Feeling hungrier as I get closer to my goal.

tmarple93

So in February I was 146 pounds. (5'8 female, small frame) I've been really great at logging my food and I've managed to get down to 138 pounds. It's a new low weight for me and my end goal is 130 pounds. I've been losing a little over half a pound a week and eating around 1550 calories a day.

I haven't had really any issues with hunger as I fill up on big salads and lots of veggies, and lean protein. I also try to make sure I get enough fat but if anything, that's the one I usually come in under.

These past couple weeks though I've just had a way bigger appetite then usual. I thought it was due from my period but my period is over now and my appetite is still raging. I've been able to stay consistent with calories and have just been dealing with the hunger and trying to drink extra water and tea but nothing seems to be helping.

Anybody else go through this as they get closer to their goal? Will it pass? Is my appetite going to go back to normal? I just wanna feel satisfied but I'm so scared of ruining all my hard work and progress.

annamaple

This is happening to me as well. I'm only 2ish pounds from my goal weight but the last few weeks I've been hungrier than any other point in my life (and this is after a year of steady weight loss with MFP).

Unfortunately, I can't really speak to whether it will pass. My strategy is to eat more frequently and minimize junk food (which is my weakness but doesn't satisfy my hungry hungry hippo of a stomach for long!)

shadow2soul

That's how it was for me for like the last 10 lbs or so. What I ended up doing was taking a break from eating a deficit for a couple weeks and then do 4 weeks in a small deficit. It definitely made it take a bit longer, but after eating at maintenance for a bit it was easier to go back to a deficit. I stopped eating at a deficit again last week and am now going to just try recomp for a little bit (thinking maybe for the duration of Strong Curves Booty-ful Beginnings 12 week program) and see what happens. Worse case scenario I get impatient and go back to a deficit for the last 5 vanity lbs I wanted to lose.

BellaNor

shadow2soul wrote: »

That's how it was for me for like the last 10 lbs or so. What I ended up doing was taking a break from eating a deficit for a couple weeks and then do 4 weeks in a small deficit. It definitely made it take a bit longer, but after eating at maintenance for a bit it was easier to go back to a deficit. I stopped eating at a deficit again last week and am now going to just try recomp for a little bit (thinking maybe for the duration of Strong Curves Booty-ful Beginnings 12 week program) and see what happens. Worse case scenario I get impatient and go back to a deficit for the last 5 vanity lbs I wanted to lose.

How much below your TDEE did you eat to lose the weight? And how long did it take you to lose the weight? I am new to this and I am impressed with your results!

lista210

This is fairly normal. A bout 6 months ago I was well into fitness. Losing weight and working out. I had noticed after a while my appetite increased. I generally kept my calorie intake at a consistent rate. Ofcourse working out gave leeway to a few more additional calories. I kept it no more than an additional 100 calories more than the original calories allowed for the day. But I was always hungry. I asked a nutritionist about it. This is what he said... Once your body is adjusted to weightloss it maintains a certain metabolic rate. After a while your body begins to raise that metabolic rate. You start burning more calories and faster. This is a very good thing. You can do one of two things... Continue the weightloss and eat the allowed calories per day, or maintain your current weight and eat when hungry but healthy items. Keep saturated and monosaturated fats in check. You know all the bad fats low and good fats on an appropriate level.

So yes it is common and normal it signifies a healthy adjustment in your nutrition.

lasirena624

Interested in this post as I head towards my last twelve pounds before goal weight (down 18lbs so far). This past week I have started to feel very hungry eating just below caloric daily goal.

Francl27

This is why I've been maintaining for 2 years 5 pounds from my goal (which is 130 too). What I was doing before no longer works - I eat more, and I'm hungrier, without having changed my diet. It sucks.

The truth is, I'm not willing to give up my little indulgences (200-300 calories of non filling foods like ice cream or cookies or bread a day) just to lose a couple more pounds. That's just not sustainable for me, especially if I consider that I'll have to eat less to maintain my weight anyway if I actually lose it. What sucks is that I had NO PROBLEM fitting 300 calories before, and I was eating 1700 calories. Now I eat 2000 in average and if I have even 300 calories of bread, I go to bed hungry.

So I hear you, OP.

Clarewho

Put in very simple terms - as you get closer to goal there is less fat to burn so your body can't access this to make up the shortfall. So it asks for more food instead.

shadow2soul

BellaNor wrote: »

shadow2soul wrote: »

That's how it was for me for like the last 10 lbs or so. What I ended up doing was taking a break from eating a deficit for a couple weeks and then do 4 weeks in a small deficit. It definitely made it take a bit longer, but after eating at maintenance for a bit it was easier to go back to a deficit. I stopped eating at a deficit again last week and am now going to just try recomp for a little bit (thinking maybe for the duration of Strong Curves Booty-ful Beginnings 12 week program) and see what happens. Worse case scenario I get impatient and go back to a deficit for the last 5 vanity lbs I wanted to lose.

How much below your TDEE did you eat to lose the weight? And how long did it take you to lose the weight? I am new to this and I am impressed with your results!

It took me 4 years. When I first started losing weight at my heaviest (2012), I was guessing at what I was doing and restricted way to much. I wasn't using MFP or any other calorie counting thing. My food choices though were very limited and I'm positive it wasn't healthy. I lost pretty fast for 6 months, then maintained for a couple, but when the holidays hit that year I ended up gaining back about 20 of what I lost. During that time period was when I found MFP and I didn't start using the app until March 2013.

I found that at first with MFP I was losing around 3 lbs a week which tapered into 2lbs per week about 6 weeks in (since I don't know how much was water weight at first, I'll just say my deficit was probably around 1000 calories a day at the time). I started using a Fitbit and a food scale in I want to say April or May that year. As the summer went on my deficit slowly decreased until that fall were it was getting close to 1.5 lb per week loss (750 calories a day). Overall though, from March to September my average loss was 1.8 lbs per week (about a 900 calorie a day deficit). So while I started losing fast, when it slowed down my rate of loss put me at just under the 2lb per week max recommendation.

I found out I was pregnant with my second in September and stopped counting. I gained 40 lbs with the pregnancy, but lost it all by the time he was 6/7 months old in 2014. Between July 2014 - Dec 31, 2014, I averaged 1.4 lbs per week loss which is about a 716 calorie deficit per day. From Jan 2015 - July 1, 2015, I averaged 0.9 lbs per week loss which is about a 484 calorie deficit per day. From July 2015 - Dec 31, 2015, I averaged 0.42 lbs per week loss which is about a 250 calorie deficit per day.

I slipped up in January (didn't log accurately) and ended up gaining 2-3 lbs with a trend app predicting a continued gain of 1lb per week if I didn't straighten up. Fixed that in Feb, maintained in March and lost about 1.2 lbs in April (about 150 calorie deficit per day when averaged out).

kshama2001

tmarple93 wrote: »

So in February I was 146 pounds. (5'8 female, small frame) I've been really great at logging my food and I've managed to get down to 138 pounds. It's a new low weight for me and my end goal is 130 pounds. I've been losing a little over half a pound a week and eating around 1550 calories a day.

I haven't had really any issues with hunger as I fill up on big salads and lots of veggies, and lean protein. I also try to make sure I get enough fat but if anything, that's the one I usually come in under.

These past couple weeks though I've just had a way bigger appetite then usual. I thought it was due from my period but my period is over now and my appetite is still raging. I've been able to stay consistent with calories and have just been dealing with the hunger and trying to drink extra water and tea but nothing seems to be helping.

Anybody else go through this as they get closer to their goal? Will it pass? Is my appetite going to go back to normal? I just wanna feel satisfied but I'm so scared of ruining all my hard work and progress.

Lyle McDonald talks about women who are close to goal needing diet breaks. I don't remember for how long. I've heard women here talking about eating at maintenance for a week and then going back to dieting.

This video is long; I watched it while doing yoga warmups:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6846ZTBu08k&index=4&list=PLUXvX9BaxgqG9yO5XWB3gA_QshvrrcjVr

Maybe also eat at maintenance when you are premenstrual and shoot for a lower weekly weight loss goal.

tmarple93

Thanks everybody! Glad to know I'm not the only one going through it! I think I'm gonna try upping my calories a bit this week and see if that seems to help. It's just a dumb becuase I'm really happy with where I'm at, I just need to lose a few more pounds to hopefully get rid of my belly and saddlebags. When I finally decide to shift into maintenence I wanna start weight training but for now I really wanna get these last few pounds off.

murp4069

I'm definitely hungrier too, I'm about 8 lbs away from my goal. I'm really glad I stumbled on this thread, thanks for the advice everyone.

Gamliela

Well, I don't think I am a special snowflake but I didn't experience hunger very often while a lost 70 pounds. It was in second year maintenance when I blipped up 10 pounds and so then started to increase excersize instead of reduce calories trying to losethat 10 -- it was then I began to get really really hungry. So I quit the extra excersize and just kept my normal yoga and extensive hill walking I had been doing. I reduced calories a little steeper than I probably should have to lose those 10 pounds and after that loss back down to my goal weight the next 3 years of mainteance were hunger filled ones. The only relief from the constant hunger even on the same maintenance calories I had maintained on before that, were weekends we would travel and I would just eat freely, then during the week get back on track. I never really solved it and so after three years began eating above my tdee accepting that I would gain up to the weight those calories set me at. Its the only way Icould figure out to stop the extreme hunger I was feeling.

Clarewho

Also OP, you're a good weight for your height and you're talking about wanting to lose in certain areas. Perhaps recomp would work for you?

ilex70

I think all I've got to offer here is company. Still want to lose about 20, but big increase in appetite lately. I'm hoping it is just PMS, but thinking maybe not since I didn't have my usual drop in appetite this month. Sigh...

Kicking around taking a break next week, but then kind of don't want to either.

Mouse_Potato

So, it's not just me. I am also about 7-8 pounds from my UGW and I am always hungry. ALWAYS!! I've tried every trick offered here. More protein, more fat, more fiber, more calories. Nothing works. I eat close to 2000 calories a day (5'3.5" and 123 pounds) and I am *still* hungry! I was not hungry like this when I was 20 pounds heavier.

perkymommy

I am about 10 lbs from my goal right now (it fluctuates week to week) and I am stuck right now. I lost the 25 lbs in less than two months so I just try my best at this point. Main thing is that I don't want to go back to where I was! Hopefully it will start coming off for us both very soon!

cavia

I experience an increase in hunger whenever I try to get below 143lbs (5'7"). They are definitely vanity pounds and if I don't succeed and revert to maintenance I won't be upset. I just want abs. My body wants chocolate. #thestruggleisreal

kshama2001

tmarple93 wrote: »

Thanks everybody! Glad to know I'm not the only one going through it! I think I'm gonna try upping my calories a bit this week and see if that seems to help. It's just a dumb becuase I'm really happy with where I'm at, I just need to lose a few more pounds to hopefully get rid of my belly and saddlebags. When I finally decide to shift into maintenence I wanna start weight training but for now I really wanna get these last few pounds off.

I recommend weight training now. See The New Rules of Lifting for Women: Lift Like a Man, Look Like a Goddess which was available through my library system, so perhaps yours as well.