Originally posted on Quora as an answer to ‘How do you lose weight while constantly feeling like you are starving?‘

This is a complex issue, but there is hope! Often we focus on calorie reduction to the exclusion of all else, but the type/quality of food and the type of exercise you engage in while trying to lose weight both matter. At the end of the day, the goal is to lose weight but not feel like you are constantly starving. Scroll down below to “The Short Answer” for a quicker answer.

For reference, the calorie reduction I refer to references a pound of fat roughly equating to 3500 calories, so to lose 1 pound per week you would reduce your intake by 500 calories per day. A person who maintains their weight with an intake of 2000 calories would thus need 1500 calories to lose a pound a week.

What makes us feel satiated, or full?

We’ll come back to the calories in a moment, but first – our bodies will feel the most full for the longest by having a combination of fuels: fats, carbs, and protein. There is plenty of argument and discussion on what percentages of each, but you need all of them to feel full as long as possible. This is why full fat yogurt is superior to fat free. A fat free yogurt will often have additional carbs added in the form of sugar which is processed quickly by the body, and it is missing the fat that actually helps you feel full longer!

Does food quality matter?

Imagine you are asked to build an airplane out of Legos. Then you are given a box containing only red 8-dot rectangular Lego blocks. You may come up with something recognizable as the concept of an airplane, but that’s as close as you are likely to get. Without the right building blocks, you can’t build the right components.

Your body needs certain vitamins, minerals, and amino acids to create the hormones, proteins, and various other things it uses to run. Giving your body only any one thing, even if that one thing is otherwise healthy, will not provide all the necessary building blocks. If, even worse, you feed it poor food, then it will continue to lose function over time.

Thus, you need both quality food and a variety of different foods to make your body run most efficiently, and an efficient body is one that feels better, moves more, and in most cases loses weight more readily.

What about exercise?

While we are on the topic, let’s also address exercise. Yes, you do need to have a net calorie reduction to lose weight, but what if instead of that 2000 calorie person eating 500 calories less food, they instead eat 250 calories less food and fit in 2 30-minute walks at a moderate pace and burning about 250 calories? They end up with the same net reduction of 500 calories, but they didn’t restrict eating as much, which often leads to less feelings of hunger.

For most people a walk won’t make them hungry, and this is a good starting point for someone who isn’t used to exercise, and still a good bonus calorie burn even for someone well-trained. Extremely hard workouts can increase hunger, but they are often burning a ton of calories too. Nevertheless, working up to more exercise can have a whole host of additional benefits, but if you are new, just add in some walking.

The Short Answer

Throughout the day you do need a net reduction in calories whether from eating less calories, exercising more, or a combination, but don’t try to drastically cut your calories all at once. Take it slow.

In addition, put together meals that contain a combination of carbs (with as little sugar as possible), fats, and protein so your body will feel full longer.

Then, you want to select foods that are quality sources of those components (carbs, protein, fat). This means greens like salads, meat and protein like fish, eggs, and preferably grass-fed red meats, oils like coconut or olive.

When you choose foods that are high-quality, your body will receive all the building blocks it needs and you will feel better over time.

Other questions? Thoughts about any of this? Let us know in the comments below!

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