Okay so I woke up this morning cleaning like I didn't have to work today. Well I finished that, got ready and by that time I was real hungry. I had my morning smoothie and a little more than 1.5 hours later I was hungry so I ate my morning snack that I usually eat 2-2.5 hours after I have breakfast. Now it's an hour twenty minutes til lunch and I'm hungry again. I have almost finished my first liter of water as well.

Why is that? Could it be I waited too long to eat breakfast so I'm hungry or is my metabolism on the uptick again?

I had 220 cals for breakfast and 100 cals for morning snack. This is my usual calorie consumption up to this time daily. I have a good 375 calories for lunch which is more than normal. I was planning to go work out at our gym but when I do that I'm hungry so I usually eat after my workout. What to do, What to do? I can't wait til I work out to eat because I won't make it through the workout.

I can't give you a scientific answer, but I can tell you that from my experience what happens and how I handle it. It's kind of funny because this same thing happend to me the other week.

First, are you getting enough protein/calories in your morning smoothie? You may not be. 220 calories isn't too much, and if it's "empty" you might be doing more harm than good. Maybe try adding a piece of fruit or whole grain toast, or a small cup of yogurt. Also, it said you cleaned and and then you had your breakfast smoothie. For me, it always works best if I get up, have a glass of water, fix breakfast and then tackle my chores for the day. The smoothie gives me the energy I need for the first part of the day.

While I can't say why this happen, if you find yourself hungry before you think it's time to eat; you are wrong about when it's time to eat! =) When I dieted a while back (and fell right of the wagon, so here I am again LOL) I learned the hard way that feeling hungry=needing food/water/snack. It's not a good idea to just let your tummy growl. If you know you are on track with your calories, I'd try drinking a cup of non-fat milk, a piece of fruit/some veggies... just to curb your appetitie.

Also, as you begin to lose weight, your needs will begin to change. What works when you weigh 200 pounds doesn't work when you weigh 150 pounds. SO maybe it's just time for you to re-evaluate your eating/working out habits to conform to your shrinking body!

Best of luck!

Thanks. The smoothie is a protein smoothie with whey protein and frozen strawberries. When I'm hungry I eat because I know when my body is hungry. At the first feel of hungry, I drink water and if still hungry after 5 minutes I know I need to eat so I do. I guess it is time to look at my plan because on Wednesday it will be one month in and I have been doing well.

Is it close to TOM? I get really hungry 3-4 days before it starts.

I'm going to disagree on the if your tummy growls you should eat idea.
I only lose weight if I get that growling feeling.
I learned from reading "The Beck Diet Soultion" that hunger is not an emergency and you don't have to eat everytime your tummy growls. That's what got me overweight.

Good luck

You need to eat more. Try taking in something higher in fat and lower in carbs (like full-fat yogurt or cheese, or peanut butter). Carbs are quickly metabolized for fuel and fat causes satiety. The faster your metabolism goes, the faster you'll burn through all food, but specifically carbs. Your body "burns calories" but runs on energy consumption. A calorie from fat burns the same way as a calorie from a carb, but the length the two sit around in your stomach are completely different.

As always, my final caveat: no need to go "low carb," just tweak the ratio to keep stuff in your belly longer. Fat is not the bad guy.

ddc: I agree with you to an extent... I didn't mean that everytime you *think* you are hungry you should eat, but, I think that if we allow our bodies to feel "hungry", which is an unpleasant feeling, we are teaching ourselves that discomfort = good results. Note, I did say that if you are on track with your calories (or daily plan, etc.), then you should correct the problem. I think it's great that you achieved results by still having that growling feeling, but I for one can't stand it! I think there are healthy ways to get rid of that feeling without over eating and gaining weight. I suppose it is just a personal opinion, but I don't think making yourself wait two hours to eat when you know you are hungry is a smart idea. That can lead into dangerous behaviours such as starving yourself, etc.

So I got a snack and made it to lunch. Decided to go to the gym after I get off. I'm within my calorie budget still so all is well. I don't eat everytime I feel hungry. I know if I wait until I'm starving there will be a real problem. I will eat and eat and eat. So I just got something small to fill the void for an hour. I was laughing at myself because I know in times past I would wolfed down my lunch that I brought with me then had lunch at the cafeteria on campus which would let me eat until I couldn't. I was so proud of myself. It didn't take much to satisfy me nor did I loose all control and just eat everything that was available to me.

Thanks to you all I am learning control and having fun with it. As well you all are a wealth of information and you say things that help guide me in to making good decisions.

Hi Jiggle!

Good job on your 1 month! That is great.

I too started struggling with hunger issues about a month or so into my new life style. What I did to get over the hump, but stay on plan was to add "free Veggies" in when I needed something to get me over the edge. "Free Veggies" are what the old Weight Watchers exchange program used to call lower carb, lower calorie vegetables like:

Cucumbers
tomatoes
lettuce
broccoli
cauliflower
green beans
celery
peppers
cabbage
carrots
just to name a few. Basically I always keep a large quantity of several of these vegetables, washed and cut up and in baggies in the fridge. You can eat a large amount of them for very little calories. I always take a quart size bag along on road trips and when I work out of the home. I rarely even count them in my calorie allotment unless I eat massive amounts of carrots (a little higer than the rest in calories) and even then I round to like 50 or so. I heard someone on TV saying just the other day, if you are truly hungry, you will not be picky about what you eat...meaning if hunger is really the problem, even celery will taste good. lol

LoriBell
I love broccoli and cabbage and sometimes carrots. However I think is I kept cucumbers and tomatoes at work it would give me a tasty treat, that I wouldn't need hot and would satisfy the edge. I had kept some meatballs and I ate about five of them and it was good enough to get me to lunch and about 30 minutes later than I was planning to eat due to a meeting. But off to the store I go for the tomatoes and cucumbers.