Recent increase in hunger

Whitezombiegirl

Hi All
My question is about a recent increase in hunger.
Background: 5ft0, female- eating about 1150 per day (accurately weighed). No exercise at moment due to painful sciaticaBeen controlling calories for 17 weeks now, losing approx. 1lb per week. I’m 4lbs away from target of 105 lbs (my usual weight- I know it’s just a number but I’m attached to it for personal reasons)

Question: Since hitting approx. 19% body fat (on home scale) my hunger has gone through the roof and I’m exhausted all the time (past 2-3 weeks) I’ve tried increasing daily calories to 1200 and I’m still hungry (maintenance is approx. 1300 without exercise). I ate over 2000 cals on Saturday- as a sort of ‘re-feed’ to see if that made any difference in my energy levels- nope.

I’m currently maintaining rather than losing, so my question is – do you think my increased hunger is due to my body resisting the lower body fat levels? And should I just ignore it? Or do you think it’s something else? (Hormonal maybe) What would MFP do?

Thanks, WZG.

geelloyd

I agree, I think it is due to lower body fat levels. I am 5'4 and weighed 8 stone 7 when I began dieting, and I dropped down to 8 stone 5 but my hunger went through the roof. I believe it is to do with a sudden decrease in body fat as your body becomes overwhelmed with lack of food storage and you have no energy to feed on. Since this has happened, I've been eating more as I'm constantly exhausted and it's led me back up to 8 stone 10 unfortunately. My advice would be, continue eating consistently but maybe try small meals every so often as opposed to 3 meals a day as this will provide something more filling and decrease your hunger. Just a thought. Or perhaps try eating more slow releasing energy foods. Stress is also a huge factor in this, so it could be considered. If problem persists over the next few weeks I would suggest popping into the doctors.

crazyjerseygirl

I'm much bigger than you (in all aspects) but this has happened to me twice. Once was when I was refusing to eat back any workout calories (I eat back a few now). The second was when I was getting a cold.

I know that doesn't help you much. But your problem might be more acute than you think so keep the idea on the back burner! I hope your siatica feels better soon!

Whitezombiegirl

Thanks Girls.

I have been dealing with stress recently- plus I've been eating more carbs than usual. I think I'll keep eating at a sensible defecit, increase nmy protein intake and hopefully the hunger will subside. It's not as though I've never been 105lbs before - so hopefully my body will remember and get used to it again.

splashtree5

You should be at least at 1400 that is already a good calories restrictions and for example if you workout you should loose weight very fast...anyway after that just try to eat more veggie or introduce legumes.

wanttobefit300

Are you eating enough protein, fat and fiber? All of these make you feel full and keep away hunger.

MSDave

You could also have a metabolic imbalance brought on by a medical condition. If it doesn't change soon, you might want to see your doctor and have blood chemistry tests done. I had low thyroid and didn't even know it, but was tired all the time.