A problem I have always had is that I tend to feel hungier after I eat than I do before I eat. So far today I have had the following:

Breakfast
1 cup Raisin Nut Bran Cereal
1/2 cup of whole milk (I don't do skim milk, that stuff is full of unhealthy fillers)

Mid-morning snack
1 Medium Grany Smith Apple
2 tbs smooth peanut butter

Lunch
1 Salad with dried cranberries, walnuts, and apple cider vinaigrette
1/4 cup of Tuna salad (has about 1/6 of a tbs of mayo and some dill relish)
1 slice of whole grain bread

Total calories so far: approx. 1022 (I think that's a little high. I think my software added too many calories for the vinaigrette)

I wasn't really hungry before lunch, I just ate because it was time to eat, but now I feel like I am starving and it is taking all my will power not to eat any more. Has anyone else had this problem?

In my opinion, if you aren't hungry, don't eat. Or, you could have just eaten the apple and skipped the peanut butter. It's not that PB is bad, just that you can use those calories and fat later in the day when you are hungry.

Oh, for breakfast I would totally not do cereal. I would do 1 cup of oatmeal with a piece of fruit or an egg white omlette with veggies. The high protein really seems to stay with me.

Eat more protein and fewer carbs. You're not balancing your meals enough, and all the carbs are causing your blood sugar to shoot up, then tumble down...and you're hungry again. I'd especially change the breakfast--you've got 55 grams of carbs in that cereal and you're only balancing it with about 4 grams of protein in the milk. Go for no more than 30 grams of carbs in a meal, balanced with at least 15 grams of protein.

I am never hungry ,yet always hungry.
I eat I eat and I eat. Even here at work when someone brings food.I just eat cause its there.
If food crosses my mind ,I have to eat.
I don't understand and this is very difficult to fight.

Thanks guys. I am opposed to high protein meals, though. Our bodies are designed to turn carbohydrates into energy and protein into amino acids. Amino acids are meaningless without the ATP we get from carbohydrates. If your body is forced to use protein for energy it has to strip nitrogen from them, leading to nitrogen build up. Nitrogen is toxic. Despite what popular fad diets suggest, we should not be eating any more protein than we need to provide the necessary amino acids.

Hey! At your current weight, you might be undereating a bit. You should probably not go below 2500 cals in a day, at least starting out.

Also, sometimes feeling pain after eating can be a sign of gallbladder troubles. Any history of that in your family?

As for the "high protein" meals--it has to do with balancing your fat burning. Muscle burns fat, but the brain has to have glucose. I think you probably know this because you sound like you've done some reading. So, if the brain runs out of glucose (the blood sugar drops), the body is quite happy to break down protein to replace it--it's harder to break down fat. So, if you're restricting calories, some protein is getting used along with fat. Eating more protein helps offset that. I'm not talking huge amounts of protein--just 25%-30% of calories taken in.

I agree that you have too many carbs and not enough protein there. A better balance might help. You could try it, anyway.

cartp, maybe you should try staying with an eating schedule instead of just eating whenever you think of it. That might help you figure out this mystery.

Jay

Hmm... I checked my skim milk (I'm in Canada) and it has
skim milk
vit's A and D

that's it... no fillers.

The "rule of thumb" given to me by my trainer was for every 10 pounds you weigh- each 100 calories to maintain- cut down 25% to lose weight.

I weigh 215 right now, meaning I can eat 2150 calories to maintain my weight and should be eating like 1600 a day to lose weight.

At your weight you should be eating more like 2400-2600 calories- no wonder you are starving.

As for protein your body can use that too- so I suggest upping that and lowering the carbs- you are trying to lose weight and carbs aren't really your friend in this case (I love carbs too). Your body will always break down carbs before fat- so if you eat too many your body will not utilize the fat as much.

So consider if you are supposed to eat 2400 calories a day, if you only have three meals that is 800 calories per meal. Or you can do 600 per meal and two 300 calorie snacks a day (or 3 200 calorie snacks)

I'd definitely say if you are getting less than 1500 that could be starvation mode and once you start upping calories again you'll start gaining- even if it's only a small amount of calories overall.

Your body is telling you it's starving- feed it! That doesn't mean go crazy and get a burger- but have a handful of nuts or some cheese with meat, some more fruit, some veggies, something healthy that won't kill your calorie count for the day.

Good luck

Oh and PS a client of my trainer's who used to work out was 360 lbs and he would eat so little- he was eating 1200 calories a day and not really losing- my trainer told him to eat more like 2700 calories a day (which shocked his client) and since then he's been losing weight.

Judging by the menu you posted, you're not getting enough protein. Adequate protein will take care of those hungries.

Thanks everyone. I'm not even close to being done for the day. My plan right now is 2000 cal/day. I'll try adding a little more protein.

They add crystalized milk solids (basically powdered milk) to it to thicken it.

Sometimes I'm hungry after I eat, like I didn't even have anything. But that seems to be TOM related, not my norm.

I do find that for some reason apples make me hungry, but you got hungry after having lunch since your apple.

I find that fat keeps me fuller. I use olive oil, avocado, nuts, and cheese for this effect (I'm vegetarian).