Can you trust hunger to eat the right amount?

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tigerblue
tigerblue Posts: 1,525 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have been a calorie counter now for four years, and it works for me! But recently I have been thinking. . . .

During the last 2 weeks I have been sick with an upper respiratory virus, and I have not exercised for those two weeks. That is the longest by far that I have gone without exercising since starting on here 4 years ago! So here are my observations:

Since stopping my exercise regime, I have not been hungry. I can definitely tell that there has been a decrease in my appetite. And I have eaten less so that I will not gain while not exercising (I wear a bodymedia that helps me know how much to eat).

This is a little surprising to me, since I have always had a really large appetite. (after all that is how I gained weight in the first place, right!). I am thinking that perhaps I have finally trained my body to listen to true hunger signals instead of just eating because I want to.

I am interested to see if my appetite increases when I start working out again (hopefully soon, I miss my workouts!). Also, I am going to really try to listen to my body to eat correctly. I will still log my food, though, to check up on myself.

What about all of you? Have any of you had any luck "listening to your bodies"?

Replies

  • healthygreek
    healthygreek Posts: 2,137 Member
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    Yes, I'm maintaining my loss without logging.
  • BeachIron
    BeachIron Posts: 6,490 Member
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    It works if I'm bulking . . .
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    It works if I'm bulking . . .

    This for me as well... Being ill may well be what is suppressing your appetite at the moment.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,372 Member
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    It probably does as long as you're not one of those person (ie, me) who has cravings all the time.
  • servilia
    servilia Posts: 3,453 Member
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    When I was sick this last week I had little appetite. Got my cals in with chocolates lol. It's probably your sickness, not just your lack of exercise.
  • seltzermint555
    seltzermint555 Posts: 10,742 Member
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    "Listening to my body" got me to 307 lb. I would try to eat when I was hungry and for me that was a seriously screwed up diet of about 700-800 calories one day and 3,000 the next...then a few days of estimated 900-1000 calories. I always wondered why I didn't lose weight because there were MANY days every week for *years* that I would have something like this:

    cereal
    1/2 c milk
    cucumbers
    carrot sticks
    1 TBSP hummus
    1 small slice of cheese pizza

    and then every weekend:

    McDonald's sausage burrito
    McDonald's sausage biscuit
    XL iced coffee
    cheeseburger
    fries
    Diet Coke
    alfredo pasta made with cream cheese, chicken, broccoli
    side salad
    Diet Coke
    Starbucks cinnamon dolce latte

    Yep.

    I rarely feel hunger, then or now. Even now at 204 lb, eating 1340 calories per day and steadily losing weight, I do not have a voice inside of me telling me that my 1340 cal of healthy food is enough or that I want more food etc. I don't have constant cravings. I often follow what others around me are eating, and that can be very dangerous. Especially in the past when I had coworkers with unhealthy habits and an obese husband who ate a lot.

    For me MFP is a good way to learn how many calories I SHOULD eat.
  • Pearsquared
    Pearsquared Posts: 1,656 Member
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    I can't, but I've accepted that I have disordered eating patterns, and part of this weight loss is working on making it better. In other words, I don't trust my mind to tell me when I'm hungry and when I'm not because I'm a little messed up in the head, lol. If I don't structure it, I find myself slipping back into the binge/restrict cycle that made me gain in the first place.

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