Losing weight - hunger?

**Lothene** · Posted On: 8/28/2006 9:54pm

If I was back home in Australia this would all be very easy and I wouldn't need to ask - my weight's always stayed the same and I've always just eaten lots of food whenever I felt hungry (but it was always healthy food) and there was no problem. I had wanted to lose a couple of kilos so I could fight at a lower weight without having to cut heaps of weight in the days beforehand.

Trouble is, I'm three months into a homestay with a family in Thailand. We live in a little village in the countryside of Isaan. Basically I eat with the family three times a day (even though they eat a lot of nutrient rich food, almost all of it is fried) and have had a bit of trouble regulating what I eat outside those times too, because since everyone's so excited to have a real life white person in the village, everyone keeps buying me Thai desserts (made from natural stuff like rice, coconut milk, etc but with lots of sugar) which I feel obligated to eat. I think I've taken care of that problem now by telling everyone I'm on a diet and can only eat that stuff once a week, but I can't exactly refuse the food the family gives me for meals. Every fortnight or so we travel into the city, and there are a couple of things I can buy there, like oats, tuna and bread, that I can use to make my own snacks, but it's hard to find much else.

Anyway, the first month I was here I didn't train at all, the second month I found a Muay Thai trainer, and started training a bit with him, but was sick quite a lot. Then just as I was starting to get into things again, I got a bout of food poisoning and something the doctor described as "like cholera, but not cholera" - I lost a lot of weight very quickly (ie I couldn't hold down food), but then put it all back on and more while I was recovering, because I wasn't training, and my body was screaming for food (presumably because it had lost all it's nutrients). I started training again four weeks ago but my fitness has suffered from all this, and I'm 2 or 3 kgs heavier than I was when I got here!

Last night my trainer came to the house to discuss my health and make a plan for my training for the last four weeks of my stay, and he's going to ramp it up now, so everything should start to take care of itself. Basically I'll be running 6k in the morning, followed by weights, then training for 2.5-3 hours in the evening.

I just want to get back into my former shape and level of fitness asap, and then lose more weight from that so that I can fight at a lower weight.

**Torakaka** · Posted On: 8/28/2006 10:00pm

well it sounds like you'll be pretty much set for that as long as you don't get sick again.

edit: and when I wrote a kilo a week I actually meant about a kilo every two weeks.

***JohnnyCache*** · Posted On: 8/28/2006 10:18pm

That sort of mid-afternoon hunger is what things like some fruit or a chickenbreast is for...god only knows how you might get on with that in Thailand, though.

**Torakaka** · Posted On: 8/28/2006 11:44pm

Originally Posted by JohnnyCache

That sort of mid-afternoon hunger is what things like some fruit or a chickenbreast is for...god only knows how you might get on with that in Thailand, though.

very inexpensively

**GIJoe6186** · Posted On: 8/29/2006 1:14am

Back to the comment that you feel hungry but are really just thirsty, has anyone heard of this?

A video where a guy tries to tell us that some people with cancer are just THIRSTY! Theres no cancer little timmy! Your just thirsty! YEAAAA

**wakinonioi** · Posted On: 8/29/2006 2:13am

Originally Posted by Kidspatula

I pretty consistently lose about a kilo a week if I keep a regular diet.

So if you keep a regular diet long enough you will eventually disappear!

**wakinonioi** · Posted On: 8/29/2006 2:15am

Originally Posted by GIJoe6186

Back to the comment that you feel hungry but are really just thirsty, has anyone heard of this?

I think it's back-asswards. If you drink a lot of water you can of course make your stomach feel full and put off the real hunger for a bit, but hungry's hungry.

**Lothene** · Posted On: 8/29/2006 3:05am

I've heard about the thirsty feeling like hungry thing, but in my case that can't be it as I drink insane amounts of water.

**Tef-the-Persian** · Posted On: 8/29/2006 3:08am

The human thirst mechanism is really weak in some people. So people could confuse mild hunger pangs for thirst. Thirst for hunger, though, I think that's not likely. Especially in older people.

Edit: But I have only taken a single nutrition course, so...

**manitobamantis** · Posted On: 8/29/2006 3:10am

check out nutritiondata.com , they have a chart for every food that gives a ratio of "fullness factor" to weight loss and nutrition benefits. i find roughage tends to fill me up good, how guilty can you feel from scarfing a giant ceasar salad? mmm, salad..