Eating more frequently and now ALWAYS hungry!!!!
 

So I started this whole weight loss/lifestyle change and one of my new goals was to eat breakfast and lunch as I never did! Limit dessert...NO soda and of course eat healthier. Well I have found this diet to be more then frustrating as I am ALWAYS hungry and thinking about food! I am taking the right measures I wake up and eat breakfast usually along the line of oatmeal,fruit, and 2 cups of 1% milk. Then lunch is typically turkey or chicken breast, with a veggie and starch. Then I eat a snack like Oikas Greek yogurt PLAIN with stevia and vanilla extract and dip my apples in it then dinner comes along and it varies but it mostly chicken with veggies and starch or chicken with whole wheat pasta. So it's great I am eating all day but I am STARVING literally all day! And when I do eat I get full and hungry an hour or 2 later. I eat about 1600-1800 calories a day. I also eat high fiber foods and get plenty of protein am I missing the fat I need what is the problem? I used to go all day without eating and be just fine but now that I eat 4-5 small meals a day I am always hungry grrrrrrrr:mad:

You will get used to it, but it takes time. Drink lots of water and broth, tea, lemonade --just water, lemon juice and stevia--, and as time goes by you'll see that the amount of food you are eating now will turn out to be too much. You just have to let your body get used to the new food.
Stay put, and good luck!

There's no rule that says you have to eat breakfast and lunch at breakfast and lunch time ;). If your natural pattern is to not eat all day, don't torture yourself. Look into Intermittant Fasting! And yes, a lower carb, higher fat diet will help you feel full longer... At least in my experience.

You can do it!

I have actually been used to eating not very much throughout the day so I figured I would be full all the time but that is not how it is happening. Will definitley look into the fasting thing though thanks!

I had the same problem as you. I would eat several times a day thinking that it was the "right" and "healthy" thing to do, but it just made me hungrier. I've recently gotten into IF, and I've realized that I'm usually not that hungry until about 1pm. I usually eat between 1-7, and I'm perfectly content at the end of the day (:

That's why I do intermittent fasting and mostly Paleo!

Seltzer water instead of soda... and I do most of my eating from 3-9 unless it's the weekend where I eat regular 3 meals with a snack after lunch.

When I first started I ate maybe 1-2 meals a day. It made them pretty big meals as I was STARVING by the time I got to those meals and ready to throw whatever down my throat... After all I hadn't eaten all day or whatever.

Now I eat 2-3 meals a day- breakfast, lunch and dinner or brunch and dinner. Sometimes I have a snack, sometimes I don't. I found eating 4-5 times a day a little fiddly for me, plus it made it necessary to make my main meals a little smaller which I didn't like.

If eating multiple small meals is tough for you, know that you don't have to. The most important thing is your portions and quantities (calories) however many or few times you eat a day. Once you've got your portions under control, then you can look at your distribution of macronutrients (carb, protein, fat) if you want, to help with things like a feeling of fullness or reasons why you might be feeling hungry. I don't really do this. But many do and say it works.

You don't have to do what anyone else does. There isn't a magic formula. If you don't want to eat multiple small meals, you most certainly don't have to!

All this. It's not the "more meals" it's the "less calories".

I agree with the people saying you don't HAVE to eat as often. If you really want to then yeh, eventually you will get used to it. But if it does not fit you, then why bother?

I started calorie counting and was thinking about food so much, figuring out how to get as many meals and snacks in for as few caloris as possible. This left me feeling unsatisfied constantly and my thoughts were with food a lot. Now I've turned that into a go-to breakfast that's smal and high protein (150-200 cals) and lunch that's small and a big dinner. Love that I still have like 900 calories to spare by the time dinner comes and my mind is off food the rest of the day which is such a relief.

The small/frequent meals rule doesn't work for everyone. I've had a lot of luck with intermittent fasting as well. Might be worth a shot :)

I found for me that by staying on very regulated meals, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and one snack I do better otherwise I can't seem to stop eating. Also what seriously worked for me, especially when you consider I am 56 years old and have never before been all the way down on my weight, Low Carb - High Protein - Low Fat diet worked amazingly for me!! Seriously! I will never go back to lots of carbs but now eat healthy fruits, vegetables, meats, nuts. For snacks I buy the Atkins Endulge snacks which stay lower in carbs. I never would have believed I could do it but I went from a size 16 to a size 3-4.

I would kill myself (or just give up trying) eating 4-5 small meals a day. You're always thinking about food, you're never full or sated, and it stresses you out!

Eat when you are hungry, not for the sake of eating when you're "supposed" to eat. There are no rules about when - it's what and how much that counts!

I'm another one who can't do small meals. I need to feel full after a meal and small ones just don't seem to do that for me, so I tend to skip breakfast, have a reasonable size lunch or small lunch & maybe a snack and a good size dinner. I'm not really a morning/breakfast person most days so it works for me, but you really do have to figure out if small meals & often work for you or if you like me and maybe need slightly larger meals but less often. :)

It can definitely be confusing to try to figure out how much to eat and when to eat it. Everything we read seems to try to tell us to eat the 5-6 small meals a day, but in reality that is just not very realistic for most people. I agree with what everyone else says and just eat when you start to get hungry.
I also do what philana does and eat a pretty small breakfast and lunch, then when dinner rolls around I have 700-900 calories left to spare. I think it's all about trial and error- experiment with all different types of things. Use the thing that works for you and feels the best. It may not work for other people, but if it works for you then that's all that matters!