After a full 4 weeks dieting, you'd think the hunger pains would go away!

Every morning I wake up feeling fine and can deal with it through the day, but as soon as dinner is over and I sit down to relax, it's back! I admit that the night is the worst for me. My mom the nurse recommended drinking vinegar water, and that seems to work if I drink it all day...huh, imagine that.

Does anyone have any tricks or techniques I could try?

What are you eating?

The best ways for me to keep full are:

1. Including fiber in every meal or snack. How many grams of fiber do you get in a day, on average?
2. Including protein in most meals or snacks. Getting lots of protein helps keep you full longer.
3. Getting lots and lots of water.
4. Lots and lots of produce. Veggies and fruits...lots of nutrition AND lots of volume, all for only a few calories.

All of these things will actually help keep you full so you don't have to deal with the hunger problems.

If you eating is more about HABIT than about being hungry, try doing something different. You can try moving rooms (normally watch TV in your living room? Watch in another room so you break the association). Chew gum. Have a hot cup of tea.

In the mornings, I usually have 2 cups of coffee, excersize for an hour(2-3 times a week), then a Strawberry Slimfast.
Lunch is another Slimfast.
Dinner lately has been about 3-5 oz chicken, steak, or pork with as many steamed veggies as I can stand, sometimes throwing in a good side dish recipe from this website. OR a huge salad with 2-3 oz chicken, 1 hard boiled egg, and 3-4 tbl. balsamic vinagrate.
Snacks, usually a bag of light popcorn, and or an apple or bannana

I've been tracking my water intake too and I'm up to 5 - 16.9oz bottles of water a day.

Fiber... actually that makes sense. Any great fiber-ific snacks/foods that work for you?

Gosh - you've got a good start with apples and popcorn, fiber-wise. How many calories are you eating in a day?

You might be not eating enough! 2 slimfasts really equal only 400 calories. 4 oz of protein is another 120 calories, plus veggies, and your dinner is only 250 calories or so at best. That's only 650 calories! If you're not snacking CONSTANTLY, you're not eating enough (which'd explain the hunger).

What sort of eating plan are you on? Have you tried counting your calories for a day and seeing where you land? I'd guess it'd be lower than you think.

It is nearly impossible to sustain a diet under 1200 calories a day...really. That'd explain the hunger for sure!

Seriously - if you're hungry all day, you're not eating right.

I'd agree that you may well not be eating enough, and that cranking up the protein/fibre would be a good idea.

...are you sure about doing meal replacements? I mean, if you're finding it works for you, then fair enough. But unless you plan to go on eating a slimfast shake twice a day for the rest of your life, it isn't really helping you learn to manage your portion size or your food choices, is it?

Sorry - I don't mean to be negative. But I think you might find it more satisfying, as well as better preparation for the rest of your life, if you were eating real food for breakfast and/or lunch? Just making careful choices about WHAT and how much? (Maybe oatmeal with fresh fruit and sugarfree yogurt for breakfast? It's low GI, high fibre, and more filling?)

fwiw, I'm finding Low Carb (pretty much Atkins) surprisingly easy to follow, I've been losing weight steadily and I'm not having hunger pangs. Plus, I've really stopped WANTING bread/pasta/rice/sugary things! Which is just amazing. That's not to say that it would neccesarily be the best weight loss plan for you - I know Mandalinn has been tremendously successful following a different plan, and there are success stories from all the different weight loss programs here at 3FC.

But I do suspect that a good part of getting weight off and KEEPING it off is tied in with changing your relationship with food. So that you can still enjoy eating delicious things now & for the rest of your life, but without making food choices that will damage your health.

Holy cripes! If you are only getting 650 calories a day, no wonder you are always hungry!!

It's widely recommended that dieters not go below 1,200 calories a day or your body will go into starvation mode and actually hold on to your weight.

Unless you're on a medically supervised liquid diet, or other type of supervised diet, then having well under 1,000 a day is not a good idea.

I also am in agreement with broadabroad about the meal replacement shakes. If they are temporary, and/or you're using them to jump start your weight loss the first few weeks, then I can see the appeal.

But I don't think they are a long-term solution. For one, you won't learn anything about portion control, calories, or healthy food choices if you lean on diet shakes too much. Also, I couldn't envision myself (or anyone else) being able to have diet shakes for breakfast and lunch for decades.

In order to "stick" with this new lifestyle, I think it's ESSENTIAL to find something that we can stand and tolerate - longterm.

And for me, and yes, we're all different - that could never be that little amount of food. And slimfasts are okay once in a while, but longterm, is that really what you want to be doing?

I would never have lasted this long at this new way of life for if I was hungry. Never. Ever. Ever. Being hungry is not an option for me.

So therefore - I eat. And frequently at that. Every 2 1/2 hours or so. Always making sure I eat plenty of protein & fiber.

Some low fat proteins:

-cottage cheese
-SF/FF yogurt
-low fat string cheese
-egg white omlettes
-tuna
-salmon, tilapia & other fish
-turkey breast
-chicken breast
-veggie burger type products
-beans
-skim milk

A few high fiber foods:

-High fiber cereal (great with the yogurt)
-pears & apples
-Strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries
-spinach
-cauliflower
-various squashes
-brussel sprouts
-asparagus
-broccoli

Make sure to get in plenty of veggies. Salads are great. Lots of romaine with peppers, cukes, tomatoes, red onions. Have it with grilled chicken, turkey breast or tuna.

Rethink what a snack/treat is. Baby carrots, grape tomatoes, raw string beans, cut up cukes are great dipped in some hummus or salsa or both.

An egg white omlette with sauteed veggies is another great snack.

Get rid of the high calorie condiments - like mayonaise and oil. Learn to cook with low calorie ones - like vingegars, mustards, lemon juice, chicken broth, fresh and dried herbs, etc. Learn to grill, roast, saute and bake your food, instead of frying.

It takes some time to figure out the "right" formula for oneself. But really, it's got to be something that is sustainable. This whole weight loss thing won't/can't work if it's not something that we can live with forever. Think about making some permanent, lifestyle changes. Incorporating some new healthy eating habits into your life. Experimenting with different foods/recipes to find what you like and what you can live with - forever. Cause that's how long you want to be a healthy weight for.

With a little experimentation, some trial and error and lots of looking around 3FC, you're bound to find something that's right for you.

I do Slimfast but my day looks more like this:

Breakfast: Slimfast
Snack: Fruit or Cereal Bar
Lunch:Slimfast
Snack: Fruit or Cereal Bar
Dinner: Fish in sauce with at least two veg and a small portion of either pasta, rice or potato. Followed by a low fat dessert such as a fruit yogurt or greek yogurt with berries.
Evening: I have a low-cal instant hot chocolate drink and maybe rice cakes or another piece of fruit if I have the calories to spare.

As you can see there's a whole lot more food than your plan and comes in at about 1400-1500 calories a day. I've lost over 80lbs doing this.

Kitty

Fiber one cereal is great, 1/2 cup only has 60 calories and 14g of fiber.
At the local wal mart there is a good tasting bread dont' have it with me here at work in the package, but is has extra fiber, 7g per slice. hope this helps. God Bless.

I can totally relate to the night-time hunger pangs. I've been trying to combat them by having a snack about two hours before I go to bed - some high-fiber cereal, an apple w/ string cheese, or veggies and hummus, depending on what else I've eaten that day. I'm doing the calorie-counting thing, so I just budget for a nightly snack.

I know a lot of experts advise against eating at night, but it seems to really help me. If I go to bed hungry, I can't sleep.

If you're craving sweets at night (as I often do), try sugar-free pudding, a fudgecicle, or a no-sugar-added fruit juice bar. All relatively low calorie, all tasty!

Good luck - let me know if you come up with other solutions!

Wow. What Manda said ... you're not eating nearly enough, certainly not enough protein ... and working out for an hour on a couple of cups of coffee???

Good grief, I'd be hungry enough to gnaw my own arm off after that!

I know this is not a popular mindset, but I'd ditch the Slimfast. It's not teaching you a healthy way of eating or how to balance the proper nutrition. Instead of a slimfast for breakfast, why not have a cup of lowfat yogurt and some fresh fruit. You'll feel fuller for longer because you'll get more protein, more fiber, and have more solid food in your stomach to digest.

Same for lunch - a couple of slices of deli turkey on a whole grain slice of bread, some low fat cheese, and some veggies. Yummy, nutritious, and will give your tummy something to work with, rather than just 10 oz of liquid.

I personally don't believe that Slimfast (or similar styles of diets) are healthy or sustainable over the long term. You can't plan to live the rest of your life on Slimfast.

.

Wow, thanks for all the response!

I decided to do the slimfast because I can't eat solid food in the mornings, digestion I think, and I wasn't eating breakfast anyway. I am also VERY picky about food. The list foods I hate is to long to mention here.

I feel I should tell you all that the diet I'm doing is counting points. A friend a while back gave me her "Getting Started" booklet and the "Points Calculator" from Weight Watchers. The book says to eat 28 points a day. I guess you could say I'm stealing my diet by not joining. Please don't think bad of me, I make it a game in life to do things without spending money.

In the past, I have always ate a very large amount of sweets, cereal, pie, cake, lil choco donuts, and lots of milk, before I went to bed. I found being stuffed helped me go to sleep, (I have slight insomnia). What a habit! It still hard to break, so now I try to eat popcorn or something else. I made a diet key lime pie the other day, but I want to eat it before I go to bed. I think that's WHY I made it. huh.

We won't think badly of you. Almost everyone steals bits of diet plans to make the ultimate "what-works-for-me" plan.

In fact, I read that in Ann M. Fletcher's book THIN FOR LIFE.