Help me out here: How do you manage hunger?

Hey all;

    So - the upshot.  BMR is about 2300, I've been managing to keep it between 1600 and 1900 per day, even if I exercise a bit.

    But on slow days - days that I'm relaxing, or not working and can actually think about it, I'm ravenous.   Monday through Friday is cake - I have to focus on work, so I'm not thinking about it.

    But the weekends have been a bear.  I'm sure it's more habit than anything else, but still.  It's annoying.

    Anybody got any tips on how to manage/push through hunger?

    Appreciated.

    - Steve

Hi Steve,

I feel the same way you do. I ended up caving into my cravings, which of course isn't good. I learned a little trick that works for me, although it may not work for everybody. When I feel hingry I chew xtra gum. It only has 5 calories compared to grabbing something with 100 or more. I have five different flavors and keep plenty on hand. This gum has no sugar so I do not expect to have no cavities at my next dentist appointment. Along with the gum I drink water. With this method the water fills me up and the gum provides flavor. I hope this helps

Dawn

Whenever I get cravings i try to drink a bottle of water first.  It tends to make me feel full.  Also, I tend to just want something to do with my mouth, so drinking water or chewing gum tend to do the trick.

If that doesn't work I go for fruit.  Nice and sweet so I feel like I had something good!

I also started reading a lot on weekends.  When I read I don't eat and I don't get cravings when I'm busy (usually only when I'm bored).

If you tend to eat a lot on the weekends, try to replace your snacking with another activity.  Hope this helps!

Hi Steve, one word WATER. Drink between 2-4L a day (depending on how it makes you feel you can adjust accordingly).

Also being that your BMR is so much higher than your intake, you can definitely afford to up your calorie intake a bit. I think you are eating too few calories overall.

No need to feel totally hungry, that is so not the idea of calorie counting (unless it's just hunger based on habit rather than real hunger). For those times between meals when you are hungry use your calorie cushion to take advantage of healthful nutritious snacks such as almonds (170 calories for 25 almonds), strawberries (50 cals per cup), a nice apple (about 100 cals), a banana (100 calories), the list goes on etc.

Choose your foods really carefully.  Hunger can be triggered by boredom, certainly, but it's often a case of low blood-sugars.  Some foods help keep blood-sugars more stable, others swing them around horribly.  Wholegrain (Low GI) foods with protein suppress hunger pangs better than starchy carbohydrates on their own for example.  Going too long between meals has the same effect so if you plan small meals and light snacks regularly (every 2 - 3 hours) at the weekends you can stave off the bad hunger pangs with relatively small amounts of food.

My personal snack attack buster is a dollop of hummus with a big plateful of vegetable crudites.  Takes a long time to eat, quite tasty and raw vegetables are very filling.

Appreciate the advice.  I'll post my last few days at the end of today so you guys can see what I'm doing.  I just gurgled 8oz of water and wolfed one of them slimfast "snack bars" (120 cals, an A- on the nutritional list).  That should keep me preoccupied for another hour or two.

I think it's boredom, really.  

I am trying to do smaller Breakfast, Lunches and Dinners, and then snack a little in between on the weekends.  I move more toward three meals a day during the week.

Any tips on percentages for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner?

Coffee is my magic weapon, at least till lunchtime (I take a late lunch, usually around 2p). It does wonders for helping me feel filled up until it's time to eat. I drink about 3 cups of flavored coffee with one sweetener packet per cup and it does the job for me. Of course caffeine is a dehydrant, so it's important to be drinking water at the same time, which I usually do after lunch.

I ate Breakstone's Cottage Doubles (cottage cheese and fruit jam) for lunch for about 3 months.  I lost 35 lbs on that with no exercise.

Is your BMR really 2300, or is that your daily burn rate?  If that's your BMR< you're not eating enough.  What are your body stats?

Meanwhile, keep telling yourself: "Hunger is the sensation I get when my body is burning fat."  Not exactly true, but a helpful mantra.  :-)

 

 

Ironically, I have found I stay fuller longer by eating a hearty breakfast rich with fiber and protein. I would say try having your big meal first, if that gets you ravenous, try the next day with it in the middle of the day, then so on until you find what works best for you. You may even end up finding that 5 meals of equal size, within your caloric limit are ideal as well. Just be open and try to play.

Btw, I hate snack bars... my reason: it takes me a long time to eat 100 calories of popcorn and I feel so much fuller when I'm done. I think those smartpop bags for 100 calories are precious, but I get the big Fit N Active microwavable popcorn from my local Aldi's. 1 less calorie for twice the food.

If you are the snack and watch TV type, switch your snacks to raw veggies and a prealloted amount of dip (or make your own involving yogurt - that hummus idea above was also fantastic).

Water is a big thing! Your body doesnt know the difference between hunger and thirst most of the time. If that doesnt help and you are still hungry try snacking on something that takes a while to eat and keeps your fingers busy. I eat air popped popcorn.

water.  caffeine (a cup of coffee in the morning and a cup in the afternoon).

protein (tuna and hard boiled eggs).  fiber (leafy greens, especially kale)

eat food.. you shouldnt be starving yourself at all

Eat more lower calorie stuff. I eat toons of veggies!

I also chew gum.  My personal favorite is Trident Minty Sweet Twist.  I find that most often, the reason I want to eat is because my mouth just needs to be doing something.  Chewing Trident lets it do that, and it's good for my teeth :)  Also, the minty flavor of the gum gives my mouth a similar feel to right after I brush my teeth, which deters me from eating, because not much tastes good when your mouth is minty :)

Original Post by marmel13:

 

I am trying to do smaller Breakfast,

 NO. NO. NO. absolutely NO! breakfast NEEDS to be the biggest meal of your day! it staves off hunger. it should be about 1/3 of your calorie intake! it should also include something from every food group!

Eeeep!  Okay, okay!

 

Actually, my breakfast was pretty ridiculous before I started dieting.  Smaller does not equal stupid...

 

...but I definitely wasn't doing a third.

 

Appreciated!

Original Post by marmel13:

 

 

Actually, my breakfast was pretty ridiculous before I started dieting.  Smaller does not equal stupid...

 

 smaller does equal stupid when it come to breakfast. your call.

Coffee helps me a ton. It effectively suppresses my hunger.

Original Post by peacelovehominy:

smaller does equal stupid when it come to breakfast. your call.

Dang, that's harsh!  Can you back it up? 

Because I don't have a problem with hunger usually, and sometimes (non-workout days) I have only 300 cals or so for breakfast.  This helps me remember to eat a healthy lunch.

Third of calories for breakfast can be too much, depending on your hunger patterns. I usually have a 300-400 cal breakfast out of a 1500-1700 cal day.

To stave off boredom hunger... keep busy!!

Original Post by phord:

Original Post by peacelovehominy:

smaller does equal stupid when it come to breakfast. your call.

Dang, that's harsh!  Can you back it up? 

Because I don't have a problem with hunger usually, and sometimes (non-workout days) I have only 300 cals or so for breakfast.  This helps me remember to eat a healthy lunch.

 i can back it up. want to have a conversation with my tummy, mind, waistline &energy?

now, want to have a convo with it when i have a small b-fast? "talk to the hand"   lol. i hope you got the joke.

 

i say, before you throw it out the window, try it.