pinkrobot Posted March 20, 2010 Share Posted March 20, 2010 I have a problem where I am constantly hungry. Even if I eat a big plate of food and even if it fills me up, I am still crazy hungry an hour later. I can't seem to get a grip on it. I space my meals/snacks evenly apart (I eat about every 2-3 hours during the day) and I pay pretty good attention to fiber and protein. But I seriously could eat all day if I let myself, and recently it's caused a slight weight gain. Is there a way for me to suppress my appetite *safely*? It's at the point where if I go longer than 2 or so hours without eating something, I'll be so hungry I'll feel nauseated. So it's not that I'm wanting to suppress my appetite for the sake of losing weight, I just want something that will make me feel less hungry all the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lecturer Posted March 20, 2010 Share Posted March 20, 2010 Your rapid appetite is usually caused by high metabolism. Of course, this usually means you wouldn't gain weight.. but that depends on what you eat when you are hungry. You should probably eat whenever you are hungry, but small amounts of low-cal stuff, with a good mix of protein and unsaturated/mono fats. If you eat sugar or other simple carbs, you'll gain weight. The other cause is just that you've trained your body to expect food that often. If the hunger is not due to your metabolism as described above, then you should be able to train your body to not need to eat so often. However, if it IS due to metabolism, as mentioned above, not eating will be detrimental and may cause dizziness, fatigue, and loss of mental focus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
absinthe Posted March 20, 2010 Share Posted March 20, 2010 If you don't eat when you're hungry, after a few hours, do you get the shakes? If so, you might want to get checked for hyperthyroidism. It's pretty easy to treat and is worthwhile to get done, since it literally burns out your body so you lose years of life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jengh Posted March 20, 2010 Share Posted March 20, 2010 Green tea helps me a little bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coldplay. Posted March 20, 2010 Share Posted March 20, 2010 Water, they say the western worlds thirst mechanism is so weak that we often think were hungry rather than thirsty. Drink the 64oz of water suggested or whatever and it will both suppress your appetite, increase your metabolism, and burn fat! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catfeeder Posted March 20, 2010 Share Posted March 20, 2010 When I had this problem I was over-producing bile, which constantly made me feel as though I needed to eat. I found relief in drinking and eating yogurt and taking a blend of probiotic and prebiotic supplements (NSI brand from Vitacost onlne). At night I took a blend of amino acids (Natural GH Formula, also NSI from Vitacost) to help repair the stomach lining during sleep. I'd bring your symptoms to a doc and clear such a plan before going this route. It treated the cause rather than the symptoms, and my digestion returned to normal. Fingers crossed for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeclimb Posted March 20, 2010 Share Posted March 20, 2010 Maybe you should go to the dr and gets checked out. Don't want to alarm you but could it be parasites? Do they make you hungry all the time. Protein is meant to sustain you for longer than carbohydrates. You might not be getting enough fat. Fat should make up 30% of a diet I believe. You need both unsaturated fat and saturated fat. People are down on saturated fat, but there is theory around that saturated fat is actually good and the ratio between unsaturated and saturated fat intake should be 50:50 - but that is not mainstream thought. There is also a view that saturated fat does not make us fat (but rather that this is an urban myth). Fat sustains you. Rachel Tomkinson on her website 'better bods' discusses how she used to eat a low fat diet and was always hungry (as well as getting sick). Once she cut out msg from her diet and started eating lots more saturated fat she lost weight and her illness problems went. She was also satisfied and wasn't constantly hungry. Fat plays a healing role in our body and plays all sorts of important functions - including building our cell walls - if we don't get enough quality fat they become rigid and burst and their contents bleed out. A recipe for illness. See the site 'better bods' if you're interested and click 'Ask Rachel' and scroll down to something like 'past questions'. She also has links to articles on her site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
memphis1 Posted March 20, 2010 Share Posted March 20, 2010 drink a bottle of water. Helps make you feel full. personally, excersising helps me feel full. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
g84 Posted March 20, 2010 Share Posted March 20, 2010 This happens to me as well, though i tend to feel that way in the evenings or later at night : [. My appetitite seems fairly normal during the rest of the day, but at night, it can go way up for some reason. I don't really have clear advice, but some combinations of foods can help suppress my hunger at times (like a bit of dry cereal with a few almonds). I think drinking an herbal tea could help as well to fill you up. I've noticed that when i include a good amount of a healthy fat like olive oil into my meal, it can keep me full for a while; also a small glass of red wine. At times, when i know i've definitely eaten enough and had a balanced meal, i just say to myself "You've had enough, you're not malnourished; it's done" lol. I try my best to be logical about it because sometimes just reading about food can give me that empty-stomach / hungry feeling :S. If you experience that feeling very often during the day though, i think it could be a good idea to ask your doctor about it, too. It would be cool if you could list some of the typical things you might eat in one day; maybe we can try to make some suggestions based on that if possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeclimb Posted March 21, 2010 Share Posted March 21, 2010 I had another thought... You might be lacking in nutrients - although you might be eating plenty the food might not be nurishing enough. So you might be getting enough calories but not enough nutrients. Western culture tends to have a high calorie but low nutrient diet, for some of the following reasons... A lot of food is... - food is over processed (removes nutrients) - stripped, bleached, ground (eg white sugar, white flour and white salt) - false food (e.g. some of the modern oils just aren't natural) - so it is weird artificial food - not nurtitious - old (sits in stores and supermarkets for periods of time losing goodness) - often tend to over cook - lose nutrients - synthetic fertilisers - often not as good - food picked before ripening - not as nutritious - food sits round at home - loses goodness - food like milk and honey is often pasterised killing goodness - Plus our environment has more toxins that there used to be decades ago - these rob minerals from our bodies because minerals are used for the ongoing detox process. - If minerals are lacking (eg calcium) in our diets our bodies will steal them from places like our bones. - I've studied this a bit and the conclusion I reached was it is really hard to get adequate intake of recommended daily intake of required nutrients. That's when you're consciously trying to achieve it with all the information about what amounts of nutrients are in foods. You need to take good quality supplements AND have a broad quality diet. A broad range of mineral supplementation is required (a minimum of the 26 essential minerals our body is known to need). Minerals are the building blocks of life. That the average person gets all the nutrients they need in a reasonable diet is a lie. Drs will tell you this. They know nothing about nutrition (they have 2 hrs training on nutrition in medical school). They know no more than you. The recommended daily requirements of nutrients are to avoid certain illnesses where deficiency has been PROVEN substantially. Like eating an orange so you don't get scurvy. It has nothing to do with what you need for optimal health. Some individual animals of the same breed need 40 times the same nutrient as others to function properly. Makes you think. (Watch not to overdose on Vitamin A, B6, Vit E. It is hard to overdose on most other nutrients unless you are taking insufficient of another - be it mineral or vitamin or unless you a pregnant or unless you are taking extraordinarily huge doses.) Oops. Got a bit carried away. Point is, if you are constantly hungry - you maybe craving nutrients like minerals. Did you know that you need to eat 2-3 pots of honey a day to get the recommened daily intake of the nurtients that are in honey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinkrobot Posted March 21, 2010 Author Share Posted March 21, 2010 I appreciate the responses, they give me a lot of things to consider. I don't get shaky after not eating, but sometimes I feel lightheaded and ill (but not often). I drink TONS of water (probably 100+ oz. per day) and try to eat plenty of protein and vegetables. Does anyone know, could stress be contributing to this? My stress levels are through the roof, and although I've discussed this with my doctor her only suggestion was to take up yoga (which I tried, and it didn't help; I also exercise several times per week and it doesn't make a significant difference). I'm starting to wonder if my stress and my eating habits are connected, though...like, on days where I'm feeling *extra* stressed I'll eat more sugar than I typically would. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-Snap Posted March 21, 2010 Share Posted March 21, 2010 Stress always works for me! (but i don't recommend it!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-Snap Posted March 21, 2010 Share Posted March 21, 2010 I appreciate the responses, they give me a lot of things to consider. I don't get shaky after not eating, but sometimes I feel lightheaded and ill (but not often). I drink TONS of water (probably 100+ oz. per day) and try to eat plenty of protein and vegetables. Does anyone know, could stress be contributing to this? My stress levels are through the roof, and although I've discussed this with my doctor her only suggestion was to take up yoga (which I tried, and it didn't help; I also exercise several times per week and it doesn't make a significant difference). I'm starting to wonder if my stress and my eating habits are connected, though...like, on days where I'm feeling *extra* stressed I'll eat more sugar than I typically would. Ironically I wrote my last response before reading this one. And yeah, stress does different things to different people. While it makes me NOT eat, it has the opposite effect on others. If you are a stress eater, maybe stress is the culprit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinkrobot Posted March 21, 2010 Author Share Posted March 21, 2010 Ironically I wrote my last response before reading this one. And yeah, stress does different things to different people. While it makes me NOT eat, it has the opposite effect on others. If you are a stress eater, maybe stress is the culprit. Yeah, I know for a fact my mood affects my eating habits--if I'm sad, I can go days without eating a single thing. Maybe that's it then, because I don't remember always feeling the need to eat like this, and (somewhat) recent events have skyrocketed my stress levels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinecone Posted March 21, 2010 Share Posted March 21, 2010 Are you on the pill? I felt a weird kind of queasy-hungry much of the time on the pill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinkrobot Posted March 21, 2010 Author Share Posted March 21, 2010 Are you on the pill? I felt a weird kind of queasy-hungry much of the time on the pill. No, I'm not. I actually quit a few months ago after being on it for 6 years. Hmmm, I wonder if that has anything to do with it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FathomFear Posted March 21, 2010 Share Posted March 21, 2010 To the OP, what is your typical meal? I'm curious whether it's nutrient rich (vegetables, legumes, fruit) or whether it's mostly refined/fatty/lacking nutrients (animal food, dairy, pasta, refined grains). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinkrobot Posted March 21, 2010 Author Share Posted March 21, 2010 Snacks are usually vegetables, nuts, string cheese, etc. Lunch is usually a sandwich with veggies, dinner is my biggest meal that typically includes all the "food groups." I'm cautious not to overload on carbs and cheese is about the only dairy food I eat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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