Hunger and Satiety

Sheesh, I had no idea it had been so long since I'd posted! I've been in a holding pattern as far as Weight Watchers is concerned. I've lost about 15 pounds, but keep going up one or two and down one or two. I go over my weekly points almost every week. I just don't understand how members and leaders say they stay within their allotted points while eating out in restaurants and eating desserts, unless they go around hungry most of the time. One dinner with one piece of veggie pizza, one smallish piece of birthday cake, and one 1/2c serving of ice cream is enough to knock out most of your extra weekly points.

I met with a nutritionist recently as part of a community wellness program. It was free so I figured "what the heck". I think she was a bit puzzled about why I was there, since I already knew everything she shared, but I did discuss my hunger issue. I told her that I was simply ravenous sometimes by late afternoon and then had difficulty not overeating at dinner and after -- even when I eat an afternoon snack of greek yogurt and fruit or something else equally nutritious and protein/carb filled. She suggested that I eat smaller meals and more snacks in between. I'm a little torn about that because I don't want to be constantly focused on food, but I must admit that I sometimes feel somewhat stuffed after lunch. Even if I'm stuffed with vegetables and beans, eating to the point of being overfull isn't really a good habit to get into. Lately I've tried to stop sooner at lunch and have a bigger snack, or have two afternoon snacks. I'm not sure it really makes a difference, but I'm going to experiment further with it. This morning for breakfast I had oat bran (1 serving -- 1/3c uncooked) cooked with: 1/2c of unsweetened almond milk, a medium banana, a tablespoon of flax seed, and about a tablespoon of peanut butter. I got up at 4:45am, walked the dog a mile, did 20 minutes on the elliptical, and about 20 minutes of weight training. I ate breakfast at 7:15am. It is 11:06am right now and my stomach is asking for lunch. I know I exercised and all, but I still feel like my breakfast should have lasted a bit longer.

I found a study that talked about satiety. It mentioned that some of the most satisfying foods were baked or boiled potatoes, apples. oranges, fish, whole wheat pasta, baked beans (!), and oatmeal. I wonder why baked beans rather than simply beans in general? I try not to eat baked beans because of the sugar. Yesterday I had a homemade soup that had potatoes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, mixed vegetables, and black beans in it. It didn't keep me satisfied for more than 3 hours. That was disappointing, especially since it was 8 points! I have some again today for lunch, to eat over a couple of handfuls of spinach and kale -- along with an apple, orange, and a mini Kind bar for snacks.

A Bit Disenchanted

With a daily average of 33 "points" on WW (not counting any earned for activity), I find that I am sometimes hungry. Each point is worth about 50 calories, so that's 1650 calories a day for me. It's not exactly 50 per point, but that's a fair approximation. Anyway, I find that I AM hungry with that many points, but not terribly hungry. I want to be hungry for meals anyway -- food tastes so much better if I am. The real restriction for me is that I can't really eat anything "extra" without being hungry. If I "spend" points on a cookie, that's less nutritious, filling food I can eat. So even though they SAY "you can eat anything you want", you really can't if you don't want to spend part of the day hungry. At my points level, anyway. I imagine that if I used 33 points a day on healthy, nutritious food only, I might not really be all that hungry. There haven't been too many days like that, though. Unfortunately, a few of my days have been 60 or 100 points, while others have been 21. Not very smart or healthy of me.
Honestly, I've averaged something like 40 points a day since I started and I've still lost 5 pounds. I think I've gotten away with such a high average because I'm usually quite active. Aside from purposeful daily exercise, I usually get 10,000-12,000 steps a day on my pedometer.

I was a bit disappointed in our last WW meeting because the leader actually brought up the stupid 1 point hot dog! Here I was thinking that WW had changed over the past 6 years since I first joined, but apparently, it hasn't changed all THAT much. The discussion was on how to provide variety to prevent boredom with your meals, and we were talking about sandwich outsides, fillings, and sauces. Someone had mentioned a hot dog bun, which she said you could really fill with anything, but if you wanted a hot dog, what was the best kind to buy? I wanted to yell out "one with no nitrates", but didn't have the nerve. Someone suggested a turkey dog, and the leader said you'd think that, but no! There was a FAT FREE 1 POINT HOT DOG out there! I was glad that a member challenged the leader by asking about all of the crap you'd put in your body by eating a fat free hot dog, but the leader took the easy way out. She said WW isn't here to tell you what to eat because that is up to you. They are simply here to help you know what you can eat and stay within your points. I thought that was a rather specious answer. As a leader, I would assume she is there partly to provide a healthy example of the way to maintain your weight loss. Apparently not.