I'm just always hungry! How do I fix this weird hunger?

I try to eat a lot of fiber and filling foods but no matter what I feel so famished after I eat and want more. I'm 5'6" and about 135 pounds (I'm 15 and am not fat, but not a stick. I'm a little "thicker" than I am comfortable with though). My mother and father are always buying junk food for me no matter how many times I ask them to stop, and I have gotten to the point of overeating where I really want to throw it all up (I have tried on countless occasions but I can never follow through). Could someone help me fix my binge/hunger problem?

Hi Jackie,

I often have the same problem.  We're coming from different backgrounds (I assume: I used to be anorexic/bulimic) but I know how frustrating it is to know you should be full on all this good fiber but to not feel it.  When I started eating again I slipped into bingeing as well--please trust me, you do not want to enter the utter hell that is purging, thank god your body is strong enough to resist.  

What I have done (as suggested by my therapist, when I was bulimic) is, after you have eaten what you know to be a healthy, balanced, substantive meal or snack, to wait.  I don't mean sit around and wait for the hunger to subside because that is like not thinking of a pink elephant--you will think of it.  Drink water, as much as you like, and mentally remind yourself that that meal time is over--you ate a healthy and hopefully very tasty meal, and you will have many more meals to come, but right now it is time for your body to digest.  The first couple times you try this it will be difficult because you may not be used to declaring it the end of the meal, but after a while it will become easier, especially when you find how nice it is to leave a meal not feeling like you have to try to throw it up.

Remember, none of this applies in the least if you are trying to convince yourself a bitty salad with no protein is a healthy and substantial meal.  And at your height, weight, and age, you are already well within the healthy BMI range.  Since you are still growing you should by no means be trying to deprive yourself of calories--I ended up shorter than I could have been, osteoporotic, with dangerously low blood pressure because of my illness, and that was when I was 17.  No matter what remember that your relationship with food should be a loving one, not one that instills guilt in you.  I really do hope this post didn't sound preachy or assumptive, I am speaking from what experience I have, and I'm certainly not a nutritionist.  I hope some of it was helpful or at least you found it encouraging to know someone else has felt what you do :) 

-Nessa

PS: 

As for the junk food, keep on asking them not to buy it, tell them that you're serious about it--ask them to buy healthier snacks instead, like fruits and grains.  If for some reason they just really like the way junk food looks get them to buy healthy foods that look like junk: Snack bars like Quaker Oats, mixed nuts, etc.  I wish I had a more comprehensive list but I don't right now...sorry!

The good news is that you're a perfectly healthy weight for a growing teen. If you're hungry and you're young and active, you should eat rather than refuse food on the basis that it's 'junk'. There are no bad foods, you know, only bad diets. Rather than asking your parents not to buy you sweets etc, you could try asking them to buy more vegetables, perhaps. That is often more constructive.

Eating to the point of wanting to throw up is more serious.... If you turn food down and you get very, very hungry then at some point you will overeat. So make sure you eat regularly, even if the food isn't exactly what you'd like. Don't starve and you are much less likely to binge.