I have a question. The way I have my diet worked out, I I have three meals a day and three snacks a day. Occasionally, I get hungry, but try to work through it. Does anyone else find that they are hungry when they are on a diet and how do you deal with that. I know if I can't deal, then I can change my plan around a bit to handle it. Today I got hungry at the end of work, but I just told myself well it's dinnertime soon, so of course I am going to be hungry. This girl at work (overweight and not on any kind of diet) told me that I should never be hungry on my diet. I don't think that is true. I know that I am limiting my intake and that is going to cause me to sacrafice at times. I was just wondering what other people's thoughts were on the subject. Thanks

I can definitely relate! One of my tricks is to drink an extra glass of water when I get that empty feeling. I read an article a couple of months ago, that said 40-some-odd percent of feelings of hunger, are actually the body craving water. The nutritionist said that the feeling of hunger and the body going into dehydration mode (obviously not extreme) are very close to the same feeling - that empty twisting in the stomach. That's not to say it always works, if it doesn't I will rearrange my food choices for the rest of the day; I have a piece of fruit before dinner, instead of with the meal or whatever need be. However, sometimes the water will ward-off that feeling just long enough, for me to make it from work to home and then dinner is close enough to handle the feeling. Bonus - I'm that much closer to making my water goal for the day!

I keep a bottle of water at hand at all times. I'm constantly sipping on it (or sometimes gulping). But, It's not necessary to set your meals at certain times and deny yourself the rest of the time. Keep some carrots, celery or other veggie to munch on when you feel you're gonna cheat or just can't wait til that next meal. Carrots and celery are high fiber and will give some satisfaction, and they're so low in calories with no fat that it won't matter that much if they're not counted.

Thank you for the replies. I do have to do a better job of keeping some healthy munchies around and am having trouble getting all of my water in. I do agree with Dan though, I think you have to learn how it feels not to be full all of the time.

It depends. Most of us (us being overweight people) are used to being full ALL THE TIME. It's just something we've become accustomed to. We've become acclimated to being 'stuffed', so that when we're not, that gets interpreted as hunger (kind of like a drug addict needing a bigger & bigger fix).
However, your diet should not leave you genuinely hungry. The real struggle is separating genuine hunger (body needs nutrition) versus that withdrawal feeling you get when trying to make a change.
If you're genuinely hungry, then eat. If think it's just your body resisting change, try anything (Water is good, adding a fiber supplement to water is good too, ...etc)
Also try to modify your diet so that you're never genuinely hungry. That' the easy part. The hard part is breaking through that threshold where we don't desire to feel stuffed all the time. Good luck.

I get hungry as well at times. But I was given some good advice that really works. For your snacks eat a fiber and a protein. Such as a green pepper and a lite cheese stick or an apple and a low fat yogurt. That combination works wonders and it will help you get through to your next meal. Also, drinking water helps too.

I think you handled the hunger correctly by telling your self it will be dinner time soon..Feelings of hunger are a natural response as the dinner hour approaches. You have been at task all day physically using up each meal and snack..The dinner hour is a definate trigger for the body to begin preparing for food consumption early. When you think about going home from work, you automatically start thinking about food on a subconscious level. I feel a bit hungry right now but it isn't time to eat yet, so I embrace the hunger and allow it to work for me as a reminder that I make good choices about my eating schedule.

Good advise from all, but one thing that I have learned is that no two bodies are the same. Scheduled meals are fine but unless you are on the exact same*daily routine (sleep, activity and food)*you can expect some variance in hunger.*
One of the best*things that has worked*for me is*to snack whenever*I feel hungry between meals. Just make good decisions as to what that snack is. Fruits, veggies, and beef jerky are personal favorites. Then when meal time comes around, chances are youll get full with less food and you'll end up making up for the cals you took in with the snack. Hope my 2 cents helps.

I occasionally got hungry on my diet but it was usually at the beginning.* You didn't mention what type of diet you were on.* Anyway, I was on a low carb diet and I only counted carbs not other stuff, so I just ate some protein like nuts or jerky.* I had something to eat every 2 hours during the day.* I also drank a LOT of water.* If I ate too many carbs I seemed to crave more but the fewer carbs I ate, I was usually fine.
This is what I wrote in my blog journal:

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Works for me I'm new to this blog but wanted to share with y'all what has worked for me.* I went on a Curves diet March 2005 through June 2005.* At that time I was almost out of a size 16 and the thought of not going to my favorite clothing stores was motivation enough.* The diet is basically a low carb diet, in fact I used some of the South Beach recipies during the diet phase.* South Beach didn't work for me but this one did!* Things that helped were:* Keep a diary of what you eat.* I thought I ate well but my portions were huge and I snacked and didn't realize the carbs were sneaking in there.* Drink Water! Eight 8oz a day plus 16 oz for each 8 oz caffeinated drink you have.* I keep H20 in my car along with Jerky and nuts for snack times.* Evaluate the pantry.* Chuck all that is not allowed so you aren't tempted.* Go to grocery with menus in mind to buy foods you can eat.* Good products are Carb Count Down Milk.* I use with low carb Special K cereal and the choc variety with choco diet suppliment, to make hot choc and to make diet choc pudding.* Exercise Daily-even if it is just a walk. Take vitamins.* I am a big fan of the Curves liquid vitamins.* Hope this helps someone out there.* I was able to lose 30-35 pounds and keep it off.* I am now a size 8.* Also, I am basically back to eating normally but I still like some of the products so if I start to creap up on the scale, I do the diet for a few days.

Lisa, I feel hungry when I diet to.. I think its cause I am eating healthier and my metabolism is speeding up. Cause even though I actually eat more when I diet I lose weight cause its not junk food and soda pops..So I think this may be the reason, Kathy in Missouri