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?

Feeling hungry at first is normal but isn't going to be helped by eating jaffa cakes and other sugary stuff.

I know if you make smoothies it intensifies the sugar? Is that right? So not good for dieting.
But can I do the same to veg, ie...a soup or stew and it stay low cal as no sugar etc...so can eat largish portions?

It takes me a week of dieting for the ‘I’m staaaaarving’ pangs to stop.
My body does adjust though and gets used to the new routine fairly quickly. I’m now 6lbs down and another stone to go.

A good half hour before a meal, we should start to feel hungry, and after a meal you should feel full but not stuffed. During the day, if you start to feel hungry you should eat a little snack like a few bits or an apple to get you to the next meal. But yes, the feeling of hunger should not be feared. It is normal human feeling and it won't hurt you. I also need to get back on the wagon this week.

Also, you eat what works for you and enjoy it. You don't need to eat all this protein if you don't enjoy it. The main thing is to just eat less. Your diet sounds fine to me as long as it's less than it was before and you'll lose weight! People love to complicate it but it's that simple.

www.strongerbyscience.com/macrofactor/

This has been working for me. I depise dieting and am the kind of person who struggles with an all or nothing approach and ends up failing. It's gradual. It's fairly easy to log stuff. It's a well designed app. Regularly updated. Was recommended to me and I subscribed after the trial because I found it v easy to work with. Christmas I have eaten whatever but made sure I logged it, essentially I wasn't watching what I ate, but I'm back to following what it suggests now. No beating myself up. I find it takes the stress out of it.

Oh and I try and get some protein because I weight train but I rarely hit it (usually my fats go over, not carbs, which I'm not surprised about) but it's not mattered in terms of weight loss. I'm not fastidious, I try and get a bit of fruit/veg and protein and that's it

Get yourself a fancy water bottle and set a daily water target.

I promise it will help.

Please ignore the "if you aren't low carbing you aren't dieting and even if you lose weight, you'll have done it the morally wrong way" posters - they pop up on every diet thread, low carbing doesn't work for everyone, but they really can't deal with the idea other people lose weight differently.

Anyway, given your food list for the day was rather a lot, I assume you are used to over eating, so eating normally will leave you hungry for a while as your body readjusts to new normal gaps between meals. I found getting out helped, if I'm in the house, I feel the need to snack, regardless of how full my last meal left me. Hard to do when the weather is shit and we are all avoiding crowded indoor spaces though!

You are not hungry, it is your mind playing games with you.
I know it sound weird, but you have esten regularly, you have eaten well, so your body is not lacking of nutrients and you are not hungry. Not the hungry feeling of a person who has not eaten for 6 hours after hard labour.
It is a craving really, that is all. Try to drink instead, a couple of glasses of water. Or a hot drink, like a black tea. And wait for a few minutes. The feeling should disappear.
Or it will after a few days sticking to your food timetable.
I bet you you used to snack on sweet or calorie things quite regularly? And that craving is the "hungry feeling". After a few days, you will miss the taste of some of your favourite snacks, but the craving will go. Do not give up OP.

According to research 95% of us will put any weight we lose back on within five years. Only about 5% of people are able to lose weight permanently. However, it's still better for us to eat healthy food.

Really interesting and helpful thread. Thank you

@Rubyupbeat

I know if you make smoothies it intensifies the sugar? Is that right? So not good for dieting. But can I do the same to veg, ie...a soup or stew and it stay low cal as no sugar etc...so can eat largish portions?

You can't create sugar. Making fruit in to smoothies does make it easier to breakdown (as blending starts the process) it also starts to break down the fibre. Both of these things mean that you get hungry quicker. The additional issue with fruit smoothies is that is much more fruit than you'd eat in a sitting - handful of berries, banana, apple juice and slice of pineapple - would you eat that as a meal unblended? Also smoothies are mainly carbs, a little fibre and a few vitamins. Lack of protein and fat are an issue.

Smoothies can be great IF you add protein and reduce the sugar. For example handful of frozen berries, two large dollops of Greek yogurt (weighed if calorie counting), 15g nut butter, a handful of spinach, almond milk, 15g oats. It'll be much more filling than a fruit smoothie and I frequently have that for lunch and I'm full until dinner.

I have a friend who is a dietitian, and she is relatively young and very up to date, and she does not agree with low carving. By all means have one slice of toast instead of two, but very low carbing is false science. The liver does not like to metabolise fat and protein to make up for carbs.

I think the best way to lose weight and keep it off is to create a healthy diet that you can be enthusiastic about, which fits your lifestyle, and includes moderate occasional treats if you want them, and lots of fruit and vegetables.

Intermittent fasting works for me. I don’t eat until lunch. Early small lunch. Minimise snacks dinner on a smaller plate. No food after 8pm. Relax at weekends.

Lost 2 stone in 2019 and kept off by living as described. Size 14 to size 10 bmi 27 to bmi 22.

Oh and hours cardio most days

Why are people so afraid of being a bit hungry?

You think our ancestors walked around with a constantly full and bloated stomach?
No.
They got hungry, ate a little, carried on with life.

It's your bodies way of telling you it's getting low on fuel, that's it.
You could not eat anything for several days and then you may need to start using fat reserves.

I went to bed hungry a few times but weirdly woke up fine and could happily fast until lunch no longer hungry

It is the evening I struggle with.

@Thepineapplemystery
Thank you, that makes sense.

Feeling hunger is when the process of autophagy occurs, which is the fastest way to burn fat. This is why intermittent fasting is good for weight loss

@Guacamole001

It is the evening I struggle with.

Me too. I find that it makes a big difference if I lock up downstairs and go up earlier in the evening, even if I don’t go to bed just yet. I might fold laundry, do a yoga practice, read etc. it’s also incredibly difficult to lose weight if you aren’t sleeping properly so going to bed a bit earlier helps doubly.

@BarkminsterBlue brushing your teeth straight after dinner helps curb evening snacking too

Personally I restrict my calorie intake to 1200 calories a day.

I also burn 500 calories at the gym.

So I live on about 700 calories a day.

I fast between 7pm and 5pm, so all of my eating is done in a two hour window. I can eat 1200 calories of just about whatever during this time, but I obviously try and prioritise as healthy food as possible.

Doing this method of dieting, I tend to get hungry around 3pm. I’ve never been a breakfast person and always worked through lunch.
I dropped 3.5 stone in 4 months.

@SilverHairedCat

No, absolutely not.

Going hungry is pointless, it's not sustainable and is just starving yourself.

Fill up on better foods - raise the protein levels, add lots more veg to that diet, keep bread to one meal a day and you'll not be hungry at all.

If somebody is used to eating a whole pack of choc digestives in an evening, I think it's unavoidable to feel some hunger at first while the appetite adjusts.