This - like Arctic Mama, if eggs or a big bag of raw veggies won't take care of the hunger, then true hunger is not the issue. Drinking lots of water helps me. I make sure that I take plenty of food to work with me so that I am not tempted to eat all the junk that is at work. I know that the vending machines call me if I get hungry. I carry a Quest protein bar in my purse in case I get caught away from home and get really hungry. A protein bar and a bottle of water is very filling.

Also, your plan will help dictate what you can eat.

My best coping mechanisms for hunger are to make a cup of tea, have a mint, or take a walk. (I don't always succeed in not eating something though).

Lately I've had this thing happen where I lose several pounds over the course of a few days and then a day or two later I'm ravenous. At those times I do let myself eat more and a couple of times I have been a little out of control but I have never woken up heavier the next day. If I'm not in that particular situation, though, I try really hard to stick w my plan. For me it's more about eating once a day and avoiding carbs, so I might eat a larger than usual dinner if I feel like I need to. Now that I'm so close to goal I always see it on the scale the next day, though.

One thing I also try my hardest to stick to is not eating when I'm too hungry. It doesn't take very long for hunger to pass and it doesn't tend to get stronger (actually seems to get less intense) over time. So if it's dinner time and I'm feeling starved, I'll wait 15 min to eat and that really helps me not to overeat. Interestingly, whenever I have done a 48 hour fast I've not had a very big appetite when I break it and don't get hungrier after.

I've been eating happily this way for about three years now and haven't had a major problem with overeating (I did overeat habitually before doing this and did have some relapses, but as time goes on, knock on wood, it happens less and less, as of now it hasn't happened in months). I have not become anorexic. And I am pretty sure my metabolism is doing better than ever. I had a ten month stall a while back, but then recently just lost about 15 pounds in less than three months.

I'm pretty sure that when I'm feeling hungry, I'm burning fat. I don't need any topping up as I've still got plenty on my backside. I'm pretty sure I'm not burning muscle for energy, at least as a general rule. I am so much more muscular than I was a year ago and even much more than I was when before I started gaining.

If it's REAL hunger - sucky stomach thing and growling and all that - I will eat.

If it's just a desire to eat more food, I tell it that a new, stronger part of brain has taken over and it can drop dead because it's no longer running the show around here.

I used to have to say this a lot, but I still say it: "I will not give in to ridiculous desires to eat food I do not need. I am stronger than this desire to be fat is. I am stronger. I am stronger. I am stronger."

I eat, but slowly and controlled. I try not to let myself become a mindless vacuum. If I'm really hungry, I'll make something small, eat, and wait....see if I need more...I guess I proceed with caution. I don't like to ignore hunger, but I don't like to suddenly realize I just inhaled an extra 500 calories because I was hungry.

elsewhere on the forum i read - you know if you're really hungry if you're willing to eat some raw vegetables.

i'm still struggling with how to identify real hunger from just wanting to eat something, but i found this helps. and boiled eggs are fabulous at filling you up if you're truly hungry

Learning how to distinguish real hunger from mouth hunger is a skill that can be learned. It's important to learn it IMO because no matter what your weight loss plan is hunger is a valuable tool. I need to point out though that the "if you're not hungry enough to eat an apple then you're not really hungry" argument is and has always been an infuriating one for me. Being an emotional eater all my life hunger was confusing and a useless gauge for eating. It was not something I recognized in my body and therefore not a tool I could make use of. Upon hearing that argument I would set out to eat an apple or some carrot sticks no could eat 10 apples and still not be satisfied because that's not what I wanted. This led to severe and out of control binging. Only by learning to distinguish stomach hunger from real hunger was I able to meet my needs.

I know this works for some people. But ever since I became in tune with my real hunger signals I can meet my needs without forcing myself to eat apples and raw veggies. All in all, if my body is truly hungry it knows exactly what it wants to eat and sometimes that's veggies, more often than not its something else. If its an emotional hunger then I address those needs without food. Nothing good has ever come from force feeding myself carrots when I'm hungry for something else. Ever.

I have had similar issues in the past, and so I have to be careful with this as well. Particularly around TOM I have increased cravings for carbs. Normally I try to stay low carb, but I have found that when I force myself to make the low carb choices that I otherwise enjoy at other times of the month, that I am ultimately not satisfied and I just end up eating and eating. I am dealing with that now, and its the same thing every month. For about 5 days prior, other than eggs for breakfast I only want carbs, peanut butter, granola, oatmeal. In the past I would tell myself that I had to eat a grilled chicken salad for example because that was the better choice, but I'd eat it and 30 mins later still end up eating the peanut butter or whatever.

I'm fortunate I guess that most of the time I really enjoy the foods that I would like to be the staples of my diet, so I don't feel unsatisfied. But I'm realizing that I do better at TOM if I just skip the carrot sticks and go right for the granola bar (homemade ). I end up having less calories in the long run that way.

I find it strange that someone questions their hunger by throwing carrot sticks at it, that's all. If I'm hungry for a tuna sandwich why is my hunger invalid because I won't settle for raw veggies? Who's to say that I'm lot really hungry?? I know what I want to eat when in truly hungry and I eat what I want. Sometimes I really really want raw cauliflower with pine but hummus. Why would I try to trick myself by eating a hard boiled egg instead?

If I can't settle on what I want to eat then indent eat anything, that's not real and true hunger and I have to meet my needs elsewhere. I just don't understand why people invalidate hunger. If you're experiencing a craving that is brought on by emotional distress then what's a carrot goin to do?

I have come to realize that some days are "hungrier" days than others. I aim for my calorie limit, but it's really more of a range. Instead of a hard-and-fast 1400/day, I am happy with 1200, but also okay with the occasional 1600. So long as it averages out to fewer than 1500 or so over a week or the month, I'm pretty sure I'll lose.

So when I'm hungry even after eating my planned food, I will often have a spoonful of peanut butter or a slice of cream cheese or some nuts. These things have about 100-200 calories, but their fat content makes them very satisfying.

That being said, I also know that if I've been drinking, my hunger signals get all messed up. So I have different tactics for those nights.

The talk of tuna sandwiches... made me want a tuna sandwich. Oh hey, look food diary, we can totally squeeze that in AND have carrots. Nom nom nom.

I am shocked that you'd just assume that I don't know what I'm doing! lol I have lost just over 80 pounds now. It wasn't all muscle! I eat a diet of approx 3% carb/12%protein/85%fat. I have done the reading. I am very well adapted to burning fat.

And one more thing I'll say about appetite that I didn't mention earlier: eating mostly fat does amazing things for one's appetite! I could never control my appetite on a carb heavy (or even moderate carb) diet. But I have no trouble going months on end eating one reasonably sized meal a day when it's mostly fat. And all of my labs are great!

This is pseudo-science and not based in reality. It appears that the user Pattience has created her own theories on dieting and are dispensing them as fact.