Are there days where you are ALWAYS hungry??

vnorris25

I have been eating balanced meals, having healthy snacks, doing everything right, but some days I am always hungry. I suspect it's because of PMS. What do you guys do on these days? I'm about 30 seconds away from tearing into a snickers bar, but am holding strong! Lol

siberiantarragon

Yes, and there are also days where I have hardly any appetite and have to force myself to eat enough. I also suspect it correlates to hormone cycles. I just power through it and deal with being hungry, or power through it and deal with eating even though I don't feel like eating. The kind of food eaten doesn't seem to make a difference to the hunger or lack thereof on those days.

Luke_rabbit

No hormone cycles here, but I definitely have days I can eat all day long and days that I'm not hungry much at all.

I'm in maintenance now and my experience when losing is that the occasional day eating at maintenance has little effect in the long run. Try to find healthy snacks to keep around for those days. Some of my favorites are apples, Greek yogurt (I like the light and fit dessert flavored ones), veggies with hummus, and dry roasted edamame (Seapoint brand).

LunaTheFatCat

Funny, I'm having one of those days right now. I'm in work and I'm holding on for dear life not to eat my lunch and my snack right now, if I do, the afternoon is going to be a looooong one. Think I'll just have another coffee now.

suzij27

Yes! For me it seems to be weather related. I’ve been hungry on the cold(er) days and in the summer I do t have much of an appetite. When I am in a “really hungry” stretch, it helps to have my meals focus on huge piles of cooked veggies or homemade broth based soups. The bulk of the fiber and volume makes a difference.

Antiopelle

Yes, that is normal and there are two big uptakes here:

1. These are the days that you have to push through, train your "willpower muscle", try to work out what works and what doesn't. It's a "one day at a time" attitude that you need to have now.
2. Not all days are like this, this means that most days it will be a lot easier, sometimes it will even be difficult to eat all your daily allowance. This means only a few days a month will be really tough, like today.

All the more reason to hold strong

quiksylver296

I allow myself to eat at maintenance calories on those days (and yes, they're totally PMS related). They're usually only about 3 days per month, so they don't affect my weight loss much at all.

LunaTheFatCat

Well I gave in and had 3 small chocolate bars, 300 cals.

Lietchi

I have days where I'm more hungry. I'm guessing it not only relates to (female) hormones but can also be affected by exercise for example, or even the weather. Some people are more hungry the day after long runs or intense exercise, for example. I'm less hungry when it's hot.
I'm not necessarily more hungry around my period, but I have days where I have more cravings for certain foods. I give myself some leeway, especially if I'm feeling particularly crappy (cramps, fatigue).

I'd try and figure out whether it's real hunger (and perhaps you're not eating enough, aiming for a weight loss rate that's too fast; or could just be related to something else). Or having cravings, which could be related to excluding certain foods you like from your diet. There's nothing wrong with a snickers bar in a balanced diet, you don't need to eliminate 'treat foods' to lose weight.

vnorris25

Yesterday was tough. I did have 2 table spoons of ice cream to try and satisfy my craving. I had a HUGE plate of veggies, 0.25 cup of rice with some shrimp and I SHOULD have been full, but I felt like I didn't eat anything at all afterwards. Today I feel better (so far haha).

quiksylver296

LunaTheFatCat wrote: »

Well I gave in and had 3 small chocolate bars, 300 cals.

No big! Unless you’re set to lose 0.5 lbs per week, you were still in a deficit for the day. Good job!

ninerbuff

There are days where I couldn't stop eating. But I'm consistent. One day isn't going to throw me off much.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

vnorris25

senalay788 wrote: »

For me the problem is not that I am always hungry, is that I simply like to graze. Every time I walk by that kitchen.... damn you food lol (first world problems).

I get that - working from home has not helped! I am a stress eater, and my partner has a sweet tooth and keeps sneaking junk food into the house lol I have tried to opt for veggies and humus when I feel the need to graze, or popcorn.

DD265

PMS does it to me. Or a concussion. At least with PMS I'm just hungry in general, with a concussion I feel as though I could eat my way through an entire supermarket confectionary aisle in a week - those sugar cravings are unreal.

LunaTheFatCat

quiksylver296 wrote: »

LunaTheFatCat wrote: »

Well I gave in and had 3 small chocolate bars, 300 cals.

No big! Unless you’re set to lose 0.5 lbs per week, you were still in a deficit for the day. Good job!

It's fine, I don't stress over these things. Not anymore anyway

142jmh

I definitely have these days too! Hormone related for me, but I think they might also be connected to whooshes (and whooshes are probably also related to hormones, but anyways...). I've been stuck in the same few pounds for around 4 weeks, though my eating / exercise has been overall consistent. I had one of those "I could eat everything" days yesterday, ate slightly above deficit but below maintenance... this morning, I was down over three pounds from yesterday. Whoooosh! I'm starting to track the "eat everything" days and whooshes in a calendar now, I'm curious if I'll be able to see a pattern emerge.

KNoceros

As said previously: for me it’s either hormones, post a big cardio day with not enough carbs, or a few days with borderline protein. Or sometimes just “because”.
Sometimes I “give in” and have an over-day, more often I live with it and look for the underlying cause so it doesn’t repeat.
(—15kg and in maintenance for about 3yrs)