how to deal with hunger

Let’s talk about hunger today. Today’s gonna be a little bit of a brain dump for me with all the questions I’ve been getting about hunger over the years.

Hunger is normal.

While dieting, while on a weight loss journey you’re bound to feel hunger here and there. It’s inevitable. It’s part of the process.

Sure there’s no need to be feeling starved and suffering all the time, but that little nudge of hunger that’s normal. Normal meaning just cos you feel a tiny bit hungry doesn’t mean you gotta eat something. You don’t have to solve hunger the moment you feel it. 

I think a lot of times the weight loss journey gets extremely hard cos we’re all trying to completely eliminate hunger. That’s impossible.

Some hunger is totally fine, hungry to the point where you’re constantly suffering and can’t function is not and that’s when you probably wanna make some adjustments.

Say you’re on a 3 meal a day schedule, breakfast at 7am, lunch at 12pm, dinner at 6pm. It’s kinda normal to feel a bit hungry at 11am and 5pm as it’s getting close to your next meal. If the hunger isn’t too intense just try your best to make it to your planned schedule. No need to panic and start looking for snacks.

It’s those snacks that tends to make you overeat.

If the hunger is too intense then there are things you could such as having a bigger previous meal to help you last longer. Or you could change your schedule a bit and eat earlier around the time when you get hungry. Or you could change the number of meals you eat in a day.

With the previous 3 meal a day example, if you made that 2 meals a day instead your meals become larger and more fulfilling.

Of course the types of food you’re eating in those meals also matter in terms of helping you feel full or hungry. A cafe latte plus a cookie is easily 300-400kcal which is roughly the same calories of a McChicken from Mcdonalds.

Which do you think will make you feel more full?

Figuring out your habits and preferences in itself is a journey. You’re never gonna find a meal plan on the internet that feels super good for you off the bat. All the meal plans and diet programs you start with are at best templates. It’s a place for you to start, and it’s up to you to make the adjustments as you go through with it day after day week after week.

It’s after weeks and months of adjustments that it’ll start to feel better and feel like something you can keep up with regularly. Don’t completely quit just cos you messed up a little on one of the days. Figure out what you messed up on, what you can do to prevent it next time, and try again.

Jumping around different diets and different programs constantly without ever making adjustments specific to you will all just end up with the same results: back to square one.

The special formula doesn’t exist out there.

Remember the fundamentals of losing weight. Losing weight is about being in a consistent calorie deficit. It’s about eating less than your body expends for an extended period of time.

If you’re achieving that, your eating schedule, the types of foods you’re eating, the exercise you’re doing, that’s all up to you. There is no “best” way. There’s simply a way that can be more enjoyable to you so you can keep it up consistently.

I hope all that helped and made sense.

tl;dr hunger is normal. No need to panic if you feel a bit of hunger here and there in your weight loss journey. You don’t have to eat the moment you feel a bit of hunger. If you’re starving all the time though definitely make some changes, cos starving all the time isn’t normal.

Hope you’re well, till the next one!