Went in for my yearly health checkup today. I been waiting 3 long weeks for this day as I was planning to quit my diet 3 weeks ago. But figured since the health checkup is around the corner I’d keep it up until the checkup was done. As each day got closer, the hunger pangs were getting unbearable. All I could think about was food and what it would be like not to be hungry again. To make matters worse. I had to fast for 12 hours before my checkup, which meant I had to stop eating and drinking by 7:30 the night before. This morning as I’m dragging my carcass to the subway, I’m thinking to my self if I can even make it to the facility. I told my self, you will finally get a somewhat accurate depiction of you body with the dexa scan and will get to eat soon after since they provide breakfast after they draw blood and the other necessary stuff that requires you to be fasted.
So I get there and the first thing they did was the dexa scan. I’m thinking awesome, I get to find out my body composition, and to see if all this dieting has paid off. Well.... after it was done, they just moved me to the next station. So I’m thinking, maybe they will review it all with me once I’m done with everything.
1.5 hours later, they finally said you can eat now before we proceed. I’m thinking finally. FOOD!!! To my disappointment, that was 1 pathetic breakfast they served. 1 sandwich, 1 hard boiled egg, a tiny salad and various types of drinks. So I finish eating and do the rest of my test and they say ok your done, time to pay the bill. So I ask, can I see my dexa scan result? They respond saying we will mail it out to you in 3 weeks. It is not ready yet. I’m like what!?!? I thought I can get a printout right away. Apparently I thought wrong. 😡
So as I’m heading home, disappointed, I’m thinking well at least I can not be so restrictive with my diet now. When I got home, I had my usual lunch thinking if I get hungry before my next meal, I’ll have the satisfaction of eating a snack. Well, the hunger never came. I went the rest of the day eating as I had before and didn’t feel hungry.
Now I’m heading to bed and I’m thinking. WTF. Was all that hunger pangs psychological??? Now that I know I’m not dieting anymore I’m not hungry anymore eating the exact same portions as before!?!? Damm you brain!!!!! Lol. Ok rant over. Will have to wait 3 long weeks to get my results assuming it doesn’t get delayed due to holidays.
Question is will I change my portion sizes tomorrow or keep it the same. 🤔
Replies
What does dieting mean to you vs how you would rather usually eat to meet/maintain your health goals?
As for the Dexa, I've always gotten my results explainrd to me within minutes of coming off the bed (and offered a high-protein snack with juice within 30 min). We look at it on the computer screen together, and I leave with a print out. But that may be because I was part of a study.
What I’m picking up on here is a distinct vibe that you are throwing in the towel and going back to same old, same old.
Why?
If you’ve had success, bump your calories up a little. I just cringe at you thinking the end game is reached. We preach about sustainability, but seriously, it doesn’t have to be self flagellation.
Hugs and best of success. Maybe it was indeed all in your head!
Did you make sustainable changes or were you just crash dieting for a drs visit? I hope they were sustainable as the alternative is not healthy and just makes us into human yo yos.
I had the opposite experience. When Covid started, and I started to wfh I decided now was a good time to diet without outside pressure or distractions. With my activity level, I worked out that my diet calories at 2000, about 500 calorie deficit. At first it was easy, maybe due to the fact it was a new goal, and I was excited to do it. 1 month later and seeing good progress the hunger started. I had also felt like I went past where my body wanted to be due to symptoms associated with being too thin.
I then upped my calories to 2250 and the hunger went away. I started to have big meals on weekend, but since I was still in a calorie deficit, I was able to maintain weight at end of each week. However the symptoms with being too lean didn’t go away. That’s when I decided to quit dieting all together and eat 2500 calories. With the idea weekend meals will slowly create a calorie surplus to put weight back on.
Well, 2 weeks later, that is when the health checkup came into play. So I decided to go back to 2250 and skip the weekend meal for 3 weekends. 1 week before the checkup I was eating 2350 calories, and still hungry. No change in exercise or anything in last 3 month.
So now that the checkup is over with. Curious to see if it was all in my head.
If you were already lean, then it's not at all uncommon to experience hunger when trying to get leaner, particularly if your deficit is too large for the amount of fat you have.
I'm curious as to why you went back to a deficit ahead of the health checkup though, if you'd already established that it wasn't doing you any favours and that you were too lean?
^^
Same question I have!
Dexa is supposed to be accurate, but personally I don’t see the point on wasting money on one. I mean, I can see how much fat I have in the mirror and I can measure myself to make sure I’m headed in the right direction.
I’m curious OP are you male or female? 14.2 is very good if male if that’s accurate and bordering on athlete status and if you’re female it would border on the cusp of essential fat (14% is the bottom of the athlete range for women).
As for the scales, they are known to be wildly inaccurate and to vary greatly (maybe a larger issue for women as our water weight varies throughout the month depending on hormones).
I’m not a fan of doctors, so I still wouldn’t get a dexa scan even if it was free. Curious to hear what the results are though. Keep us posted.
Was after told NOT to fast before taking the scan (and to just eat/drink normally) because the absence of food/water can skew the results.
As for what to fo next, just do as you were planning to do before you got the DEXA scan done based on whatever your current goals are and don't put too much stock in the DEXA scan results that you receive in 3 eks because they are likely to be flawed.
If there is an independent DEXA scan facility near you and you have the funds, I'd recommend taking another scan there w)o fasting and compare the results wc may differ markedly
As far as quitting my diet goes, I'm not finding an urge to eat up to my maintenance calories on normal days. I am having occasion piece of candy and snacks just for the heck of it, but not enough be at maintenance. I am also finding I'm not wanting to change my workout routine ever since I have the option to decrease it either I guess mentally for me telling my self I have to do it to reach a goal just made me hate it, but now that I don't have too, it doesn't seem that bad. I guess reverse psychology is a real thing. lol
You have to love the spam posts!
True spam disappears faster on weekends, I think . . . since we're supposed to use "flag/report" on terms of service issues from real posters, and "flag/spam" on these bot thingies, then 5 "flag/spam" make it auto-disappear (which doesn't happen IMU with "flag/report"). More member (non-mod) activity on weekends, more "flag/spam" opportunities.
Apologies for the digression.