Hi everyone, I"m new here and I've been on this new "path" since the first of the year. Some days are fine, others absolutely suck. I'm so confused as to why I am ALWAYS hungry. I have eaten a bagel thin with cream cheese, fruit with yogurt and granola, a lean cuisine, a piece of cheese, a serving of blue corn chips with homemade guacamole, and a deli flat sandwich thin with chicken breast lunch meat, and I'm still hungry! I've been eating every 1 1/2 to 2 hours because I can't get full and it isn't like "oh that sounds good, I want to eat" it's actual "I could eat a horse raw" hunger!!! This is the first day I've felt this hungry. I'm wondering if it's due to the new workout I started? I've been walking the track in the evenings but the weather is bad so I bought the biggest loser cardio max and I did that this morning at 6am...it's also the first day i've gotten up really early...help please!

Could your TOM be on the way? I get really hungry right before. Nothing I can do about it either. I could keep stuffing my face and still feel hungry, so I just eat on plan and deal with the hunger.

thanks for responding My TOM is non existant thanks to PCOS

Just another reason why I need to drop this weight

maybe you need to eat more fruit and veg and drinkmore water. If im hungry i eat veg or fruit as its low in calories and fat xxxx

Be sure you are drinking lots of water throughout the day. I make sure to get at least 72 oz. or so and I get it in before 3 or 4 p.m. each day.

I see a lot of processed food in there, and a lot of carbs. For the calories of a lean cuisine, you could eat a full chicken breast, two cups of green beans and half an apple. Which is more food?

A serving of chips has the same calories as an egg and a nonfat yogurt.

Guacamole is great, nice and filling, but maybe it would have gone farther over a different food (like beans?). Similarly, bagels are ridiculously caloric and provide very little nutritional bang for the buck. That doesn't mean you can't eat them, but be aware that you could eat literally two lunches worth of food for the 'cost' of one normal, wheat bagel.

You're eating a lot of calories, but your food volume is rather low. Some smart substitutions of bulky, low calorie food, more protein and about the same level of fat would make you a lot more satisfied and full for the same amount of calories in the end.



Sometimes I do just get ravenously hungry, even eating a lot of bulky foods, I evaluate whether it is head hunger of stomach hunger and then generally eat until I am satisfied (but not full). When I am really hungry, a chicken breast and broccoli will often fill me up for the same calories as a cup of icecream but one leaves me full and the other makes me crave more junk. I dont ignore genuine, gnawing physiological hunger, but I do as much as I can to forestall that in my daily eating.

Well, do you know how many calories you are eating? Do you know how many you ate previously? I think it can take the body time to adjust to less food. Also, if it's winter where you live I think that as an affect too.

arctic mama, that is really, really good advice...i've always eaten anything i wanted (not something to be proud of!) and now I'm trying to do a lot of switcharoo's, i bought 100 calorie bagel thins instead of "real" bagels, lean cuisine peanut chicken and noodles instead of "real" take out, etc...

I have seen some results, but I know I'm not doing my BEST...and that's what I should be doing. Tonight I'm going to go buy chicken breasts, fresh veggies, and fruit instead of processed crap

fruits and veg will help gill you up and lots of water xxx

You'll feel a lot better, and more full. That doesnt mean you can't ever make use of diet convenience foods, but I don't personally think they should be the bulk of a particular meal, especially if it is hunger you're struggling with.

It really isn't much of an exageration to say that I've spent most of my life constantly, ravenously hungry. No matter how much I ate, it didn't stop the hunger (and if I truly had eaten whenever I was hungry, I probably would have gotten to 1,000 lbs instead of "only" 394).

I went to bed nearly every night, thinking about food and talking myself out of snacking (or giving in, and only being hungrier afterward than when I started).

But when my doctor recommended I try low carb (warning me not to go too low, but admitting he didn't know what "too low" was), I learned that carbohydrates are a huge hunger trigger for me.

I never gave low-carb dieting much of a chance, because I thought it was unhealthy and unsustainable, and the way I did it, when I did try it (extremely low carb/fat/calorie) I was right. Finding a moderately low-carb diet, and choosing the highest volume foods (mostly low-sugar fruits and vegetables high in fiber/water), has helped tremendously.


I also experience crazy hormonal hunger. The combination of low-carb eating and birth control has literally changed my life (I postponed birth control as long as possible, because I was always warned that it tended to make weight loss harder - which hasn't been true for me).

With the bc and low-carb combo, food no longer is constantly on my mind, but the minute I cross the too-many carb threshold, the rabid hunger is back. My insurance stopped covering the bc that worked best for hunger, but the one I had to switch to is still better at controlling hunger than when I was on no bc.

Finding the perfect carb level is still a challenge, but I feel less hungry on 1000 calories of low-carb than on 3,000 calories of high carb.

Now learning to accept that I need to eat as low-carb as I do to lose weight and control hunger, is an entirely different matter. I was raised in an Italian/German/Polish family, and it's still very difficult for me to conceive of a life low in potatoes, corn, legumes, bread, and pasta.

It's been a lot harder for me to limit bread and potatoes than sweets.

I have PCOS too and I have Hypoglycemia to go with it. Many of us with PCOS are really carb sensitive. "Normal" people say that a bowl of oatmeal will hold them until lunch- I can't make it more than 90 minutes after that much carb. I get ravenous.
From that perspective, when I look at your list, I see lots of carbs and not enough protein. You may want to experiment with protein at every meal and pair it up with lots of fruit & veggies and fewer starchy carbs. I can go hours on 1/2 C of cottage cheese and an apple- way better than, say, oatmeal.
Just a suggestion! GL with finding what works for you.

Good suggestions all around.

I know I feel much less hungry when I focus on getting protein, especially in combination with good fat. Fruit, bagel thins, granola . . . all of these can be great for lots of people, but for me (when eaten alone) I would be hungry an hour later. Give me egg whites, whole eggs, chicken, salmon, Greek yogurt, and I'm full for quite some time.

Another question for you - has your daily schedule changed? Are you less busy or focused on other acitvities? I'm not working today because of the storm, and I've been "hungry" off and on all day. It's not real hunger, I know that after this long on the journey, but my brain keeps trying to convince me I'm hungry. I'm not. So my brain and body have to deal.

I wouldn't worry about it too much that happened to me the first few weeks I was on plan. Part of it is psychological. When you first start out its hard to recognize when your really hungry and when you just seriously want to eat. Another factor is the amount of nutrients your getting. Make sure that you are getting plenty of protein and fiber which will help to make you feel full and try taking a multivitamin. On days when hunger gets really strong be sure to eat spicey food (if you can handle it) and cinnamon since both are proven to increase feelings of saety. Also drink plenty of water. You'll should adjust pretty well after the first month or so. If you're still haven't problems after that then I would start to worry.

I've watched this thread go by a few times and felt I had nothing to add. But it got me thinking. I googled "mechanism of hunger" and got some wonderful information. I recommend it.