How Hungry Are You?

meg7117
meg7117 Posts: 42 Member
edited November 16 in Health and Weight Loss
Do your caloric deficits leave you feeling hungry or satisfied? I'm at 1780 cals per day and they leave me feeling a little hungry at the end of the day. My exercise is pretty high though. I'm just curious!

Replies

  • IsaackGMOON
    IsaackGMOON Posts: 3,358 Member
    I was losing weight on 1800 calories a day and I was rarely hungry.
  • ArkMom35
    ArkMom35 Posts: 225 Member
    If I make good choices with my calories I feel satisfied, but if I spend the day making bad choices I'm sometimes hungry. Are you eating back some of your exercise calories? I aim to eat back 50-75% of them.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,619 Member
    meg7117 wrote: »
    Do your caloric deficits leave you feeling hungry or satisfied? I'm at 1780 cals per day and they leave me feeling a little hungry at the end of the day. My exercise is pretty high though. I'm just curious!

    I'm at 1250 a day ... and when I don't exercise, I'm hungry.

    But thank goodness for exercise, because it gives me some extra calories to use. :)

    Today I did an 11.7 km hike which gave me about 550 extra calories. That's about 1800 cals which is more than enough. I've only eaten about 1600 cals today, and I'm feeling satisfied, not hungry.

  • Jgasmic
    Jgasmic Posts: 219 Member
    I am not often hungry on 1,550 calories per day (as a 5'3" female) except when my meals are running late, or I'm bored. But boredom isn't actually hunger so I just look for a thread on the forums with the word "detox" or " X diet" in it and that usually resolves that. :p
  • meg7117
    meg7117 Posts: 42 Member
    I aim to eat back around 75% but sometimes just end up eating them all back.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,619 Member
    ArkMom35 wrote: »
    If I make good choices with my calories I feel satisfied, but if I spend the day making bad choices I'm sometimes hungry. Are you eating back some of your exercise calories? I aim to eat back 50-75% of them.

    Good point ... it is about good choices. I'm quickly discovering that if I eat this food, I'm hungry soon after and it just isn't worth it ... but it I eat that food, I'm satisfied longer.

  • AmazonMayan
    AmazonMayan Posts: 1,168 Member
    edited April 2015
    On a day when I make less than nutritious choices, I make sure I have a nice big chunk of something protein filled at the end of the day. Usually, that's a chicken breast or some other nice hunk of meat. Calories do go over and I try to have exercise cover at least some of it, but usually protein is the only macro I'm suffering too low on days I'm not eating the best choices.

    I do eat back some or most of my exercise calories. I also adjust the exercise calories burned to a lower number when I enter into MFP since I think burned estimates can run a little high even with my heart rate monitor.

    edited because apparently I need more coffee this morning to make sense lol
  • FoxyMars25
    FoxyMars25 Posts: 112 Member
    I aim to eat around 1700 a day. I workout 6 days a week. And I am always hungry to the point where I am miserable sometimes. I eat protein (eggs, chicken, turkey), lots of veggies and fruit, try to stay away from white bread/potatoes, stay away from sugary sweets, drink water and coffee and green tea. I don't know what my issue is.
  • SergeantSausage
    SergeantSausage Posts: 1,673 Member
    When I'm losing a pound or less a week, not much at all.

    When I lose three or more a week ... keep your distance- stay away. I will rip your arm off and eat it right there. I have contemplated how flavorful a couch cushion would taste in that state.

    I'm currently down to about a quarter to a third pound a week ... so ZERO hunger.

    If you're hungry all the time, you're probably doin' it wrong. Slow that sh|t down, right?
  • cavia
    cavia Posts: 457 Member
    I'm hungry whether I'm cutting(2K cals), maintaining(2.7K cals) or bulking(3K cals). Weirdly, I'm hungriest when I'm bulking.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,619 Member
    FoxyMars25 wrote: »
    I aim to eat around 1700 a day. I workout 6 days a week. And I am always hungry to the point where I am miserable sometimes. I eat protein (eggs, chicken, turkey), lots of veggies and fruit, try to stay away from white bread/potatoes, stay away from sugary sweets, drink water and coffee and green tea. I don't know what my issue is.

    Do you eat grains? When I started I craved bread ... and found that a slice of bread with a little bit of cheese went a long way toward feeling full. Whole wheat crackers helped too.

  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
    Eat more protein and fats, as they keep you sated longer.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    For me it totally depends on where I am in my menstrual cycle, pretty much. Some days I could be full at 1300 calories, some days I'm starving until I eat 2600. My goal is 1800 (to lose .75 lb a week) but it's low on purpose to make up for the days when I eat more - because I WILL eat all my calories, even if I'm not hungry (typically in the form of sweets, which prevents me from binging later). That includes exercise.

    I'm only 2 pounds from my goal weight (might be closer now, I haven't weighed in ages), and I've been hungrier the closer I get.
  • DeguelloTex
    DeguelloTex Posts: 6,652 Member
    Sometimes I'm hungry first thing in the morning, but it fades. Once I start eating for the day, I'm almost never hungry for the rest of the day.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,427 MFP Moderator
    Even on 2500 calories a day with 90g of fat, 30-50g of fiber and 160-180g of protein, I am hungry quite often. But I am sure it doesn't help that I lift like a beast.
  • rockmama72
    rockmama72 Posts: 815 Member
    I've been going to bed with hunger pangs but I'm not sure it's not psychological. I'm used to a bowl of cereal every night and I'm trying to kick that habit.
  • zamphir66
    zamphir66 Posts: 582 Member
    Rarely if ever do I feel hunger that I'm unable to deal with by simply eating something.

    I don't think it a coincidence that making just slightly better food choices throughout the day makes it pretty easy for me to stay at 2K calories. Whereas some of my previous habits had me consuming more but feeling less satisfied.
  • AlabasterVerve
    AlabasterVerve Posts: 3,171 Member
    I'm not hungry. I let myself get hungry before I eat but I usually always eat until I'm completely full and satisfied. I also still have weight to lose though so I don't know if that's going to always be the case.
  • shadowfax_c11
    shadowfax_c11 Posts: 1,942 Member
    Generally I am a little hungry but it's not so bad that I can't ignore it. When I am working I usually start to get uncomfortably hungry by a bout 10:30-11 am. I try to spread the calories out over the day (three meals/three snacks) so every time my stomach is starting to think about feeling hungry it gets a little something. That helps keep the mad hunger pains at bay. This has been a tricky week since the hormone hungriness has also been rearing it's head.
  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,149 Member
    I'm not hungry on 1840 calories, but I'm not satisfied/satiated either.
  • Leana088
    Leana088 Posts: 581 Member
    I eat 1500 when I exercise and 1350 when I don't, this gives me a 250 calorie deficit about.

    Sounds little, but I'm a little person :trollface:

    Usually I'm not hungry on it. If I'm too hungry I eat up to maintenance or drink loads of water, tea and coffee.
  • 4legsRbetterthan2
    4legsRbetterthan2 Posts: 19,590 MFP Moderator
    I eat 1600+ exercise, and usually feel good.

    Don't be afraid to play around with you meal timing and macros to find what works best for you. Two things that helped me alot were
    1. Not eating breakfast for several hours after I wake up. Eating early just makes me hungry, if I don't eat until 9 or 10 I am just fine (wake up at 5).
    2. Increasing my protein. When I eat 70+grams a day I feel more full than when I eat less.

    TOM just sucks no matter what I do, but that only lasts about 4 days for me so not the end of the world if I lean more towards maintenance those days.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    I'm not hungry and haven't been throughout this process. As someone else said, certainly I might get hungry before I eat, but I don't feel like I'm any more hungry than I was before watching my calories or that I end the day hungry.

    I'm a volume eater, though, so just put lots of veggies on my plate and that takes care of physical hunger. My bigger problem is struggling with the emotional eating stuff, which can present as a feeling of hunger or that you need to eat.
  • vivmom2014
    vivmom2014 Posts: 1,649 Member
    I'm eating at 1700, about to raise it to 1800 (plus exercise calories, of course.) I always want more food. Especially chocolate. (Well, who else is going to eat all this half price Easter candy?!)
  • FoxyMars25
    FoxyMars25 Posts: 112 Member
    Machka9 wrote: »

    Do you eat grains? When I started I craved bread ... and found that a slice of bread with a little bit of cheese went a long way toward feeling full. Whole wheat crackers helped too.

    Yes, I will eat one slice of ezekiel bread with my breakfast and sometimes lunch will be a high fiber, low carb whole grain wrap (with turkey, spinach, and hummus). Then occasionally I will eat brown rice or quinoa, but that isn't very often.
  • lowcarber87
    lowcarber87 Posts: 31 Member
    Liftng4Lis wrote: »
    Eat more protein and fats, as they keep you sated longer.
    This is so true! I don't eat carbs and am never hungry or have sugar cravings.
  • RockstarWilson
    RockstarWilson Posts: 836 Member
    edited April 2015
    It is very hard for me to eat over my calorie allowance, even if I try. If you asked me to eat to and past my maintenance intake, you have to get me high first to see it happen on my diet. The spikes in my avatar are for weight gain, and those periods of weight gain were when I went off diet and didn't track calories or macros.

    For perspective, I am at a 500cal/day deficit, so a 0 reading each day theoretically should yield a 2 lb per week weight loss. Often, I leave hundreds of calories in the green. Also, I am 28, male, 195ish and I am pretty active.

    eating the way I do leaves me full for 8+ hours, without hunger. When I finally do get hungry, I can still sustain for a few more hours. Sometimes, I don't even have to eat back the exercise calories, and my workouts are colossal (up and over 1000 calories an hour, usually). My breakfast in the afternoon is usually colossal as well, about 1100-1400 calories.

    Fats are more calorie dense, but they keep you satiated. I eat a bunch of saturated fats (60+% of fat intake, or 80-100 grams), so I cannot speak for all the plant fats, like in beans or avocados. The sodium provides me with abundant muscle movement; I never stop workouts due to a lack of electrolytes. Have perfect bloodwork as of March 2.

    Bottom line....if you eat more carbs, you will have more mealtimes because you get hungry quicker. If you eat more fats, you will be satiated for longer periods of time, and hunger will not be a major factor in when you eat. That is my personal opinion based on analysis of personal experience.
  • steffenson
    steffenson Posts: 312 Member
    I am almost always a little bit hungry even with fats being 70-75% of my diet (currently starting week 5 of a Keto diet) and I am eating 3,375 cal per day!!! (and have LOST 9lb in the last month). I am currently 6'4" 182lb@ 10% body fat.
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