To think I'll never lose weight!

[DanHumphreyIsA]

So a few weeks ago, I made a decision to start to lose some weight.
I've been doing healthy dinners, lots more veg than normal, more fruit. Fryer hasn't been on, cut back on the sweet stuff.

And for the time I've been trying, I have not stopped being hungry. No matter how much grilled chicken and fish and veg I eat, no matter how many breadless meals (I eat so much bread) I'm just hungry.
And not only that but I'm hangry 😩. So I'm very rarely satisfied.
I know i'm not going to lose anything yet, but I just can't get rid of the hunger. It's not like starvation hunger, but just a hole that needs to be filled.
I'm snacking in between (fruit, nuts etc). I'm distracting myself with MN but honestly, I don't think its worth it!

I'm a size 14, but an odd shape (middle heavy ffs ). The only time I was a size 8 was when I worked in retail, on a diet of redbull and chocolate. Sadly I know better now.

My diet has always been stodgy, it was all I knew as a child. Bread, burgers, fries, pies, bread, cakes, soft creeamy cakes. I can't stomach salad (it honestly makes me feel queasy when I eat it, I'm not just being a brat) I've always lacked food discipline, growing up in a family of feeders, it was important to eat, eat, eat!

I've tried several times to change my diet.
AIBU to think years of poor food habits won't change? My body is so used to a certain type of food that it just doesn't seem to accept 'healthy' food as a meal!

Help me

Instead of completely changing the food you eat, why don't you go back to the stuff you're used to, but just eat more slowly and stop the second your stomach tells you it's had enough? It could be 3 bites in, half a plateful or the full plate bar a chip or mouthful of pasta. Listen to your body, eat when hungry, stop when no longer hungry.

Are you doing low carb? You also need to eat fat to feel full. Better to have a small pudding than to continue to feel hungry and fall off the wagon a few hours later.

Are you exercising at all? That's key to getting fit and healthy. I feel your pain but you can eat some carbs. Rice is a nice and healthy filler. As are sweet potatoes. It might be worth finding a local gym and asking for a PT for a few weeks. They sometimes offer helpful nutrition plans based on you

Add some exercise to the healthy eating plan.

It gets easier as your body adapts to eating less stodgy processed food and refined sugars. I know it's obvious, but you have to persevere for a few weeks until your body stops craving the unhealthy stuff. If it was easy to lose weight then we wouldn't have the obesity crisis that we do.

Try MyFitnessPal app.

Losing weight is a simple equation - use more calories (energy) than you consume. If you use about 1,000 calls per day more than you eat you will lose approx 2lbs per week (average). It doesn't need to be complicated but it does require discipline.

Eat food that you like! Just smaller amounts and count all calories that pass your lips. Your diet won't work if you feel miserable and deprived (but, imo, will be hungry some of the time).

Low carb high fat - it will get you into ketosis which is an appetite suppressant which is partly why they're successful diets.

Go to dietdoctor.com

My husband is on this now - I'll be joining him post pregnancy.

It's an excellent diet. Combined with intermittent fasting you'll lose weight and improve health quite quickly.

The only way I lose weight to track everything I eat, both what I eat and how much I eat, and to have a budget for myself. The budget has to include enough food but not too much food. It's really in eating the "right amount" of food that sustainable weight loss happens. You can do this by counting calories. I do it with weight watcher's points. Either way, you can see where the problem lays.

Nuts are VERY high in calories. I measure them and eat them only I can "afford" them on my budget. I suspect that if you measured your food and figured out your calories, it would become clear where the problems are.

Because you've eaten tons of bread and sweets, it's possible that your gut biome is out of wack and causing your food cravings. Try adding probiotics.

But yes, YABU to think that because you ate crap as a child, you have to continue to eat it as an adult. Every bite is a choice.

my husband had this problem when we started SW. He ate a full meal and had the right snacks but was always hungry - his brain was telling him to snack on unhealthy stuff - I supported him and he preservered.

I second using MyFitnessPal, it worked for me! Plug in your numbers and start off trying to just lose a pound a week - log everything, work out where you can cut down, leave yourself room for a few treats. I also got a Fitbit and aimed to get in 10k steps a day, even if I had to go out and walk around the block/dance in the kitchen! You can do it

You do sound a bit greedy tbh. I wouldn't normally be as blunt as that but it sounds like a lot of food. Maybe up your fluid intake.

A couple of years ago I tried both healthy eating and exercise, I stuck to it for about 6 months but I remember never feeling satisfied. The only reason I kept going was because I was going on holiday tbh!

This time around, I'm doing it for me, not because of holiday or anything else but I just can't shake the hunger.
I'm not exercising atm, I've recently changed to nightshifts so I'm feeling a bit of a zombie most days so was planning on introducing exercise later rather than making another big change. Maybe its better to do it all at the same time?

Are there any snacks I could have that could curb my cravings (for cake..) but still be in line with healthy eating?

I'm still eating carbs, potatoes rice etc. Not eating bread has made a huge difference, sometimes if I don't eat it I feel like I haven't had a meal. As a child bread was so so so important!

It sounds to me like you might just be eating too much still OP. It is very easy to forget what a proper portion size is supposed to be etc. Your stomach might be used to being always full, never empty and you are confusing that with hunger? That's what I found anyway. You are supposed to be hungry between meals, you are not supposed to feel full all the time. Hunger is healthy and normal. When you are really hungry you should eat, just eat slowly, like really slowly. Don't just gobble it all down-which is what I used to do! Give your body time to enjoy the food, and stop when you're full.
I found Paul McKenna I Can Make You Thin a real eye opener on to how I ate etc.Changed my life. I lost weight and more importantly have kept it off with ease.

What's wrong with being hungry for a while?

Seriously, we seem to assume in our bloated obese western world that we must feel full all the time. That's not natural and leads to weight gain as we are, obviously, eating more than we need. Feeling a bit hungry for a while before your next meal is OK! We should be ready and hungry for the next meal otherwise we are just overloading our systems with excess calories = fat.

Agree with recommends for LC/HF - the fat is satisfying and gives you the energy you need. Less wheat/carbs = less gut bloating for a lot of people, reducing the muffin top. I also see a lot of improvement in my skin and hair health when I'm doing LCHF properly.

Just hang in there! Your body is readjusting. You need to increase insulin sensitivity, sounds like yours is out of wack.
You do walnuts, avocados, peanut butter, oatmeal, kefir and other probiotics??
Drink some warm water with apple cider vinegar (or something else with acetic acid in it) before every meal, it really helps.
And get out there and challenge yourself with some exercise, I promise it will get better if you just get over this bump

Losing weight is a simple equation - use more calories (energy) than you consume

The problem with this is that Calorific values as displayed on packets are a very blunt measure. Calories from different foods are metabolized differently by the body. So if I remember correctly it takes more energy to metabolize a protein calorie than a carb one.
Losing weight is 80% diet and 20% exercise and although exercise will make you fitter you have to be careful as it may also make you hungrier.

Sorry for double posting. Look up "cloud bread" , it tastes like a popover but no wheat or carbs.
Go on Pinterest and look up paleo recipes, it's surprising what people can come up with at a healthy and satisfies cravings.

Another one suggesting my fitness pal. I'm also a 12/14 and I've lost 10 pounds in the last 3 weeks and I'm still eating food I like - just less of it! (And less snacks). It does involve weighing things etc but it's easy once you get going. I still have bread most lunches and pasta etc at night. For me it's lack of portion control that makes me fat.

Thanks for all of these suggestions, really helpful! I think I just need to find the right foods, as portions aren't necessarily the issue. I get full quite quickly, it just doesn't seem to last

@ophelia I must admit, I was hungry when I posted

I really feel your pain. You have described me. Yesterday I signed up to a local Get Fit Get Active programme. I read the pack I was sent and other than cutting out alcohol completely ( and I don't drink loads anyway) I just don't see how it's going to work as I already don't drink caffeine, I cut out sugar 2 years ago, I keep carbs to a minimum blah blah blah. I'm the heaviest I've ever been and thoroughly brassed off. Grrrrrrrr As you can tell I have no words to offer you 😰😰

opheliacat, how was that helpful?

OP, I feel your pain! There are so many answers to this - but I find not snacking really helps. I can save my calories for reasonably sized meals if I'm not factoring in 150-200 calories twice a day for snacks. Also, eating less often helps my IBS - think my digestive system copes better if I don't top it up so often!

How much water are you drinking? Apparently thirst can manifest itself as hunger . I also find that having a cup of tea or coffee with half a spoon of sugar in alleviates the sugar craving at a fraction of the calorie cost of a chocolate bar!

Also, dont underestimate the havoc that night shifts will play with your body - it probably cant work out when its supposed to be resting and sleeping and rebuilding so decides its hungry all the time. Theres lots of research been done on this so may be worth spending a bit of time looking into eating plans for shift workers

I swapped bread for plates of plain pasta - free under SW

In addition to the advice above, what I found really helpful to feeling full was that I drank a pint of water (or squash, not fizzy drinks) before each meal. Makes you feel full and likely to eat less

@Ginislife haha I don't drink and I cut out sugar for a good while before but when it didn't make a difference I thought what the hell, bring back the cake! 😂

@Tooextra every time I read up on dieting, I'm always seeing 'snacking, snacking, snacking' (healthy though obvs), to help cravings, but maybe for some people it's better to ignore cravings? Maybe thats why I'm getting hungry quicker, I'm telling myself its ok I'll have another yogurt or handful of nuts soon!