Am I eating enough?

nomnomgoodies

I'm 4'11" and weigh about 114 pounds. I follow a weight lifting plan that has me working out 5 times a week, and I eat around 1440 calories a day. Lately, I've been feeling hungry all the time. I want to increase my intake, but I feel like I won't be making a large enough deficit to lose 0.5 pounds a week. It's been months, and I haven't seen much change in my body composition.

Any input would be appreciated!

Erainor

I'm no expert, but if you're lifting weights that often, you probably aren't going to lose weight because you are building muscle. Have you spoken to a doctor? You might be causing damage by having too low of a calorie intake.

erickirb

sounds like enough given your stats. That said if you want to eat more try adding in a bit of cardio, burn an extra 200 cals, eat an extra 200 cals, your deficit will still be intact.

erickirb

I'm no expert, but if you're lifting weights that often, you probably aren't going to lose weight because you are building muscle. Have you spoken to a doctor? You might be causing damage by having too low of a calorie intake.

Not in a deficit will they be building any muscle, or very little and only if they are new or returning to lifting.

Patttience

I don't know… When you ask a question like this, i think you have to provide more information.

Nevertheless, if you are hungry all the time eat more. Eat until you are satisfied but not until you are full. If you eat daily slowly in and small courses with a space in between each you will know when you are satisfied and you will know it before you are full.

So how long have you been at this?
HOw much weight have you lost? Are you male or female? I"m presuming your female.
What are you eating/type of diet?
Why do you think you are hungry?
I suppose MFP has suggested 1440 is the rich amount of calories is it?

Assuming your hunger is not due to any other reason: depression, stress, tiredness, malnutrition, and so on you are possibly having a famine reaction. If you have lost more than 10% of your body weight, there's a very good chance this is what's going on. the solution is to increase the amount you eat. Not start stuffing yourself but just start eating to satisfaction. And eat when you feel hungry. Do no go hungry. Keep on eating healthy food from a wide as possible range of foods.

Look up an article on nutrition wonderland website about leptin. Also look it up on webmD. And if you really want to understand this phenomenon and how to cope with it in weightless read The Don't Go Hungry Diet by Dr Amanda Sainsbury Salis who is a scientist who did major work on this appetite hormone. Basically this hunger which she calls the famine reaction comes about because when you lose a certain amount of fat, leptin which is produced in your fat cells, rides up to your brain, the hypothalamus part of it. This part of the brain controls appetite. The leptin has told your brain that you are in danger of dying from insufficient food and making you hungry is your body's way of trying to get you to get some of that fat back. This is an evolutionary hangover from times past when food was often in scarce supply. This was the way nature kept us alive in difficult circumstances. REmember that throughout most of history food has been in scarce supply for at least part of the year if not throughout for long periods. This is why its easier for us to put on weight than it is for us to lose it.

Apparently we do have a system that kicks in to help us to stop putting on weight but its a weak system and its easy to override. After a time it becomes dulled and non-functioning e.g. the way that we can become leptin resistant so that we are always hungry even when are eating too much all the time. But luckily this problem is not permanent. Currently its not your issue. Your problem may the first one i talked about.


I'm 4'11" and weigh about 114 pounds. I follow a weight lifting plan that has me working out 5 times a week, and I eat around 1440 calories a day. Lately, I've been feeling hungry all the time. I want to increase my intake, but I feel like I won't be making a large enough deficit to lose 0.5 pounds a week. It's been months, and I haven't seen much change in my body composition.

Any input would be appreciated!