From skwigg's journal:
“The goal of eating a meal isn't to still feel kind of hungry at the end!”
Yes! I was right there with you, stopping at neutral, not full. My only concept of full was binge-stuffed. Small “appropriate” dieter meals left me still hungry. I tried to just get used to it but I’d walk around ravenous, unable to quit thinking about food. And I wasn’t losing weight doing this, I was 10-15 pounds heavier eating the pseudo meals. Once I was eating enough tasty food to be truly satisfied, to forget all about food for hours, it was like a miracle, like an “off” switch had flipped.
If you think about it, with the diet meals and mindset, I was eating more often and spending more time hungry and thinking about food. So it’s no wonder that wasn’t very effective or sustainable for weight loss. All I wanted to do was eat! With hunger in the off position most of the day, I have plenty of energy and I’m free to focus on other things.