is always because either I have done a LOT of strenuous work and my body feels it (like last week when I biked for 3 hours), or because it's right before my period when my body is burning extra calories.
I am an emotional eater and a reactionary eater. I smell good food and want to eat. All the ideas suggested above are great. Yesterday and today I am feeling hungrier for some reason. I just ate a bell pepper sliced up and dipped in salsa....44 calories and the feeling has passed.
I do all the things people listed to try and "distract" myself and if drinking water or keeping busy doesn't work, I steam or roast a lot of filling, low calorie veggies, like broccoli and have that. Sometimes I'll make a filling low calorie soup too by pureeing and seasoning them.
Usually when I eat more carbs than normal (bread or pasta), I get hungrier faster. Carbs fill me up, but for some reason they don't keep me full as long as protein does. Maybe the bagel + sandwich just has your stomach grumbling for more.
I have hungry days twice a month related to my cycle/hormones. Yesterday was a very hungry day.
What I do is bulk up on low cal foods. I ate a TON of spinach, lots of mushrooms, some tomatoes, and about 1 1/2c of Egg Beaters (scrambled, half earlier in the day and half later). Sometimes I eat tuna... that's high protein and low cal.
I also will have half of a diet soda on a hungry day. It seems to fill me up a bit for an hour or two.
What do you do when you are having a hungry day?
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