[sokoloff]

Sometimes feeling hungry is ok and likely healthy. Always feeling hungry is brutal.

For me, low carb works like magic and with limited aggravation once past the first week. The problem is, if I never learn to be (sometimes) hungry, it all comes apart when I go off the diet and back to living in the land of infinite crap carbs.

[taneq]

You should spend some of each day feeling at least a bit hungry. If you're not hungry when you sit down for a meal, you've eaten too much already.

There's a huge difference between "a bit hungry" and actually properly hungry. Most people with weight problems probably never let themselves feel more than peckish, and so their perception of hunger adjusts to amplify that feeling. When I'm below my target weight (sitting at a fairly low body fat percentage) and I try to maintain a calorie deficit, the hunger I start feeling is insanely more intense than when I'm a bit chubby and losing weight.

[peteretep]

Yah. I think the biggest thing for me has been learning that I feel two distinct types of hunger, and also getting more in touch with feeing full/hungry in a way that the rush I get from eating carbs seems to hide.

Overeating without white carbs just feels uncomfortable and I rarely do it. The rush I get from pizza or fries (which I hadn’t identified until I stopped) masks that discomfort.

[tracker1]

The always hungry thing is generally why severe calorie deprevation doesn't work in the long run. Pretty much everyone gains it all and then some in a 5year term.