how to not over eat and still not feel desperately hungry [closed]

Question

I eat till my brain is really happy and is like yeasssss... i don't care about anything anymore.

But that is the amount almost twice as much as i should be eating to be in a healthy weight range. I try to work it out like walking 10 miles 2 times a week and 4 miles two other days in a week. But that's a lot of work..and there is no result that is maintained. Basically i am not trying to out work my daily diet. That is too much work and i don't think it's even healthy for bones to put so much pressure on them.

So what can i do. To not eat and still feel happy. I mean won't it make me feel unsatisfied broken desperate and negative to never get this feeling of calm and sleep.

Answer 1

To put it bluntly:

Deal with it.

If you want to lose weight, and need to cut your calories, thats about all you can do. If you are eating twice your daily requirements, cutting back your intake by half is going to suck.

The human body is realtively unintelligent, and if you've trained it to expect a large amount of food throughout the day, it will be releasing hormones (primarily Ghrelin) to help your body process the food as it comes in. As you stop eating as much, your body will for a while still produce these hormones in the expectation of food. When it doesn't come they interact with your body in various ways, including stomach grumbles and pains, low mood, hunger, etc...

Along side this, the stomach can expand to accomodate a large volume and over time will remain stretched. So again, if your stomach is expecting a certain volume of food, it will squeeze against this lack of food and leave you feeling "empty".

Fluids spend relatively little time in the stomach when ingested, and are either quickly absorbed or quickly passed through, meaning they do little to promote "volume". Eating high fibre (both soluble and insoluble) foods can promote bulk in the stomach and digestive tract and may create a feeling of fullness for longer. However, if you need to half your intake, you are still not going to have that fullness you are used to. Additionally, the happiness you are feeling is probably coming from the consumption of sugars and fats. If you are eating less, you will generally have less sugar and fat, meaning you won't get this happy feeling. Drinking more water won't help with this.

You need to realise that you don't need as much food, and for a short time it will be hard. You can drink water or tea or coffee (black), to add volume, but the lack of calories will for a while suck. Yes, I've repeated that, and I'll keep repeating it. Weight loss sucks. I know it, and you'll know it too. While it is as "easy" as eating less, sometimes the feeling of your body rebeling against this drastic change sucks.

But realise that as long as you eat a healthy amount, you aren't starving, you aren't dying, so while your body adjusts to its new normal, just learn to...

Deal with it.

Answer 2

Of course @Lego Stormtroopr is right: Losing weight, when you are in a habit of eating way more then you need is going to suck. But there are things that can help:

1. Have vegetables and fruits nearby in an easy to munch way: carrot sticks, apples, cut bell pepper. So you can eat this kind of stuff when you feel a little hungry. It is relatively low in calories and needs time to digest, making it easier to stay away from calorie bombs. This kind of food also has a lot of other stuff in it that your body needs.

2. Eat slowly. The brain needs some time to realize it has enough food in the belly. If you are eating fast, you will eat a lot although you are already full, but haven't realized it yet. A recommendation I hear often is to chew every bite at least 20 times.

3. Stay away processed sugars. They cause a steep incline in blood sugar level, followed by a surge of insulin, followed by a steep drop in blood sugar level, causing hunger ... Prefer stuff like muesli, whole grain bread.

Answer 3

It is all about foods with a high level of satiety, that do not spike your insulin, which makes you more hungry. For example, 300 calories of spinach is going to keep you full longer than 300 calories of soda. Even foods higher in fat, such as full fat yoghurt or meat will be more satisfying than high carbohydrate foods such as bread or pasta, and not spike your insulin. Personally, I have found that avoiding carbs means I don't have to worry about calories or counting anything, I feel full earlier and stay full longer. I sometimes even skip meals without realizing it.

Try googling "green smoothy" for a good place to start to increase your intake of high satiety foods in a tasty way. Just avoid recipes with sugar, but don't be scared of fat.