Huge appetite question

favabean1982

Hello everyone -

Got a question-I'm 6'7" and have a massive appetite. Whenever I eat, it's not out of boredom, stress or anything along those lines, it's simply because I'm hungry. As a result as I've gotten older, my metabolism has naturally slowed and the weight has piled on, though over the last year I've implemented a number of exercise/diet-related things that have worked extremely well as far as producing results is/are concerned. However, though I've dropped a lot of weight and hit various goals in that regard, it still has done nothing to slow my appetite-it remains huge, and I'm sure might continue to stay that way for the foreseeable future.

How can I handle this? I've made adjustments to my willpower so I can resist tremendous amounts of food (I do intermittent fasting, try to stay low-carb/low-sodium, try to stick with healthy things) but I also then suffer as far as having energy for my workouts. I never want my love of food to go away, but does anyone have any thoughts or a solution? I understand the whole wait 20 minutes for the food to settle idea and overall try to be more mindful, but that doesn't always work for me, especially when I feel completely famished. Do I just need to cram in a ton of protein and that's it? At my height, it takes a lot to fuel my tank-I apologize if this has all been asked before!

rainbow198

I'm tall, maintaining and active so my maintenance calories are pretty high. I lost a lot of weight eating smaller meals throughout the day because I thought you had to, but I was never satisfied. I remember always thinking about my next mini-meal or snack.

One day I decided to combine meals and snacks and eventually started to eat 2 big meals during the day and that worked for me so well. I had no idea what I was doing was called intermittent fasting. I was able to eat in volume, but I did not over eat so I continued to lose and and maintain my weight.

I also don't drink my calories very often so that also allows me to eat more food.

After doing this for awhile I became in tuned with my hunger signals and I learned when I should stop eating before I get stuffed. I had to get comfortable leaving food on my plate too or putting it away for another time.

I also time my meals around my workout(s) which helps also with dealing with a full belly and energy levels.

This approach has worked so well for me. Maybe give something similar a try and see how it works for you.

Good luck!

PAV8888

It doesn't sounds as if you've counted your calories either before you started losing weight or during your weight loss

I have the opinion (which is not necessarily shared by everyone) that quite often people implement large deficits because they do not consider themselves losing weight successfully unless they see marked changes to their scale weight

scale weight is a good indicator, but it is often confounded by water weight changes

Since people are often not aware of non fat level weight changes they often have unrealistic expectations as to how fast a successful weight loss should take place

Which means that they tend to lose quite fast.

Not surprisingly that makes them be quite hungry.

both during weight loss and for a considerable time afterwards before their hormonal levels get a chance to stabilize; and recover

A counterproductive way to recover would be to regain the weight lost

a better alternative maybe an extensive time period of eating at maintenance (or of losing at a much slower pace if you're not yet at maintenance) and allowing for the passage of time to bring some normalization

How much weight have you lost and in what time frame. How close are you to what would be considered a normal BMI level?

youngmomtaz

I have a huge appetite. Always hungry. Even in a decent surplus. I actually eat much like you. I fast a bit so I can eat a lot in a short time frame. I don’t eat many carbs so that cuts out ones that trigger huge cravings for me and I fill up on high protein, fat and fibre. But I ate over 2200 cal today and that would be just over maintenance for me. My stomach is snarling so loud my husband asked if I should get up and have a snack. I. Am. Hungry. It always has been this way and always will be. No matter what, when, or how much I eat. Currently trying to lose 20 so the next 6-9 months will suck! I drink a lot to keep myself feeling full. I had about 500ml of green tea before bed, 3liters of water through the day, and probably 20oz coffee.

Lillymoo01

If I was doing intermittent fasting and low carb I'd be hungry all the time too and would not have the energy to do much exercise. Some have great success with this way of eating as it is the best for them and their satiety. I am just not one of them. I need more frequent but smaller meals and moderate carbs to help keep me full. Going higher in protein (especially for breakfast) made a huge difference. Maybe play around with your macros and meal timing to work out what works best for you. It may be to continue as you are or you may find some other ratio and timing far better.

As @PAV8888 said, also look at your rate of loss. No one will succeed long term on will power alone.

DancingMoosie

I try to make my meals larger with some low calorie add ins. Ex: huge salad(greens, tomato, shred carrots, cucumbers, peppers) add protein of choice. When i make spaghetti with meat sauce, I sub zoodles for pasta and add mushrooms to the sauce. Instead of butter, sour cream, and cheese on baked potato, I'll have sweet potato with plain yogurt. Basically add a bunch of veg to my meals to replace sides like rice or pasta or bread, and use some lower fat options on dairy and meat. It doesn't mean I cut them out completely, just cut back and add in those volume foods to feel full.

psychod787

@PAV8888 Good sir, you wouldn't happen to be talking about me?🤔 Strangely enough, I do agree with you in a way, though its really contextual.....

amusedmonkey

psychod787 wrote: »

@PAV8888 Good sir, you wouldn't happen to be talking about me?🤔 Strangely enough, I do agree with you in a way, though its really contextual.....

I think he is pulling from his own experience if I recall correctly. However, this isn't unique to you or him. Many people report increased hunger and loss of energy after extended periods of dieting or even shorter periods of dieting at a large deficit. Having lower body fat is another instance where hormones get messed up and hunger increases. It can take a good while to regulate appetite after you reach that point, even with increased calories.

OP: have you considered increasing your carbs? With more carbs you may have better energy for exercising and being active in general, which means you get to eat more calories.

PAV8888

amusedmonkey wrote: »

I think he is pulling from his own experience if I recall correctly. However, this isn't unique to you or him. Many people report increased hunger and loss of energy after extended periods of dieting or even shorter periods of dieting at a large deficit. Having lower body fat is another instance where hormones get messed up and hunger increases. It can take a good while to regulate appetite after you reach that point, even with increased calories.

OP: have you considered increasing your carbs? With more carbs you may have better energy for exercising and being active in general, which means you get to eat more calories.

Hmmm. Interesting question. I was actually thinking about @psychod787 and similar situations and it is, indeed, contextual to a person's exact situation. And probably paths to recovery and time frames are individualized too (except for the universal regain with friends)

But, @amusedmonkey you're not incorrect that thinking back to my previous, and relatively brief, attempts to lose weight, large deficits and AT (to the point of an "atypical Reynold's" diagnosis which indicates how often GP's think of large deficits as being a potential issue with obese subjects) contributed to failure.

I did get to MFP because I knew that what I was doing was unsustainable; but I had started slower and had been lucky enough to have interruptions due to family visits.

So initially very moderate losses and then faster losses interrupted by ~six week diet break before continuing with then.

By the time the rate of loss (and contemplating a future of living like that) had me ready to throw in the towel while still @~250-->240lbs, I discovered MFP, lurked at the forums, and went through the "must read" posts section, and started formulating more sustainable strategies.

Then I started logging on November 21 2014 @240.6 (weight trend) and actually thinking about what I was doing beyond vague concepts of eat more salads and subway sandwiches and move more--which was my complete initial tool set which yielded a good 40lbs but had me replacing lower calorie egg McMuffins with inadvertently higher calorie fruit and fibre and jam and peanut butter muffins among other great ideas! 🤦‍♂️