Q for those who reached goal

At any point in your weight loss, did you ever feel like you couldn't eat
any less without being uncomfortably hungry, but you did anyway? Did you
adjust to eating less and not feel hungry any more, or did you get to where
you could tolerate being hungry, or did you give up and start eating more
again and decide to compensate with more exercise?

--
Michelle Levin
http://www.mindspring.com/~lunachick

I have only 3 flaws. My first flaw is thinking that I only have 3 flaws.

Luna

writes:

At any point in your weight loss, did you ever feel like you couldn't eat
any less without being uncomfortably hungry, but you did anyway? Did you
adjust to eating less and not feel hungry any more, or did you get to where
you could tolerate being hungry, or did you give up and start eating more
again and decide to compensate with more exercise?

Let me put it this way: there were some times when I postponed a meal instead
of eating when I was hungry, then ate less than I wanted. A couple of times I
went to bed feeling a bit hungry. But never anything major. Sometimes I'd
drink herbal tea or go for a walk around the block to get my mind off of it.
That didn't always work, in which case I'd have a few pistachios or a teaspoon
of peanut butter.

I'm glad you brought this up, because real hunger is an issue in weight loss
and especially this WOE. A friend of mine has lost 50 pounds just by asking
herself if she's really hungry or if she thinks she ought to eat. If she's
hungry, she'll eat. But cutting out the idle, time-passing snacks has done
wonders for her. She's obese, however, and has over 100 pounds to lose still.
I'm not sure reliance on hunger will see her down to goal.

A useful concept from WW is that of the zero-point food. It's usually a
vegetable with a lot of fiber, and since it carries no points, WW dieters can
eat as much of those veggies as they want. That helps them with hunger. I
have the point values somewhere around here -- let me know if you want me to
track them down and give some examples. I know salsa, lettuce, broccoli, and
cauliflower are all zeros.

Daria
166/under 145/under 145
sugar-free since 2/1/04
low-carb since 2/17/04

"DG511" wrote in message
...
Luna

writes:

At any point in your weight loss, did you ever feel like you couldn't eat
any less without being uncomfortably hungry, but you did anyway? Did you
adjust to eating less and not feel hungry any more, or did you get to
where
you could tolerate being hungry, or did you give up and start eating more
again and decide to compensate with more exercise?

Let me put it this way: there were some times when I postponed a meal
instead
of eating when I was hungry, then ate less than I wanted. A couple of
times I
went to bed feeling a bit hungry. But never anything major. Sometimes
I'd
drink herbal tea or go for a walk around the block to get my mind off of
it.
That didn't always work, in which case I'd have a few pistachios or a
teaspoon
of peanut butter.

I'm glad you brought this up, because real hunger is an issue in weight
loss
and especially this WOE. A friend of mine has lost 50 pounds just by
asking
herself if she's really hungry or if she thinks she ought to eat. If
she's
hungry, she'll eat. But cutting out the idle, time-passing snacks has
done
wonders for her. She's obese, however, and has over 100 pounds to lose
still.
I'm not sure reliance on hunger will see her down to goal.

A useful concept from WW is that of the zero-point food. It's usually a
vegetable with a lot of fiber, and since it carries no points, WW dieters
can
eat as much of those veggies as they want. That helps them with hunger.
I
have the point values somewhere around here -- let me know if you want me
to
track them down and give some examples. I know salsa, lettuce, broccoli,
and
cauliflower are all zeros.


Salsa is not a LC zero though - I know I found most had about 2 carb grams
per 2 tblsp (something like that)I would make sure you check the lable befor
ehaving a Salsa-fest!

DG511 wrote:
::: Luna
::
:: writes:
::
::: At any point in your weight loss, did you ever feel like you
::: couldn't eat any less without being uncomfortably hungry, but you
::: did anyway? Did you adjust to eating less and not feel hungry any
::: more, or did you get to where you could tolerate being hungry, or
::: did you give up and start eating more again and decide to
::: compensate with more exercise?
::
:: Let me put it this way: there were some times when I postponed a
:: meal instead of eating when I was hungry, then ate less than I
:: wanted. A couple of times I went to bed feeling a bit hungry. But
:: never anything major. Sometimes I'd drink herbal tea or go for a
:: walk around the block to get my mind off of it. That didn't always
:: work, in which case I'd have a few pistachios or a teaspoon of
:: peanut butter.
::
:: I'm glad you brought this up, because real hunger is an issue in
:: weight loss and especially this WOE. A friend of mine has lost 50
:: pounds just by asking herself if she's really hungry or if she
:: thinks she ought to eat. If she's hungry, she'll eat. But cutting
:: out the idle, time-passing snacks has done wonders for her. She's
:: obese, however, and has over 100 pounds to lose still. I'm not sure
:: reliance on hunger will see her down to goal.
::
:: A useful concept from WW is that of the zero-point food. It's
:: usually a vegetable with a lot of fiber, and since it carries no
:: points, WW dieters can eat as much of those veggies as they want.
:: That helps them with hunger. I have the point values somewhere
:: around here -- let me know if you want me to track them down and
:: give some examples. I know salsa, lettuce, broccoli, and
:: cauliflower are all zeros.

I would like to see those point values, Daria. It seems logical to be the
be able to eat lots of broccoli and cauliflower to get full without
affecting weight loss too much, provided you haven't overeaten fat already.

Luna wrote in message ...
At any point in your weight loss, did you ever feel like you couldn't eat
any less without being uncomfortably hungry, but you did anyway? Did you
adjust to eating less and not feel hungry any more, or did you get to where
you could tolerate being hungry, or did you give up and start eating more
again and decide to compensate with more exercise?

Luna, of course, I had to teach myself to live on less food. When I
started that phase, yes, I was uncomfortably hungry in the beginning.
Very soon into the process though, I was able to identify when my
mouth was hungry and when my whole body was hungry. If I was mouth
hungry, I either fed my mouth with a cup of tea or looked for the
reason why. Do you know that most of the time my mouth hunger came
from the fact that I had a funny or bad taste in my mouth. Brushing my
teeth turned out to be as satisfying as eating! Other times, I was
hungry because I was sad or depressed or bored or even happy.
Legitimate emotions, yes, but not reasons to eat.

If I was really and truly in need of nourishment between meals, I fed
myself a low carb snack in controlled portions. For example, if I was
having a serving of leftover storebought roast chicken, I cut up the
portion of chicken and put it on a plate before I could eat it.
Otherwise, I'd eat the whole damn thing.

Exercise helped too. Walking has been my biggest crutch against
hunger. Even now, when the muchies strike, I put on my walking shoes
and go out. If I'm still in need of real food when I get back, I have
a controlled portion snack. If I'm still hungry after that, I tell
myself-no more food, Duffy. Most times it works.

Luna, for me at least, staying at goal is always going to be a battle
with the fat chick in my head. I wish she and I could get along better
and I wish she and I could make a deal. Instead, she sends me these
false hunger pangs, she continually nibbles at my self-esteem and she
won't ever let me think I'm thin.

S'okay. I know I'm not going back, not giving in. I show her my size 6
clothes. Every day, at least once, she and I have a go-round.

My advice to you is to eat when you're hungry-if you're really hungry.
The trick is figuring out when that is.

Duffy
182-121
size 16-6
since 12-01-01

On Wed, 06 Oct 2004 04:27:42 GMT, Luna wrote:

At any point in your weight loss, did you ever feel like you couldn't eat
any less without being uncomfortably hungry, but you did anyway?

None.

Did you
adjust to eating less and not feel hungry any more,

Most of the time.

or did you get to where
you could tolerate being hungry,

Nearly all the time.

or did you give up and start eating more
again and decide to compensate with more exercise?

Knew better.

Luna wrote:
At any point in your weight loss, did you ever feel like you couldn't eat
any less without being uncomfortably hungry, but you did anyway? Did you
adjust to eating less and not feel hungry any more, or did you get to where
you could tolerate being hungry, or did you give up and start eating more
again and decide to compensate with more exercise?

I'm close enough and have been losing slowly enough that I think I can
answer this.

At first I would always eat to avoid hunger at all costs. I used to be
very much a 'three squares' kinda guy. This didn't work for me on LC, so
I switched to eating many smaller meals - some almost just snacks of
200-300 calories. That helped. It also adjusted my capacity downward so
that I became more easily satisfied with smaller meals.

When I eventually realized that being hungry (when you have food you could
eat if you choose) is a very minor problem in the larger scheme of things,
it stopped being such a powerful trigger for eating more than I knew I
should. I actually went back to where I was as an active kid, growing up
working hard on the farm. 'Working up an appetite' was a good thing and
food tasted really great when you sat down to a meal hungry.

There are times when I really increase my food intake and also carb
intake. If I'm on a hiking trip, I just pretty much eat what I want with
some moderation of carbs (keeping them under 100g/day). I've yet to gain
a single pound.

I expect that I'll always keep on being a little hungry now and then as I
move into maintenance. But it's such a small price to pay for how I feel
and how my new jeans fit ;-)

Dan
325/197/190
Atkins since 1/1/02 (yeah, it was a New Year's Resolution)
Besetting sins: good beer, German bread, and Krispy Kremes

"Luna" wrote in message
...
At any point in your weight loss, did you ever feel like you couldn't eat
any less without being uncomfortably hungry, but you did anyway? Did you
adjust to eating less and not feel hungry any more, or did you get to
where
you could tolerate being hungry, or did you give up and start eating more
again and decide to compensate with more exercise?

It was kind of a bit of many things. I realized that a lot of my extra
calories came from snacking in front of the T.V. So I switched to drinking
water or green tea, only having a pre-measured snack like one ounce of
cheeze, or nuts if I was really hungry. I also tried to purposely eat just
enough so I was a little hungry but not starving before my next meal. I felt
that if I did this, I would feel like I was taking in less calories than I
needed. I never let myself starve, which was a lot easier with lo-carb
because of more stable "feelings of energy" What I mean by that is, with
doing lo-cal/lo-fat, I would feel cold and had feelings of not being able to
make it to my next meal for lack of energy. With lo-carb, I never felt cold,
and never felt like I was starving to death. Even if I was hungry and
couldn't eat for what ever reason, I still felt like I had enough energy to
still keep working without drastic effects. This was a foreign feeling to me
because before if I didn't get enough to eat, I would feel somewhat shaky
and or cold and would feel like terrible things would happen to me if I
didn't eat something. Although this sounds worse than it actually was, I
think this is why most people can not restrict their calories for extended
periods. The feelings of hunger can be too overwhelming because of blood
glucose swings and the feelings of starvation take over. I don't believe you
can eat all you want. It works somewhat, but not really as true as portayed
in the media about it being a miracle diet for hunger control. I know I can
eat more if I wanted to. If there is a bowl of nuts in front of me, I could
probably finnish the whole bowl, but I chose not to because I'm not hungry.
Since I don't feel starvation, I don't worry about when my next meal
will come. You could say that I got use to feeling a little hungry, and
sometimes welcomed it, as I knew I would be down a few pounds the next
weigh-in. I only tracked calories for the first couple of weeks, then
switched to "visual" mode for determining what amount to eat at each meal.
If the feeling of not being a little hungry for my next meal was waning, I
knew that extra food was sneaking in and had to re-adjust the portions. I
still watch what I eat, but I'm not obsessive about it, letting my body tell
me when I'm hungry. This isn't really different from what I was doing before
I started this diet. I usually thought about what I was eating before,
knowing that I was getting heavier and that I shouldn't eat this much. So my
thinking has only switched from "how can I gain control?" to "am I still in
control mode?". It's like riding a bicycle now. You don't really "think"
about it anymore.
Other things come to play as well. Avoiding situations with high carb
food. Keeping lo-carb snacks handy. Exercizing more. Peer pressure was
terrible in the beginning. Now everyone knows I won't eat this or that so
they don't bother trying anymore.
To sum it up, I think it's a bit of everything. A life style change,
exercize and controlling portions. A little here, a little there, and it
becomes easier to maintain controll overall.
Tom
210/180/180

--
Michelle Levin
http://www.mindspring.com/~lunachick

I have only 3 flaws. My first flaw is thinking that I only have 3 flaws.

wrote in message
...
At any point in your weight loss, did you ever feel like you couldn't eat
any less without being uncomfortably hungry, but you did anyway? Did you
adjust to eating less and not feel hungry any more, or did you get to
where
you could tolerate being hungry, or did you give up and start eating more
again and decide to compensate with more exercise?

On 10/6/2004 12:27 AM, Luna wrote:
At any point in your weight loss, did you ever feel like you couldn't eat
any less without being uncomfortably hungry, but you did anyway?

No. A few times I did feel -- I guess the word that comes to mind is
ANGRY -- that I could not have what I wanted to eat. As I approached my
goal weight, of course, I could eat fewer and fewer calories to continue
weight loss. That's what made the last few pounds harder for me
emotionally. It did all come off and it was definitely worth it but a
few times I really wanted something and it just didn't fit into the
calorie budget. I guess it's no worse than having friends that make
more money that you do when you really want a new insert object of your
desire here.

Did you
adjust to eating less and not feel hungry any more, or did you get to where
you could tolerate being hungry, or did you give up and start eating more
again and decide to compensate with more exercise?

I have never been consistently hungry on my current WOE. Occasionally I
am but I think that it is for "valid" reasons. For example, I did a lot
of bike riding on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. On Sunday, I felt like
I could eat the entire pantry at home. I was fine after lunch. I think
that this was directly related to the previous several days physical
activity.


--
jmk in NC