What should I eat when I'm hungry?

[xAlfredo]

Hellooo,
So if you would like to know, I'm trying to lose as much weight as I can.
You can see and follow my blog here (http://www.virtualteen.org/forums/blog.php?u=69006).
Anyway, I lost 4 pounds in 2 days since starting which is good. I gave up most of all bread, and junk food. I haven't drank a Pepsi in 3 days, either!!
Last night, I was still hungry after eating a few meatballs an hour before going to bed, so I reached for some pepperoni. While it had only a few calories, and alot of sodium, it had no carbs, so I thought it was good. However, it did give me another pimple after most of my acne clearing up from my diet, which I'm pissed about.
What could I eat when I'm hungry like this? I don't want to reach for another granola bar because they have 15 carbs a pop. I really just eat one of them a day, for the protein and whole grain, too.

[Sonic Boom]

Although a really unhealthy diet can make your pimples worse, food doesn't significantly affect your acne (according to doctor). No need to worry about that.

Anyway, back on topic: you could just eat some fruit or raw vegetables such as carrots if you are peckish. Apparently celery has negative carbs, because your body needs more energy to digest it. Maybe that's something to look into.

[TigerBoy]

Porridge. Just don't add tons of sugar to it. Porridge is very filling, and the way your body breaks it down means you get lots 'bang for the buck' out of eating it. If you make it with milk rather than water it also means you can take on a pretty impressive protein load with your snack too. It will be WAY better for you than cereal bars which are usually heavily loaded with sugar and additives, and I've heard nutritionists saying you might as well eat a mars bar or something.

Bananas are also great as a filler snack.

Peperoni may have a lot of fat in it so I'd avoid that personally.

Avoiding soda is a good plan. The problem with even 'diet' soda is that the sweet taste makes your body expect more calories than it got from the artificial sweetener, and studies have shown it will then make people snack more on the worst kinds of food because of this craving.

The other thing is maybe eat more meals but smaller meals - humans are hunter gatherers, we do better if we graze rather than stuff a big meal away. If you take on a good breakfast and have a smaller lunch you should feel less peckish in the afternoon. If you find you want to snack in the evening, plan to have a proper 'supper' after your normal evening meal, where again you split your evening meal and have some of it later on. That way your are eating the same food just spread out over the day. Additionally, breakfast has been shown to help with dieting because of how it kick starts your metabolism and is much better than skipping it.

Hope something there helps.

[xAlfredo]

Although a really unhealthy diet can make your pimples worse, food doesn't significantly affect your acne (according to doctor). No need to worry about that.

Anyway, back on topic: you could just eat some fruit or raw vegetables such as carrots if you are peckish. Apparently celery has negative carbs, because your body needs more energy to digest it. Maybe that's something to look into.

Well, greasy food does. Chocolate does for me also. I remember a year ago (Christmas time) I had pepperoni pizza that was horridly coated with grease and then afterwards, later on, I had TONS of chocolate that was in my stocking, and welp.. I woke up with a HUGE breakout lol. That's why I stay away from greasy pizza and I don't eat much chocolate anymore.
But, thank you for the suggestion. I love fruit, not so much veggies. I had some steamed carrots when I went out to dinner, and it was awful. Maybe I'd like them when they are crunchy with some Ranch or something. Same with the celery. :p

Porridge. Just don't add tons of sugar to it. Porridge is very filling, and the way your body breaks it down means you get lots 'bang for the buck' out of eating it. If you make it with milk rather than water it also means you can take on a pretty impressive protein load with your snack too. It will be WAY better for you than cereal bars which are usually heavily loaded with sugar and additives, and I've heard nutritionists saying you might as well eat a mars bar or something.

Bananas are also great as a filler snack.

Peperoni may have a lot of fat in it so I'd avoid that personally.

Avoiding soda is a good plan. The problem with even 'diet' soda is that the sweet taste makes your body expect more calories than it got from the artificial sweetener, and studies have shown it will then make people snack more on the worst kinds of food because of this craving.

The other thing is maybe eat more meals but smaller meals - humans are hunter gatherers, we do better if we graze rather than stuff a big meal away. If you take on a good breakfast and have a smaller lunch you should feel less peckish in the afternoon. If you find you want to snack in the evening, plan to have a proper 'supper' after your normal evening meal, where again you split your evening meal and have some of it later on. That way your are eating the same food just spread out over the day. Additionally, breakfast has been shown to help with dieting because of how it kick starts your metabolism and is much better than skipping it.

Hope something there helps.

Not sure what Porridge is LOL
Might be an England term (I noticed your Location)?
I googled it and it said hot cereal.. :confused:
And I'm not eating cereal bars, I'm eating a Nature Valley Oats and Honey bar for breakfast (since I don't have time to really eat a good, HEALTHY breakfast before school.. it's better than nothing lol)
Plus, it has Protein and Fiber. The pack comes with 2 per bar, and I'm only eating the 1 to split the carbs in half. If I ate both, it's like 29 carbs or something.. bad bad.

I was eating a banana with a few saltine crackers (going to try whole grain crackers instead) and I was content and able to go to bed afterwards. :D

The Pepperoni didn't have alot of fat, but alot of Sodium, which isn't good. I only ate it as a last resort because I really had NOTHING else to eat (This is before I reached for the banana). I'm not going to eat any more unless it's on a piece of pizza on my free day :wub:

My dad said I can eat what I've been eating but just smaller portions. Instead of eating half of the bag of chips, eat a quarter. Instead of having 2 plates of spaghetti, have 1 plate.
However, I know if I do that, I won't see fast results like I'm seeing now (2lb per day, even though it's probably water weight rn).

My daily calorie consumption when I'm NOT trying to eat less is over 1500, easy. Most of the days, it's over 2000.
However, now it's less than 1000 cal per day, so I'm losing fast weight.

I'm going to go to the store and buy some carrots, celery, etc and some ranch dip because I know I can't eat these alone.. LOL

Thanks for the tips!

If anyone has any more tips/suggestions for me, please post. I'm open to new things that could help me lose weight.

[TigerBoy]

I googled it and it said hot cereal.. :confused:
Yeah you simmer flaked oats in milk (or water) and it make a really creamy warm mush.


And I'm not eating cereal bars, I'm eating a Nature Valley Oats and Honey bar for breakfast (since I don't have time to really eat a good, HEALTHY breakfast before school.. it's better than nothing lol)
Plus, it has Protein and Fiber. The pack comes with 2 per bar, and I'm only eating the 1 to split the carbs in half. If I ate both, it's like 29 carbs or something.. bad bad.
29 calories or 29 grams of carbs? grams it is a lot, cals is nothing to worry about. I'm just repeating general advice you'll hear from nutritionists, they don't seem to like cereal bars. But I think you are right its better to have that than nothing :P


The Pepperoni didn't have alot of fat, but alot of Sodium, which isn't good. I only ate it as a last resort because I really had NOTHING else to eat (This is before I reached for the banana).
Hehe well if it was an emergency ;-)

I don't know what sort of pepperoni you were eating but off the Hormel (http://www.hormel.com/products/Variety.aspx?ID=3&RecipesOnly=False#)website for their thick slice pepperoni you get per 100g of product 500cals, 48g fat. In other words their pepperoni is half fat. So if you are sure you have some super lean sausage there great, but watch out, most sausage recipes have a lot of fat in them.


My dad said I can eat what I've been eating but just smaller portions. Instead of eating half of the bag of chips, eat a quarter. Instead of having 2 plates of spaghetti, have 1 plate.
However, I know if I do that, I won't see fast results like I'm seeing now (2lb per day, even though it's probably water weight rn).

That is alarming.

Your weight can fluctuate by a few pounds daily, so it is better to weigh yourself at weekly / two weekly intervals to get a true idea of your weight loss/gain trend.

If you lose weight fast you'll put it back on fast as soon as you stop dieting and with interest. 2lb a WEEK is more what you want to be aiming at, less than that if you are only a little over weight.

If you diet at 2lb a day, you will put your body into 'starvation mode' which results in muscle loss over fat loss, and your body responds by storing fat as soon as you bring the calories back up. Better is to go for a gradual reduction of intake and an increase in exercise to stimulate your metabolism. If you aren't taking on enough calories (which a daily 2lb loss would indicate) you won't be able to exercise for very long either.

The other problem is that fast weight loss will not leave you looking buff, because your skin won't have had a chance to contract and can take a while to catch up, so you can end up 'saggy' if you manage to lose that quickly.

Steamed carrot should still have a bit of crunch left (al dente) and be sweet so it sounds like they got over cooked. The whole point is you don't make them limp and flavourless as you do when boiling.

You'll get a lot of hidden calories in dressings people put on salads so be sure to check the packet of the ranch dip you get :P

[xAlfredo]

That is alarming.

Your weight can fluctuate by a few pounds daily, so it is better to weigh yourself at weekly / two weekly intervals to get a true idea of your weight loss/gain trend.

If you lose weight fast you'll put it back on fast as soon as you stop dieting and with interest. 2lb a WEEK is more what you want to be aiming at, less than that if you are only a little over weight.

If you diet at 2lb a day, you will put your body into 'starvation mode' which results in muscle loss over fat loss, and your body responds by storing fat as soon as you bring the calories back up. Better is to go for a gradual reduction of intake and an increase in exercise to stimulate your metabolism. If you aren't taking on enough calories (which a daily 2lb loss would indicate) you won't be able to exercise for very long either.

The other problem is that fast weight loss will not leave you looking buff, because your skin won't have had a chance to contract and can take a while to catch up, so you can end up 'saggy' if you manage to lose that quickly.

Well, I'm not really on a diet.
I just cut all of the unhealthy food out of my life.
If you call trying not to eat everything in the pantry a diet, go right ahead :D

I was told that since you are overweight, it is easier to lose weight (as long as you can exercise, of course). I am 222 pounds right now, and I was 226 on Friday (1/4/13).

What I am really doing with this diet is, "Do I REALLY need to eat that? Or can I wait until dinner is ready?".
The partial reason I think I got so overweight is since I was a couch potato to my computer, I was grabbing tons of snacks to bring over here to eat.
So now, all I'm trying to do is eat breakfast, eat my school lunch like I did (sandwich/skim milk/apple) and then eat my dinner.
I'm not really trying to diet, just make healthier choices and then exercise.
I am doing cardio until I get to a healthy weight for my height.
Then, I'm going to do cardio and start weights and also drinking protein shakes.
I don't want to turn my fat into muscle. I want to lose the weight first, then get muscle.
I don't think I will get flabby, especially if I work hard to keep on working out afterwards and keep my body healthy and strong.

But, thanks for the advice

EDIT: just re-read and uhm.. I'm not losing like, 2 lbs per day.. I guess I should've said I just started exercising and eating right 2 days ago and all that I'm losing right now is water weight.. Not actual pounds.. don't know if that makes sense lol. That's why it's coming off so easy, I'm sure. It's just water weight right now.

[TigerBoy]

That all sounds very sensible to me. Yep if you are carrying that much it will come off quicker (especially at the start of a change in diet).

To help keep you motivated, have you thought of measuring your arms, thighs, belly? If you do that, even if your weight hasn't changed you may notice things tightening up and reducing. Also taking a picture of yourself regularly works great to show you difference over time when you won't always see it in the mirror.

Good luck with all that anyway :-)

[Mortal Coil]

What you're eating right now seems pretty unbalanced. From what I've gathered here, you're treating carbs like the enemy. THIS IS NOT THE CASE. You need carbohydrates just like you need protein and fats. However, carbs are better found in less processed foods. Cereal bars are highly processed, which would be a good reason to stay away from them. But something like oatmeal or a potato is fine.