Hungry on maintenance and other problems...

choosing_fitness

Hi- I am very nervous because I am eating maintenance for now, until I am ready to lose the last ten pounds. I have two questions-
1. Is it good to go to maintenance before trying to lose again? How long should this last, as in how long should I stay here?
-- The problem is I am finding that I am BEYOND hungry. I used to be able to eat 1800 calories and now I eat like 2000 + calories per day and I am starving. Why is this??

2. Secondly, I am so mad at myself because I ate 600 + calories over maintenance. I am very discouraged because I have been eating maintenance for a while so this will just put on the pounds because of this...

Any advice is welcome

rileyleigh

1 - I recently lost 20 pounds by eating around 1700 calories a day. After that i went for about 2 weeks at maintenance or slightly above because i had a ton of family parties in a row and i didn't want to have to stress about counting calories. I continued to exercise even though i was eating more. I didn't lose any weight, but i didn't gain any either. Now i am back at counting calories and have already seen another weight drop fairily quickly. I'm not sure if there is any "science" out there about switching to maintenence and back to help weight loss, but it certainly didn't hurt me in my weightloss.

If you are still hungry after eating more calories, you should look at the type of calories you are eating. Just because you are at maintenance doesn't mean that suddenly you should switch your diet to whatever you want instead of focusing on meeting macros and finding high energy foods. You could eat 2000 calories of treats, but you would almost certainly be hungry for the rest of the day.

2 - If it was just one day, ignore it. It takes 3500 calories or so to gain/lose a pound, so 600 isn't going to affect you long term. If it is every day, then you should definitely work on not doing that anymore.

kimny72

Have you redone the math as far as what your maintenance is recently? Just because 1800 used to be your maintenance, doesn't necessarily mean it is now. Are you working out more than you used to, or at a higher intensity?

Also take a second look at what you are eating. It's different for everyone, but I know for me personally when I eat more grains I get hungry faster. Focusing on getting all my protein in while sticking to my diet really helps me stay full and close to my calorie goal. So 500 cals of pasta with some chicken and broccoli makes me hungry earlier than 500 cals of just chicken and broccoli.

Also, and I mean no offense because it happens to me, but are you more stressed out than usual? Sometimes when I am overwhelmed by life, no matter what I eat I am always hungry. Of course it isn't really hunger, it is my brain confusing signals and looking for comfort and happiness and peace in food.

And don't beat yourself up for one bad day - it happens to everyone. One day won't make that big a difference unless you let it knock you down and give up!

I'm sure you will get more answers from folks with more experience, but that's my two cents. Good luck!

ana3067

one day over maintenance won't make you get fat overnight. Every day over maintenance, yes.

Also, it's possible that 2000 is still a deficit for you, or you are simply eating too many carbs/too little protein and fat. PRotein and fat fill you up. Volume also fills you up, but in my experience it's a combo of volume and lots of protein+fat to keep full. I eat about 40% of my cals from carbs though, so in no way low-carb for me. I generally aim to eat about a 1:1 ratio of carbs and protein+fat in each meal, although in the evening I am fine eating more carbs than protein+fat in a meal because I'll be sleeping within a few hours anyways so, meh.