Theory on maintenance intake

moe0303

So I was thinking about this over the weekend:
If our bodies are adjusted to using fat as the primary fuel source, and we get some of that fuel from our stored reserves, it stands to reason that we may need to increase our fat intake as we get closer to our goal weight. Now, the first hole in my theory that crossed my mind is that we will require less fuel as our bodies reach our goal weight. But what if we just underestimated our needs? If we had sufficient fat stores, it kind of makes sense that we wouldn't be hungry, but if our fat is depleted, our body may send hunger signals to meet its fat demand. So when we reach maintenance phase we may be experiencing a lot more hunger than before. What do y'all think?

Disclaimer: No research was done for this, it's just my own personal preponderance.

macchiatto

Hm.
I have no idea, but I will say that I personally got a lot more hungry once I was within a couple pounds of maintenance. Not sure why though.

FIT_Goat

My hunger rose, but my calories rose to match it. My calories rose slightly until they balanced out at a comfortable point. I am rarely hungry now, although I eat a lot more.

wabmester

No additional hunger that I noticed. But Phinney and Volek share your theory -- as long as you want to stay ketogenic.

erinseattle

I am hungry often. I hit my maintenance weight but really have no idea if I will stay there or lose another few pounds - I'm trying to eat when hungry, but I am having a bit of a challenge with increasing my intake.

@wabmester and @FIT_Goat how did you decide you were at a place you wanted to maintain?

Sunny_Bunny_

I had been feeling that way at one point once I got within 12-15 pounds to goal. But, I cut artificial sweetener and stopped adding HWC to my morning coffee and the hunger went right back like it was when I started Keto.
I do think the idea makes sense. And it should really. I mean, we are losing weight and as the body gets to a point where there's not a whole lot left to spare, I think it would self regulate to keep from losing unless you specifically work against it.

wabmester

erinseattle wrote: »

I am hungry often. I hit my maintenance weight but really have no idea if I will stay there or lose another few pounds - I'm trying to eat when hungry, but I am having a bit of a challenge with increasing my intake.

@wabmester and @FIT_Goat how did you decide you were at a place you wanted to maintain?

I originally had a goal of "normal" BMI. But then @FIT_Goat launched his first month-long challenge. It was a no-logging challenge. So I stopped logging for a month, and I was still losing weight. After that, I just logged occasionally as a sanity check, but my weight loss was on auto-pilot.

The auto-pilot landed about 10lbs below my goal weight, and it's been hovering around there ever since.

So no logging -- neither calories nor carb. It was purely determined by hunger-driven eating while eliminating grains and too-tasty foods (like pizza!).

When I say there wasn't any additional hunger once I hit maintenance, the only thing I really have to go by is that my weight has been stable. Also, the occasional sanity-check logging confirms that my caloric intake has been pretty stable too.

V_Keto_V

Wab, your pie charts on "build" seems to be that elusive spot that is so hard to reach; that slight caloric deficit that leads to improved body composition without that dreaded gym bro stigma of being catabolic/"you're doing too much cardio, your muscles will waste away...". Just below overendulging on fat

macchiatto

@wabmester can you tell me more about the no-logging challenge? I am tempted to try that and see what happens, but I don't want to go off the rails. Did you weigh frequently to make sure you were staying on track?

wabmester

macchiatto wrote: »

@wabmester can you tell me more about the no-logging challenge? I am tempted to try that and see what happens, but I don't want to go off the rails. Did you weigh frequently to make sure you were staying on track?

To be fair, it was supposed to be a no-calorie-counting challenge. Most people still logged their food and counted carbs, but I wanted to use it as a test-run of what maintenance would be like, so I didn't count or log anything.

Everybody still weighed themselves and checked-in weekly, but I think you really need to let it run for a full month to know whether it'll work for you. Personally, I gained during the first week (due to eating out for a few days at restaurants during vacation), but by the end of the month, my average weight loss was the same as it had been the prior month when I had carefully logged all my food.

The fun part of low-carb is that there's still a lot of mystery about how it works. Do you need to count calories? Can you dial-in a rate of weight loss by changing your carb intake? Does eating more fat help you burn more body fat?

What really matters is how it works for YOU. Experiment.

annalisbeth74

Omg. Light bulb moment! This totally explains why I am so much hungrier now since I hit the 50 lb mark (20-ish to go). I need to up my fat intake, because I have less of it to fuel my body.

Thanks for the pie chart, @wabmester! You are always so helpful.

macchiatto

Thanks, @wabmester! I think I'll give it a try, maybe in a couple of months.