Does anyone ever feel full/ satiate without gaining weight?

[Greedybugger]

Posted here for traffic.

I’m 5’6 and 10.4 stone, 40 yo female, I eat around 2600 kcals a day, complex carbs, clean protein, lots of vege, berries etc. Now and again I have a protein bar or drink but I usually stick to high quality food. I hardly eat sweets/ desserts or pizza/ burgers etc as I would just gain weight and still be hungry.
I’ve trained my whole life( I’m fit and strong / muscly) but I’m ALWAYS hungry and never really get full. Now I train for about 7-10h a week with a mixture of weights and cardio and I walk 45-60 mins a day. I honestly don’t know how so many women eat less than 2000kcal and feel satiated. I hate this constant food noise and I’m tempted with weightloss injections to not having to think about food all the time. Is there something wrong with me??
Would a glucose monitor help you think? Maybe my “ healthy” diet still raises my blood sugar a lot.

I would easily smash 4000-5000kcal a day but I gain weight if I eat more than 2600 and I would be very unhappy if I put on weight. I would love to lose half a stone but I can’t face eating even less food!!

Does anyone who is happy with their weight feel like they can eat so they get full? Or do you have to restrict yourself to not gain weight? And be a little bit hungry all the time?

AIBU- most people eat so they’re full and don’t gain weight
AINBU- most people can’t eat so they’re full without gaining weight

I’m 5’6” 8st 7Ib, vegetarian, but eat desserts, chocolate etc. I eat as much as I like, I can’t stand being hungry it puts me in a bad mood, I’ve always been slim. Think I just have a fast metabolism, but also generally very active so possibly burn off the calories, not that I count them.

@Nooa the reason I don’t give in is because I want to be slim
and fit! I just hate the constant food noise and the effort it takes to ignore it. I would love it if I could be happy and fat..

I'm late 40's, 5ft 51/2 and always around 8 stone. I'm not hungry all the time at all, it sounds horrible tbh, I also don't have the food noise that people talk about.

I have three meals a day and if i feel peckish i have a snack. Normally variations on - porridge with fruit and seeds for breakfast, couple of poached eggs, crackers and an apple for lunch, chicken thigh, carb and a couple portions of vegetables for dinner. Have a cup of tea with a few dates and a few nuts if i get peckish. Sometimes have a bit of a choccy binge, last night had a bag of mini eggs.

Constantly hungry (and overweight) unless I eat shed loads of fat. It's weird - if I eat the amount of fat my body seems to want in order to be satiated and not crave carbs, then I'd be eating many many times the supposed healthy limit. I have phases of doing it and then I think all the sat fat must be bad for my heart (could just stick to healthy fats in principle I guess but there's only so much fish and olive oil one can eat) and then I get back on the carbs, gain a stone, rinse and repeat

this is interesting, I may have to try it. I’m worried I couldn’t exercise if I didn’t eat carbs though

@Jade520 it is horrible being hungry all the time!
I would love to be satiated eating what you are eating

My best mate has been a steady size 8-10 our whole lives (now mid-40s) and she says she doesn't really get hungry. I think some people just don't. She eats a normal diet, plenty of carbs and some junk, she loves a biscuit. She does eat small portions though.

5 foot 10. Not sure on weight, roughly 9.5 stone at a guess based on being that weight years ago and clothes still fitting.

I don’t know how many calories I eat a day, I eat 3 meals and snacks. Generally healthy but also unhealthy stuff if I fancy it instead.

I eat until I’m full / no longer hungry. Also eat out of habit eg it’s 3pm time for a satsuma etc.

ETA to answer the OP question - no, I don’t think I put on weight eating this way. My clothes fit pretty much the same as they have for a couple of decades. Interested to see if menopause changes that!

I’m like your boyfriend!

I agreed with @Sunnierjim

Wearing a glucose monitor was a revelation for me, seeing how much even complex carbs spike my blood sugar and how what I had understood to be hunger was actually the crash that comes after my glucose levels spike. Brain thinks it's starving, cannot access fat stored because of the insulin circulating in the bloodstream.

Now I follow MN's own low card bootcamp: as much leafy green veg, protein and fat to fully satisfy my spoiled plus drinking all.the.waster.

It took a few days to get the sugar out of my system. Now I do not miss the terrible highs and lows of glucose spikes and lows. I genuinely do not feel hungry because my body can use its fat reserves. My blood sugar is completely stable and I feel a very quiet sensation of could eat something but not the separate hunger that use to drive me to over est carbs.

A much more peaceful way of life.

At first the excess weight just fell off me. Now my weight has stabilised.

How much water do you drink and how often are you eating? I lost a LOT of weight in a calorie deficit (approx 1800 cals) when I trained hard, ate six small, protein-rich meals and drank at least 3L of water a day. If I felt hungry outside of meal times, I’d have a pint of water and reassess whether I was actually hungry after about 20 minutes. If I was still peckish, I’d have a snack but usually it would have gone away and I figured I had actually just been thirsty. It got to a point where I hated eating six meals because I had stopped feeling hungry, but my body still needed the fuel for exercise.

You're very active, OP. My guess is that you need more protein and fats - maybe add some pulses, nuts and seeds to your meals.

So having a salad? Throw in some walnuts and chick peas.

Cooking a stew? Add lentils

Toast and peanut butter for breakfast? Swap it for chia seed putting with added nuts and fruit.

Just some examples. If you're already doing this ..... apologies in advance.

DD2 is like you - incredibly active and 5'7" and 9 stone - and always hungry.

I'm early 40s and the same hence I'm 2 stone over weight, hypothyroid has ruined my ability to keep weight off its a toss up between one meal a day or remaining overweight for me .

I’ve got a few friends like this, many of them eat junk and biscuits, chocolate etc throughout the day and have unhealthy meals, the portions are small though. The total amount of kcal will be much less than what I’m having but they put some crap into their bodies

This!

I'd be a chunk on 2600 calories. It's over double what I need.

I don't do 7-10 hours of training a week. I'm lucky to get a run in. I'm 5'3" 64kg and just overweight according to BMI calculator. I'm eating between 900 and 1200 calories depending on good or bad days. I'm slowly losing, or maintaining on the higher end of that intake and not calorie counting and allowing myself the odd biscuit/ chocolate or slice of pizza/burger. I'm broadly following Michael mosley books.

I'm not hungry even on 800 calories providing I leave out the carbs and sugar / booze. Today I had very small bowl of porridge and then forgot to eat until now.

I'm amazed you can eat 2600 and not gain!

This is fascinating to me as the only time I ever " feel hungry" is when I feel sick and nauseous because of pregnancy. The irony of it makes me laugh. I never have that in starving even when I did loads of exercise. Are you drinking enough water? Sometimes we can think we are hungry but really thirsty? Also no risk of diabetes?

I'm fine on 1600. I'm 55, post menopause, 5' 4" and about 9 stone. I don't do as much excercise as you (no gym but I walk a lot) and I don't have hormone related sugar lows anymore, which helps. I'm vegan and I can eat far bigger portions of plants for those calories than I could eat if I was having meat eggs and dairy.

My apetite stabilised since going low carb/keto. It has been a game changer.

Surely most people's hunger signals aren't broken (the cues sent to the brain to tell us we're full)?
I don't think most people of a healthy weight stay that way through will power.

Constantly thinking about food isn't the same as being hungry. Hunger is a rumbling stomach, grumpy, lacking focus, maybe a bit shaky.
When your stomach is full it tells your brain to stop eating.

I am slim, exercise a lot, no idea how many calories I consume. I know I eat quite slowly, not consciously, I just chew a lot or take small mouthfuls...dunno.

What do you mean by complex carbs, clean protein, lots of vege, berries etc?

I was looking at meals labelled clean cut meals but if you looked at the label, they were far from clean.

I do know one thing - when I suddenly started drinking at least 1500mls of water a day plus a couple of teas/coffees - I lost a lot of weight in my lower legs really quickly - was convinced I had some muscle wasting disease at first as I wasn't losing it anywhere else but my ankles and calves totally shrank

I eat until I am satiated. Minimal carbs, lots of fat and protein. That works for me.

Frequent eating, especially carbs and sugar, leads to glucose spikes and excess insulin secretion, which in turn feeds ‘hunger’, whereas protein and healthy fats keep you satiated. Cutting out sugar and restricting alcohol intake has been the best thing I’ve ever done for my diet.

Sadly, we also need fewer calories as we get older…I am 70 but very fit and active. Even though I exercise 60-90 minutes most days and do sports, if I go much above 1400-1600 calories a day, I gain weight. I’m nevertheless satiated because I eat a healthy Mediterranean style diet. Two meals a day - typically an omelette plus salad for brunch and protein plus vegetables for dinner, plus a piece of fruit in between.

I had to reframe psychologically. So I deliberately go to bed hungry, to trick myself into seeing it as a good thing. Conversely, I have tricked myself into feeling sort of sick and a bit disgusted with myself if I feel full. I have lost 3 stone this way, and I am now trying to maintain using the same philosophy.