Will my extreme hunger go away?
zefanyya
Posts: 9 Member
I have been on a chronic diet the last few months and i recently found out it was all wrong for my metabolism. Now i have been trying to eat more but after starting to eat again, i feel like my appetite has grown so much. I am scared to not be able to gain control and overeat and REGAIN or overshoot the weight i have successfully lost. Am i doomed to this weight gain? Idk what i should do.. i dont have to mental strength to continue to count calories anymore.
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Replies
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I am so scared and regretful to have gone with the diet in the first place. I am really lost and scared to gain more weight than i had before. (I was not underweight to begin with)1
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You need to take a step back and breathe. Gain, lose, or maintain, your weight does not define who you are, nor should it dictate your level of happiness.
Your current mental state is why I despise intense, aggressive weight loss plans. They may knock the weight off, but the damage they do to the soul is too heavy a price in my opinion.
You sound like you need to ditch the scale and the logging for a short time and reset your head. If that means you gain a little, so be it. It's really not the end of the world, and certainly nothing to be terrified of. When you're back in a good head space, try a moderate daily deficit and a slow burn to get to the right weight. YES it will take longer, but you kind of need that time to teach yourself how to fuel your body in a healthy way so you don't end up back here, like you are right now.
If (as I suspect) you never were in a good head space to start weight loss, perhaps consider talking to a professional to make sure you can approach this in a healthy way. Nothing in the world can damage the human body like the human mind.
Good luck, friend.29 -
What diet were you on before? If it was very low calorie, naturally you'll be hungry now.
No need to panic, just start where you are with a sensible plan.
My recommendation is - enter your stats into MFP and set your goal to maintenance. Eat the calories it recommends. Eat whatever you want and like and keeps you feeling full, weigh your food in grams and log it.
See how you feel after a couple of weeks. If your panic has gone away and you're feeling comfortable, try setting your goal to losing 1/2 pound a week, and see how that goes for a couple of weeks.
Weight management is a lifetime thing, so be kind to yourself and learn to eat in a way you can sustain for a long time.
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First of all stressing makes it worse. I'm speaking from experience. I lost 103 pounds and then was so afraid to gain it back I think I was retaining water from the stress! Crazy I know but my whole world was being consumed with it. Try to relax.
The next thing to look at is why are you so hungry. Everyone seems to be different but take a look at your macros. Personally I find the more refined carbs I eat the hungrier I get. When I went to maintenance I experienced what you are because all my extra calories came in as starchy foods. I have made an effort to try to get a bit more protein and fat and that seems to help. I also find when I'm short on fibrous veggies I get hungrier. You can lose weight on any foods as long as you eat less calories than you burn but not every calorie is as satisfying as the other and everyone seems to be different as far as what satisfies them. You will have to experiment until you understand your own physiology.
If you aren't getting any exercise you might try some moderate exercise to help reduce your appetite. For me a daily walk of 45 to 60 minutes seems to help. Good luck and hang in there. You can do it but it takes time and patience to find the path that works for you.16 -
So idk exactly how much i was on but i know i was eating less than 1000cals on some days and exercising. Is it normal for me to feel this ravenous around food? I felt less hungry in my restrictive state1
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You are right that that amount of calories plus exercise will likely damage your metabolism. It will slow down and learn how to maintain your weight with that amount of food, so that if you start eating normally you will gain weight. I would highly suggest KETO and FASTING to heal your metabolism! You should look up Dr. Jason Fung. He has a bunch of great free articles explaining this and books.48
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You are right that that amount of calories plus exercise will likely damage your metabolism. It will slow down and learn how to maintain your weight with that amount of food, so that if you start eating normally you will gain weight. I would highly suggest KETO and FASTING to heal your metabolism! You should look up Dr. Jason Fung. He has a bunch of great free articles explaining this and books.
There is not a word of truth in this post.
OP, your metabolism is not something that can be done incorrectly or broken. However, there are many things you stated that are concerning for other reasons. The language of fear, burnout, and regret that you use indicate to me that a mental health professional could be very helpful to you. I would focus first on your mental state and addressing your approach to food.27 -
cheryldumais wrote: »For me a daily walk of 45 to 60 minutes seems to help. Good luck and hang in there. You can do it but it takes time and patience to find the path that works for you.
Good advice from all the posters.
Also, I too have found that a longish walk at a moderate pace reduces my appetite.
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I have been on a chronic diet the last few months and i recently found out it was all wrong for my metabolism. Now i have been trying to eat more but after starting to eat again, i feel like my appetite has grown so much. I am scared to not be able to gain control and overeat and REGAIN or overshoot the weight i have successfully lost. Am i doomed to this weight gain? Idk what i should do.. i dont have to mental strength to continue to count calories anymore.
Some numbers might help us give you some perspective, if you're comfortable with that. What is your current height and weight, and how many calories are you eating? Or are you not counting calories right now?
Is your extreme hunger all the time, or just at certain times of day or certain days? How long has it been a problem for?
Regardless of those details, your post is a little concerning. "Chronic dieting", scared of losing control, "doomed", not strong enough to keep counting calories. If you aren't already, you might consider talking to a professional about your relationship with food and your weight. For many of us, this relationship can get warped and twisted, and there is no shame in needing to talk to someone about it. All that stress and worry isn't good for you either :flowerforyou:11 -
cheryldumais wrote: »First of all stressing makes it worse. I'm speaking from experience. I lost 103 pounds and then was so afraid to gain it back I think I was retaining water from the stress! Crazy I know but my whole world was being consumed with it. Try to relax.
The next thing to look at is why are you so hungry. Everyone seems to be different but take a look at your macros. Personally I find the more refined carbs I eat the hungrier I get. When I went to maintenance I experienced what you are because all my extra calories came in as starchy foods. I have made an effort to try to get a bit more protein and fat and that seems to help. I also find when I'm short on fibrous veggies I get hungrier. You can lose weight on any foods as long as you eat less calories than you burn but not every calorie is as satisfying as the other and everyone seems to be different as far as what satisfies them. You will have to experiment until you understand your own physiology.
If you aren't getting any exercise you might try some moderate exercise to help reduce your appetite. For me a daily walk of 45 to 60 minutes seems to help. Good luck and hang in there. You can do it but it takes time and patience to find the path that works for you.
Yes! Eating filling high nutrient food really helps.1 -
Intense hunger after resuming normal eating after severe over-restriction is not unknown.
It is more common and intense if you've managed to reduce your weight well into the normal weight range. But it is not uncommon at an even higher weight especially after following severe restriction and rapid loss of weight. A combination of hormonal and psychological triggers, it is definitely one of the contributing factors to yo-yo dieting.
Only you can put you in the physical and mental head space that is necessary to fight the rebound. And your body is fighting for this rebound regain from a very base and fundamental level.
We already know the worse case scenario of what it will take to fully resolve this. But lingering on the known classic yo-yo, doesn't help avoiding it, so let's move on.
The only method short of regain+ that I know about is a **prolonged** period of maintenance with possibly some slow (as slow as you can make it) weight regain. If you can combine this with strength training and turn it into an intentional bulk, more the power to you, and you will be ahead of the game!
Again. I can't speak to your mental state and whether you can mentally take it to count calories right now.
For sure it does not sound as if you're at a point where you can continue weight loss. So YOUR fight is that of maintaining MOST of your loss that you can.
Mentally I don't doubt that a reset, reboot, and try again in a few years in a more sane manner (using smaller deficits that do not exceed 20% of your total daily energy expenditure, up to 25% if you are obese) is probably the easier path to take and the more likely outcome based on statistics.
However, if you want to go ahead and fight it... you will have to gear up for a fight!
And the way to fight involves doing whatever it is that you need to do to minimize the amount of calories by which you exceed maintenance.
Anecdotally I would say that if you stay in maintenance / very slow regain mode for a year or two you will no longer be looking at impending doom.
@psychod787 has spent some time thinking about all this....10 -
Well since I have been called out by the great @PAV8888 lol... I will comment. My story is long, but the short and skinny is I lost a lot of weight probably too rapidly and obtained extreme leanness. I actually maintained my complete loss for over a year and a half. I developed extreme hunger and a complete lack of any satiety. Honestly, still living with it. Decide to go into a real bulk/regain cycle. The goal is to help restore some BF to raise my leptin and other hormone levels. Kinda spun my wheels for a while, but have recently put on about 7 lbs scale weight and 3.5 trending. I am still having massive issues, but have been having occasional flashes of feeling better. I am going to play it by ear, but am will to regain 40lbs. I lost 220 or so. If i regain 20-40 to make my life a little, hopefully much easier, I am willing to do it. Still would be looking at maintaining 70% of weight loss. It's all about looking at the BIG picture IMHO. Ok, the chimpanzee has put his 2 cents out... Carry on.17
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So idk exactly how much i was on but i know i was eating less than 1000cals on some days and exercising. Is it normal for me to feel this ravenous around food? I felt less hungry in my restrictive state
Feeling ravenous after over-restricting is completely normal. I think PAV8888 has very good advice.6 -
So idk exactly how much i was on but i know i was eating less than 1000cals on some days and exercising. Is it normal for me to feel this ravenous around food? I felt less hungry in my restrictive state
Hunger is hormone driven. When you diet, and particularly extreme diet, your hormones will dial down your hunger hormones...this is why anorexics can eat very little and rightfully complain that they aren't hungry. When you start eating more, those hormones readjust and you feel abnormally hungry for awhile...it goes away once your hormones are rebalanced. Most people experience this when they go to maintenance.8 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »So idk exactly how much i was on but i know i was eating less than 1000cals on some days and exercising. Is it normal for me to feel this ravenous around food? I felt less hungry in my restrictive state
Hunger is hormone driven. When you diet, and particularly extreme diet, your hormones will dial down your hunger hormones...this is why anorexics can eat very little and rightfully complain that they aren't hungry. When you start eating more, those hormones readjust and you feel abnormally hungry for awhile...it goes away once your hormones are rebalanced. Most people experience this when they go to maintenance.
I agree with some of this. Though, there are studies that show that even after a year ppy goes up, but ghrelin remains elevated. Leptin goes up with weight gain, but not back to levels pre weight loss, even after weight is regained. Could be some of the reason for over shooting. As far as hormones rebalancing? Well l, I have the idea, not belief, ideas are far easier to change, that much depends on amount lost, speed of loss, and how long people where at their highest weight.6 -
Agree with the others that eating at maintenance or slightly above is a good idea. You will not magically gain 40 pounds if you eat at roughly your TDEE. I'm someone coming out of a messed up relationship with food. My TDEE is around 2100, so I'm trying to make sure I don't eat less than 1700, but ideally around 1900 with a 200 cushion for logging (I weigh most stuff but have to guess with certain things, like my husband's chicken curry because I'm too lazy to make a recipe for it and I know it's full of nutrient dense stuff anyway).
I was recently reading up on the Minnesota Starvation diet. They cut their cals by 50% for weeks (from 3200 to about 1600) and even though none of them showed signs of mental health issues before the experiment stated, a lot of them reported feeling anxious and some eating disordered behaviours because of the huge deficit. Some of them ate way over maintenance calories a day after the experiment finished because they had been hungry for so long and they didn't feel satiated (probably hormone imbalances as mentioned above). A lot of them ended up averaging back to normal calories and weight once their bodies recovered health, and the mental issues also calmed down once they were properly nourished, too.
Found it all interesting. Helped me realise a lot of my food issues were exacerbated by being in too big of a deficit for too long. Small wonder I was having trouble binging, and feeling constantly distracted and obsessed by food. I don't believe in the idea of a starvation mode in terms of metabolism rapidly reducing, but I do think the increased hunger once we start eating properly (or huge binges if we're not) is because the body is afraid of going back to an aggressive deficit. It's a defense mechanism.10 -
staticsplit wrote: »Agree with the others that eating at maintenance or slightly above is a good idea. You will not magically gain 40 pounds if you eat at roughly your TDEE. I'm someone coming out of a messed up relationship with food. My TDEE is around 2100, so I'm trying to make sure I don't eat less than 1700, but ideally around 1900 with a 200 cushion for logging (I weigh most stuff but have to guess with certain things, like my husband's chicken curry because I'm too lazy to make a recipe for it and I know it's full of nutrient dense stuff anyway).
I was recently reading up on the Minnesota Starvation diet. They cut their cals by 50% for weeks (from 3200 to about 1600) and even though none of them showed signs of mental health issues before the experiment stated, a lot of them reported feeling anxious and some eating disordered behaviours because of the huge deficit. Some of them ate way over maintenance calories a day after the experiment finished because they had been hungry for so long and they didn't feel satiated (probably hormone imbalances as mentioned above). A lot of them ended up averaging back to normal calories and weight once their bodies recovered health, and the mental issues also calmed down once they were properly nourished, too.
Found it all interesting. Helped me realise a lot of my food issues were exacerbated by being in too big of a deficit for too long. Small wonder I was having trouble binging, and feeling constantly distracted and obsessed by food. I don't believe in the idea of a starvation mode in terms of metabolism rapidly reducing, but I do think the increased hunger once we start eating properly (or huge binges if we're not) is because the body is afraid of going back to an aggressive deficit. It's a defense mechanism.
I am glad someone brought up the MSE. I honestly was not going to. I think the study was very interesting, if not barbaric and having not as much application for the obese/overweight, can hint a few things to us about the human body. One, that there is a natural hormonal response to a deficit. As stated above the subjects became extremely volatile while in a massive deficit. One man going as far as cutting off a body part to get out the study. We maintainers tend... I say tend.... to be a more food fixated lot. Now, if that is due to the weight loss or the fact that most of us are restricting our food intake on purpose, hard to tell. It could just be the white bear idea. Second, many of the subjects developed what I call coping mechanisms. They smoked liked chimneys or chewed massive amounts of gum. I have noticed in some of the people who have open diaries, they chew loads of gum. I vape. Third, many of the subjects binged when allowed full access to food again. Many people binge after losing. I will bring up a point of that later. While enlightenmening, it has its flaws. The subjects were all normal weight. So its hard to use as a guide for the post overweight. Next, while it did monitor the effects of semi starvation, it was honestly more designed as a refeeding study. Much of the European population would have been in a similar boat, the researchers wanted to see how they responded to refeeding on a diet that would have been available in post war Europe. If I remember correctly, many of the subjects overshot their weights by close to 10% and then slowly went back to their original weights. They did have a higher BF afterwards. So, body comp changed. This brings me to my last two thoughts. Many people when they regain weight often overshoot their original weights and have higher BF%. The common idea for years was we developed our adipose tissue only up to our early teens and then developed no more. They just got bigger as we gained weight. This might not be the case. When people quickly regain weight, their body might produce more fat cells. More research is needed honestly. Second, going back to the idea of weight/BF set point. I have the idea that this study kind of lends itself to the idea of a set point. Many people report binging after and during weight loss. Just like the test subjects did. Ok ramble over...lol6 -
I am sure that you have noticed me often suggest to people that large deficits, of and on their own, can have unwanted side effects.
The Minnesota semi-starvation study is one supporting source. The frequent logs and descriptions of people ending in binge and restrict cycles is another. The amazing amount of people who lose a lot of weight through large restriction and then immediately regain it is another.
My own experience of coming to mfp because I was ready to give up well before I lost most of my weight (due, as it turns out, to the amount of restriction I was attempting which led to very similar results to the infographic that circulates where people attempt 1200 diets but average much more on an overall basis).
My own experience and the amount of preoccupation with food when restricting well below the maximum amount recommended by mfp (as I averaged 1.5 lb a week my first year on MFP which was below the 25% max that I advocate) and how that reduced when the caloric restriction became smaller during my second year on MFP (72.5lbs vs 11.1lbs)....
Well, these reasons as well as suggestions by people who have been in the game for a while is why I go about suggesting deficits that do not exceed 25% while obese, or 20% when low overweight and normal-weight.
How does all this help the OP?
In one respect it doesn't help because whatever she's feeling right now she's feeling it and that won't change.
But on the other hand knowing that what she's feeling is a normal reaction and that some time eating at a normal maintenance diet will go a long way towards alleviating the intensity of what she's feeling may give her enough hope to stay the course of eating as close to maintenance as possible so that she can retain most of her loss as opposed to giving up in despair.
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But on the other hand knowing that what she's feeling is a normal reaction and that some time eating at a normal maintenance diet will go a long way towards alleviating the intensity of what she's feeling may give her enough hope to stay the course of eating as close to maintenance as possible so that she can retain most of her loss as opposed to giving up in despair.
This^. I have reached maintenance at the end of last year. Since raising my calories (mind you I was eating at a very moderate deficit while losing fat) my body (hormones?) don't know what satiety is. Most days I am white-knuckling hunger. I am constantly trying to find most-satiating foods/combinations. I do get reprieve now and again...but most of the time I am food focused. I wish I was never overweight and that my body didn't fight me to go back to the weight I was from about the age 15 thorough mid 30-ies. The struggle is real!8 -
Tolstolobik wrote: »
But on the other hand knowing that what she's feeling is a normal reaction and that some time eating at a normal maintenance diet will go a long way towards alleviating the intensity of what she's feeling may give her enough hope to stay the course of eating as close to maintenance as possible so that she can retain most of her loss as opposed to giving up in despair.
This^. I have reached maintenance at the end of last year. Since raising my calories (mind you I was eating at a very moderate deficit while losing fat) my body (hormones?) don't know what satiety is. Most days I am white-knuckling hunger. I am constantly trying to find most-satiating foods/combinations. I do get reprieve now and again...but most of the time I am food focused. I wish I was never overweight and that my body didn't fight me to go back to the weight I was from about the age 15 thorough mid 30-ies. The struggle is real!
Well... I think we all wish were not obese or overweight, but it is what it is. My intention was not to promote disrepair to OP, just the reality for some of us currently. Will things improve? Who knows? Will I give up? Hell no! OP, give it hell! I an pulling for you.5 -
psychod787 wrote: »Tolstolobik wrote: »
But on the other hand knowing that what she's feeling is a normal reaction and that some time eating at a normal maintenance diet will go a long way towards alleviating the intensity of what she's feeling may give her enough hope to stay the course of eating as close to maintenance as possible so that she can retain most of her loss as opposed to giving up in despair.
This^. I have reached maintenance at the end of last year. Since raising my calories (mind you I was eating at a very moderate deficit while losing fat) my body (hormones?) don't know what satiety is. Most days I am white-knuckling hunger. I am constantly trying to find most-satiating foods/combinations. I do get reprieve now and again...but most of the time I am food focused. I wish I was never overweight and that my body didn't fight me to go back to the weight I was from about the age 15 thorough mid 30-ies. The struggle is real!
Well... I think we all wish were not obese or overweight, but it is what it is. My intention was not to promote disrepair to OP, just the reality for some of us currently. Will things improve? Who knows? Will I give up? Hell no! OP, give it hell! I an pulling for you.
We'll keep on fighting!2 -
Interesting additional insight, all.0
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Thank you all for the support! I will try to maintain at maintenance levels! U guys have been a great help!6
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Great plan Zephaniah! One day at a time! Some days will be challenging and some days will be a walk in the park. On days when hunger is not extreme I bank a few exercise calories (I walk for exercise and couple of days a week I challenge my muscles a bit with resistance exercises, push ups/squats type of thing) for special occasions/weekends. You are not alone!Thank you all for the support! I will try to maintain at maintenance levels! U guys have been a great help!2 -
Thank you all for the support! I will try to maintain at maintenance levels! U guys have been a great help!
OP, that is the beauty of this forum. We all tend to support each other. Now, we may not always agree, but we are shooting for the same goal in general. Having a support group is one of the things that are associated with weight loss maintenance. I have never met @ PAV8888, consider him a friend as in would somenof the people I know in real life.8 -
I had that too when I came out of an extremely restrictive diet. It was like I eat eat eat and still have a gaping hole in my stomach.
I am still struggling to maintain a "normal" after that actually. I am now in a cycle of yo-yo-ing - mind you, not mega weight gain, just the same 2-4 kilos that people can say is "maintenance fluctuations" but the thing is if I didn't stop when the weight crept up to the 4 kg mark it would turn into 14 in no time - so as soon as it gets too high for comfort, I diet again. Repeat.
I find it very hard to just eat at my normal 'maintenance' calories. It's like i'm still hungry - but i'm not really. Possibly a lot of it is emotional eating-related too, but I do think that somewhere in my brain is a bit of a trauma from the restricted diet and misery I put myself through that I still haven't quite recovered from.10 -
everyone gave great advise & insight, it helped me too. I'd just like to share one thing...sometimes, like tonight I'm extra hungry so I volume eat. I cut up a large amount of lettuce & chopped up a ground chuck patty, added cheese, olives, onions, one egg & zero calorie dressing. I got so full but not a lot of calories. You can do this with veggies too. There's a volume eater's thread on here that gives me ideas4
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Cahgetsfit wrote: »I had that too when I came out of an extremely restrictive diet. It was like I eat eat eat and still have a gaping hole in my stomach.
I am still struggling to maintain a "normal" after that actually. I am now in a cycle of yo-yo-ing - mind you, not mega weight gain, just the same 2-4 kilos that people can say is "maintenance fluctuations" but the thing is if I didn't stop when the weight crept up to the 4 kg mark it would turn into 14 in no time - so as soon as it gets too high for comfort, I diet again. Repeat.
I find it very hard to just eat at my normal 'maintenance' calories. It's like i'm still hungry - but i'm not really. Possibly a lot of it is emotional eating-related too, but I do think that somewhere in my brain is a bit of a trauma from the restricted diet and misery I put myself through that I still haven't quite recovered from.
I'm right there with you. I had a severe eating disorder as a teen, and am having to come to grips with the 6 years I thought I was 'recovered' I was just gaining and losing the same 7-10 pounds over and over in slightly disordered ways (with my set weight point slowly creeping up) and thinking that was healthy. Determined to find a good balance this time because good grief, it's exhausting.5 -
everyone gave great advise & insight, it helped me too. I'd just like to share one thing...sometimes, like tonight I'm extra hungry so I volume eat. I cut up a large amount of lettuce & chopped up a ground chuck patty, added cheese, olives, onions, one egg & zero calorie dressing. I got so full but not a lot of calories. You can do this with veggies too. There's a volume eater's thread on here that gives me ideas
I do that too. Big fan of roasting loads of cauliflower and broccoli and putting on a salad then adding the protein, fat, and carbs (e.g. meat or veggie patty, some cheese or avocado, and some beans and/or rice)5 -
When I feel hungry and it is outside of my usual meal times, I first try to find out if I am actually "hungry" or "thirsty". Usually a good cuppa will do the trick.3
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