But you didn't need to go hungry. Folks lose weight by caloric restriction and fill up on a lot of fruits and (non-starchy) vegetables. Some folks have luck with legumes and beans and filling foods. Some folks snack and don't have meals.
And the experience of hunger changes, too! Sometimes, in the same person and definitely between folks.
Examples: I used to smoke. Nicotine is an excellent appetite suppressant, and honestly made it easier to lose weight.
High stress can make me lose most of my appetite or do the opposite.
I menstruate. A few days each month, I have indescribable hunger. It is hormone driven, and unlike other hungers I've experienced. Suddenly, I feel like I've skipped meals. It consumes me. I can't do anything about it, but if I eat a little, I can go back to paying attention to other things.
Not me personally, but there are a number of drugs that increase your appetite, too.
Again, the point really is that hunger isn't as simple as "you'll be slightly hungry most of the time".
What we call "hunger" is just habit of eating food regularly. You can untrain yourself, just like with any other habit.
I wonder if it's worthwhile to find some compelling distraction-- the equivalent of "I'm grudgingly coming to the table and slamming the least amount of food possible so I can get back to my task" sort of thing. If I'm at my desk away from food sources, I'm not consuming calories.
Does this assume the body expends a constant amount of energy, or do you actually work out until the deficit level is achieved?
Because for most people trying to lose weight, the struggle is not only to reduce calories in, but in preventing the body from being more thrifty with those calories...