I first joined here a couple of nights ago while looking for advice. I mustered up the courage to post in a thread in the introductions board. A very nice person showed me this calorie counting website, and I used it as a reference.

(I don't have 25 posts yet so I can't post the link)

In response, I posted this:

Boy was I wrong. "That doesn't seem too hard" psh! I feel famished.

According to the equation 655 + (4.35*weight in lbs) + (4.7*height in inches) - (4.7*age in years) this should be my basal metabolic weight (amount of calories burned by simply being alive)

So 655 + (4.35*165) + (4.7*66) - (4.7*22) = 1579.55

I was pretty sedentary today so 1579.55*1.2 = 1895.46

This site says in order to lose 1 pound per week, I'd need to eliminate 500 calories from my diet per day. So I should only be eating 1395.46/day if I want to lose a pound a week.

Well, today is my first day, and I've already eaten more than that (I ate 1520 today) and I am starving. I spaced out my meals and snacks pretty evenly throughout the day. I refuse to give in and eat more even though I know by morning I will be dizzy with hunger. I've been drinking lots of water to make me feel full. It works for about 5 minutes, but then the hunger pangs come back.

Is this normal? I know when first losing weight people need to cut back a little, but I never knew it would be this hard (and painful). My stomach is very angry at me right now. Am I just being a wimp? At what point would it be considered starving myself? I don't want to deliberately starve myself because that does more harm than good. Any feedback is appreciated.

What are you eating for your calories? 1500 in veggies is a lot. 1500 in pecan pie isn't so much. If you go with lean meats, lightly stirfried or steamed veggies, whole-grain carbs, and small amounts of healthy fats (avocado, olive oil, fish oils, etc), you should be able to stretch your calories over more filling foods.

If you are accustomed to eating a lot more your body will revolt a little (or a lot!). It's all about what you are used to. I'm not saying it will be easy but it will definitely get easier.

If it helps, you can slowly decrease your calories over a week or two but even if you don't you aren't starving yourself at 1500cal/day. But you aren't being a wimp either. Changing habits is HARD. Just don't give up even if you have to make adjustments to make things work for you.

Thanks for the support you guys.

To eat today I had:
Bratwurst 270
slice of bread 70
8 oz of almond milk 60
grilled cheese (two slices of bread and cheese, no butter) 280
8 oz of Orange Juice 110
Pecan Nature Valley bars 190
and a couple slices of toast with Nutella on them ~540

Altogether that should add up to 1520. This isn't counting the benefiber tablets that I'm on. Dx Looking through that list I'm starting to see why I'm so hungry. Bratwurst and grilled cheese? What was I thinking.

Grilled cheese is okay (sort of), Nutella and bratwurst don't sound like such good choices. I love Nutella, but it's definitely not filling for the calories.

Orange juice is empty sugar calories. It may surprise you, given orange juice industry marketing, but juice is NOT a health food. Vitamin C is important, but you can do Tropicana one better: just eat an orange.

And I don't see a single serving of veggies there. That's the biggest red flag. Tomorrow, your goal should be to track your calories and consume 5 cups of high-protein & fiber green veggies (spinach, broccoli, kale, lettuce, arugula, etc) between your meals. I promise your calories will go much farther then.

Hi Visual!

Thank you for posting your food intake, as I was just going to ask you to do that.

This is only my opinion, and as with everyone else here, I am no professional, but it looks like too many carbs/sugar. That always makes me feel like I'm starving.

Nutella is loaded with sugar, so is orange juice and white bread. Again, my opinion, but I don't think the butter would be a problem. There have been many studies done since the 80s showing the flawed research that went into the idea that we were/are getting fat from eating fat.

I am the same height as you, and I have lost 95 lbs. in 10 months, currently at 140. I seriously am never hungry on my diet. It consists of meats (yep, even red meat-the horrors), butter, cheese, nuts, seeds, white meat, seafood, lots of vegetables, some fruit, coconut milk, coconut oil, olive oil and a small amount of sprouted bread, black rice and quinoa. I also take supplements.

Have you ever tried a lower carb diet? Just curious.

Just off the top of my head...you are drinking 10% of your calories, save those for something more filling. You have almost no protein plus you are eating a lot of carbs which can give your blood sugar a roller coaster ride.

In general, proteins & fats will keep you satisfied for much longer than carbs will. Change it up to sub some lean meats & vegetables for the breads and you'll be a lot happier. You could have a lot of grilled chicken breast and steamed broccoli for those 540 Nutella calories.

ETA: D'oh! Not one but two people beat me to it!

I second what lackadaisy said about the Nutella. Their commercials glorify the health benefits of the spread, but it is mainly sugar. Get rid of it. The orange juice also. With the actual orange you get the fiber with the sugar. Much better. Nature Valley bars, also junk.

Think of 1 ingredient foods. Vegetables and fruits are something almost everyone can agree on. Eat more of them!!! I was able to totally stop counting calories (and thereby, for me obsessing) and when I became hungry like you are talking about, I ate fruits and veggies, as many as I wanted, til satisfied. Good luck by the way. Don't give up. You can do this.

Thank you everyone. ^o^ I was under the impression that as long as you can count your calories, it doesn't matter what you eat. I suppose I could do with less carbs. Carbs are probably the reason I've never been able to lose weight before. Luckily for me I don't like white bread, so I only eat wheat bread.

Coming from a single parent family where we never cooked or ate dinner together, I was never properly trained how to eat well, cook, and count calories. It may sound crazy to some of you, but this is the best advice I've come across ever. No more juices, snack bars, or nutella for me anymore.

Pretty much everything you listed there is carbs, so it makes sense that you feel so hungry.

Echoing everyone else, you can stuff yourself silly with vegetables all day long and you won't do much calorie damage. I'd suggest eating chicken, tofu, eggs etc for more protein and cutting out all liquid calories.

How do you break up your food? I think the "5-6 mini meals" model is most prevalent now but in my case I like having fewer, bigger meals - maybe playing with mealtimes and divvying up daily calories differently would help.

Part of dieting is feeling hungry and deprived sometimes, but you get used to it and your stomach shrinks.

edit: Going back to what you said, it is totally possible to lose weight eating junk food as long as there is a calorie deficit. I lost 30 lbs in high school (about 160-->130) eating breadsticks and Taco Bell one meal a day. BUT it's definitely less painful and more healthful to get those calories through a balanced variety of different foods. A good and simple rule is to shoot for lots of different colors on your plate. If everything you're eating is the same color, you should probably switch it up.

I understand. I was also raised in a single parent family and my mother's only advice was "don't you girls get fat because a guy will never want you". No nutritional advice. She didn't know either.

I decided to lose my weight and make this my one most important project in life. My health! The most important. I have read and researched and watched and listened and digested more information about health and food than I thought possible.

I figured out that I have always had a very real addiction to sugar. So, that went first. Read the labels of what you eat. High amounts of sugar and High fructose corn syrup are in EVERYTHING that is processed. Our bodies simply weren't made to be able to digest all of the sugar that is in our every day foods.

I tried Atkins in the past, but it was just too restrictive for me. I have never tried South Beach, but from what I hear, I think it may be similar to the way I eat. Lots of lean protein and veggies. Fruit and whole grains in moderation. I'll bet very few of us ever got overweight by eating too much broccoli or too many grapes. Just a hunch.

Best wishes!!

I usually only eat about 3 or 4 meals a day. I've heard that snacking throughout the day in small portions is actually better for you than a couple of big meals, but I have no proof of that being true.

I never joined a weight loss program before, primarily because they cost money. I also worry they may be too restrictive for me. I'm hoping to lose weight without having to join a program, but if it comes down to it, I will (once I can afford it).

I love everyone's advice here! Metabolism is a tricky things to change. Consider it like a thermostat. It's set at 69 and when the temp drops, the heat turns on. Your current weight is lowering. This makes your internal cues awaken so that your weight goes back to it's current set-point. This is part of the reason you're so hungry.

You can re-set your set point by sticking to your guns and over time, your body will accept it's new set-point.

Definitely up the protein. It is a much needed nutrient that also takes longer to digest, leaving you feeling full for a longer period of time.

For those of you who suggest upping protein, could you tell me how much you're eating and what you're eating.
I just started eating more protein but I'm not sure it's enough. I eat 1 hard boiled egg with breakfast and I have two servings of turkey breast a day each serving is 30-35g never more. I also have 1/4cup ricotta and a little less than a 1/4cup of cottage cheese. I also have about 1 tbsp of almond chunks. The rest of my meals are low carb veggies and fruit (only blueberries, blackberries and raspberries). Is this enough protein to you guys?

I'm trying to eat enough protein without going over 1200 calories and keeping a low carb diet so I find it a little difficult.

Visual- I think cutting out all of the processed food will make all the difference especially if you replace it with food that's easier for your body to digest. I'd you find cutting sugar out really hard do it in phases. Allow yourself natural peanut butter instead but limit it to one tbsp with 1/4-1/2 an apple. Use fruit with cottage cheese to fight the hunger and sugar addiction as well. Just make sure you don't eat too much of a good thing. I heard a quote on one if those weight loss shows on the discovery channel that has stuck with me, this woman was a therapist at a weight loss rehab center for people who needed to lose an extrodinanry amount of weight. One of her patients was over 450 lbs and he said he tried losing weight the right way and he didn't understand why he wasn't losing when he was only eating oranges. Her response, which I will never forget was something like, "you can lose weight eating oranges but not if you're eating 30 a day."
For whatever reason it never hit me that too much of anything even healthy can be bad for you. I wish I would have listened to her then.

Thank you everybody. I didn't get very much sleep last night because all I could think about was my next meal. I felt weak and dizzy, and was tempted to eat everything sugary in my cupboard, but I realized it was just carb withdrawal. I'm not used to going very long without carbs. It made me feel really irritable. So even though it was 2:30 am I boiled an egg to hold me over. It worked a little bit. I also munched on a few strawberries. I know fruit is very sugary but I felt a lot better after eating the strawberries, even though I wasn't full. I guess it's better than the stuff I ate yesterday.

It's going to be hard training myself to only eat until I'm satisfied rather than eating til I'm bursting at the seams full.