I was ok for the first month, but lately I have been STARVING and I can't stand it anymore!!

Belease, I'm the same way. To a certain extent, it doesn't matter how much I've eaten--if something looks good, I could eat that, too. I thought when I got my diet rolling I wouldn't WANT the bad foods anymore. I still want them, though. The difference is just that I'm not 'allowed' to have them.

Originally Posted by Shmead:
I feel much the same way, and used to be amazed when someone would turn down cake, say, and and explain "I had a big lunch and I am full". I would think "Who's too full for a delicious cupcake? I don't even understand that". Then, one day, I realized that they are lying. At least a lot of them are.

Yeah, this is definitely not all of them. When my best friend tells you she's full and can't eat another bite, she means it. And it can literally be in the middle of a hot dog, she'll just say, "Yep, I'm full, I can't eat that." If you force her, she'll feel/look miserable. I explained to her once that I don't have a "shut off" valve, that I do not know what she means by "I'm full, I can't eat that.". She was confused.

I believe there are degrees of hunger: starving, very hungry, somewhat hungry, not hungry, satisfied, full, stuffed. The problem is that I feel nothing between not hungry and stuffed. So that's what I satisfy myself with now- that I'm no longer hungry.

But sure enough, as my health and eating habits keep getting better and better, I've noticed this changing. I can feel "satisfied." I hope it's a permanent change!

When I first started losing weight it took me a long time to realize that feeling "full" or "stuffed" wasn't necessary. I just had to be satisfied. Now when I eat my meals I rarely eat till I'm like "omg I'm so full" because to me it meant I over-ate.

Now I usually set out my portions- know how much it is, know it's appropriate- and then unless I'm feeling like I'm STARVING I don't eat anything else. And a lot of times if I'm still feeling like I'm not satisfied I drink a large glass of water. A lot of times I'm just thirsty!

I'm another one whose hungry/full mechanism is broken. But in a way I used that. I knew from experience that eating until I felt full did not help me not feel hungry even a few minutes later. So if it wasn't going to help, I started eating much smaller portions and just planned on eating more frequently.

Excellent thread-marking.

Originally Posted by ncuneo:
Honestly, it's a good thing and how you should feel after you are finished. It's something we have to retrain ourselves into understanding thing difference between full and satisfied. Full is how I got to 268 lbs, satisfied is how I've gotten to 160 lbs.

I can't tell you what I think of this one simple statement. Brilliant.

And yes, it was a new feeling, satisfied, not full or stuffed. Although I now know the difference, doesn't matter, I still MUST rely on a pre-determined amount of food within a certain calorie allotment.

Why DID we think stuffed was the way to go and how it should be?????

Sharing a little treat here that I started using 3 weeks ago that will combat those hunger feelings WITHOUT ANY guilt that I now use daily. I found them on a FLUKE and I am really excited about them! Shirataki noodles, you can buy them at a local Japanese grocery store in your area. Shirataki is 100% organic, have no calories, no fat, no carbs, no sugar, no sodium, (no nothing!!), etc. They are pure fiber (the brown shirataki, which is the one with a seaweed blend is around 10'ish calories per serving, but I like the clear-white ones best because they are zero cals). I chop up a bunch of low cal veggies (green/red/yellow peppers, onions, etc), make it into a stir fry with 2 teaspoons of olive oil, garlic, pepper and sea salt for taste. Sometimes I add in a chopped Morning Star Veggie Patties or the Veggie Chicken Patties with it too.

Sometimes, I will add the shirataki noodles in with low sodium chicken broth (20 cals per serving, whole can is 40 cals). You can just play with them and make different things. The noodles immediately absorb the flavor of what is being cooked with it, they are only blah-bland by itself.

They are almost like spaghetti, except they come wet and moist in the packaging (and you have to cut them because the strands are pretty long). A little tougher/rubberier than spaghetti, but boiling them a bit makes them as soft as spaghetti. The Shirataki expands twice its size in your stomach and you do NOT need to eat a whole lot to feel full.

You can order them online, but seriously, you will find them MUCH cheaper at a local Japanese grocery store. I buy 16oz bags of them for $2.09. Today (Wed), I go to pick up a box of 20 of them at my local Japanese grocery store for a better deal that they kindly ordered extra for me. (My teenage son has been eating them up as well)

I wish I knew about them before I gained so much weight from being sick. You can look them up on the web and see for yourself how healthy they are for you too. I will not ever give these noodles up (EVER) for the rest of my life. It's making my weight loss speed up. When I need a filler if I start feeling hungry, I take a couple little scoops of the noodles (I make extra and keep them in a fridge and just micro them).

My son likes to marinate them overnight in beef broth mixed with soy sauce and adds whatever he's in the mood to add to them the next day (chopped steak, veggies, etc) He's also added spaghetti sauce on them and tossed it in the micro. He just lost 20lbs and loves them to maintain his weight loss because he is a big time snacker and he isn't hungry anymore either.

Just had to tell some that may not know about them, I read some of the posts on here and I'd walk away feeling guilty if I didn't share this with you. Walking around hungry stinks! Shirataki is making my diet SO easy and curbing my cravings for things I cannot have. Be creative with them, I do and I love them! I've been looking up nifty recipes online for them and am finding some neat ones.

Important Note: If you do not have a Japanese grocery store by you, you can look up online Japanese groceries online. But warning, there are some people online selling this noodle calling it "the miracle noodle." First of all, it is an older than dirt Oriental noodle and its been around a LONG-LONG time, it's not new. Some sites will try to rip you off and charge you $3+ a 7oz bag plus $10 shipping, (you can buy a 16oz bag for about $2!) do not fall into that trap!! I almost did until I looked in my Yellow Pages and made a call to ask them if they have it before I put my credit card info in on the inflated price site. You can find them cheaper than the ripoff "miracle" sites by just searching out Japanese online groceries for the noodle if you don't have a store near you.

I hope this helps some like it has me. Not everyone will love them as I do, lol, but some won't be able to imagine living without them either.

I have two separate feelings, but I use the terms full and satiated and that's gonna be confusing bc other folks use the same terms differently.

I use the term full to refer to the feelings I get when my stomach is physically full. It gets that way regardless of the number of calories involved (e.g. it can be just full of water).

But even if I am full I'm often not satisfied. There's just something missing.

I find that if I save a small portion controlled health fat for the end that I can meet both needs. So a meal for me often consists of a high-volume low cal filler (soup, salad, etc) and a high-cal chaser (1 Tb peanut butter works best but nuts or dark chocolate or avacado or other healthy fats work too).

there is a lot of study being conducted on exactly why a person "never feels full" ...while the thin person experiences satiety.

leptin, hormones. all of it can be mind boggling. I don't really want to know about the studies as much as I want to KNOW what works for me.

i notice a certain phenomenon when I eat, and my son has the same issue. We eat dinner, but really we are looking forward to dessert. It's like even after such a good meal---it is not complete until we have ice cream or candy or sugar laden goodies.

whereas, my thin boyfriend who has never had a problem with weight will sometimes eat one or two plates of food, forego the sweets and be done.

I always think before I want that dessert. Something is wrong. Why am I not too full to eat dessert? Why do i want dessert, when I just ate a balanced meal.

I started to eat grapefruit alot. Sometimes with just a little bit of sugar sprinkled on. but I would squeeze the juice out. then take the skin off, and sugar it just a little and eat this. I drank grapefruit and ate grapefruit all day in between meals. MAGICALLY--or not so magically if you know the benefits of grapefruit--i stopped craving icecream all the time, I stopped wanting dessert after dinner and I was able to control my hunger better. Enough to even do a cleanse again.

which made me feel even better. I normally love sweets and chocolate. But my teacher gave me a bite size 3 muskateers duirng a test. And i actually chocked on the sweetness..and didn't feel like I could eat 10 of them in a row like normal.

grapefruit has been long known to control blood sugar, thereby reducing insulin spikes.

in short, what happened in my body was this. I had low blood sugar--my body responded by releasing insulin to make me hungry. My body overshoots my insulin needs because of bad eating and after the first 30 minutes of eating, i have an EXTRA hunger spike. which tells my body i need more fuel. Which causes THE strong NEED for something really sweet.

The book "the carbohydrate addicts diet" REALLY taught me about this.

miss kelly, thanks for the advice about shirataki noodles!

Originally Posted by jendiet:
miss kelly, thanks for the advice about shirataki noodles!

Anytime. It slows the release of insulin and digests slowly, as I understand it - and by the feel of its 'staying power' and lack of hunger, I would say that it's wholly correct. It's working and giving results - and the best part, it's something I can use later to incorporate to maintain without feeling like I am in a strict robotic diet "I must, I must" mode. I hope others will give them a try and benefit from them too. Now if they ever come out with a chocolate version of the noodle, it will be a perfect world. ;)

A big, big part of the weight loss process for me is learning the difference between being "full" and being "not hungry" - and striving to make sure I eat only until not hungry, rather than eating until full.

There's a simple exercise routine you can do to help with this - practice fork put-downs and table push-aways.

That is, after I eat my planned, measured amount of food, I put down the fork and get up from the table. I get away from the food environment and go do something else for a while. If I'm still hungry, my body will tell me, and I'll eat another measured, on-plan bit of food. If I'm merely not full, but not actually hungry, then doing something else is (ideally) enough to take my mind off the munchies. Water helps too.

Oh my goodness, thank you EVERYONE for your responses! There's so much great advice here I wouldn't even begin to know how to respond to all of it... So I will use a big blanket :goodvibes: THANK YOU :goodvibes: to everybody!!!

One thing I do have to address, though...

jendiet: "The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet"? This sounds like something I may just have to look up! Because seriously - I am, as some people fondly refer to me, a carb queen. Not that I'm willing to do something like atkins - I still need to have those carbs. Just not nearly as much as I used to. But could you tell me what exactly the book is about?

well, the book has an interesting diet method. Because of what they call the carb loading---you are supposed to only eat carbs at one meal and for no longer than one hour. I really don't recommend trying to do it before you first cleanse and tone your digestive system. Otherwise you WILL REALLY crave those carbs at that "reward meal". i have tried it with a cleansed and toned digestive system...and I tried it without! BIG DIFFERENCE.

but the SCIENCE behind the book is awesome and pretty easy to understand. i couldn't believe the stories in there...the people sounded just like me....they did alot of the same things i did. Bake cookies for a sale, and end up eating half the cookies--closet eating....etc.

I'm the same way. This is why I think I eat so much because I never truly feel full. I'm trying hard to restrain it but it is quite difficult.