I have some unusual questions..

MollsMomma

Hi! I’m new here (go figure). My initial objective is to feel educated, purposeful, and powerful to get going on my quest for a healthier lifestyle. I’ve done a fair amount of reading, homework, what-have-you (to include all the “newbie” posts on here).. and I’m left with a few questions I’m not seeing too much about.

I’ve read about eating until you’re satiated, adjusting diet if you feel tired, etc. These aren’t general feelings I’ve “trained” my body to recognize. How does one embark on THAT journey? I’d love to understand the difference between tired because it was a rough work day or tired because I’m not getting enough protein? How does one feel satiated when they are purposefully operating on a deficit? How does a person build that personal intimacy as it relates to health and fitness?

My questions are earnest, and I truly appreciate any words of wisdom from those who have had to “learn themselves” as they transitioned into their new, healthier future.

concordancia

Time and experimentation.

Start with mindful eating. Remove distractions and sit down to a meal, with only water to drink. Chew your food slowly, clear your mouth before putting more food in, put the fork down every once in awhile. Really savor the food. Carry that mindfulness forward through the day.

Regarding satiation and hunger, when you think you are hungry, stop and focus on yourself. Are you hungry or bored or thirsty? Drink some water and check in again in half an hour. Do a puzzle and check back in afterwards.

If that isn't enough try getting more fiber or more protein or more fat until you figure out what makes you feel satisfied.

LyndaBSS

I don't really have much to add to the above post. It hits the topics I was going to bring to light.

You'll understand better after you've been eating healthier for a bit. One day, your body will thank you for changing your lifestyle and you'll recognize it.

Danp

I can't really comment on the feeling tired thing because I haven't really experienced it to a degree that it was noticeable and something I needed to address. I would guess that as you persist you'll get more familiar with how you're reacting and get better at spotting the difference.

I suppose you could apply some logic to it. So if you've been running around like crazy or you've had a stressful/bad day and you're tired then there's an explanation for your exhaustion whereas if you've had a pretty relaxed lazy day and you're tired then that's something that might warrant some attention. I think it's also perhaps how chronic and frequent it is. Feeling tired every now and then is normal but if you're tired and run down every day then that's something else.

As for the satiation. Running in a deficit is by it's very nature depriving at some level. But there's easy to handle, no big deal levels of feeling deprived and there's life is a misery, every day is a struggle, totally exhausting levels of deprived. The key is to maintain the calorie deficit while keeping as satiated as possible.

Using myself as an example. I've found the best way for me to maintain a calorie deficit is mostly via meal timing. I'm usually only peckish in the morning, I'm generally never really hungry during the day but I'm always ravenous at night. So in order to stay satiated I have a cup of coffee in the morning, skip lunch and have a big dinner at night. Eating this way lets me stay satisfied enough that I have no real struggles staying on my calorie deficit target.

Do I feel like I Could eat more? Yeah I could.
Do I feel like I Must eat more? Nah, I'm satisfied enough.

When I get to a weight where I'm happy to start maintaining then all I need to do is make some very small adjustments to my eating habits. Maybe add some toast or cereal with my coffee and grab some lunch every now and then.

NovusDies

On tired vs under-fueled it really starts with developing reliable numbers. When my activity shot up and I began losing too fast the impact on my energy was immediate but I didn't see the entire picture until I crunched my numbers. After seeing the numbers I monitored it for a short while longer to verify the accuracy but then I realized my tiredness was not just random sleep problems it was a higher than normal calorie deficit. I addressed the problem by adding calories to my day and my energy went up and my rate of loss went back down to where it normally is.

glovepuppet

People generally put less effort into reading their bodies than they do into reading the cereal box. Sometimes it's beneficial to tune out the noise, close your eyes, take some deep breaths, and think about how your body is feeling. Stretch bits, tense bits, be conscious of how your bowels are feeling today. Examine the sensation of muscle aches. If you feel "hungry", is the sensation really as unpleasant as you think, or is it something you avoid out of habit?

It's a few seconds, but it really helps. When you're more conscious of and familiar with your normal, you're in a better place to start learning about how lifestyle changes can impact it.

Cahgetsfit

Good answers above OP. The only thing I can add is that for IF you suffer from binge eating it can be harder to feel the cues. I personally find it very hard to stop eating if I am hungry - as in - if I am feeling very hungry, and then I eat food, it like takes forever for my stomach to tell my brain that I'm full and I can just keep eating and eating and eating non stop. Even when I stop - I'm still "hungry"

So the key, I think, well, for me anyway, is to have a small deficit. I can't handle a large deficit for too long as it can end up triggering my binge-mode.

I kind of tell myself "you are NOT starving. Starving is like those little kids in Africa" (you know, throwback from growing up in the 80s where they had the ads on TV about starving children in Africa).

As for the energy thing, that will only be a problem if dieting in a very large deficit and for a long time and doing heavy exercise. So you shouldn't even notice it if you are being sensible.

You will get peckish, yes, because eating less than used to, but you energy shouldn't plummet unless you're working out heaps and hardly eating anything.

Good luck with your journey! It takes some time to figure out what works best for you, but I'm very happy that you are actually researching and asking decent questions and not just saying "if I do keto will i lose weight without counting calories?"

BarbaraHelen2013

Nothing to add just wanted to comment on your beautiful Shih Tzu profile pic!

We have the best Shih Tzu in the world, but congratulations on having the second best! 😂😂😉

cosmichvoyager

-I try to eat slowly, chew and give it 15-20 minutes before getting more food and then if I am still hungry I eat a raw fruit or a vegetable like apple, carrot, sliced cucumber with some soy sauce on it, things like that rather than another full plate of a meal.
-Drinking enough water.
-Eating food with fiber / roughage at every meal and making sure I have enough fat and also carbohydrates in my meals.
-not sure about the tiredness thing because I have sleep apnea so my energy level is more tied to how long I slept with cpap on than my diet I guess allow yourself to be tired and chill if you had an intense day and don't look to food as the reward. Energy snacks are something like apple with a (weighed on a food scale) bit of peanut butter or a grain cracker with (weighed on a food scale) hummus and sliced cucumbers.

steveko89

This may or may not be helpful but given my tendencies to gravitate towards quantitative vs. qualitative markers, I struggle with and subsequently haven't tried too much to learn to eat intuitively or follow the types of cues you describe. What works well for me is logging meticulously, pre-logging as much as I can and getting as close as I can to the calorie and macro targets I've set requisite to my aesthetic and performance goals, and I follow the plan. I don't worry about whether or not I feel full or not because the math says whether or not I've had enough or not and that's good enough for me.

annliz23

I just stick to my regular meals and cut down by finding alternatives which are lower in calories.

Pickle107

Got to say I subscribe to @steveko89 's way of doing things. My calorie goal is my "I'm full" marker. Anything else to the contrary is usually just greed. Not to say I don't let myself ever go over this but I do so in the full knowledge that I don't 'need' it.