Hungry all the time, obese.

[Roish]

I am not currently dieting, am eating plenty, weight stays the same +/- a couple of pounds. I don't want to do weight loss injections, am looking for advice and suggestions on how to eat better so I don't feel hungry all the time. I hear a lot about eating lots of protein, not sure how effective thst is ? I just feel incredibly confused about how to eat better, to shift quite a bit of weight and not feel ravenous all the time.

What’s your current diet look like? What’s a typical day? Eating and drinking.

May sound odd but I found doing 16:8 meant I was less hungry. Now I'm at goal weight I've continued doing it (but with more flexibility), I find on days I eat breakfast I'm much more hungry/want to snack more than on days I'm stricter. It's like turning a switch on when I start eating, I can't stop. The first 5 days were really hard but after that it's been fine.
Also maybe worth looking at other times when your hungrier and try avoiding these eg if I'm tired or stressed I'm more likely to reach for food/think I'm hungry. Adding in 'good habits' slowly over time also helped me so if I'm hungry I have a drink first to see if that stops me needing to eat. I found changing habits slowly overtime less overwhelming and easier to stick to.

Breakfast fried egg and avocado toast or a feta omelette. . Lunch usually a sandwich, two slices granary bread, low fat spread, filling eg tuna mayo, ham and tomato etc. Dinner might be something like chicken brocoli pasta.
Between meals, apple and a very small amount of peanut butter, or a banana, or a packet of crisps or chocolate bar.
Drinks are 2 -3 cups of tea or coffee with semi skimmed milk, and water. I don't drink squash or other soft drinks. A couple of glasses a wine once or twice a werk in the evening.

How heavy are you ?
Diet sounds ok although more protein would keep you fuller for longer
Add more eggs / chicken / ham / Greek yoghurt
I'm loving Greek yoghurt with chia seeds and blueberries just now

It doesn't sound too bad, but..

Are you being absolutely honest? How many times a week/month do you go out? Dinners? Coffee & cake with friends?

How big are your portions? How many grams of pasta for dinner? How many eggs in your omelette?

Exactly how many alcohol units per week?

Your vegetable intake sounds on the low side. I think if you increased these and knocked the chocolate and crisps on the head you would start to lose weight slowly. Add in some extra walking or other exercise and it will increase.

How much water are you drinking?

Not a lot of veg, but it’s not a terrible diet. In addition to more protein, as mentioned above, maybe play around with a few things and see if you feel better/fuller.

• Up veg. You can stick some spinach in the omelette and have some cherry tomatoes, salad with your lunch. That sort of thing. You can bulk meals up quite a bit, without masses of cals. Also, veg is delicious.
• No to ‘low fat’. It’s nonsense. Use butter and whole milk.
• Pasta, delightful though it is, should probably be dropped from your regular rotation. As should crisps.
• Most people would benefit from drinking more water. It’s quite an easy adjustment, as well.
• Do you do much exercise? Weight loss is mostly diet, but exercise is great for conditioning and tone, and just generally feeling good about yourself.

It’s all about small, manageable adjustments and gradual, sustainable changes. Be nice to yourself.

Are you 100% set on not doing injections? I'm asking because honestly it's the only thing that's ever worked for me that has meant I've been able to stick with healthy eating.

I've seen people have success with low carbing but I don't think (for me at least) it was ever sustainable.

Just a few thoughts thinking on what I have to do to lose weight (4stone 😭)
Change to poached egg
Avocado is high in calories though is very good for you. Maybe cut the toast in the morning

Tuna mayonnaise... again quite high in calories and more bread...but n need for spread if having tuna mayo

Night time weigh the pasta...it's quite interesting when you do

Cut the chocolate and crisps. Or just a couple of squares of dark chocolate. Crisps are full of salt and we just really don't need them (but I love my crisps 😭)

It's quite healthy what you're eating but just possible you are having too many calories.

People have mentioned more protein but it is also a bit low in fibre. You could get both if you swap in beans and pulses instead of pasta or in soup instead of a sandwich at lunch

Or if you really want the pasta and bread what would sightly improve it would be cooking and cooling your pasta then heating it up again for the meal and freezing the bread before use as both of those increase the resistant starches.

Loads of veg and salad, protein, ditch cakes and biscuits etc. Limit bread to a slice a day. I lost 3.5 stone doing this and eat loads more now than I did and I'm not hungry. Drink lots of water.

Small steps to start. 3 meals with carbs a day, cut one of them. Porridge for breakfast will leave you feeling fuller for longer than toast. Through some berries in too. Weekly alcohol also prevents you losing weight, can you start swapping to a lower calorie and lower alcohol wine?

Swap your occasional chocolate bar and crisps to something with lower calories than your current choices. Repeat in a month.

Water is essential to weightloss. If you're not drinking enough you won't breakdown fat and you will be more hungry. If you can't drink plain water, increase your cups of tea/coffee until you can.

I can highly recommend you massively increase your intake of fruit and veg, skip the avos for now, avoid too much bread, skip the choc and crisps. It's such a boring pain but high carb and low fat works for me - whole food plant based with some dairy. So today for example, I had fat free yogurt, flax and fruit. Lunch was a homemade potato rosti, egg, asparagus, spinach and mushrooms (cooked in a very small amount of oil - measured). Dinner is cavolo Nero pasta (small portion not a wodge), extra broccoli and a measured amount of cheese. I make fat free veg and pulse soups, keep them in the freezer as well as things like bean chilli, quinoa veg stew etc. I am a fan of Dr Fuhrman - high nutrient whole food. It works, you need to flood your body with nutrients as unfortunately having excess fat makes it more likely you are malnourished. The fat creates its own blood supply into your body and it really is like living with a parasite. I find I have the best success when I meal plan, and write it all down. If I don't plan, I end up just eating endless toast and peanut butter. I have had success with Slimming World and have started again with them - I don't faff around with all the making crap out of scan brans and quark, but if you follow the principles its very helpful when starting out as you don't have to calorie count (which I found soul destroying) but it gives you enough restriction and guidance so that you are eating in a calorie deficit. Exercise helps but diet is key. If you are not confident making your own plan then can recommend something like SW to start you off. I also found hello fresh helps as there is built in portion control. Without a doubt you are eating more than you need and underestimating that. It's never just about the food though so also look at your wider life - support? stress? how do you take care of yourself? sleeping well? getting fresh air? moving? laughing?

Feel free to PM me if you want more info

also, have you been checked for T2 diabetes? You are most likely insulin resistant which means that you will find it harder to lose weight and your blood fat and sugar response will be more elevated - ie you peak and drop faster than others, which is why you feel hungry. A good tip - to check real hunger, it's felt in the throat (and you would eat anything). If you feel it in the stomach and when you think about it you have a preference for what you want to eat, that's not true hunger.

I love it when people complain they are not losing and then list crips, chocolate, avocado, peanut butter, banana, mayo, ....

Seriously OP cut those, and increase the vegetables. Make vegetables the main part of your meals instead of decoration, you won't be hungry. Instead of a thin slice of tomato in a sandwich. Instead of 30 gr of broccoli, have two whole broccolis and a chicken breast cooked in the oven covered in spices and herb.
For lunch , prepare a MASSIVE salad at home, with red cabbage, carrots, lettuce, fennel, tomatoes, cucumbers, a tin of tuna in water, a tablespoon of seeds, a boiled egg, a few tablespoons of chickpeas .
For breakfast have rolled oats with a teaspoon each of flax and chia seed, and blueberries.
eat cherry tomatoes for snacks, or a red pepper cut into slices. Only snack on vegetables without dips or sauces.
Increase the fibre, increase real food and not processed breads, ready meals, and junky snacks.

I’m not sure how eating crisps or chocolate bars constitutes as being on a diet?

She said she wasn’t currently dieting.

Make yourself a big pot of soup every Sunday and have it to hand when you feel hungry between meals , keep it vegetable based with some pulses and it will help a lot

Everybody is different in the way they react to foods. I tracked my blood sugar for 2 weeks (using a continuous blood glucose monitor ) and was shocked at what made it rocket then dive - leaving me ravenous.

If I was you I'd try to switch to more fat and protein and limit carbs to vegetables and whatever grains you need to make life worth living to see if it makes you feel better. I eat a huge amount if cheese, it does nothing to my blood sugar but fills me up for hours.

The food sounds good on paper like this,but there are no portion sizes properly.
Weight your pasta next time...

Honestly, weight every and run it through myfitnesspal for few days. It was fucking eye opening event for me...

Just to add on how to fill up. Use more veg and lower cal protein (i am big fan of fish and prawns) . AND it can be habit. I was starving first week of eating less because it was a habit to eat that portions. It went off after a week.

Doh, read too fast!

How did you come to "most likely insulin resistant" from the 2 posts?

If you're a hungry person (I am too) then get into volume eating (low calorie, high density nutritious food)- veg mainly but also fruit as well as prioritising protein.

Calculate your BMR and count calories for a bit to get an idea of what you're actually consuming.

Thanks for so many very helpful suggestions for how to improve my food choices to help with feeling hungry all the time. As soon as I listed my typical day's eating I could see I don't eat enough vegetables so getting more of them will be my first step. Not sure why I don't eat very many as I do like most of them and used to eat loads. Next step will be to increase protein and after that looking at modifying carb choices.

I will update in a week or so if anyone is interested in my progress. When my meals are better balanced and my hunger is under control a bit more that's when I'll feel ready to actually tackle my weight!

"I will update in a week or so if anyone is interested in my progress. When my meals are better balanced and my hunger is under control a bit more that's when I'll feel ready to actually tackle my weight!"

I would be interested in hearing your update, I hope it is going well for you.

Veg veg veg veg and more veg. They contain fibre which is food for your gut bacteria, which does wonderful things for our health. And they also slow down stomach emptying, making us feel more full, which is pretty much what injectables do. And I'm not talking about a fluffy bag of salad leaves, I'm talking "meaty" veg like broccoli, tomatoes, Peppers, cabbage, Carrots, etc etc.

Eat 200-300g of veg with lunch and dinner (and maybe even breakfast), you will not be hungry.