How can I stop wanting to eat all the time?

[Hathall]

If I'm at home, I want to eat.
I've tried to analyse why I feel like that all the time but I can't get to the bottom of it.
I'm not depressed or bored.
I'm always tired as dd is a very bad sleeper but I think I'd have more energy and feel less tired if I lost weight.
Sometimes I think I'm just lazy but it's hard to organise myself sometimes because of family life with a toddler (and 2 other children)
If I'm out, I hardly bother with food.
I can refuse cakes and biscuits really easily when with friends but at home, I just want to keep snacking.
Meals are healthy. Snacks aren't always unhealthy. I'll eat fruit, crackers, toast, breadsticks, popcorn, rice cakes as well as cakes and jam on toast.
I need to lose weight and it's obviously the snacking that's preventing this.

How do I stop wanting to eat all the time?

If you are not sleeping properly I think there is a hormone or similar that makes you hungry called Ghrelin. I don't know what you can do to stop it. Maybe worth a google.

I've lost weight now that the brats sleep. A high protein diet will starve off hunger. Think protein for breakfast.

But I seriously believe in this Ghrelin stuff.

The more you eat, the more you want to eat. I'm almost three weeks into my diet. The first week I thought I was going to die. I thought the hunger pangs were unbearable. Now, only two short weeks later I can honestly say my appetitie has reduced and I'm not constantly thinking about how I can get more bang for my buck calorie wise - as in how I can accommodate snacks and hearty meals etc. I'm happy with three calorie counted meals and a bit of fruit added in.

Go cold turkey. Cut down your food straight away. After a couple of weeks your body will have adjusted. If I feel like that, you will because I swear I had the biggest appetitie of anyone I know - I was always ravenous, had large portions, and could always make space for biscuits etc. I genuinely thought I was just "different" and nobody else could have an appetitie like mine but now realise it was just a habit to break.

No idea why iPad is autocorrecting appetite to an incorrect spelling but can't be bothered to go back and change them all!

If you are constantly hungry, you are eating the wrong foods.

You need to eat more protein, fat, veg and fruit instead of carby junk. Bread etc is just sugar, you might as well just eat brownies!

Eat massive salads full of veg, nuts, avocado, egg, fish, chicken etc.

Also, drink loads of water.

Boredom, I personally have a vile picture of me in a bikini (the picture that made me realise I HAD to lose weight) stuck on my fridge.

I have a cup of tea or some fizzy water when I am hungry - it stops snacking and makes you feel full.

What are you eating for breakfast when you have a day at home? I find it easier to skip breakfast altogether (and then I can manage perfectly well until lunchtime) than to eat a very carby breakfast such as toast or cereal or fruit.

If I start the day with carbs (even wholegrains, muesli or porridge) I can guarantee I will be hungry on and off all day and will keep going back to the bread bin or the biscuit tin. I try to make sure that my first meal of the day contain lots of protein, usually eggs, or a protein shake mixed with berries, nuts and seeds in. It makes a huge difference compared to eating toast etc.

I do find that if I am out and busy, stimulated by something, or distracted then I am far less likely to eat out of habit or boredom and it can be many hours before it occurs to me that I really should eat something.

It is entirely natural to constantly think about food.

Its entirely modern and Western to have constant access to food.

As you eat one meal your mind will cast forwards to the next.
Its what we are evolved to do.
So
you need to control your mind and inform it that after a nice high protein meal you will not consume anything other than water for the next four hours.

Then another nutrient rich meal
and another four or five hour gap

then another nutrient dense meal and a ten hour gap (much of which is taken up by sleep).

Your body does not need to graze.
You just need to remind it of such.

For me I'm not constantly hungry, but I've noticed over the last week doing SW even when I'm not hungry, I want to eat. I am fully aware I'm not hungry but it's the activity I want. Hoping it eases off, perhaps it's part of the sugar addiction I keep reading about?

Katharine
Its mental hunger rather than physical hunger.
You just need to remind your body that it has 10,000 calories in storage across the back of your hips, it does not need more just yet

Balancing the macronutrients and eating enough at every meal is very important. Eat about 1 g of protein per 1 kg of body weight (20 g of protein in 100 g chicken breast e.g.) and make sure to have enough good fats in your diet: avocados, nuts, seeds, oily fish, coconut oil, and my new found favourite - ghee.

If I can get over 3 days without sugar it's easy for me not to snack but even a bit of sugar and I can't control my eating at all. I'm a month into low sugar ( I still eat fruit) and it's easy not to snack, if I have a kit Kat though I'd be eating and snacking for the rest of the day. Sugar really is like a drug for me