I'm so hungry!
 

I just started calorie counting yesterday and the first thing I've noticed is how hungry I am... Yesterday it was actually hard for me to fall asleep because I was still hungry. I joined sparkpeople and it said to shoot for between 1200-1600 calories per day. I go more for 1600 because I'm still nursing and am very active (we don't have a car so I walk everywhere, I spend most of my day chasing a toldder, and I exercise about 4-5x per week either running 3-5 miles or doing a 30 minute exercise video, sometimes 2).

I had 1679 calories yesterday and was really hungry! I admit, I made a bad choice in the morning because I had a part of a bagel, which was way more calories than I expected and a sweet potato in the afternoon (again, a lot more than I expected). Today I had a much better breakfast but for lunch I tried to grab something healthy looking (I was at work and didn't have time to pack this morning) but when I counted the calories it was almost 700 calories! :eek: It was this Korean lunchbox and it didn't even fill me up. :( So now I have somewhere between 300-655 calories left for the day and I'm really hungry. Plus, I need energy for a run I was planning this afternoon. When I get off from work I plan on eating some black beans with salsa since I know it has a lot of protein and the calorie count isn't too high. But I'm wondering if I should be eating more calories per day or if my body just needs some time to adjust? How long would you give your body before upping your calorie count? Obviously, I made two wrong choices the past few days because I underestimated the calories but still... should I be feeling this hungry? Oh, and I drink TONS of water, there's seriously no problem there.

I did notice I was down a pound on the scale today (since yesterday) but I'm also getting over a cold so I figure that could just be some water weight. But I've been stalled for over a week between TOM and this cold so it was still a happy sight.

I wish I had more wisdom for you, but I am kinda in the same boat. I am not nursing, but I need foods to give me more energy! I would just play around with the foods you're eating to see which ones help you stay fuller longer...maybe eat more protein? You are very active... When you calculated your calories, did you include how active you are? I know calculators are all different.

Oh...and when I started counting I was hungry at first too. It took my body a few days to adjust and now I am just fine!

I *think* you need to add about 200 calories a day for nursing (so do 1400 - 1800). Or maybe even shoot for 2000 a day for the first week, and get used to counting calories and get used to eating less... then drop to the lower range?

Add make sure you are getting lots of veggies and nutrient rich foods (no more bagels! ;) )

Eat your veggies, eat less bread and mashed taters, those have an insane amount of calories in them. If you have hunger pangs, try a glass of milk. I know everyone says drink a glass of water, but that only works during and after a meal to help me get fuller faster, so I end up eating a smaller meal in total.

Soups and microwave meals can be more calories than you expect, too, so be careful and make sure to read the back of everything, and if there is no back, use your better judgement and eat none or eat half.

Good luck! It gets easier :)

I count calories as well but I have "freebies" that I don't count in my calories at all. This would be like fresh fruits, mainly apples, and I do a "freebie salad" that is just loaded with veggies and a bit of very low cal dressing (Kraft light balsamic vinaigrette). I fill up on those things if hungry between meals or if I am at calorie limit and very hungry. I also never count fresh veggies or fruits that are in my meals.

I have found taht eating those things, even when I eat a lot of them on some days, I lose more than if I just go hungry! I can stick with it this way too, I would quit if I was hungry all the time.

i generally have a million ideas on eating healthy foods to fill us up. but keep it short, i'll name a few foods you might try. i just started cc too.

black beans and salsa in romaine leaf 'taco' or flat out wraps. reg is 120 cal for a HUGE tortilla thing. light it 90 cals. lots of fiber.
salmon in a pouch is 120 cal i think. have with some veggies, wrap, or 'taco'.
spinach! or any greens you like. another food that's great for you and your baby, and you can eat a ton. it has hardly any cals.

carrots. radishes. those peas in a pod, cabbage. almost any veggies that you like. pile 'em on!

avoid oil, rice, noodles, i still eat bread, but i only eat whole wheat.
you can also make a pizza out of those flat out wraps.

for a quick breakfast. maybe you could make a few omletts ahead of time. then grab it and go before you go to work. lots of veggies mixed into it in a wrap. just warm it before you go, or eat it at work. `

you could look at the list of super foods, then choose which ones are the most bang for your buck. frozen cherries and berries have few cals, taste awesome, and have fiber. i can't even tell lol.
frozen fruit on fiber one(or another filling cereal) is REALLY filling for few cals. can't remember how many. or add to yogurt.

well that wasn't very organized, but hope it helps. and kudos to you! nursing and working is sooo hard!

I really like your "freebies" purplefirefly! What a great idea!!

Definitely try to eat more protein and veggies- that's what fills you up.

Also- you don't have time to make lunch in the morning then make it the night before! I make pots of soup then portion it out and warm it up at work. In the summer I cut up all my veggies for salad then pack them up. I usually put lettuce and carrots and dry veggies straight in my tupperware, and then tomatoes and meats and cheeses get a small baggie and then a small tupperware for my dressing- when I get to work and it's lunchtime I combine it in my tupperware and give it a good shake. That keeps my salad fresh :)

You have to make more time for food planning and preparation- eating out is hard to do when you want to lose weight.

I agree 1200 calories is too low for you. At 210 I wouldn't eat less than 1600 calories a day but probably stick to 1600-1800 a day, and I agree- try 2000 a day for the first week then lower it slightly if you see no loss.

Definitely take more time to prep food so you don't eat stuff off plan :)

I like the idea of upping your calories to see where you are comfortable and go from there. If you are nursing you should be buring tons of calories. I've never had a child but my sisters tell me nursing is the best diet ever. lol

I weigh less than you and i eat 1700-2000 calories per day and I'm losing (.5 to 1 lb per week). I could lose it faster if I went down more calories but I'm looking for a lifestyle change that I am okay with maintaining rather than starving myself. I know the more weight I lose I will have to go lower.

Good Luck!

Thanks everyone for the responses and all the great food ideas. :D

I like the idea of upping my calories for the first week or so and getting used to the smaller portions. I went home today and ended up eating about another 350 calories (black beans and salsa and a fruit smoothie) because I was so hungry after that lunch today. I don't feel like I'm starving anymore, just normal. If I stick to 1600 calories that means only 300 for dinner but I think I'm going to shoot for 1800-2000 this week. That's also a good idea about unlimited veggies that might be another option for me. I still have to play with this to see what works best.

I'm still confused on if I need to add in extra calories for nursing/activities? I tried livestrong before and they changed the calorie count but on sparkpeople I didn't see that option or not.

If you are exclusively breastfeeding an infant 6 months old or younger, meaning no supplements of any kind, then you need about 500 more cals per day.

If you have substituted any feeds, or are feeding solids along with nursing, you can get away with about 300 more.

I'm nursing a 2 year old, I'm eating about 1800-2000 per day, and losing like a turtle, but it is going down. . .

DD is almost 2 so 300 calories. Thanks!

Whoa! You're nursing and running 3-5 miles! Please eat more.

Try freedieting.com and compare the nursing calorie calculator and the one that allows you to input your activity level, I don't think you can do both.

I run 3-5 through the week and one longer run on the weekend and am eating 1600-1800 with one to two higher days.

Now I will say that we're all different and you need to find the cals that work for you, but be very careful if you're nursing because you will stop producing if you don't eat enough. And if you're truely hungry and it's not because of poor food choices, then you need to add cals. Good luck!

Oh and way to go on nursing til two! I dried up at 14.5 months:)

2 years! I can't even imagine! I dried up after 10 WEEKS. ~sigh~ big worthless boobies! Lol! I produced a whole lot at first and was pumping and pumping (I pumped and bottled it - b/c my son wouldn't latch). then it slowly teatered off until... nothing. And I tried everything. I was just *poof* done. Apparently my mom and my mom's mom had the same thing happen.

:rofl: You have officially made my day!! I joke all the time about needing to get some use out of them, having to tote them around all your life. . .

i have those days sometimes and i can always tell when i'm gonna have one bcuz i kno i ended the day below my range, i usually pop ONE tylenol pm and that helps me get to sleep.

it always makes me remember those days when i used to get over-full and fall asleep then wake up feeling bad about it.

over time it happens less but to me it doesn't get easier. last night i had a 'i wanna munch' episode and ended getting in the bed to prevent it and i wasn't even wanting anything specific i jus wanted to eat.

I have been counting calories for nearly 2 weeks now, and I was definitely hungry all the time at first. I promise you will get used to it, but don't starve yourself, either. What I do is, I plan out ALL my meals and snacks for the day, first thing in the morning. I use caloriecount.about.com to track my calories, and I just add in anything I think I might want to eat that day. That way, when I'm hungry, I know exactly what to reach for and there are no surprises. I try to eat 1300 cals when not working out, and 1500-1700 when I do work out, and I have been consistently losing.

Here's what I am eating today:
Breakfast: Steel-cut oatmeal that I made overnight in the crockpot and a Yoplait Light yogurt
Snack: Pita chips with homemade hummus
Lunch: Sandwich on whole wheat bread with low-cal mayo, turkey breast, bell pepper strips marinated in balsamic vinegar and a little olive oil; light string cheese
Snack: banana
Dinner: Chicken and roasted veggies with whole wheat pasta in alfredo sauce (home-made, under 300 cals) and a BIG salad with just romaine lettuce and light dressing

All this cost me a little over 1200 cals, so if I don't work out today, I have room for another Yoplait for dessert. All my grains are whole-wheat, and I try to add lots of veggies for extra fiber. You just have to tinker around with the foods you like to see how much you're able to eat, but pre-planning my meals has always worked for me.

Once you find a happy place with your calories, you can manually change them in sparkpeople so you can keep better track. I use sparkpeople and love it.

Thanks again everyone for the responses and sharing your own experiences! I've been thinking about this a lot. 2 days ago I did 2000 calories and I felt better. However, I feel that I'm not making the best choices while calorie counting (as in I was eating better food before starting calorie counting). So I was thinking about just counting calories on non-veggies and allowing myself unlimited number of veggies. Then I'd probably set my total number of calories lower. So if I get really hungry at night I can go ahead and eat some beans or carrots or whatever without worrying about calories.

That would be a lot easier for me in general because we travel so much that planning ahead is not really an option all the time (we have 4 big trips coming up before the end of this year).

i think that's a really good idea for you. we all have to fit the plans to our own life. although i wouldn't say 'all' veggies. certain ones can have alot of cals. starchy ones like potatoes, but i think you meant the lower carb ones. you might look up the index of foods. can't remember what it's called. glycomic or something. diabetics often use it too, but it's useful for all of us eating healthier. and once you get used to it, you'll remember how many cals are. things you eat most often.

I calorie count and I focus on protein first because it keeps me fuller longer.
The majority of my daily calories (1600 to 1800 calories for a 350 pound-plus, 49 year old menopausal women is what I picked) is protein. Then I allow myself 2 to 4 healthy fat servings daily and then the rest of my calories are veggies/fruit.....mainly veggies as I rarely eat fruit.

However last night, I did not feel like cooking dinner and had 2 slices of gluten-free pizza from the pizza place across the street from my home. First time in a couple of months I was craving pizza so I ate it and counted it into my daily calorie allotment., Not the *best* choice I could have made but sometimes we all need to have something we desire and not beat ourselves up over it. I did eat it with a green salad which I made here at home so my choice wasn't too bad though I was over my total by 150 calories yesterday.


Anyway, with that said I think you should focus on protein first as it will keep you fuller longer and for someone who is breastfeeding AND running your calories should be at 2000 daily. Do you do a food journal? I write down everything I eat in a notebook and tally it up with a calorie counting book that someone here on these forums was kind enough to send me.(CalorieKing) I find that food journalling keeps me accountable to myself and not going off the deep end and binging by allowing myself to get too hungry.

Oh yeah, I guess I was considering potatoes as starches so even though they are technically veggies I would count them in the calories (because I can easily overeat sweet potatoes!).

I agree. Protein is VERY important for me and something I struggle with. I'm not a big fan of meat (I actually was a vegetarian before I got pregnant and lost a ton of weight doing that but then pregnancy/nursing made me start craving meat again). However, I do eat a ton of black beans, avocados and eggs (and cheese to a lesser extent). When I was tracking everything (including the veggies) the last few days I seemed to be pretty pretty spot out with my calorie distribution between fat, carbs, and protein. But it could be that I do need more protein than what they suggest because of the extra exercise and nursing?

Oh, and just from experimenting today with counting everything but veggies I seem to be much more on plan and my calorie count is much more on tract (while feeling fuller). Maybe it's psychological because I get annoyed at look at portion sizes with veggies so then I eat less?

Calorie counting definitely takes some playing around to find what's right for you.
The first few weeks it took a lot of playing with meals to figure out what worked for me.
Mornings I'm never hungry but if I don't eat I will be starving later. so I'll have 1 package of instant oatmeal or 2 boiled eggs, or a simple Greek salad- just lettuce, feta, red pepper, onion and olives.
If I'm on the run I'll grab a whole grain raspberry muffin from Tim Horton's 400 calories but I feel good about the fiber.

Lunches again I'm not really hungry but I'll be starving later so I'll have, an avocado roll+miso soup Or A big Greek salad, Or a soup with lots of veg (most often soup) Or A ham/tuna sandwich.

Suppers used to be the only meal I ate, and it would be huge because I was starving! Now because I actually ate I will have a reasonable supper.
Rice/potatoes/noodles + chicken breast /tuna / shrimp + steamed veg.

in between I'll eat snacks when ever I'm hungry because my big problem was always eating nothing then binging. My snacks will be veg+ humus / yogurt / cheese cube / almonds / whole grain toast / roasted beans or zucchini

For me smaller frequent meals has really been the best method. I drink obscene amounts of coffee so I never really feel hungry until I'm starving and have a headache! So making myself eat through out the day really helps me feel better and eat reasonable amounts.

If your a craving person you should scheduel fixes- a cup of hot chocolate for the coco-lovers. popcorn for the salt lover.
If your a portion problem you should use small plates and wait 20 minuets between refills. (this worked great for my SO, he's easily eating half what he did before!)
Exploring foods has helped me lots too. I'd never realized how much I like broccoli, or squash and now healthy foods are normal to me. I spent a week at a friends place up north and was violently ill from the amount of grease and fat we ate. My body just can't handle it anymore! The smell of fried food is becoming a turn off. I never thought I'd crave a salad!

Today I did the whole not counting veggies and I think it was a success! I ate 1500 calories on the dot + unlimited veggies (but I did count fruit and the sweet potato that I had). I don't feel starving right now and it makes me think this is doable. :D

Oh, and I definitely crave salads even before loosing weight. I really do enjoy veggies but my big weakness before was sweets (hence me giving up all sugar/artificial sweeteners). Oh, and thanks for reminding me about greek salads.

Wow!! 2 years! That is such an accomplishment.
I only BF for 5 weeks.

I only lasted 3 weeks with my oldest. Bottle-fed my second.

Dont put your self on a calorie restriction like 1200!!!!

Figure out how many calories you are using up everyday and just try to make a deficit from that. If you are using up 3000 cals, then aim to only eat 2500. With your activity level you should be eating a lot more than 1200 cals.

If you're hungry all the time, then you aren't gonna be able to stick to it. You're burning a TON of calories by running, and I see you already got your answer on nursing - you need more calories to support the milk and the little one. My new diet is as follows - eat when you're hungry, drink water instead of eating when you're just bored, and don't eat until you're "full"... eat until you're satisfied, and leave a little bit of food on your plate. Use self-control so you don't eat too much, but yeah... don't starve yourself, or you're just gonna end up quitting your "diet" and putting the weight back on. Good luck! And WOW, great job on all that running! I wish I could run like that! I love running, but I make it about 10 minutes and then I'm done... Ten... very... slooowwww ... minutes... hahaha

I'm not trying to feed myself and a small child also, but here's a pretty low cal day for me, and look at all the food I can have. I find I do best if I eat at 1pm, 4pm, 7pm and 10pm. If I'm hungry earlier I have room for something small to tide me over, but I am most def. not a breakfast person. I *may* get my lazy butt up and go to the store and find something else to add to my dinner, like a whole grain roll or something. I have found that this kind of "diet" eating helps me stay less hungry, though in all honesty, I am never completely satiated. I'm not sure there were any promises about never feeling hungry when I got on board this ride, though. And somewhere I read about knowin if you are truly hungry or just want to eat: hungry will eat veggies or whatever, wanting to eat will just grab and stuff into the mouth. I can use that togauge pretty accurately for myself. If I'm willig to eat a pile of veg, then yes, I am hungry. If not, then I can wait until a planned meal/snack.

I know about the out of town stuff. I just finished the first weekend away for craft shows of 5. I was fine until I decided it was okay to eat ice cream. BUT. I actually planned out my meals and packed each thing in a small plastic container....looked like a toddler was travelling with us. I even weighed out my turkey for turkey and pits and put it into baggies and put several baggies in a small plastic tupperware kind of thingy. I too pre-measured hot 7-grain cereal in plastic and then could use the microwave to heat water.

I was surprised how well it worked with a little pre-planning. One of our guests over the summer was a man who lost over 200 lbs. and I can tell you, I was IMPRESSED. I was able to serve him proper food due to my own plan, but if not, he had all these little plastic containers...just like me...and it made it seem possible for me to do it too.

Anyhow, here is my meal plan for one day, on a really low day. Maybe it will help.

milk 2 C 244
hot cereal 130
raspberries 35
almond milk 30
pita 90
3 oz. turkey 75
eggbeaters 120
feta 70
devin spag no pasta 200
spaghetti squash/ 8oz.
cooked 64
greens 30
dressing 50
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