Slight bump in activity and I'm hungry - will that settle ou

cakeums

I have my activity level set at lightly active. I wait tables, and I have a 6 hour shift on Thursdays, 6-7 hours on Fridays, 7-8 hours on Saturdays, and 12-13 hours on Sundays. These are all without breaks; I do not sit at all and I move around a lot typically. I would say about 1-2 days a week are spent with a lot of the time out of house running errands, or doing more cleaning than typical picking up. I spend at least one day a week not doing much of anything except taking care of the kids. I have been getting about 90-120 minutes of moderate cardio in since I started logging on Jan 1st, and I eat back most of my exercise calories. I've gone over my net a handful of times, one of those times I was way over, but my average net for the week is usually at or slightly below my goal. My ticker says 12lbs lost, but that is from my HW - I have probably lost about 6-7lbs since the Christmas season indulgence ended. (I weighed 207.6lbs on Dec 10th and 201.2lbs this past Sunday, on the same scale, same time of day, etc.) I have been feeling satisfied overall as far as satiety goes, have not felt deprived, etc.

So. I am taking classes at a local university on top of all of this, and have been spending 4-5 hours on campus the past 3 days. There has been some brisk walking involved, but no more than if I had a busy hour or so on a shift at work. However, I have been unusually hungry this week.

I don't think my activity level needs to go to active, but I want to eat enough that I feel satiated. I'm not talking about using this as an excuse to add in crap foods; I would probably increase mainly with more fruits and veggies anyway, maybe thing like hummus and nut butters, etc. Should I hang in there for another week or so and see if my body gets used to the bump in activity, or do I need to increase my activity settings?

cakeums

Oh, and I was logging some of my time at work as cardio, usually walking at either 3.0 or 3.5 for an hour or two, because some days I feel like I'm pretty inactive, and 4 days a week I have a good amount of activity. I am not logging time at work anymore though, so would that alone mean I need to increase my level?

kekl

I would try adjusting your activity level or maybe switching your goals to losing .5 lb a week (if it's at 1 lb, that is) and see how you feel eating a bit more. Sounds like you need it!

cakeums

If I bump up to active, it doesn't mean that I have to eat *all* of my calories if I'm not hungry, right? Maybe somewhere in the middle is better?

Also, would active include my lifestyle (4-5 hours a day on campus, being up and about all day 2-3 days a week, taking care of the kids, all the shifts at work) and my 90-120 minutes of cardio a week, or would I incorporate it all together and stop logging the cardio?

I need a HRM. Hmph.

cakeums

Okay, changing my goals to 1/2lb/week gives me an extra 250/day, whereas changing my activity level to active gives me an extra 170/day. So the worst that can happen changing to active, in theory, is losing at a rate that is somewhere between 1/2lb and 3/4lb a week. I will change it, and see how things look when I weigh in again on the 5th.