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

[flossie232]

Trying to eat in a calorie deficit of 1600. I have at least 1.5 stone to lose. I'm finding it so hard to keep to 1600, I'm just hungry all the time. I try to make good choices, today for example I had granola, Greek yoghurt and berries for breakfast thinking it would fill me up. By lunch I was starving again and had a hearty soup for about 300 calories which filled me up at the time but by the evening I was hungry again so ended up having a massive pasta dish that will have probably tipped me over my calories. Even with sensible meals it seems really tough to eat 3 satisfying meals a day and incorporate the other little things I like (like a few coffees, maybe a biscuit in the evening etc) without going over.

I know this method will work if I can find a way to eat within a deficit sustainably. Does anyone have any tips or maybe recommendations for low calorie but filling food? It's astonishing how quickly calories add up and how calorific certain things are.

On my working days I used to have a cereal bar and a coffee for breakfast, then a sandwich/crisps at lunch and something from a Gousto box for tea. I genuinely didn't think that was a lot but logging it all on MFP has made me realised how many calories are in things like supermarket sandwiches. It's all just such hard work.

I've only seen one person mention psyllium husk, surprisingly!

I am not trying to lose weight right now (although I should be, BMI creeping up again) so next monday, i'll be using psyllium husk if my healthy food leaves me hungry.

If you want to close the window on two meals a day while losing weight, but there's a period that's a bit tough to get through, mix a tea spoon of psyllium husk with 30mls of water and a spoon of yogurt. It doesn't have to taste great, it's food medicine to stop hunger pangs until you eat. I stopped needing it after a while, so the body gets used to two meals a day, but to begin with it helped a lot.

Have you been eating yoghurt and granola for breakfast under the illusion that it's a healthy option?

It's not! Granola is a treat breakfast for me now - got a shock once when I realised after actually weighing out the portion of Nice n Nobbly I would usually have that I was basically sprinkling the equivalent in calories and sugar of a chocolate croissant on my Greek yoghurt.

Ditto a cereal bar is about one of the worst things to eat if you are trying to lose weight.

As everyone else above has said - you need a massive rethink of what you are actually eating.

On work days
I now often skip breakfast or perhaps just have a boiled egg. I'll have a big glass of water and a coffee.

Around 10.30am I start to snack on the veg crudités and tomatoes I've brought with me from home. At lunchtime I have salad type thing which is usually a lot of protein (I roast chicken/ beef etc on a Sunday and the leftovers do my lunches for a few days).

Evening meal can be quite high in calories but I focus on it being nutritious and tasty. Boiled potatoes coated in proper butter, good quality meat or fish, lots and lots of veg.

I probably eat around 1250 -1400 calories a day (I do have breakfast at a weekend) and don't feel deprived or 'on a diet'.

I found things that are harder to eat, like apples, raw carrots, raw mange tout etc helped. Sparkling water

Eat protein in most meals and you'll feel full. I struggled with restricted calories, but 1.5 years later I'm fine with it now. Salad is a good extra. Snacks like apples and popcorn are good fillers. Good luck. Freeze your feddo bars for a longer lasting treat that's lower in calories than a full size bar. You'll need to do 10,000 steps a day as well as the calorie counting.

Unless I’ve misunderstood, calorie deficit means burning more calories than you consume. So you need to know what calories you burn that day to know if you’ve achieved a deficit.

Obviously the lower the calorie intake the easier it is to achieve deficit through burn off but your body needs x calories per day for general health. Also the discomfort of hunger won’t help your willpower.

So in my unqualified opinion it is better to eat what you need and increase activity to burn off excess calories. Good luck 🙂

I would also say eggs, BUT I have eggs for breakfast every day and a couple of weeks ago I started getting belly ache straight afterwards, awful pain! so I've stopped them for a while. Miss my eggs!
Also look at MCT oil, it really helped my cravings.

Distract yourself from thinking about food.

I tried 1500 - 1600 calories and lost 1.5 stone and it is difficult to not think about food at times, but avoiding an extra 100 calories here ( a slice of bread etc) and there is possible.

I did a spreadsheet of all the food I was eating (including, calories, fibre, protein etc) and it became easy to see where you can shave calories off, what are high calorie foods and drink, how smaller portions help.

Good luck

Dr Fung is not legitimate research, he is a quack

I got from 12 stone to 10 st 2 doing IF and have maintained though gone up recently to 10 st 6 so getting stricter.

Dont eat til lunch then omelette / bulky salad minimal snacks normal dinner but on smaller plate. Usually have piece of choc or a biscuit most days

I haven’t read the full thread so apologies if I’m repeating. Search for the TDEE calculator on line (if you haven’t already) and work out what your maintenance calories are. Anything less than that gives you a deficit. I am working on 1400 a day to lose a pound a week and it just wasn’t working until I added in extra steps. You can’t outrun a bad diet, but it does assist! Use a tracker like MyFitnessPal or nutracheck to log everything you eat. You could try having 4 smaller calorie meals a day instead of 3, or add in regular snacks. Find out what works for you. Energy in versus energy out is the only way to lose weight so calorie counting makes sense to me. It does get easier once you get used to eating less.

I think when calorie restricting hunger is inevitable. I try and reframe the hunger as a positive thing and say to my self “hunger is my friend”

I've made many mistakes.
Mistake 1: giving up bread and pasta but still eating lots of white rice, rice cakes, popcorn, potatoes, chips etc. Basically compensating carbs for other carbs.

Mistake 2: thinking 'healthy' will help me lose weight. Loads of nuts instead of sugar or crisps, loads of fruit.

Finally realised I wasn't losing any weight despite denying so many foods.

I'm now on 800 cals a day and I'm fine, not hungry, though I still miss cake and bread. I had 13kg to lose, been doing it about a month now.

My 'secret' is to do an intense 9 day kickstarter. It rebalances your appetite and helps you realise the difference between hunger and wanting the taste of food. I was hungry for a couple of days. You use shakes and food for these first 9 days but then go to 2 decent meals per day. I do 2 days with one shake per day and loads of herbal tea. The third day I have a shake and around 500 cal meal. Keep going for 9 days like that. By the end of it, 2 meals per day (usually around 300 and 500) feels amazing!! I have lunch (1ish) and evening meal (6:30ish) and then don't eat after that. I am using the fast 800 recipes, loads of books. You can have sausages, bacon, smoked mackerel, steak, roast chicken, Thai curry - loads of really nice food but it takes time to cook. You can batch cook many of them.

Breakfast is the worst for me

If I don't eat breakfast, I'm good. If I have anything for breakfast then I end up hungry and eating all day

I generally only eat OMAD anyway - works for me but probably isn't the healthiest and I wouldn't push it to anyway

I'm very slim (7.5st at 5'2) but healthy. 2 DC, both breastfed, regular period, full head of hair

Like others have said: Ditch the cereal bar. Skip breakfast 16:8. Have a black coffee with some MCT oil in in the morning. Lunch full fat Greek yog, berries, switch out granola for whole nuts/seeds.
dinner less carb higher protein, so chicken salad with egg for example or roasted veg. Up your fibre intake and good fats. Fibre is often ignored but super important.

Michael Mosley is similar but not as extreme, combination of calorie counting and high protein, some fat (ie. Full fat milk, cream etc as long as it's within the calories) and IF. It's a combo which is working for me cos I can't do skimmed milk. I'd rather have some full fat in coffee and then water.

I completely agree with this. There is lots of helpful (a bit of unhelpful) advice on this thread about how to feel full for longer, which is great and would really help.

However, the reality is if you are eating in calorie deficit, you are going to feel hungry. Hunger is not a particularly pleasant feeling, but it is not all dangerous provided you are eating healthily and you will get used to it.

I am slim, but don’t eat within a calorie deficit and feel hungry a while before every meal. It is a normal feeling and I’m used to it.

Impossible. Your body recognises you're in a caloric deficit. You just have to get used to being hungry I'm afraid. At least, when you feel hungry, you can tell yourself that's a sign it must be wokring. And you can stop when you reach your goal so it's not forever.

Why do you say he’s a quack?

It gets easier the longer you do it as your body adapts and you get used to it.

Try eating a larger breakfast and lunch and a smaller tea then when you get hungry in the evening it’s time to go to bed anyway.

I wanted to get onboard with IF, and I did for a couple of weeks, but I really missed my cup of tea in the mornings. I tried taking it black, but it really wasn't the same I only take a splash of milk - no sugar.

I’ve not RTFT because most of the answers are nonsense anyway but has anyone actually asked why 1600?

is that just a random number you chose? If you calculated your TDEE and then knock 300-500 off it that’s what you should be eating to lose weight.

it might be you’re in too severe a deficit which isn’t sustainable. Find a TDEE calculator and then subtract 300-500 from it to find your daily cals for weight loss.

also just a heads up to anyone saying that calorie counting doesn’t work, just try high protein low carb instead blah blah - they are ALL calorie deficit diets. The only way to lose weight is in a calorie deficit of some kind & that’s all that these fad diets are.

There’s no magic formula in high protein low carb, you’re still just eating less calories at the end of the day.

“Nonsense” how fucking rude are you?!

We are not thick we realise that thanks 🙄They are not “fad diets” they are ways for people to sustainably not overeat. IF was life changing for me as can still broadly eat what I like but stay in a healthy bmi and have done for 4 years now.

I avoid breakfast, if I eat it, I tend to feel more hungry not less, although I do drink a lot of coffee with milk in the morning, need to try and learn to enjoy black coffee !
Loads of vegetables, either as a salad or as a big side with your meal, I tend to drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil on salad and warm veg, it helps your body to absorb any fat soluble vitamins in the food, small sprinkle of salt, helps it taste delicious too.
Drink more water, quite often I would mistake being a bit dehydrated with hunger signals.
I weigh a lot more than you, and I see feeling hungry, a bit like a child using pester power, so I will have a drink of water and mentally tell my body to dip into its substantial stores, and no it can't have some processed carbs before the next meal
I basically eat protein, loads of vegetables, some good fats and some legumes. No processed carbs, no rice and I avoid potatoes because the urge to deep fry them is always too strong to resist

For me it's about volume eating and fasting. So no breakfast a late large lunch with no carbs (usually full fat yoghurt and berries. Dinner fish and a massive salad.

Tried to put a line through massive salad 😂😂.