Always hungry but putting on weight, help!

[GirlAfraid23]

I've posted something similar before but I'm still having the same problem.
I'm always, always hungry, even an hour or two after eating.

My usual day goes like this:
Cereal in the morning before work
Banana at around 8.30am
By 10am my stomach is audibly rumbling.
At 10.50am I have my break at work - normally crackers and hummus, nuts and raisins mix and a satsuma, sometimes a cereal bar or flapjack slice.

I then work till 1.20pm and get home at around 1.45pm. At this point I have a sandwich for my lunch as I'm ravenous on my journey home usually. Despite having my snacks at 10.50am in my break.
I don't usually eat again until my dinner at 6pm ish unless I have a snack in the meantime.
Sometimes I have a dessert - a yogurt or something more fatty.

FYI: I drink LOTS of water per day!

The hunger I experience is quite debilitating, it's very painful and my stomach makes loud noises which are hard to quieten.

I have always had a high metabolism but when I was younger I would stay slim.
Now I have put on a lot of weight, I don't know how to stop - any tips or advise would be good.

[Ally-SA]

Try to eat more protein (and perhaps some good fats)... helps to fill you for longer!

I've recently cut out all sugar and grains - eating lots of veggies, protein... and a little fruit. Feeling so much better!

Also - not having the sugar helps me feel more 'stable' and calm. lol :)

[GirlAfraid23]

What are good proteins and good fats?
Sorry to sound like an idiot lol

[Ally-SA]

Well any protein - lean protein if you like. :) Good fats - like avocado, olive oil...

I've lost 5kg this month just cutting out grains and sugar, and eating more veggies.

Had a huge salad today with salmon (really good protein). ;) It's almost dinner time, and I'm not hungry - no need for snacking etc.

---------- Post added at 17:33 ---------- Previous post was at 17:31 ----------

Bread. Cereal. Bananas. Those are sorta on the high side of the GI scale (they won't keep you full for very long - and maybe that's why you eat more). If you want to eat them - try eating more low GI foods - like Low GI seeded wholewheat bread - which will fill you up, and take longer to digest... Eat oats (high fibre, balance blood sugar - which is key to losing weight) instead of cereal. Etc. Plenty of sites out there with info on low GI. :)

[Speranza]

I'm doing the same Ally, just came to the conclusion that sugar is not doing me any good, haven't added salt for decades. And I've suddenly found I simply can't eat meat, but I feel better for it.

It's important to get something from every food group though. The snacks you are having are ones which will trigger insulin production and then you get hungry again... try snacking on fresh fruit, and see what happens to your appetite if you cut out bread for a few days. I sort of crave it, which some people say is a sign of allergy. I dunno - but I do crave savoury carbs - which the body sees as sugar in any case once they've been metabolosed. We don't need lots of sugar.

---------- Post added at 16:37 ---------- Previous post was at 16:36 ----------

Oh - also, that kind of hunger can actually be thirst. Somehow we interpret it wrongly. You may need a bit more fluid. When I get those cravings, I drink water and wait for a few minutes and then eat if I still want to.

[Ally-SA]

I also cut out caffeine - it made me shake and feel anxious too! lol

Speranza - I wish I could cut out meat sometimes - but I do live with a carnivore! hehe :) Cutting out the sugar is a major thing for me. I've always used anything sweet as a comfort...

[GirlAfraid23]

As I said above, I drink massive amounts of water per day.

I'm worried I'm going to become diabetic :(
So brown bread, oats and more vegetables and fruit is the answer then?
Should I not be eating hummus and crackers then or nuts and raisins?
I thought these were healthy plus the banana?

[Ally-SA]

Peanuts are very high in calories. Swap them for raw almonds - which you can toast, too. Yum! Go easy on all nuts (calories). Raisins (and other dried fruit) - very high in sugar. Will cause your blood sugar to spike - and then you'll have a low. And will want to eat more...
Banana - now and then they're good for you. I eat one once a week or so - for the potassium. But they too will cause my blood sugar to spike.
Brown bread - make sure it's low GI. There are so many types of bread... choose wholewheat.
Oats - add a little cinnamon. Cereal gets digested too quickly, leaving you hungry not long after...
Hummus and some veggies - better than the crackers. They too are probably high GI.

Try to make little changes in your diet - see how it goes. Find a good diet site that offers advice. Try new recipes. :)

[GirlAfraid23]

Peanuts are very high in calories. Swap them for raw almonds - which you can toast, too. Yum! Raisins (and other dried fruit) - very high in sugar. Will cause your blood sugar to spike - and then you'll have a low. And will want to eat more...
Banana - now and then they're good for you. I eat one once a week or so - for the potassium. But they too will cause my blood sugar to spike.
Brown bread - make sure it's low GI. There are so many types of bread...
Oats - add a little cinnamon. Cereal gets digested too quickly, leaving you hungry not long after...
Hummus and some veggies - better than the crackers. They too are probably high GI.

Try to make little changes in your diet - see how it goes. Find a site that offers advice. Try new recipes. :)

I also have carrot sticks with the hummus.
Oh and they are almonds and Brazil nuts not peanuts.
I Also have dried apricots occasionally. It's so annoying because I don't eat fast food or anything like that. I thought what I was eating was healthy :(

[joelhall]

Sounds like you're not eating enough, and what you are eating has little nutritional value. Try to increase your meat and vegetable intake, while cutting out the cereals and crackers. What you are in fact doing is risking malnourishment, which believe it or not is more common in the obese than in lean people, do to over reliance on poor quality foods. Please forget everything you hear about calories as well - your body works by changing chemical structures not counting calories, and the absorption of nutrients is far more important than energy intake.

[Ally-SA]

You are eating pretty healthy - just make a few adjustments here and there. :) Don't be sad... It can all be sorted.

[GirlAfraid23]

What I thought was a bad diet was a bacon sandwich for breakfast everyday, followed by a fast food burger or high calorie sandwich for lunch. Crisps and chocolate or cakes. Then a pizza or takeaway or fish and chips for dinner. Then say a cheesecake for dessert.
No fruit and no veg. Surely that's worse?

---------- Post added at 17:06 ---------- Previous post was at 17:04 ----------


You are eating pretty healthy - just make a few adjustments here and there. :) Don't be sad... It can all be sorted.


Sounds like you're not eating enough, and what you are eating has little nutritional value. Try to increase your meat and vegetable intake, while cutting out the cereals and crackers. What you are in fact doing is risking malnourishment, which believe it or not is more common in the obese than in lean people, do to over reliance on poor quality foods. Please forget everything you hear about calories as well - your body works by changing chemical structures not counting calories, and the absorption of nutrients is far more important than energy intake.

I'm not sure that I'm malnourished. I do eat a balanced meal for my dinner every evening, meat and vegetables, a pasta dish, lots of homemade food like a Moroccan lamb tagine or homemade chicken burgers with salad and cous cous.

[joelhall]

A good diet is plenty of fresh meat, poultry, eggs, fish and veg.

[GirlAfraid23]

A good diet is plenty of fresh meat, poultry, eggs, fish and veg.

I have lots of all that.
Specifically in my evening meal and sometimes lunch.
I love smoked mackerel and cous cous for lunch and scrambled egg.

[joelhall]

That's good. All the cereals and grains, etc are man-made foods, and shouldn't really be part of a human diet. Yes, I know they say they're good for you, but see what happens if you were to eat this stuff before it's processed!

[joelhall]

Sadly there's a great deal of confusion and misinformation regarding human diet - even from medical professionals such as doctors, nurses and even dieticians. Most of them involve 'eating lots of fibre' and 'eat small and often'. These are really myths which become accepted knowledge, and there is no scientific basis for them.

[lofwyr]

Actually, I had something like this happen to me. But it was not really hunger. My anxiety caused an over production of stomach acid, causing hunger pangs. It feels like you are literally starving to death right after eating a big meal, and frankly, it is hell.

I took a round of Prilosec and it cleared it up right away. It was so nice to feel full again.