I can't diet without hunger?

[speeddemon]

I’m really having a hard time finding my groove in making sure that I stay within my healthy calorie range without actually suffering from hunger. I find that it is worst in the mid afternoon. I used to find it bad in the evening, but not anymore. So here’s how I do things:

- I get up around 8am and have a coffee and a bowl of ½ cup of granola cereal with dried fruit and ¾ cup of protein cereal with a cup of milk and a banana. That makes up about 500 calories.

- Then I go for a brisk walk for about 45 minutes at about 10am

- I start to feel hungry again around 1pm so I don’t mind that my breakfast is high cal. I usually eat some kind of protein like eggs or a chicken breast at this point. I’ll have some veggies in a wrap or something like that. It usually comes to 500 to 600 cals.

- by around 3:30 pm I’m starving! Sometimes I’ll have a piece of toast or something like that, but that blows like 100 cals, minimum. Usually closer to 200

So now I’m at like 1300 calories which means that my dinner has to be lame and I can’t eat anything after that point. Essentially, after about 3pm, I’m really hungry!

Help! I’m frustrated.

[Maggie]

You might find that you will have better luck if you eat half of your cereal before you walk and the other half afterward. That way, the post-workout munchies won't get in your way. Then you will be more satisfied by your lunch and you can last until dinner. Make sure that you have protein in your lunch and give yourself a light snack in the afternoon if you need one. It's better to eat an extra 100 calories than to be so starving that you likely won't maintain your diet.

[Paplo]

That's a really good idea, Maggie. That's always a problem with exercising so much is that your body really craves a lot of food afterward. At the same time, it's not a good idea to eat too little at the start of the day before you exercise because you will only cause harm to your fat burning abilities if you don't have enough in your system. Plus, you NEED that energy to exercise. If you don't have available energy for your exercises then you'll end up slowing down, feeling faint, or just not putting as much into it as you need to to be at your best.