Ok, so since I've really gotten into eating right and working out. I've learned that my body asks for food about every 3 hours. I was wondering if anyone knew if it's caused b/c I'm eating smaller portions or something else?

 Thanks!

With me being on the 1800/60 program - my portions are anything but small.  Well ... small but maybe more of a selection in one meal :)

Are you following the calorie / fat gram program suggested to you from Alli ?

I am following as best I can. I do fill up faster so I stop eating as soon as I get full, resulting in smaller portions. I have no problem eating small portions, I just eat more frequently.

I have read a few things on diet and from what I understand you are supposed to eat several small portions through out the day, it keeps you metabolism going and helps you loose weight faster. Good Luck!

I went to a class with a dietician and she said to eat 25% of your calories at each meal, then split the remaining 25% between snacks in the morning and night. 

Tammy

Hi Oncen4all,

There are benefits to eating more often, but the fact that you are hungry every three hours sounds like you need to make some adjustments to your meals. Your meal should hold you over for 4 to 6 hours. That does not mean that you don't have a snack at 3 hours. You may choose to have one to prevent yourself from getting too hungry by the time that you do eat.

Here are the two common causes of getting hungry too soon after your meal:

• Protein - this is the only nutrient that increases your satiety. If you don't get enough protein in your meal you will feel hungry soon after eating. High sources of protein are meat, chicken, turkey, seafood, soy, nuts, tofu, eggs, cheese, beans, peanut butter, and dairy. My recommendation is to get at least 14 grams of protein at each meal. Each ounce of meat has 7 grams of protein. A 3 oz serving of meat is the size of a deck of cards and has 21 grams of protein.
• Volume - there is lots of really great research to support the fact that cutting back on the amount of food that you eat can be a problem. You want to get fewer calories, not less food. It takes a little work but it is really going to make a difference for you. One of the top researchers in this area is Dr. Barbara Rolls. She wrote the book Volumetrics Eating Plan and has a site to look at for more information http://thevolumetricseatingplan.com/. This entire concept is based on energy density. Here is an article on this: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/weight-loss/NU00195

Do these sound like something that could help you?

Betty Kovacs, MS, RD

thank you all for your response. I will try to get more protein in each meal and hopefully that will help. It's getting better though.

 Thanks again!