Lots of great advice and thoughts in this thread, but this spoke to me. I know so many people that will exit the interstate the moment a hunger pang hits (which could be thirst or could very well pass in 5 minutes) and load up at the fast food stop because THEY CAN. I'm usually hungry the last 20 minutes of an intense workout, but I don't stop and quit...I don't have blood sugar issues or anything medical wise that would mean "stop" so therefore it's in my head and I have control over that.

I feel really strongly our culture is set up to get what we want when we want it EVEN if it's not good for us. I also think people confuse food with comfort. It's fuel. Yes it can be good tasting fuel, but to give it so much power that it changes your schedule or something is something I choose not to do...even if it means I might be "hungry" for an hour.

Very well said, Serenity!!!!

That, too. I drive a lot, due to visiting my family who live hundreds of km from where I am, and there are lots of fast-food joints along the roads I have to take. I've noticed that when I'm 'hungry' on those trips, I'll most often stop at McD's and such just for a drink, or for a pack of fruit at most, because I'm much more thirsty than hungry, actually—and these two are things lots of people may have a hard time differenciating?

Sadly, too, I found last fall when I drove cross country, there are VERY few places to eat near the freeways which offer other than fast, junk food. Many times I simply could not find a nice place to get a healthful meal without going quite a ways off the freeway down into the towns looking for places -- and often did that and still could not find places. Of course they are THERE in the small towns but unless you know which ones have them, it wastes a lot of time and gas looking. Fortunately I had a good supply of food with me but I would want a driving break and to get out and go inside somewhere.

And when traveling, I find that gas stations always have the best, cheap coffee!

Havnt felt hungry in 3 weeks
 

I dont know if you have to feel hungry. I eat ALL the time..my typical day looks like this:

630 am--protein shake-about 200 calories blended with water/ice until it makes about 32 ounces nice and frothy

730-low cal breakfast, either cereal or scrambled eggs with vegies

10am-low fat greek yogurt 80-100 cal

12 noon--vegies, low calorie lunch like a slice of wheat bread with turkey or chicken (no mayo)

3pm-whole wheat bread with 1tbsp pnut butter

530-healthy dinner (about 250 calories is target) with vegies

730-8pm snack on something like a 90 calorie bar or something similar to finish my day.

I average 1200-1300 calories per day and can say I have NOT had a signle hunger pain or feeling since I started doing this 3 weeks ago. I have never eaten this often in my life, but after trying it I like it. I eat at these scheduled times even though I am not hungry, just so I dont get that feeling.

Kery and Misti I mean more along the lines of just someone commuting (we'll use DH LOL as my example). They have a 45 minute commute, it's 5 p.m., they know dinner will be there around 6-7 p.m. anyway, but they have to fill up because there is a Burger King sign and it'll be gone before they get home anyway. Not travel or long distance driving, I mean just wait another 10-15 minutes and the craving will be gone type of hunger. I hope that makes sense.

As far as fast food I hate having to grab it during travel and not be able to sit and eat. Yes you can go to say McDonald's get a salad and no dressing, great..but not if you are driving whilst eating. So won't happen for me, or maybe I'm a slob. I even decide what burger place based on how messy the burger is when I'm driving (I hate "nuggets" so when I'm stuck driving and having to eat and burgers are the only choice, I usually get a McDonald's McDouble without cheese as it's not too messy for me--I'm the lady you see that spills everytime).:dizzy:

I think it is definitely normal to feel hungry all the time when losing weight. Your body is used to consuming calories ALL THE TIME. When you make the transition your body will feel like you are depriving it. I think the more you get into losing weight the less hungry you will feel. Even people at healthy weight feel hungry. However, its having the self control and ability to listen to your body that allows you to only eat when you need to. Thats just my opinion though.

For decades it was generally assumed that obese people and thin people experienced the same amount and degree of hunger, obese people just were weaker and gave into the hunger more easily and/or ate when they weren't hungry.

More and more research has proven this untrue. In fact, obese folks often have stronger "willpower" and use it more often than thinner folks.

And yet the myth remains because we want to believe (as a culture) that obese people are lazy, crazy, stupid, selfish, greedy, weak and unmotivated.

Even (maybe especially) obese folks like to believe this (probably because if it's true, the cure is simply motivation... you just have to want it badly enough to stop being lazy, crazy...).

For most of my life I tried to lose weight by enduring intense hunger. I was miserable 24/7 (even dreaming about food and feeling intense guilt for eating even in my dreams).

I didn't realize that the "rabid hunger" I was experiencing isn't what most people (thin or fat) feel. I just thought I was "weak" for being unable to master that hunger.

Now I realize that I don't ever have to experience that kind of hunger ever again. I've found that eating a very low-carb diet, eliminates hunger... to the point that I'm less hungry on 1000 calories of low-carb than on 3,000 calories of high carb. Heck, I'm less hungry on 500 calories of low-carb than on 6,000 calories of high-carb.

I didn't realize that insulin spikes (and possibly other hormones since it is much worse during PMS/TOM) were responsible for the "rabid hunger," or that calories had absolutely nothing to do with this kind of hunger at all. In fact, eating could make the hunger worse if I chose the wrong foods.

Hunger isn't one symptom, it's dozens. And each provides it's own challenge. Discovering which ones you have to respond to (and how to respond) is gradual learning experience that only trial and error can provide.

kaplods, is your experience true on a daily basis? What I mean is, there are days when I eat low carb/high protein and am still famished. And I mean real hunger, not thirst or emotional hunger, but real stomach growling hunger. But maybe that's because my usual food program is medium to high carb, so a low carb day isn't going to have much effect.

I would agree that having a low carb day now and then while otherwise eating a high-carb diet, has very little lasting effects on my hunger levels.

I find that the diminishing effects of high-carb eating on my hunger do carry over into the next day (at least). If I eat high-carb today, I'm going to be hungry not only today, but much of tomorrow as well. And it can be two or three days before the irritating and difficult-to-ignore types of hunger disappear entirely (even the habit of eating carbs can leave a residual hunger that's more craving and habit than actual physiological hunger, but the longer I am able to eat low-carb, the more the mind-occupying types of hunger diminish.

On a steady diet of low-carb my hunger is usually very manageable. If I do experience hard-to-ignore hunger while consistently being on low-carb, nine times out of ten it's PMS/TOM week. Sometimes stress or sleep deprivation can make me unusually and distractingly hungry, but usually if it's not carbs, it's PMS/TOM.

Birth control helps control the PMS/TOM hunger and my other PMDD symptoms.

So for me, hormonal hunger seems to be the strongest, most difficult to ignore. I can keep my hunger under great control as long as I'm sticking to my low-carb eating, my birth control, and to getting getting 8 or more hours of sleep.

On high-hunger days (whether I can indentify the source of the hunger), I try to use Volumetrics principles to help (I add in even more low-calorie, high-fiber and high-water foods).


I suspect that different people may have very different hunger cues, so the only way to find ways to overcome and master your hunger is trial and error.

Some people may do best with a low-fat diet, others may do best on a low-carb diet, others still may do best with a Volumetrics style diet or a Low-GI or Paleo diet (most paleo diets are also low-to-moderate carb).

It's amazing how for so many years of my life I never felt hunger because I was eating so much so now I appreciate a small amount of hunger it makes me feel alive or at least a reminder that hey look here I am HUNGRY which means I broke free from the old bad eating cycles.

I find that when I am eating a balanced breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack and dinner I am not hungry until maybe 8 or 9 but I it has gotten a lot easier to look after myself and not just eat the second some nagging feeling comes along.

But when I am in someone elses house or at a festival and eating a lot of carbs at sporadic times I get hungry and so out of touch with what I need it then turns into what I want.

I don't mind real hunger, I can deal with it now I only experience it maybe between meals if I'm busy or at night before bed but most importantly my mind isn't fixated on it anymore.

With the other types of hunger I think I view it like my bank balance, lets say I have a few thousand in the bank, there are plenty of things I really really want to buy and do but I can't afford it or that choice wouldn't be good for me in the future even though it might feel good at the time so I tell myself no, that would be nice but you can't have it.. like talking to a child.

So when the hunger comes its harder to do but think of my food like my bank balance, I could blow it but that wouldnt be a good choice for me, once I've used up whats in the budget I just have to put up and get on with things.

I totally see where you are coming from in your post... I get it. It's so common to hear "and I'm not even hungry!" when people talk about their weight loss journey.
I think it's healthier to admit we all get hungry and that's ok! I sometimes need to remind myself that "hungry" isn't the end of the world. I will survive until my next scheduled meal or snack and it doesn't mean to go off plan or eat extra!

Written this way, this makes it sound like you believe that the people saying "and I'm not even hungry!" are somehow lying (at least to themselves) about their experience, or that the people who "get hungry" while losing weight are somehow superiour to those that don't.

I don't think that hunger is a requirement for obesity, nor is it a requirement for weight loss. Some people experience a tremendous amount of hunger no matter what they eat (or don't) and some people experience very little in the way of hunger (again no matter what their actions) and many experience different kinds of hunger in different ways.

I know I thought all hunger was the same, until I found low-carb. When my parents would tell me that being hungry was "good" (I was put on my first doctor-supervised diet in kindergarten), and that everyone got hungry and I had to learn to endure it, I didn't understand how thin people did it. How did they fall asleep at night, when all they could think of was how hungry they were.

I didn't realize that my hunger was different than "normal" hunger. I didn't reallize that most people didn't think of food 24/7 or feel so hungry that they couldn't concentrate at school, or couldn't fall asleep at night.

Even when I started to realize that other people didn't feel hunger the way I did, I didn't know what I could do differently to get rid of the abnormal hunger and trade it for normal hunger.

When I tried to explain it to others, I was essentially told I was crazy, that any "difference" in my experience of hunger was all in my imagination.

I think I went into the field of psychology (earning a B.A. and M.A) more to figure myself out, than because I wanted to work in the field.

And in the end, I learned the key to experiencing a more normal experience of hunger was in WHAT I was eating, not how much.

Sure now I can say, "it's just hunger, no big deal," but that's because my hunger on a low-carb diet really is no big deal. I can even go to bed hungry without any disruption to my sleep.

On high-carb eating, I can't do that. Going to bed on high-carb hunger, is like chinese water torture. All I can think of is the drip, drip, drip, drip of the desire and thoughts of food. I can't get to sleep because I can't "turn off" the physical sensation of hunger nor the obsessive thoughts of food. If I do manage to fall asleep, it's a fitful, food-dream-filled sleep which wakes me several times and I can't get back to sleep unless I eat or take meds to knock me out (neither being very healthful in the long run).




There used to be a lap-band commercial in which a woman compares her pre-surgery hunger to a lion (you see a lion wandering her house with a "hunger" sign around it's neck) and after surgery you see her holding an orange tomcat wearing a smaller version of the same sign.

I related to that commercial so well, only my pre-birth control and pre-low-carb hunger wasn't as tame as the commercial lion. My hunger lion was rabid and very, very angry... a man-eater (that's almost but not quite a pun).

On bc and very low-carb, my hunger is a tiny baby kitten that hasn't opened it's eyes yet.

My preferred diet is a bit higher in carb.... giving me hunger that while not the tiny, helpless kitten doesn't ever become a lion (let alone the rabid, nasty, angry lion).

I always know though that the lion is just around the corner (and very easily angered) if I don't pay attention to diet (especially around TOM/PMS when the carb cravings do whisper in my ear, and if I give in to them, I'm inviting the lion to the party - and then poking it with a sharp stick).


For me, it's easier to keep the lion away than to keep it under control. I suppose you could say I still "get hungry" on low-carb, but only if you redefine hunger, because the hunger I experience on low-carb isn't at all the hunger I experience on high-carb. The difference really is like that between a helpless baby-kitten and the rabid, enraged lion.


I'll take the kitten any day, and choosing the kitten doesn't make me weaker or inferior to those who willingly take on the lion (or if it does, I'll gladly admit and be proud of my weakness and inferiority).

As Kaplods said, it does sound like you think people are lying when they say they are not even hungry on their weight loss plans. It is not "unhealthy" to say we are not hungry when, in fact, we are not.

I have personally found that when I eliminate all (or most) of the chemicals and addictive substances found in so much of our processed foods... and take a *healthful* all natural supplement... I in fact do not get hungry except at the times when it is honestly time for a meal and I have not eaten. Even then, it is not the "famished" type of hunger so often considered a part of "dieting" (which I don't do).

There are times when I forget or just choose not to eat my snack because I am honestly not hungry and do not want it. This is because I am giving my body the *nutrition* it needs through healthful foods and a good, *natural* supplement. I am not stuffing myself with empty calories, processed and junk foods.

Some of us are telling the truth. :) It is not "unhealthy" to say we are not hungry when, in fact, we are not.

Excellent post, Kaplods!!! And good analogy!!!

Overeating and hunger have very little to do with each other, for me. I overeat because eating is pleasurable, not because I'm hungry.

I agree with those who have said that learning to experience hunger, tolerate it for a while, and not make a crisis or emergency out of it, is part of the weight loss process. It has been for me.

But learning to control overeating (which I am still working on, after 3 years and 120 pounds loss) and learning to deal with hunger (which I now have pretty much under control) are not at really the same thing for me, or even related things.