Is Low Fat Part of the Problem?

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  • goldthistime
    goldthistime Posts: 3,214 Member
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    sgt1372 wrote: »
    My recent experience may be relevant to this discussion.

    I previously was on a high protein/low fat diet (when I was lifting heavy to build muscle) and was burning a lot of cals doing additional cardio on a rower (10k meters daily), during which I constantly felt hungry.

    Daily cals consumed were about 2200-2400, daily cal burn was about 500-600 and macros were 40P/40C/20F. Weight dropped from 160 to 150 w/a drop in BF from 16% to 8% in 12 months..

    Got burned out doing this and stopped lifting & rowing daily for several months and regained the 10# in just 6 months, 1/2 the time it took to lose it.

    In order to reverse this trend, I started 16:8 IF, reduced cals consumed to about 1800 cals/day, resumed rowing about 5k meters/day which burns about 300 cals/day and switched to a high fat/lower protein diet with macros of 20P/40C/40F.

    Quickly lost 5# to my goal wt of 155 in just 1 month doing this and, now, despite only eating w/in 4-8 hr window and eating about 400-600 cals less per day than b4, I do NOT feel hungry during the 16-20 (usually 18) hr fasting period.

    The major difference is that I am consuming much more fat that I ever did b4, which as far as I can tell is the main reason I do not feel as hungry as I did b4.

    Not sure if this is THE reason that I don't feel hungry while fasting but it is the only thing that I can think of that explains it.

    I also just finished losing some weight I regained using a higher fat diet and found it came off easily (ie I was less hungry than I expected to be). I had been about 50C 20P 30F while losing originally and switched to 35C 20P 45F.

    Maybe it felt so much easier because of the fat or maybe it was something else.

    I’ve wondered whether homeostasis could have played a part, in that I spent quite a bit of time at a lower weight, then regained 15lbs over a short period of time.

    Or it was more fat in my diet. Who knows.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    edited July 2019
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    sgt1372 wrote: »
    Not sure if this is THE reason that I don't feel hungry while fasting but it is the only thing that I can think of that explains it.

    I eat within an 8 hour window (often a 6 hour window) on most Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, and don't feel hungry the rest of the day no matter what macros I eat -- I think it's because it's no big thing to eat your calories for the day within a particular period of time.

    Similarly, on other days I tend to eat the same cals, but around 6:30, noon, and 9, and I'm not hungry between meals then. That's the case regardless of carbs to fat percentage. I suspect the particular carbs I choose might matter for satiety (I think more fiber is helpful for me, and I personally find fruit, veg, and beans quite filling, as well as potatoes), but I don't think people in general need a special diet not to need to eat all the time.

    Individuals might find particular macros filling, but for me it's more about food choice than macros -- there are diets/meals of quite different macros that are equally filling for me. As I said above, I do like keeping a good amount of fat in my diet (30-40%), as I tend to feel more satisfied doing that, since fat is tasty and I can still have decent volume.

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