Hungry? Why?

[miladyinsanity]

I've never heard of that. A lightheaded "I need carbs" feeling?

Are you sure this isn't something that affects only the ancient gods of music that wander the earth endlessly?

Has anyone else experienced this?

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Whenever I get that feeling, I know I have to eat. In addition to feeling lightheaded, there's an odd feeling in my stomach--not quite butterflies, but something similar. If I don't eat within maybe half an hour of getting that feeling, I get the shakes. Then if I still don't eat, after a bit longer I start getting queasy and I can't eat--anything that goes in my stomach will come right back out, and even the smell of food will make me throw up. It has something to do with low-blood sugar levels, I've been told, and that I should be carrying around glucose tablets, or at least little snacks.

Ruined a perfectly good dinner in Prague...

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With me, what happens is that after I get the shakes, if I still don't eat, then I get gastric cramps. So I figure that I really am hungry.

But I have to eat after exams. I don't know why, but I just do.

[Carlovski]

I know from past periods of poverty where I had enough for one meal a day (You can make something decent to eat at home a lot more cheaply than something portable to take to work) that I'd be fine skipping breakfast and lunch (And occasionally dinner too), if I didn't have anything at all, as soon as I had a snack or a taste of something I'd then be ravenous.

As a rule I can go without food quite well - I'd rather wait and have something good than what is necessarily to hand but occasionally I'll just eat and eat, normally at weekends.

I do have friends who think i am mad though and who get incredibly grumpy if they miss their regular eating times by more than an hour.

[Toliver]

It's odd how if I skip breakfast, I can plow right through the day and not eat lunch and not feel hungry.

But if I eat breakfast, I'm hungry at lunchtime. It's like the priming the pump. Maybe it's a carb thing.

[Milagai]

I'm unlike Carlovski and Toliver and more like Miladyinsanity;

I progressively get shakes, grumpy, headaches, crazy; etc. if

I skip a meal.

But help! I am trying to lose just a few kgs and just a few

cms so that I don't have to buy all new clothes...Nothing

major.

I just began today, cutting calories. Without going

into too many details, I've just made my portion sizes

smaller, but not eliminated any of my usual foods.

I AM STARVING CRAZY! I've been on the edge of hungry

all day and now I am counting the minutes until I can

decently have dinner.

How DO people control hunger pangs when they're like this?

Help!

Milagai

[Carrot Top]

I just began today, cutting calories.  Without going

into too many details, I've just made my portion sizes

smaller, but not eliminated any of my usual foods.

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This is the first advice given in the book Mindless Eating but he provides studies that say to cut the portions by one-fifth. If you do more than one-fifth or less than one-fifth, it will not succeed.

I'll try to take a better look at the book to see if there is any other direct advice - just reading the book to see how "we" (the public) are psychologically manipulated by marketing and other techniques to buy more and eat more food is useful, and it helps that the guy has credence.

[Allura]

I'm unlike Carlovski and Toliver and more like Miladyinsanity;

I progressively get shakes, grumpy, headaches, crazy; etc. if

I skip a meal.

But help!  I am trying to lose just a few kgs and just a few

cms so that I don't have to buy all new clothes...Nothing

major.

I just began today, cutting calories.  Without going

into too many details, I've just made my portion sizes

smaller, but not eliminated any of my usual foods.

I AM STARVING CRAZY!  I've been on the edge of hungry

all day and now I am counting the minutes until I can

decently have dinner.

How DO people control hunger pangs when they're like this? 

Help!

Milagai

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I was looking for another thread when I came across this one. It might be the foods you're eating, or it might be a health problem. Try increasing your protein, particularly lean protein, and lower your sugar intake. The sugar may be sending your blood chemistry on a roller coaster. Also, I find that caffeine makes me more hungry, and watch out for artificial sugars as well; they behave a lot like regular sugar to some people. I've been following a diet called the Insulin Resistance Diet (thanks to purplewiz who mentioned it in her blog), but the general idea is what I said. In addition, I needed meds (metformin) to help me get there; I just couldn't control the hunger pains on my own. The meds stopped that gnawing hunger pain that was ALWAYS present, and that let me focus on changing my diet. Also, I have to eat every 3-5 hours, and 5 is often pushing it. You can lose like that, as long as you don't eat a lot if you're eating that often. OTOH, if you have one of the blood sugar diseases, you may not lose just by cutting calories.

All this great advice, and yet I just dove for milk & some multigrain pretzel nuggets....