Healthy eating but always starving?

ELLA

I actually LOVE mash potato and do make it with lots of butter and milk but my hubby has decided he really love's this smash stuff, mmmm I will buy a packet for emergency only lol!!

I had beans on toast for lunch followed by 2 satsuma's but still felt hungary, as you said tara747 i seem to be hungry all the time.
It's gammon and MASH tonight with steamed veg but the odds are I will be starving again 2 hours later!

tara747

Maybe the solution is to eat little and often e.g. split your breakfast and lunch into smaller amounts so you can eat something every 2-3 hours?

NumeroDeux

ELLA wrote: »

I have started (trying) to eat a healthy diet while doing 2x30mins on the Treadmill a day......

Problem is I keep feeling really hungary, today I have eaten

1 Bagel with Low fat cream cheese and banana
cup ot tea
3 x crisp bread with low fat pate and handful of grapes plus small apple.
Big glass of water, but Now at nearly 4pm I'm starving and I don't know what to have until dinner to curb the hunger!

I don't want to think "Oh stuff it" I will have a bag of crisps!! Help

Many thanks

Oh my.

I'm gonna just throw out a few random numbers here and you tell me if they're right or wrong.

You're doing two cardio sessions a day, for an hour in total. The fact that you're capable of running for an hour shows you're probably in at least ok shape. I'm going to guess that you're maintaining a decent speed, let's say 6-8mph, so you're running about 7 miles.

Now where I come from, it's not polite to discuss a woman's weight, but we're not were I come from. I'm going to guess you weigh about 60kg. 60kg x 7 miles = 420 calories burnt, because you can pretty much assume that one mile will burn about your weight in kg in terms of calories.

Now let's look at what you've eaten.

A bagel with some cheese. Prolly about 200 calories. Plus a banana, 80 calories.
3 slices of crisp bread. About 40 cals each, and then grapes and apple, so another 100 maybe. So that's 600 calories.

Now, 600 - 420 = 180. What? 180? Your body's going to need more than 180 calories to get through most of the day. I'm surprised you're not getting headaches. Calories are energy, and your body needs energy to do stuff. For the 'average' woman, 2000 of them, and in your case somewhat more because you're busting it on the treadmill.

As for what you've eaten, there's no protein there whatsoever, get some meat in! Or if you want to do a soup, lentils have lots of protein. Chunky soups are good too!

You won't ever hear of a low protein diet (I hope), because you need protein to do some really basic things, such as co-ordinate your eyes effectively. If you don't have enough protein, your body will get it from other places, IE your muscles. You'll start to break down your own muscles, known as catabolism. This is really bad because once you get to this stage, your body will assume that you're starving, and thus store as much fat as it can, so not only will you feel tired because you're not getting enough calories, the ones you do get will be stored as fat instead of used for immediate relief for your lack of energy.

I'd say add some protein to your bagel, maybe some ham would go well, and when you're feeling hungry at other times, eat! You're hungry for a reason. Now that doesn't mean go get a pack of crisps, those things are oversalted trash, fruit or veg could be a good start though. Since most fruit and veg have quite a low amount of calories relative to their size - a 40g bag of crisps has 200 calories, that's almost as much as 3 bananas.

Another option for a mid afternoon snack is a small pot of cottage cheese. It's got protein, not many carbs and some fruit.

londoner1998

I come from the north of Spain and boy , do we eat over there... but people are much slimmer.
My sister in- law lost a lot of weight after having a baby and a back operation (months in bed!). But they way we eat over there is a main course, a second and a desert. Every day. She had this even for dinner. The menu was monitored by her GP and it would go somethign like this:

Lunch-
1st - pulses with vegetables or green salad (tomato, lettuce, boiled egg...) or rice or small pasta dish (with tomato sauce with veggies) or soup or veggies puree (encouraged to have pulses and or vegetales 3-4 times a week)

2nd- grilled fish (we eat loads over there) or grilled chicken (protein!) with some veggies

a piece or two of bread (baguette style, easy on this)

Desert- a yogurt or a cup of cottage cheese or a piece of fruit. Follow with a herbal infusion to aid digestion
By the time you get to the second course you are already full up.

Dinner:

Salad or vegetable soup
Grilled fish or meat (cheicken or even stake although fish is easier to digest)
Desert- yogurt or fruit


You can vary this quite a lot, mix and match but it is important the diet is varied and balanced.

Try to avoid alcohol as it is just empty calories and sugar and don't go hungry. If you do in between means, have a small yogurt or a few nuts (handful, not more!) or s mall glass of milk with coffee or tea. Avoid fruit by itself becasue the sugar rush will make you hungry afterwards.

My sister in law is a size six and has been for the last 9 years.
I hope this helps!

ELLA

Has porridge this morning with a little sprinkle of sugar, my sweet tooth needed to be fed!
I still felt really hungry after but gave it 30mins and started to feel full ;-).........
I have just made myself some soup for lunch, leek, pots, celery and onion with some veg stock and a slice of brown bread.
I also bought some dried kidney beans but got stuck on what else to get......I'm rubbish at all this, I need someone to come in and feed me!!

londoner1998

I can come and feed you Ella...:D. I did that for a freind who got ill with MS and as a result changed her whole diet and taught her to cook.

You are on the right track!!.
You got kidney beans, now get yourself some chickpeas and lentils as well. If you like butter beans, get a packet.

You might need to feel not that full to begin with, but as you saw, in about 20 mins your brain will tell you you have eaten enough. Your stocmach will begint o adapt and you will not need to eat as much- avoid bloating. You can have a snack afterwards.

Brown rice is your friend too, again with veggies and some source of protein- my friend supplemented her pulses with rice.

You can also lunch on a jacket potato with some tuna and veggies as a topping, or a small plate of paste with home-made tomato sauce.
How about a yougurt or small cup of cottage cheese to supplement that porrige in the morning (if you feel you really need it)- you will have the restof the day to burn it off...

I'll think a bit more and post if I have more ideas...

Axx

ELLA

I have been out and bought a huge pot of cottage cheese and a fresh pineapple so I can add it when I want it, also juiced myself some carrot, celery, apple and orange this morning to have after I did 30 mins on the treadmill!! Really hoping I can at least lose some weight, I wont get too optimistic just yet.

Had for lunch one of those soups with the pasta in it mmm it will do for now!

I'm going to hunt down some healthy options to put in the slow cooker and to also feed my family.

Bronnie

Eggs! Do you like eggs? They are very sustaining and nutritious.

ELLA

I do love eggs but I also suffer with IBS and I find that sometimes they upset me, could do some lovely omelette's!

yummymummy79

Losing weight and eating healthily does not have to equal starvation! I would definitely suggest small frequent meals to both keep you full, and keep your metabolism up to maximise the productivity of your workouts.

If you have a calorie target in mind, split this into 5 for the cals for each meal. Different people have different schedules of course, but a sample 5-meal day can involve eating at
7.30
10.30
1.30
4.30
7.30
so you shouldn't really have time to get properly hungry if you are eating the right things, plus you can eat a bit later in the evening to tide you over. the jury is out on whether eating late is a good idea or not, but i tend to work with the overall calories being more important than exactly when you eat them. Try not to go over 3 hours in between meals for maximum effectiveness.

The other option is to make breakfast your largest meal, and then make the next 4 slightly smaller as you go along, this can help in keeping you fuller and just topping up the levels as the day goes on.

Proteins and good fats are very important too, a lot of people get scared of fat but good fats are essential for lots of things, an Omega 3/6 supplement can help some people.