To think you need to go hungry on a diet?

[username30473]

I didn't want to use the word diet it was just for the title. The last couple of years my diet has been appalling to say the least. I have always been a size 10 but now a size 12 touching 14. From the way I have eaten I actually think I could be a lot larger.
Anyway I am now trying to change my diet back to what it used to be and lose weight.

I actually started on Boxing Day so I am a week in and I am hungry all the time. I am not massively restricting myself either. Yesterday I have had yogurt/fruit for breakfast, beans and scrambled eggs on toast for lunch, fruit for afternoon snack and steak and chips for dinner with a couple of Jaffa cakes for dessert. I just think I am so use to eating so much now I just have to get use to be hungry until my body gets use to less food again.

Do others find this to be the case?

Based on my past diets you can feel full with protein and lots of vegetables but it is not the same nice feeling you get from eating lots of carbs.

Plenty of people eat toast as a part of their diet and are not overweight

Blossomtoes, OP is being candid and asking for help. It’s pretty clear from her post that she’s struggled with healthy eating and is trying to change. No need for the sarcastic ‘call that a diet?’ remark, with added italics just to really drive your point home.

Eggs and steak both have plenty of protein.

I'd say that things like toast and chips are fine in moderation, especially if they keep you from snacking and cravings later on. There's a world of difference between a slice of whole meal toast with breakfast and half a loaf worth buttered for tea break, or having a few oven chips with a meal vs a chippy tea several times a week. If a regime is too rigid and you find it utterly joyless you won't stick to it.

@SallyWD

I do 16/8 and am very rarely hungry - only a little hungry just before I break my fast and a black coffee kills the hunger. Apart from that, I'm always satisfied. This is why I've stuck at 16/8 for 6 years. The weight falls off without hunger. 16/8 great is also great for maintaining.

Agree with this. I'm only hungry mid morning if I have breakfast. If I don't, I'm fine until 1pm (and sometimes fast until dinner). If I get into breakfast habits, I'm hungry all the time. I'll be doing 16:8 mostly. While trying to drop some simple carbs and increase vegetables.

For me a decent breakfast so toast/bagel with peanut butter or oats so simple with blueberries, then soup with either 2 cream crackers or nothing and then try not to snack apart from fruit helps a lot. I had dental surgery with stitches a week before Xmas and had to eat soft foods and couldn’t eat much and that helped too. Keeping active helps too.

I think it is a matter of getting used to less food.
Our bodies adapt, expecting a certain amount and then there is less and body goes wtf? lol

I find some foods make me feel more hungry. It's probably by design.
Sweet cereal is one of them.

fried egg on toast. Much more filling.

@Blossomtoes

That’s a diet? What on earth do you eat normally? Chips, toast, Jaffa Cakes all need to go.

Give up toast? Are you having a larf?

You can feel a bit less hungry if you eat a lot of veg, for the volume of food. You can eat pretty much as much as you want of most veg (within your calorie allowance.) This means you feel less deprived.

Coach Greg recently released a vid showing a lot of foods you can pretty much eat as much as you want and still stay under your calorie allowance, as it's virtually impossible to eat too much of them.

For instance to go over my calorie allowance on watermelons I'd have to eat about 2 watermelons for every meal, and then another half a watermelon as a snack. Not that I'm saying anyone should live on just one food.

Drinking lots of water also helps you feel fuller.

It helped me if I start to see food based on its effect on my health/weight loss goals @username30473 . I'm not saying it's entirely stopped me getting treats, but for instance going through town the other week I didn't get the craving for/get a burger king when I walked past it, because I was thinking about its effect on my goals. This works occasionally.

I also did well with Noom at first, and MyFitnessPal has helped me look at the way I construct meals/my food for the day to hit the government recommended protein and fibre goals.

Yes - for me it is all about portion control, which is why slimming world only worked for me short term. The way I manage my weight is eat what I want (bearing in mind nutritious food makes me feel good, so only eating crap if I really fancy it) but in smaller portions. It is hard to get used to feeling satisfied rather than full. But once you are used to eating less, you are there.

@DogCatBoysAndMe

Sparkling water (or just water) helps me to fill up. As does homemade broths which are quick and easy and super cheap Natural yogurt with seeds/ nuts are good. And I find protein shakes a good filler

You don't have to go hungry. Just fill up on less calorie dense food. It is a way of life unfortunately and breaking old habits. I've 3 stone to lose so it's a big change for me as I'd happily eat crap all day but it's starting to have a huge negative effect on my mental well-being

Good luck op

I have 3 stone to lose too. It's hard because I'm 53. Was a lot easier when younger.

You do kind of need to give your body a chance to use your fat stores as fuel rather than keep topping up the tank, so to speak...

@TooWicked

I always feel hungry in the hour or two leading up to my meals. I assumed that was normal for most people.

Yes, you are supposed to feel like that I agree, and it should be the norm, but I suspect that for most people, it isn't the norm any longer.

You only have to be somewhere public where there happen to be a number of families with children around, and you can see that there's a veritable tsunami of snacks everywhere.

Since shopping to porridge (with fruit, or de-frosted frozen fruit) for breakfast, I find my mid-morning hunger pains have generally gone. It definantly keeps me going longer.

While you need to be in a calorie deficit, you don't want your calories to be too low either as this will send your body into starvation mode, making it actually store fat rather than lose it.

I used to think it was all about just living with hunger. I soon realised once I upped my water intake that I THOUGHT I was hungry but I actually wasn't.

I find drinking water whenever I feel hungry instantly curbs my appetite (apparently it's your brain mistaking thirst for hunger).

Of course, the fallout is peeing more frequently than a diabetic 80 year old but it does get the job done for me.

@Blossomtoes You can eat anything on a diet as long as you stay within your calorie allowance.

Toast is absolutely fine, it's a complex carbohydrate (ideally wholemeal if the person can tolerate it.)

Treats are fine in moderation- some people find having a small amount of treats stops them bingeing.

But of course it's maybe easier to stay within one's calorie allowance if they mostly it low-calorie food.

No:

• Protein and fibre-y veg or grain at every meal (you aren’t eating enough veg, fruit or fibre - and Jaffa cakes and chips are too many empty calories in one day if you are trying to loose weight). Same for snacks if you need them.

• make sure you aren’t eating because you are bored or tired or upset or thirsty.

• eat so you aren’t actively hungry and reduce gradually if you need to - but if you start eating properly you will loose weight at a steady rate without feeling hungry.

Ranjan Chatterjee’s loose weight feel great is a good general guide.

@Blossomtoes

That’s a diet? What on earth do you eat normally? Chips, toast, Jaffa Cakes all need to go.

Bullshit. You aren't meant to deny yourself anything, you're just meant to have them less often and in smaller quantities. Chips don't necessarily have lots of calories, toast can be wholegrain and you're still allowed a treat (if you can call jaffa cakes that).

You do kind of need to give your body a chance to use your fat stores as fuel rather than keep topping up the tank, so to speak...

@Sparklfairy Staying in a calorie deficit will automatically do that. People can still eat food throughout the day.

I don’t think you should be constantly hungry but hunger between meals is normal - when I was young I used to hear ‘hunger’s good sauce’ or ‘you’ll eat all your dinner then’ quite often.

Also, humans are creatures of habit in the biggest way. If you’re used to snacking on junk food all day your body will tell you it’s time to eat crisps and chocolate.

Also please don’t listen to those saying bread/chips etc all need to go - crash dieting or restrictive dieting isn’t a long term solution compared to cutting back and eating more reasonably as you’re doing.

I find cutting down on carbs and upping protein stops me from feeling hungry. I don't eat breakfast either.
I actually lost a stone in a month recently, although not deliberately, I have had severe acid reflux. I was eating child sized portions, no alcohol, so snacks. I didn't change what I ate as such, although there are things I now can't eat due to acid, and there wasn't a "low fat" in sight. It was amazing how quickly I got used to eating less.

@me4real I know, but I think sometimes its hard to cut down on calories and the feeling of hunger/deprivation. We're so conditioned with "snacks" these days that we've forgotten that actually the world won't end if we're hungry for an hour or two

Eggs and steak is already a heavy protein diet.