MAINTANCE AND SUDDENLY REALLY HUNGRY

sharon9597

hi
I'm only small, 5ft and lost 7lb in 8 weeks by sticking to around 1000 cals per day and reached goal of 7stone 12lb 3 days ago. After a lifetime of yo yo dieting & finding it harder and harder to loose weight I was determined this time to get to right way, get fit and healthy and stay there! So joined MFP, got a fitbit and started huge amounts of walking. So I walk to and from work every day (6miles round trip), several other weekly walks and any where from 15 - 20mile walks at weekends over pretty rough terrain as now in training for 29 mile charity hike in June. So fitbit weekly reports over last 8 weeks tell me I've been in calorie deficit of between 7000. - 10000 each week so according to the maths I should of been loosing at leat 3lb each week but only lost a lb each week, which shows I'm pretty metabolically resistant! ( understandable from years of yo yo diets and now post menopause).

Anyway now I'm finally at goal MFP and fitbit both give me a maintance of around 1350 each day, set from sedentary activity level. As I wear Fitbit each day it will add extra calories to this according to how much exercise I've done that actual day, which I figure is a better way than just calculating TDEE which can change each day depending on activity. So generally Fitbit says my actual calorie burn is anywhere from 1700 - 2000 per day.

So here's the thing, I've now upped my calories to around 1300 per day with the idea of gradually increasing up to somewhere near what I'm burning with the hope that I can repair the metabolic damage and be able to eat at least somewhere near what I'm supposed to be burning (with the help of all this exercise that I didn't do before) without putting weight back on.
So far no weight has come back on, which is great but I am suddenly really hungry all the time! I'm eating same foods (mostly plant based, whole grains, veg, beans etc) as have been but more of them plus a couple of snacks a day. Eg used to eat small bowl porridge for breakfast which kept me full untill my lunch at 12 and now eat larger bowl porridge plus tbs ground flaxseeds, tbs bran and 100g fresh berries and really hungry by 11am! Then the same pattern with rest of meals, bigger meals and hungry quicker!

Does anyway have any concrete reasons for this? Before you all say well 1300 calories is not a lot for all that walking - I know, my point is, I've been doing all the same walking on only 1000 calories a day with virtually no hunger issues.

Sorry such a long post and thanks for reading

livingleanlivingclean

Your metabolism is starting to speed up and adapting to the higher cals? I noticed that reverse dieting.... You would probably be able to increase your cals a bit...

Springfield1970

Look up Leptin.

leighplymale

You don't say so but you seem to be vegetarian. I am more a low carb diet, the reason I state this is I consume 40grams + of protein per day. If I don't the hunger is a problem. Are you taking in enough protein? Drink protein shakes for low calorie high protein "fixes". You'll have to find your own way if determined to stay vegetarian but it sounds like to many carbs to me. :-)

sharon9597

I don't eat any meat or dairy but do eat eggs from my own rescue hens and occasionally fish. Yes I'm staying this way for ethical reasons and at my GP medical visits I'm much healthier than I was. Yes I get plenty of protein, always hitting MFP goals and usually more! (People don't seem to understand that beans, lentils, soya, whole grains etc have large amounts of protein).

As said, have been eating way less (so less protein also) with virtually no hunger and find it strange and unexpected to suddenly feel so hungry!

Carbs also aren't particularly high (about 40%) as I eat very little bread, potatoes and starchy carbs but more salads, loads of veg, beans and whole grains like brown rice, Cous Cous, barely and wholemeal pasta.

Thanks for thoughts though - I will look up leptin and doesale sence that hopefully metabolism is going up, especially with all the walking!

patrikc333

just a feedback on fitbit, I find it overestimating a lot my calories burn for walks (but not for runs, that is pretty much spot on with my garmin HRM). I don't eat fitbit calories back, I just rely on MFP - according to fitbit I have a deficit of ~5k calories per week, but I am finally in maintenance with a MFP deficit of ~100 calories per day. when my deficit was ~3,5k/week (MFP deficit), I was losing the expected weight. So I'm pretty sure fitbit is overestimating my calories burn for walks (nothing has changed so far in terms of logging/weighting food etc)

sharonsuewv

Be careful of the whole wheat pasta and brown rice. They contain Lots of carbs and should be limited.

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

After restricting to 1000 calories per day it's normal to get extremely hungry. Your body needs nutrients. I'm kinda surprised you made it 8 weeks tbh.

yapdog

Hello! I'm glad you have shared this info on new found HUNGER! Lol I'm experiencing the same thing I have been maintaining my weight within 5lbs for a year but still had all goals set to lose. So 3 weeks ago I updated my goal weight (which was out of date lol) and my excercise goals etc to maintainence with a slight deficit just to keep me right. And now with my new calorie goal I have been adding 100 per day for most days of the week. I am so hungry more than ever!!! I think I have woken up my metabolism or something. I eat a good mixture of carbs fat and protein so I don't think that the hunger u or I are experiencing is from eating too many carbs.

LivingtheLeanDream

ILiftHeavyAcrylics wrote: »

After restricting to 1000 calories per day it's normal to get extremely hungry. Your body needs nutrients. I'm kinda surprised you made it 8 weeks tbh.

^^ this ...its your body trying to get you to fuel it more.
Up your protein and you'll feel satisfied.
Up your cals to around 1400 for a few weeks and then another few hundred. If you are now active your TDEE will be a good bit higher.
Fitbit is never actually far away for me but as a rule take 5% off their total and that'll be more realistic.
I'm only 2" taller than you, very active, 45yrs and maintain in 2100-2300 cals. I average 20k steps a day/ at least half are ran.

It takes time to figure maintenance, I'm 8 months in and finally feel I've got it figured

cwolfman13

Springfield1970 wrote: »

Look up Leptin.

sharon9597

Ok so the hunger has settled down a bit today and I have upped the calories to 1450. As said I walk different amounts each day so one day Fitbit says my total burn is only 1700 but the next it may be over 2000. Allowing for Fitbit to be a little over in its estimate I don't want to up my calories too high too soon as we're constantly told on here to add calories at maintance gradually. I've added 400 a day in less than a week! Yapdog I agree it's not from too many carbs, I limit grains to only a small portion each day and my daily carbs total is usually about 40% I also get plenty of protein and fats (always higher than minimum recommendations). I think it's as you say, after restricting to low calories, which has dampened the metabolism, it's now being woken back up! I have read up on Leptin and it certainly seems to support that idea.