The end of frantic, ravenous hunger pangs?

leveejohn

Hi, I'm one week in OMAD and the first week has been a great! One enormously interesting thing I've experienced is the major reduction of hunger pangs. I feel empty during the day, but not particularly hungry. Certainly not ravenous. This especially applies after the third day or so.

Previously hunger pangs ruled my day. Even if I might have been "full" from a meal by any measure, they came anyway. When I say "frantic", that's what it felt like. Sometimes I would have been frantic to eat something. Anything.

I've had some limited success in the past with calorie restriction on multiple meals a day, but the feeling of ravenousness was always right around the corner, threatening to take hold of me to empty a can of peanuts. Or something.

A side effect of this was that I had a fear of hunger pangs. I was actually afraid of feeling hungry. I would feel fear, for example, when packing my lunch for work that if I didn't do it right, at some point in the day I would feel hungry. I was actually somewhat fearful on my first day at work on OMAD, and I would 'hide' from food (finding excuses to be elsewhere when people were eating).

I don't use the term fear lightly. That's exactly what it was. Skipping meals never occurred to me (because you need 3 squares, right?), but even if it had, I'm not sure that I would have had the courage to attempt it without Joe's youtube channel and this group. This gave me the confidence that yes, people actually do this. No, it's not unhealthy.

Thank you all very much for giving my courage.

I love not only the initial weight loss, but the simplicity of OMAD, and the freedom from fear and anxiety about what to eat all day long and how to get it. This is so simple!

But I am curious, what are other people's experiences with hunger pangs? Do they go away for good, or occasionally return?

charlenekapf

Completely relate to this. Intermittent fasting kept me lean for years. Ever since breaking it i've been unable to do it as strictly and have put on a lot of weight. I still had hunger pangs with IF, especially when the coffee from the AM wore off. I would get a little light headed too and that never went away but if I worked out before the coffee wore off, it would also stave my appetite away until around 1-2pm. Chewing gum also helped. IF is awesome. My only problem is once I started eating I couldn't reign in my appetite. I would get used to gorging when breaking the fast and it seemed like I could never get enough food. Most don't have my problem though. Keep it up!

VintageFeline

I don't IF all the time, mostly just on non-workout days (I workout after breakfast and I do better if that's fuelled) but I do find that the more frequently I eat then the more I think about it. The urge to get up and see what else is in the fridge is much much more prevalent on the days I eat more frequently. If I graze it's dangerous. If I am strict and eat fewer but larger meals I can keep control of that urge.

Unknown

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GottaBurnEmAll

I'm not doing OMAD, but I do IF (around 19:5), and yes, I do it to control my appetite. It helps a lot with hunger. I still have days where I'm occasionally "hungrier" and those are usually right before the scale decides to move.

Eating an early breakfast used to turn on my appetite switch for the day, and like you OP, I used to experience that gnawing fear of being out and about and finding myself suddenly hungry with no food to eat. I always carried food with me "just in case". It was awful. Now I don't give it a second thought.

IF'ing and OMAD aren't for everyone, but for those of us for whom they help with appetite regulation, they are brilliant.

RachaelRenk

I'm curious, does anyone follow this OMAD (I had to look that up) or IF style of eating and also strength train?

VintageFeline

RachaelRenk wrote: »

I'm curious, does anyone follow this OMAD (I had to look that up) or IF style of eating and also strength train?

I do. As I said though, on workout days I don't IF though I do still try to keep it to one big meal and breakfast with snacks.

GottaBurnEmAll

RachaelRenk wrote: »

I'm curious, does anyone follow this OMAD (I had to look that up) or IF style of eating and also strength train?

I do. I train after my first meal, in the afternoon, but I don't OMAD.

CattOfTheGarage

What is OMAD? A quick explanation would be really helpful here for people (like me) who haven't heard of it.

leveejohn

RachaelRenk wrote: »

I'm curious, does anyone follow this OMAD (I had to look that up) or IF style of eating and also strength train?

Sorry folks, my noob mistake. I meant to post this in an OMAD group discussion thread, not general weight loss, but thank you very much for your replies! All of this helps.

Here is the group:
community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/20634-omad-revolution

leveejohn

RachaelRenk wrote: »

I'm curious, does anyone follow this OMAD (I had to look that up) or IF style of eating and also strength train?

Also:
https://youtube.com/channel/UCqU8_UPK09E2RRt78CXJ2KQ

https://lifeforbusypeople.com/2016/07/23/longevity-why-i-eat-once-a-day/

blambo61

leveejohn wrote: »

Hi, I'm one week in OMAD and the first week has been a great! One enormously interesting thing I've experienced is the major reduction of hunger pangs. I feel empty during the day, but not particularly hungry. Certainly not ravenous. This especially applies after the third day or so.

Previously hunger pangs ruled my day. Even if I might have been "full" from a meal by any measure, they came anyway. When I say "frantic", that's what it felt like. Sometimes I would have been frantic to eat something. Anything.

I've had some limited success in the past with calorie restriction on multiple meals a day, but the feeling of ravenousness was always right around the corner, threatening to take hold of me to empty a can of peanuts. Or something.

A side effect of this was that I had a fear of hunger pangs. I was actually afraid of feeling hungry. I would feel fear, for example, when packing my lunch for work that if I didn't do it right, at some point in the day I would feel hungry. I was actually somewhat fearful on my first day at work on OMAD, and I would 'hide' from food (finding excuses to be elsewhere when people were eating).

I don't use the term fear lightly. That's exactly what it was. Skipping meals never occurred to me (because you need 3 squares, right?), but even if it had, I'm not sure that I would have had the courage to attempt it without Joe's youtube channel and this group. This gave me the confidence that yes, people actually do this. No, it's not unhealthy.

Thank you all very much for giving my courage.

I love not only the initial weight loss, but the simplicity of OMAD, and the freedom from fear and anxiety about what to eat all day long and how to get it. This is so simple!

But I am curious, what are other people's experiences with hunger pangs? Do they go away for good, or occasionally return?

John,

I've posted on your thread at the OMAD forum and have my own thread there. I do a 20:4 to 21:3 type of diet and I eat ad libitum during that window. Sounds like OMAD has helped with hunger while dieting. My experience also. Much easier for me to not eat at all than eat small meals and wake up the stomach which will then want more.

Some things I do to help with hunger on my IF diet is I always feel up each night so I get a mental break from being hungry each night. I do remember getting very hungry before my fasting window was up sometimes and if it was real bad, I would just eat. It didn't happen often so I wasn't worried about it. Now if I get real hungry before my scheduled fast is up, I will eat 1/2 tsp of coconut oil and it will kill the hunger pains completely and it doesn't set me off on eating like would happen if I ate almost anything else (I've decided to eat a candy bar or something like that in the past in a similar circumstance and it was like opening the floodgates and there was no stopping and 3-candy bars, two bags of chips, and a couple of frozen lunch burgers later - about 1500 cals I was done!). The coconut oil is amazing and if I do that twice later in the day I'm only into it about 100 cals or so and I also haven't spiked my insulin which I'm trying not to do. You may give that a try. I've lost 42-lbs eating ad libitum every night and I've also had a self-imposed mandatory cheat day each Saturday. Not a bad way to go I think.

blambo61

RachaelRenk wrote: »

I'm curious, does anyone follow this OMAD (I had to look that up) or IF style of eating and also strength train?

I do, I find I will bonk though half way through my weight session if I've fasted 19-hours or so by then. I would remedy that with eating something right before I would lift so in effect I would cut my fast short by a couple of hours. That would get me though. I found though that it was better to eat something like coconut oil instead of a snickers bar or something like that. I think the snickers bar didn't provide enough calories and it may have shut off the ability to draw on fat reserves also. The coconut oil provides ready calories (easily absorbed due to the MCT sized molecules I've read) and doesn't shut off access to the fat reserves. That seemed to be my experience real or perceived.

I could do light weight training in a fasted state for a long time but if I tried to go heavy, I would bonk. Heavy weights is an anerobic activity and burning fat is an aerobic activity (burning glucose is an anerobic activity) so I think the body won't allow heavy lifting when you don't have much glycogen/glucose to burn and the fat burning is inhibited or can't keep up in the anerobic state. That has been my experience.

zyxst

CattOfTheGarage wrote: »

What is OMAD? A quick explanation would be really helpful here for people (like me) who haven't heard of it.

OMAD = One Meal A Day

I don't follow OMAD or IF. If it works, good for you.

kshama2001

I'm happy for the people for whom eating only one meal a day works.

I would feel absolutely disgusting if I ate all my daily calories in one meal. My stomach would hurt and I'd be in a "turkey coma." Heck, I feel gross after 1,000 calories.

CattOfTheGarage

blambo61 wrote: »

I find I will bonk though half way through my weight session if I've fasted 19-hours or so by then.

I'm guessing that word does not mean the same where you are as it does where I am.

H2596

Cattofthegarage...you took the words right out of my mouth. From the UK?

blambo61

kshama2001 wrote: »

I'm happy for the people for whom eating only one meal a day works.

I would feel absolutely disgusting if I ate all my daily calories in one meal. My stomach would hurt and I'd be in a "turkey coma." Heck, I feel gross after 1,000 calories.

I wish I had your problem, I don't. 1000 calories gets me warmed up!

GottaBurnEmAll

CattOfTheGarage wrote: »

blambo61 wrote: »

I find I will bonk though half way through my weight session if I've fasted 19-hours or so by then.

I'm guessing that word does not mean the same where you are as it does where I am.

Here there's an i in there so it rhymes with the sound a pig makes for it to mean the same thing.

zyxst

kshama2001 wrote: »

I'm happy for the people for whom eating only one meal a day works.

I would feel absolutely disgusting if I ate all my daily calories in one meal. My stomach would hurt and I'd be in a "turkey coma." Heck, I feel gross after 1,000 calories.

I can eat all my calories in one meal, but my brain would be wondering where the rest of it is (why am I not eating again in the evening). Same thing happens when I have to do a medical fast.

blambo61

zyxst wrote: »

kshama2001 wrote: »

I'm happy for the people for whom eating only one meal a day works.

I would feel absolutely disgusting if I ate all my daily calories in one meal. My stomach would hurt and I'd be in a "turkey coma." Heck, I feel gross after 1,000 calories.

I can eat all my calories in one meal, but my brain would be wondering where the rest of it is (why am I not eating again in the evening). Same thing happens when I have to do a medical fast.

Eat it all in the evening and then you will think that was awesome!