Why am I hungry aaalllll the time?

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I'm about a stone over weight. I walk about 30 mins 3 days a week. Do 10 minutes on exercise bike 3 days a week. I do pilates for an hour and 15 mins once a week. So I'm not very active.

For breakfast I have overnight oats and dried prunes. For lunch I have salad and potatoes. For tea I'll have something like a veggie curry or steak pie and boiled potatoes and veg.

In-between the meals I am constantly hungry and will snack with fruit in the morning and in the afternoon with chocolates. I don't tend to snack after evening meal.

Why am I hungry all the time. Even if I don't snack it's just because I'm too busy to get something but I'm really hungry.

It's possibly the oats. They spike the blood sugar and you end up with an insulin surge which stimulates hunger. I can't eat oats because of this. People think of them as healthy, but they're not necessarily so due to being so carby.

For breakfast I have some blueberries, mixed nuts, natural yoghurt (vegan for me) low sugar granola and milk (vegan for me) and that really fills me up until the afternoon with no sugar spikes. Lidl sell a really good low sugar granola. Don't get the usual granola because it's full of sugar.

You could probably do with more protein. Maybe try scrambled eggs on granary bread for breakfast, and add some grilled chicken to your lunch.

I would be hungry in between meals if I ate that. Unless there are details you haven't mentioned, you need to add in fat and protein. I love overnight oats, but always put either full fat yogurt or peanut butter in them. With your potatoes and salad I'd add fish/meat/eggs/dairy. Dinner sounds fine though 😊

The steak pie is very carby as well. Get some fish or chicken instead. Stop the chocolate too. It takes a few days, but your appetite will decrease once you've lowered the carbs.

Oats and prunes is a pretty sugary breakfast, and there's hardly any protein or fat in what you've described.

Protein and fat fills you up and stops you getting hungry.

Try going keto or low carb/high fat. It has been a game changer in changing my appetite and entire relationship with food.

I don't know that salad and potatoes for lunch is going to fill you up enough to last until dinner. Aren't we told that it's protein that's filling? Maybe try salad with salmon, tuna or chicken? That would probably fill you up more and might even help with the weight loss.

Protein will sort this! Could you add protein powder to smoothies

Too much carbs and simple sugars, not enough good fats and protein.

Too many carbs and not enough protein

Try intermittent fasting, it’s totally curbed my appetite. I don’t eat lunch until 1pm (something like chicken salad with boiled eggs)and often don’t even feel hungry for that. Then a healthy dinner at 6pm and some fruit/yoghurt for dessert. I don’t eat past 7pm & don’t feel hungry again until lunch or dinner the next day. I’ve lost 20lbs in about 10 weeks. It’s hard at first but after about a week your appetite just disappears. I only have the odd carb too like baked potato or some boiled brown rice, I’ve cut out bread and pasta completely as I find they trigger my hunger- I don’t miss them at all.

Your protein looks like it sucks a bit. Get more of that going on and it'll fill you up for longer.

Maybe you need to drink more water?

It's hard to feel hungry when you drink a lot of it.

That's a lot of sugar you're eating, with the prunes, fruit and chocolate.

You're maybe lacking in dairy I'd add eggs maybe scrambled with wholemeal toast, or boiled sliced in salad. Or omlette? Also full fat natural yougurt.

Agree you need to up the protein - cheese, chicken or plant based substitute, tuna, baked beans, lentils.

What about adding some protein to the oats and then keto-ing the rest of the day? I would do that x

Isn’t granola oats?

I find when I had porridge made with cows milk I’d get starving an hour or so afterwards but made with non dairy I don’t. No idea why but I’ve never been a big milk fan anyway so quite happy to use non dairy milk or even just water (if I’m adding other stuff too it otherwise it’s a bit bland)

Sure, granola has oats in, but I only have a sprinkle for flavour as opposed to a full bowl like in porridge or overnight oats.

I use oat milk with my porridge oats. I need the prunes because I'm prone to getting constipated. So how about I have smaller portion of the porridge and have it with natural yoghurt and nuts.

...it sounds so calorific...but then so is snacking that I'm currently doing!

Boil some eggs and snack on them when they've cooled.

Full fat dairy fills you up better than low fat, so you end up eating less over the day.

In general the less processed the better, so full fat milk, butter instead of marg, whole grain rather than refined, they satisfy your hunger better and contain better nutritiants.

For some people porridge is great and fills them. For others not so much. Also it depends on if it’s proper old fashioned porridge oats that takes a while to cook or the quick cook which is more processed.

I had porridge this morning to see and it did keep me full. Proper porridge oats and skimmed milk and I added a spoonful of flaxseeds (I also need fibre), pumpkin seeds, flaked almonds and blueberries. If I have porridge on its own it makes me hungry later.

I'd try adding protein to your breakfast and lunch.

Porridge is never enough for me (I'm more likely to be hungry 2 hours later after porridge than after something like Special K or similar).

If I do have porridge I have it with a dollop of full fat kefir on it for protein.

Make sure you're not using artificial sweeteners and avoid dextrose all together (appears in salad dressings etc.) as it promotes hunger.

Potatoes are bad for a quick spike and dip in blood sugar. I'd have fewer potatoes (or none) with your salad and make sure it has chicken/fish/eggs/pulses for protein.

I get constipated OP, linseeds are good for this, a small sprinkle (a teaspoon) on porridge. You need to drink plenty of water to help digestion of these.

You need way more protein and calcium.