eat till your full or just till your satisfied?

Bananna411

So I made this very delicious dinner tonight: tilapia fish tacos with avocado, cabbage, cilantro, onions, chipotle sour cream sauce and avocado all with a side of black beans and corn. after entering in my food from the day prior to dinner, i had a little over 1000 calories left to consume. i decided to add more avocado to bulk up the calories a little bit.

Anyway, i found myself eating a little more than i should have. i mean after my work out today and all my food intake (including dinner) i am still under by 543 calories. It's just that after eating my dinner tonight i feel full, like i could have had 1 taco instead of 2.

This is where i get confused. should i try to eat to get up to my daily caloric goal? or only eat till im satisfied and have a lot of calories left to consume? what happens if i end up not consuming enough calories?

i just feel that eating when I'm not hungry just to meet my calorie goal is being counterproductive on this weight loss journey...

AlainaKayy

Personally, I listen to my body. If I'm not hungry; I won't eat. If I'm satisfied; I stop eating. I don't push it and I don't force all the calories just because they are numbers. I find it more as a guideline. But I will say eat at least 3 times a day. Even if it's just a banana or an apple or something. Gotta fuel the body as well. But if you're not eating all the calories, that's okay. Your body is most important. Listen to it.

Bananna411

Thanks Alaina. I think i just confused myself from reading all this stuff on not getting enough calories. Just like you stated, normally i use the calorie intake more as a guideline and listen to my body, so definitely gonna go back to the way i was doing it before.

lsorci919

I agree with listening to your body. Go with how you feel. I keep my calorie intake above 1200, usually I reach about 1400, but I am pretty fully at that and I still have exercise calories left. It's worked for me so far.

bajoyba

It depends on how many calories you're eating. It's important to make sure that you're logging accurately and consistently, and once you're confident about your intake, to get as close to that calorie goal as possible. It's not a suggestion or a guideline. It's a calorie goal specifically for you based on the information you plug into the system. As mentioned above, your body IS the most important thing - which is why you need to fuel it properly. Hunger cues are not always dependable. If they were, none of us would be here.

If you're only coming that far under your calorie goal every once in awhile, it's not a big deal. Sometimes that happens. But if you're frequently having trouble reaching your calorie goal, you need to plan your day better or add more calorie-dense foods into your diet. If you regularly undereat or have a huge calorie deficit, it becomes difficult to get the fuel and nutrition your body needs. Eating fresh, whole foods is great, but it doesn't automatically mean that you're getting adequate nutrition. Your body still requires certain levels of macro and micro nutrients to function optimally.

There's lots of good info in this link about fueling your body and meeting your goals:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

Bananna411

Thanks everyone!

Thanks bajoyba on the link. I think that will help clear things up for me

Ilikelamps

isnt being full the same thing as being satisfied!? For me it is...im not satisfied til im full.

Mcgrawhaha

yeah, me too. im satisfied when im full. not unbutton my pants and unzip my zipper at the restaurant table full, but just full, as in, i feel full, put the fork down...

meshashesha2012

i cant listen to my body. i'm a bottomless pit so i really shouldnt be trying to eat until im full, but eating until i'm satisfied.

there's a difference between the two, at least there is for me

kagevf

what is your target calorie intake?

full is satisfied and satisfied is full

JesterMFP

I think two things. First: "listening to your body" doesn't work for a lot of people. Maybe it's something that can be learned, maybe not. People who can manage their weight over years by eating intuitively don't tend to end up with a large amount to lose. Or, if they do, it's because something changed - they got pregnant, or sick, or injured or their activity level decreased without them really noticing and they didn't realise they had to change their intake to match.

Then there are a whole lot of other people who can't accurately judge how much to eat by how full they feel. In fact, appetite and hunger aren't really the best indicators of exactly how much your body needs anyway. There are countless threads on here of people who are drastically restricting their calories yet don't feel hungry and can't bear the thought of eating 1,000, 12,00 calories etc. There are also countless people who overeat and yet still feel full. You can eat 500 calories of raw vegetables and feel stuffed, or 2,000 calories of something really calorie dense and while you might feel satisfied energy wise, your stomach would still want more.

Appetite is a really complicated thing and can be affected by so many things, including how much exercise you've done, hormonal cycles, illness, medication, the kinds of foods you've eaten... Also, people who have issues with emotional eating often have different levels of physically full and emotionally full. They can learn to distinguish the two, but chances are they're always going to have a slightly different experience of "satisfied" than someone else.

You have to remember that humans didn't evolve in a time when food was as plentiful as it is now. The point was to eat when food was available because it wasn't always available. I think a lot of people feel this pressure to eat "intuitively" and feel bad that they're doing it wrong if they can't. On the other hand, I think we can train ourselves to be satisfied on a certain amount of food, otherwise people wouldn't manage to maintain calorie deficits over such long periods of time.


The second thought I have is that there is really a lot of personal preference to it too. Some people don't like the feeling of their stomach being full and stretched, whereas some people genuinely do enjoy that feeling of being completely full. That's one reason why people have such different preferences over meal timing and size. I personally like feeling full, but only in the evening when I'm not as active. During the day (lunch), I eat to the point where I curb the hunger but could easily eat some more if I wanted.

I know from experience that I can't rely on my body to tell me exactly how much it needs, just as it doesn't really give me signals telling me how much protein or fat it needs. So, I rely on my brain to tell me how much to eat, and I'm ok with that.


Oh, and OP: if you want to understand more about it all, read up about insulin, leptin and ghrelin and the part they have to play. I'm no expert, so I won't attempt to explain it myself as I'd probably confuse you more, but there really is a lot more to hunger than a lot of people realise.

Iwishyouwell

If a person is overweight or obese the last thing they need to do is play into the "not eating enough calories" hype.

Trust me, if you're overweight/obese you'll be fine putting down the tacos when you're satisfied, no matter what your calorie target is on a counting tool.

Bananna411

I guess i should clarify: Stuffed or just right.

For me, i know that over the course of my life i have had a problem with overeating. So all of this is still a learning process for me. I mean, i have lost weight the healthy way in the past, but it's re-learning all of this again and not just learning all the lingo and whats right and whats wrong. It's re-learning how my body and mind feel and reading the signals.

I have been doing really good these past few days with measuring out EVERYTHING. Using the scale religiously. I just want to make sure that I get the right amount of nutrients so that I'm not depriving my body of what it needs and end up losing muscle.