Most of my carbohydrates already come from complex sources, and I'm eating a ton of protein. Plus I'm limiting my carbs to breakfast and lunch. I am working in an occassional "cheat" meal. I need that to keep me sane!

Thanks! I'll try and add some more healthy fats in to see if that helps.

Think about this...when you are at your lowest level of motivation, and when its seems really difficult to keep going, that is when you are at the beginning of a true breakthrough. If you continue down the road you've begun you will see the results. If it were easy everyone would be slim and trim! Its not easy, but during the times when your motivation is really high and you are rolling along, keep in mind that the difficult days will be there, but that just means you are that much closer to seeing a real change!

So I've been focusing on techniques and foods to increase my metabolism to aid in overall fat loss, including working out in first thing in the morning, eating small meals many times a day, etc. I lost five pounds last week, so I assume it is working. However a side effect of this is now I am ALWAYS hungry. I'm getting more than enough calories for my basic requirements, but it seems like 30 mins to an hour after I've eaten something I'm starving again! I used to go all day without eating and then eat one big meal (which I know is very unhealthy!) Anyone else having this problem?

As previously stated you are ALWAYS burning calories 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, even when we are sleeping. You are burning calories even if you are in a coma. The amount of calories you burn when doing "nothing" is called your basal metabolic rate which is determined by approximation according your weight. This is the amount of "energy" you expend even when you are only "breathing, digesting, metabolizing, growing new cells, defending against infection, circulating your blood" as Rahm stated. Without these calculations for resting and sleeping there is no way to calculate the real amount of energy you need in a day to sustain you and make sure you are meeting your basic nutritional requirements.

The resting and sleeping are to calculate the calories you are burning even when you aren't doing anything. You are always burning calories even when you aren't doing anything physical. To get a more accurate number of the total amount of calories you burn in a 24 hour period you have to include the calories burned for the entire day.