How to eat in a calorie deficit and not be bloody starving!!

I cannot lose weight without cutting my calories to 1200 due to age and height.

1600 per day just to maintain weight without gaining must be normal for so many of us

I find it easier to do it combined with IF, so I'm only eating lunch and dinner. For some reason, if I eat breakfast, I'm starving by 11am, whereas if I don't I can easily go till 2pm for lunch.

So I'm around 300 cals for lunch, max of 600 for dinner, leaves enough calories for a few snacks.

Quite simply, less (or no) carbs, more protein and fat.
Eggs rock the world.
No flour, no bananas, no rice, no potatoes.

I have always managed it by intermittent fasting, which I naturally always did as can't stomach breakfast and then realised it's a 'thing' - by the time you get to mealtime, you can then have a much larger meal with higher calories and volume, and finish feeling very full despite not overdoing it with the calories.

You get used to it. The first week or two is hard because your stomach is stretched out and you're used to eating excessive amounts, more than your body needs. After the first couple of weeks you really do adjust and start feeling full from smaller amounts. Stick with it, the benefits to your health will be wondrous. You can do this!

Don’t drink your calories. Black coffee, water, green tea.

low GI food. I eat tonnes of full fat Greek yogurt, berries, brown rice, oily fish and veg, pulses etc. Releases the energy slowly and I get hungry eventually but never that starving, low blood sugar have to eat now now feeling.

I work shifts so tend to eat only 2 big meals a day and maybe a light snack when I get home from work. My BMI is 22.

I did OMAD for much of last year and my nails and hair stopped growing. I did lose 70lbs though, so I guess there are no solutions only trade offs.

My main thoughts around weight loss aren't really about the food, it's about learning to say no (or later) to myself. I think I eat my emotions so to lose that emotional crutch was very hard. It's about the denial of comfort for me. It's more comfortable for me emotionally to graze and eat chocolate so that's what I did and I got to 226lb.

You can always eat upon waking but stop eating early. When I IF, I eat until 2pm and then stop.

Do you only eat one meal a day whilst breastfeeding? Don't you get really hungry or fund it affects your milk supply? I am breastfeeding my toddler twins and trying to do IF, I did it before and lost weight but I've recently put half a stone back on. Im a bit shorter than you and I feel like I put weight on so easily now

Drinking loads of water helped me fill up but I was constantly running to the toilet 😂

16:8 fasting. I find that I'm hungrier by 11a.m. if I've had breakfast than if I haven't, or at least no less hungry. I've done IF before and it gave me digestive issues, but I'm being careful to drink plenty of water and herbal or black tea in the morning this time. I've only been doing it for two weeks, but my trousers feel a bit less tight already. Once I've had dinner I don't eat for 8 hours. I find it so much easier than restricting what I eat.

Protein. You need 20-30grams with every meal. I worked with a nutritionist and PT and she explained you need this to keep full and have less hunger spikes. I preserved for a week or so, 25grams roughly every meal. It works.

Wegovy.

You can eat as low carb /high protein as you like. If you aren't in calorie deficit you won't lose weight.

Yes…

Protein and lots of water throughout the day aim for 3-4 litres

what you wrote was
TheDisgustingBrothers · Today 08:11
I’ve not RTFT because most of the answers are nonsense anyway but has anyone actually asked why 1600?

@Killingoffmyflowersonebyone very good point. I’d personally gain weight at 1600 because my BMR is a pathetic 1448. (I’m 5’3 and pretty fit.) Can’t believe some people are saying 2500 is average for women to maintain. That can’t be right. Or it’s an average of some big differences!

I have to say, if I have breakfast I'm absolutely starving by about 11am!

Now I just have a cup of coffee when I get to work and just start getting hungry around lunchtime. It is definitely easier to manage the deficit if you're just doing two meals.

My problem is wine has too many calories so any good work I do in the week is undone at the weekends!

I've lost 3 stone recently

Breakfast- blueberries, ful l fat Greek yoghurt, pecan nuts, a teaspoon if mixed seeds, drizzle of honey. No carbs ever at breakfast

Lunch 2 egg omelette, sometimes with cheese. Tuna salad. Vegetable soup with beans in. Sometimes one slice of homemade wholemeal bread

Dinner Ptotein ( chicken, duck breast, salmonetc) with carrot fries or mashed cauliflower, roast celeriac or beetroot. Courgette 'pasta" Maybe 2 small pieces of potato, or a few gnocci

Snack Rice cake and peanut butter . Apple and peanut butter. Bowl of Greek yoghurt.

It's fucking joyless mostly. But I have one square of chocolate and a glass of rose most evenings.

If you used to do Gousto have a look at Mindful Chef. Most recipes are pretty low calorie. Sometimes I eat half of mine and have the rest for lunch. I can only eat 1200 max to lose weight due to the shitting menopause.

I had a surgical menopause brought on by hysterectomy in January 2023 and the surgeon said if you can get into the habit of a calorie deficit and walking as your main exercise you'll keep on top of your weight in menopause and that's half the battle. I was about 11 stone at my pre op and managed to get down to 10 stone 4 for my surgery. I followed 1400 deficit as I am only 5 foot 4. I stopped weighing myself then and went on hip to waist ratio as the surgeon said this was better for cardiac health - my HWR is 0.7 - I walk 35 miles a week (sometimes a bit more if we do a mountain walk at the weekend). I just measured myself for the first time in 3 months and I am C: 35, W:29 and H:38 and it's probably the smallest I have been for a decade.

My tips for stopping feeling hungry are: overnight oats, cut out sugar (it makes you hungrier I find), eat eggs regularly, drink shit loads of water, stop takeaways, and I stopped drinking alcohol. I think the walking and no booze has made the biggest difference and my fitness is really good.

It's definitely harder the older you get 😒

I am fully aware a protein heavy diet is the way forward but can anyone advise someone who struggles with many of the suggestions here due to gluten intolerance and IBS?

I have to follow a strict fodmap diet which rules out porridge (have tried GF oats, I still can't eat them), all dairy, soya, nuts, pulses, virtually all fruit, tomatoes, a lot of veg inc cauliflower, mushrooms, peas, parsnips, (can only tolerate a very small amount of broccoli floret, absolutely no stalk), garlic, onion. Nor can I eat egg yolks.

It's very hard trying to eat a high protein/high fruit and veg diet when you're intolerant to most of it!

Good job, I can eat unprocessed meat but it's bloody expensive!! Hence why I fall back on carbs that I can tolerate. If I could afford to eat steak for breakfast, lunch and dinner, I'd be sorted!

Eggs for breakfast worked for me and a salad at lunchtime with mixed beans and other bits and bobs in the fridge.

I probably do need to give it time but my willpower around food and hunger cues is just shit.

How much would you say you drink in a day ? I know that I mix up being a bit dehydrated with being hungry and try to have a glass of water first, to see if that helps. It quite often does the trick.