Weight Loss, Advice on Managing Hunger

Join weight watchers it is not a diet but a life style.
Keep extra quick healthy snacks such as grapes to "snack" on before dinner.
There are tons of ideas you can find at Weight watchers or go to the hungry girl website too.
Best of luck it is a struggle for everyone

Cutting out snacks doesn't work, you tend to over-eat at meals that way. Eat high-fiber and/or high-protein snacks more often and smaller meals.
~handful of nuts
~granola
~cheese stick
~veggies or whole-grain pita with hummus or pesto

My husband got the book "The ABS diet" and we were never hungry and lost weight quickly.

Are you eating every 2-3 hours? Make sure you do that to keep blood sugars nice and consistent.

Are you including fat, protein, and carb (complex) in each meal? The fat will give you the flavor, the protein will give you satiety (keep you feeling fuller longer), and the complex carb will be released more slowly helping you feel fuller longer and providing you with energy.

Don't cut out snacks - you should be eating 5-6 smaller meals/snacks throughout the day. Make sure though that your snacks pack a nutritional punch as opposed to processed foods (bagged or boxed snacks, 100 calorie packs, etc) that are broken down in the body quickly yet leave you feeling hungry within 30 minutes.

MR and Linda are right on the money. The only thing I'll add is that true nutrition will keep the hunger at bay. If you're eating well and enough then your body may not being absorbing the nutrients properly. Excess chemicals in your body (could be from bath and body products absorbing through the skin or ingesting pesticides on your veggies, etc) can keep nutrition from absorbing. A detox can help if that's the case or an absorbable multivitamin/mineral complex.

My two cents :)

M.

the key is not to rob yourself of calories. you'll want to consume 300 calories less than your resting metabolic rate (the amount of calories your body uses daily). Divide that by 5 and that's about the number of calories you need at each meal. (you'll need 5 meals a day, about every 2-3 hours to keep your metabolism going strong). Also, try to eat your breakfast no later than 30 mins after you wake up. This will kick start your metabolism for the day.
The key is having enough protein and fiber to keep you fuller longer.
Average woman needs 100-120 grams of protein each day. you need to feed your muscles so you can burn more fat. otherwise your body will burn your muscle when you lose weight.

Also, once you reach your goal, you can add those 300 calories back to maintain it. same thing for gaining weight (which i know you don't want to do here, just saying..) add 300 calories to your resting metabolic rate.

And a biggy, try not to have refined carbs (pasta, rice, bread, etc.) with dinner. complex carbs are fine though, which are mostly vegetables.
I try to have a big carby lunch, then just a small dinner, usually 3-6 oz of meat with however much steamed veggies I want, and if i'm hungry enough, a salad too.

Some good snacks are:
-cottage cheese
-greek yogurt
-nuts
-any vegetable
-any fruit

crackers and chips aren't so good snackwise.

Also, be sure to get plenty of water. Divide your weight in half, and that's how much water in oz.'s your body needs.
Watch out for sodium levels, and sugar.
Go for lean meat when you can, (chicken, turkey, fish..)
Since you're vegetarian, tofu, beans, and dairy should work for you. vegetables also have some protein in them too. if you don't consume dairy either, then look online or at books about good sources of protein for vegans.

Just doing that without killing yourself at the gym should give you some good results.
I hope this helps! I've taken nutrition classes and am a wellness coach now, so I really love helping people on this subject!

you can do it!

Slurp on a glass of milk & maybe a cracker or two. If you can't do cow's milk go with soymilk. This will give you both the help in controlling hunger pains & keep you on track to loose a little weight as well as give you calcium that every woman needs.

drink more water. eat low cal soup before meals (this fills you up faster) your stomach uses cures based on volume. you arent hungry because you are eating less calories but because you are eating smaller meals. makes your meals the same size as you are used to eating. tossing in veggies as a filler gives you more food for the same low calories. I like tossing mushrooms and peppers and zuchinini in my spegetti. eating a small snack at 3pm can hold you till dinner. (I work out a lot and eat 1700 calories a day I started out at 1200 then worked my way to 1700 as my body got to use to the low calories) I look forward to my two daily snacks because they are filling usually around 200 calories, which means I could have a bowl of oatmeal or a luna protien bar or even 1/2 cup of vanilla ice cream with cinnamon apples. I dont think carrots or celery or anything like that are a good snack because its not something you can look forward to so you end up eating what you are really craving latter (at least I do) I have lost 150pds (I gained 125 back my pregnancy then lost 115 of that) so know that this works..at least for me

Don't cut out your snacks. Eat every 3-4 hours, and keep it all healthy. Find an exercise program that you enjoy and stick with it. But don't consider it a "diet"...that's temporary. If you want the baby belly to stay gone, make it a lifestyle change. Keep up with the exercise and eating well.

Eat a low cal snack as you cook dinner; maybe one that requires lots of chewing. Like celery. Or apples, which are higher in cals but they have nutrients, and the fiber is filling for a lot of people. Some people make tea or coffee but drinking things on an empty stomach makes it worse for me. Also, make sure you're eating enough for lunch; include fat and protein. Good luck.

I was watching the Dr. Oz Show the other day about this topic and he had some great advice about boosting your metabolism so you can lose weight. Here are the suggestions he gave: drink black oolong tea (helps w/ weight lose); add black pepper to tomatoe juice (the spice and lycopene help boost metabloism); beans (red, black, white; need 2 cups a day or 25 grams of fiber) and ice water (drinking 8 glasses of ice water a day burns up 70 calories!). He had other great suggestions too, check out his website at doctoroz.com

I love the South Beach diet! It's pretty easy to do as a vegetarian too. I see you are cutting out snacks, but the best thing might be to switch to eating only healthy snacks but more often. SB suggests a protein and vegetable combination especially at first, or then protein and fruit, or protein and carbohydrate. A couple of suggestions: hummus and veggies (celery, pepper, tomatoes, etc.), peanut butter and celery or apple, low-fat cheese and apple, bean dip and veggies or whole-grain crackers. The snacks will help keep you from overeating at meal times because you are starving by the time you sit down to eat.

I agree with M.R. However, about 4pm in the afternoon (the bewitching hour) is when I have my protein shake. When I do that I have no need for anything else until dinner time, and my energy level goes up dramatically. If you would like info on my shake email me and i will send a link

Weight Watchers has the best plan, and if you go hungry----you're not doing it right. I am all about getting as much as I can out of my points, but it's really no secret. The answer is fruits and veggies, a little dairy every day, and whole grain breads and pastas. Throw in a little protein here and there, but fill up on veggies. Veggie soup, beef stew with extra veggies, salads, cook veggies, raw veggies, stirfry with extra veggies, and, oh, yeah, veggies! Get your favorite dressings and dips for a treat. Use fruit, sugarfree puddings, and Cool Whip for dessert. Good luck, and don't EVER be hungry.

You want to stay non hungry all the time which means you have to snack all through the day. Celery (virtually 0 calories) slathered in some peanut or almond butter is a great hunger curber for me.... it's protein and fiber and pretty healthy if you get the natural butters. Drink green tea throughout the day as well, it's an appetite suppressant and helps get rid of bloat.

Eat a little something every 2 hours or so and it will help you get over the ravenous hunger....like some baby carrots or grape tomatoes and some hummus. If you prepare it in the morning and have it in the fridge then it will be easy to grab during your busy day.

Hi I don't believe in "diets" I believe that weight management should be a WAY of life. eating and exercising will just be a part of how you live your life. Make sure that you eat a healthy snack in between your meals. Start your day with a healthy protien shake. Shaklee has a guaranteed weight management plan that does NOT leave you hungry and WORKS. It is actually more affordable than any of the programs out there. And it WORKS!!! Please contact me I can help you! Good Luck S.

Hi! I cringe every time I see the word "diet". The biggest mistake people make is to get on a "diet" which eventually they will go off and will gain all the weight back and then some. It is rather what you eluded to...a lifestyle change. Exercise and eating 5 small meals a day is the best way to boost your metabolism and keep you from feeling hungry. The secret is portion control on the 5 meals and making them high in protein which keeps hunger away. Also to drink plenty of water...8 glasses a day helps fight hunger too. For knowing what will be the best foods for your 5 vegetarian meals a day, I would recommend seeing a dietician for advice.

If you cut back on how much you are eating and you are burning more calories through your workouts, you could risk slowing down or even shutting off your metabolism causing plateaus in your weight loss success.

Good luck to you.

A diabetic dietician friend of mine clued me in to a wonderful website. www.livestrong.com you go in and register and fill out your goals for losing. It will only allow you to lose 2 lbs or less a week. It tells you how many calories you need to either lose, gain or maintain. I have been on it for just one week, and I have lost my pound. You have to document everything you consume in a day and then you can document your activities to see how many calories you burned so you know if you can eat more. You have to consume that many calories a day so that your body doesnt think it is starving. It really is helping me see where my calories are coming from. I never really thought much about my drinks as making me gain, but there are a lot of calories in those sodas, and I put way to much sugar in my coffee. I am learning to live with less sweetened drinks. I eat what I want but just make sure to adjust my intake around my calorie requirements.