Why am I always hungry? :-(

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Hi all, I am feeling very despondent. I need to loose about a stone, having put this on while being pregnant (..or after?)
I am breast feeding, but have read that you don't really need an awful lot more food to compensate for this. My problem is, I am permanently hungry. I have always been fairly slim, and not had issues with food, bit now I just want to eat and eat. I try to eat healthy stuff, with a proper breakfast of porridge, but I'm hungry half an hour later. I find myself doing things like buying a kitkat when buying petrol, or eating 3 of the 4 fruit buns I've bought for the whole family. I eat maybe 4 apples a day, and 2 bananas, and wholemeal toast to try to fill the 'void'!
Someone was telling me about being in a "sugar trap", where the more sugar you eat, the more you want. I also feel permanently tired (but baby is only 20 weeks and have 3 year old girl).
I need foods to fill me up that are healthy - and not feel so hungry.
I'm quite depressed about it all. Any ideas?

with a small baby not wonder you are hungry. dd is nearly six months and I eat for 2 (literally).
what I try to do is, drink a cup of fruit tea (unsweetened) when I am really hungry and try to wait for 15 min. if Im still hungry then (usually I am) Ill eat.

Are you eating enough protein?

Bananas are high in sugar and I find apples make me hungry too.

Factor in healthy snacks as you need them.

I have lost a stone recently by cutting out 'white' carbs. Nothing made with flour or sugar. No potatoes, rice or pasta. I AM eating porridge though.

So my breakfast would be porridge or granola with some fruit - berries are good because they are lower in carbs than other fruits. Or a slice of rye bread with peanut butter and a banana.

A morning snack may be a kiwi fruit and a pot of Activia yoghurt - natural one not flavoured and not low fat.

Lunch - home made soup or salad and some protein - sliced turkey or chicken of cottage cheese or tuna.

Afternoon snack - oatcakes with low fat philadelphia and some strawberries or hummus or cottage cheese.

Dinner - protein and veg.

I am not hungry eating this way and I have SO much more energy. If I am hungry I eat but eat something sensible.

Have you seen the Paul McKenna DVD?

Also - don't have fruit buns in the house! Have no unhealthy stuff - therefore can't eat it.
If I'm hungry - I find a milky coffee and couple of rich teas keep me full for over an hour. Maybe not too slimming - but filling!

Fruit is mainly water - so will only keep you satisfied for a short time!

Have healthy stuff prepared and ready - so less likely to panic buy something unhealthy.

Maybe a bowl of special K or cornflakes will fill a gap in the mornings.

I try not to have anything to eat until I am REALLY hungry - not just peckish and then you know you have completely digested previous food.

Sometimes when you think you are hungry you are actually thirsty. Try to drink more, like TracyK says, a cup of tea or coffee will help and has much less calories than a bun.
And don't have crisps and biscuits in the house

I've just had a small milky coffee and digestive biscuit and that will see me full till 12.30 at least.

It struck me when weaning ds years ago - that having milk put him off his solids - so why not us - semi skimmed milk will fill you much more than an apple.

I second everything budha says. It does sound like you're filling up on white carbs which will give you a short sugar releaase but aren't sustaining you as a feeding mum and although you're right in saying you don't need to tons more food when BFeeding, you will feel more hungry and having the new baby and another toddler will mean you'll be more tired.
You also need to focus on fibrous carbs that will fill you up and yet not give you a low an hour or so later. So snack on oatcakes, carrot sticks already prepped in fridge, hummous or cottage cheese. You could basically eat a whole tub of low fat cottage cheese without doing any harm.
Make sure too that you're having enough iron otherwise you will feel really tired. So increase red meat or eat more nuts/apricots/green veg.

'Quorn' is higher in protein than meat so is a great option for dinner with veggies.

It does sound like classic "sugar crash" stuff to me...

Are you drinking enough water? The brain often misreads true thirst as hunger. The sugar trap is true.

I'm dieting atm, for my holidays and if I feel hungry I drink a glass of water and wait 15 mins, before deciding if I am actually hungry.

For maximum satiation snacks should have both carbs and protein, so a low sugar fruit with yoghurt, or low fat philly and crisp breads.