How do you deal with hungry days??
 

Wow. I am SO HUNGRY I can't stand it.

Last night I had dinner pretty early then took my kid to a baseball game. It was really cold and I wasn't that warmly dressed-- probably stimulated my hunger, but I'd already had a good dinner, so I just had a cup of herbal tea and went to bed.

No lie, I was waking up all night because I was hungry.

Ate breakfast, the same thing I've been eating every day, except that today, after I had finished eating, my stomach was still all tied up in knots from being hungry. I added a half a grapefruit, which helped a little.

Am going to eat lunch around 12 but I've been ignoring my hunger all morning.

I'm not going to go off plan-- I'm just dealing with. But I swear I don't get it. Some days I'm fine and sometimes I'm just hungry all day!!!

Do you guys have any good strategies for dealing with hungry days?

I think how people deal with it depends on their plan.

For me, if I am just ridiculously hungry all day I'll eat...but I'll try to still eat healthful food, I don't eat junk food. I have to distinguish between real hunger, or a craving (a.k.a mouth hunger).

Typically, the next day I'm not hungry at all and have no desire to eat.

I eat a little bit more. Something filling but low cal would do. Our bodies change from day to day, so it makes sense that they'd have different energy requirements day to day. Imo it's fine to tweak our intake if our bodies require it. Sometimes that might mean eating less, and other days it may mean eating more. It's okay.

I get like this a couple times a month usually. I will eat if I feel hungry, but I try to eat healthy snacks. I also find that drinking hot tea or broth helps a lot.

Yes, this helps me too.

My plan is counting calories, but I also try really hard to only eat 3 meals a day. When I'm this hungry, sometimes it feels like eating a snack just makes me hungrier.

There are some days that I am downright ravenous!! I hate those days!

But...the key for me is that I have to eat if I am hungry like that. In the past, ignoring those hunger signs gets me in big trouble and leads to a very bad place.

I try to eat a lot of fruits and vegetables anyways but ramp it up during these hungry times. A protein bar or fruit filled smoothie feels like a treat to me but still keeps my calories in check.

A pot of coffee or a couple of cups of tea helps too. I think sometimes I might just want something in my hands or mouth, not necessarily hungry. It's so hard to find the difference. I usually start with the liquids as it's less calories. :)

Really my only advice is to not ignore the hunger, try to satisfy it before it gets out of control!

Uber,
On this go-round when I have one of those hungry days I eat some protein and a cucumber or a handful of carrots, finishing with a large glass of water. I also have been known to stir fry a bag of shredded cabbage or cole slaw mix which is very filling for less than 100 calories. When initially losing weight, I would have gone for a big bowl of air-popped pop corn but that does not fit into my low carb diet now! :)

Hmm. That is something to think about. I'm a binge eater and so most of the time, when I get out of control and binge, it has nothing to do with really being hungry. When I feel physical hunger, I do find it much easier to ignore, but maybe ignoring it isn't such a good idea.

I'm going to eat a big (large in volume, not calories) lunch and see if I can settle this down.

And thanks for reminding me about the hot beverages. That does tend to help a lot.

Lettuce and celery is 0/0/0...you can munch like mad on that all day long if you want. :) (And Walden Farms, if you can stomach the taste, is 0/0/0 and can be used as dressings for the lettuce and celery.)

Your green veggies tend to pack the most WHAM for your buck on the fulfilling meter, so if you don't like lettuce or celery, brocolli, zucchini (I make mine into chips...YUM!), and okra are all decent and not all that bad calorie wise. Pickles are too...but watch the sodium. Or cucumbers.

Protien keeps you fuller longer. Try looking into protein shakes that are low cal on those days that you need a little something extra but not a meal. EAS Carb AdvantEDGE is a good one...there are insane numbers of others. Or eating one or two boiled eggs with the yolk removed.

Try low cal/low fat jerkys, suck as Jack Link's. If you can stomach them, fried pork skins are filling and 9 are only 80 calories, low fat, and no carbs. I actually try to stay clear of both of these, but they are a quick fix if you have nothing and are the move (i.e. traveling and nothing is near by.)

Don't starve yourself, but don't give in either. If you are hungry...eat. Just make healthy decisions when you do. And watch your intake. If you need a snack, just a few bites will take the edge off.

Also, drink water. Something like 70 some odd percent of us mistake dehydration for hunger pains. Just as a weird little FYI.

Good luck! You can do this!

Honestly I eat sort of a intermittent eating/ intuitive eating plan. I eat two meals a day with snacks but mostly I eat at night when I'm truly hungry. I calorie count, so that's my main goal. I have gone to bed hungry, but most days because I eat when I'm hungry and at night, I rarely have true hunger at bed time or during my sleep time.

Maybe you can try changing up your eating times or the quantity of food you eat at different times?

First off, kudos to you to not giving into the hunger! Good job!

Second, I have found that a lot of the time when I think I'm hungry, I'm actually thirsty (how have I screwed up my body so much that I can't tell the difference??), so the first thing I do is have a nice big glass of water. If I am still hungry, then I eat some small amount of protein: a hard boiled egg or a couple of slices of deli chicken or a specific number of almonds or a low-fat yogurt. Then I get the heck out of the kitchen and do something to distract myself until my regular meal time.

If this becomes a regular thing --- you always are starving at the end of the day, etc. --- you might need to do some tweaking.

Let us know how it all goes.

I'm not counting calories so not sure if this would work, but do you calculate your calories per week instead of per day? On days where I'm busy and/or exercising I seem to need more food, other days if I don't even go out the house it's much less :)

Maybe it's a case of just allowing more of your calories for certain times, and shaving some off elsewhere when you seem to need them less? :hug:

If it's the evening I drink beer.

The hunger goes. And I sleep well.

It works when I am not hungry too!

I occasionally have days when I'm so ravenous I want to gnaw my arm off. And there's no logical reason for me to be that hungry. My body craves carbs when I feel like that, but eating carbs only exacerbates the issue. Increasing my protein intake is the best answer for me.

I second the idea of drinking a hot beverage. For me if I am really hungry and I try to satisfy it with a low calorie item like a piece of fruit or a veggie, it seems to trigger my hunger and then I just want more food. The other night I drank two cups of herbal tea with just a few whole almonds and that really seemed to do the trick.