Hi.
To be honest, my mind has twisted thinking when it comes to eating.
In the past, when I lost a lot of weight, I would feel hungry but my mind tells me that I feel full. Now that I am overweight, I would feel bloated yet my mind tells me to eat more, or that I feel hungry.
What is going on? Have I gone mad?

Not sure if you are going crazy, but try several small meals and a couple of healthy snacks per day. Chew slowly. Drink water. I think you will be AND feel full.

one of the things i've noticed over the years is that most overweight people can't recognize the feeling of genuine hunger. We might actually be thirsty or bored or ANYTHING other than hungry.

My suggestions: if you're feeling 'hungry,' drink something that has very very few calories [tea or coffee with/without a splash of milk and sweetener, water, water with lemon or lime, selzer - you get the idea].

if that doesn't work, eat about 200 calories of protein plus high quality carb. like 1/2 apple with a bit of cheese. 200 calories of a protein bar, some cottage cheese or yogurt with fruit.

as Lacy said, you might do better with a few small meals and snacks rather than with three squares.

bottom line, though, the reason for doing all this is so that you can learn what hunger feels like to you, vs thirst, or simply some emotion that tells you it's time to eat.

Thanks Lacyt74 and jiffypop.

Okay, I will try the following;

• Just for today I will delay my wanting to eating until I really feel what hunger feels like. Then write down what that actually feels so I got a reference point.
• Then only eat small portions (I normally eat two large meals) 3-4 times per day.
• If I get that hungry feeling, after I have eaten, I will compare it to my reference. In any case, I will drink water, or coffee or tea, and wait till it is time for my next meal.

How does that sound?
Or have I cunningly misunderstood something to sabotage myself again?

I eat breakfast,snack,lunch,snack,dinner,snack
A lot of times I won't eat some of my snacks because I am full. I'm eating about every 3 hours or so.

It's a good start! and i LOVE a scientific approach. Please remember, though, that this is about learning YOUR signals, YOUR cues, YOUR body, not about anyone else's. SOOOO, if you're not getting the results you want - you're not figuring out what hunger feels like, or thirst, or your emotions or amount of weight lost or WHATEVER it might be - CHANGE IT!

you're on a journey to figure this out - it's not a light switch, it's not a race.

one more point. no matter how we lose the weight, we still need calories. In the past, a very wise person told me that a meal [for me] would be about 350 calories and a snack would be about 200-250. YOU might need more calories than i do. Don't restrict your food so much that your body goes into starvation mode. I'm guessing that a total day's calories for you might be closer to 2000 than to 1600, but somewhere in that range might be your sweet spot.

trust me, i'm not a calorie counter, but these guidelines helped me figure out portion sizes.

intermittent fasting taught me about what it really feels like to be HUNGRY pretty fast. And what it feels like to be really FULL and satisfied
But then, thats not for everyone because it means going for quite a time each day without food... I like it, I got used to it pretty fast. it is now about an hour before my "eating time" and the feeling of hunger slowly starts to come up. I love it ^^

Thank you Lacyt74, jiffypop, and PatPat.

Yesterday I did not eat until 9 pm.
Usually I start eating by 9 am, but went for a bike ride instead (rode 5 km, that is all my knees could handle).
By 1 pm I was feeling hungry. Drinking a water and a coffee now and again helped.
At 6.30 pm I went out to a community meeting.
At 7 pm my stomach started to grumble now and again, I had nothing to drink for tow hours.
I got home by 8.30 pm (had coffee). Cooked a steak and some vegies.
10.30 pm had a small bowl of cereal, and went to bed.

This morning I feel fine, as if yesterday did not happen, and lost a 1kg.
I know that early days will see a decrease in weight, but day 5-7 all gets lost in self-sabotage.
I hope I do not relapse due to insane thinking.

Thank you all for your help. I hope you won't mind me still asking for further support.
I suppose it would be best to transfer to a support sub-forum.
I have already started a thread in the exercise sub-forum. I am still uncertain where else to go for this particular (mental) issue. So I'll just stay here for a while, unless someone thinks I ought to subscribe elsewhere in this forum.

Just rode my old 10 km around town circuit, well sort of. It contains two hills and my knees won't handle it at this stage, so I rode around them. So I actually rode 11.5 kms.
I also was not too rickety carrying my bike up to my first floor unit. So I am very happy with that.
During my ride I was thinking of old stuff I learnt/read about losing weight. One is to write down everything I eat and drink BEFORE consuming it.

In sports, athletes are asked to write down what they did in training and what did and did not work as planned. Then they wrote what to do next time to improve on what did not go so well. Then they implement the new method/experiment the next day to see if they improved.

I think I can incorporate that idea with my food intake diary. Oh, I need to write down my daily weight and what exercises I've done to burn those calories.
Someone told me not to get too caught up in daily weights due to fluctuations. But what I will do is record every day, and at the end of the week average it out, and record that on my slide graphy thing when I am eligible to have one.

I might sound like a scientist about this, but I don't think so. I hate the idea of having to calculated calories-in vs calories-out.

I am now reading an e-book by Vinnie Tortorich, "Fitness Confidential".

I rarely get hungry any more. It took a lot of tweaking to my diet but I have settled on two meals a day. A big breakfast and lunch with lots of protein and good fats (omega 3s).

Breakfast is typically something like oats, smoked oysters and sardines.

Lunch is typically lots of fish with a varied salad and honey.

The fish does it for me. Keeps me full and keeps the calories low.

So play around and experiment and see what works for you.

Thanks IanG for your reply.

Unfortunately I have never been a breakfast person, or missing a meal before bedtime. I know that contradicts a lot of nutritional plans, but I have an aversion to changing my ways to those specific meal times. I have lost weight, before, without compromising those meals times.

Thanks for reminding me about sardines. I used to eat them as one of my post-workout snacks. I used to have sardines on toast with onion and tomato. I have not had that since I stopped exercising.

IanG, I am just curious, I have noticed by your graphs that you have been trying to get down from 170 to 155 for a long while now. Are you experiencing a plateau? If so, what plan have you got to get through it? Hope you do not mind me asking these questions.

Though it was a long time before I actively started a weight loss regimen I was watching Oprah and she was having a weight loss show. On it someone asked about why she feels always hungry. Oprah asked her what she felt like eating and she said "cheesecake". What this illustrated to me was that what you "feel like eating" is not the same as hunger. Having enough of one type of food does not mean that you are "full".

Kudos to you keeping up with cycling! I have been cycling 3x a week but I am thinking that I will need to be more regular to develop more stamina. My rear and knees get sore but I find that I can push through the pain. My hang up is really becoming out of breath on hills...I wish I understood the gears on the bike better...

Oh and I don't usually knock people's food choices but sardines..for breakfast? O_o

just throwing this out there, but there is also some research that indicates fat cells influence the hormones that cue hunger, so just having extra fat can make your body signal hunger cues.

Hello 2salads.
Thank you 2salads for your post.