Eating More and Now Super Hungry

uwdawg07

I was eating 1200 calories and working out like mad for a long time. I didn't lose any weight for 6 plus months.

I increased my calories to 1500-1600 (sometimes 1700) about a month ago. Weight started coming off, yay!

While I was on 1200 calories I felt satiated, but now, eating more, I'm hungry ALL the time. I eat very healthy, and allow myself a treat every other day or so.

Is my increase in hunger because my metabolism is moving more quickly? Any ideas? This is driving me nuts!

ellie78

I don't know what causes it but I had the same problem and I recall seeing a lot of people mention it! My appetite seemed to settle down after a couple weeks.

Did you change your workout routine at all? I added more strength training at the same time so I just assumed it as related to that.

graysmom2005

Eat more, stomach stretches. You get hungry easier.

berthabunny

I was eating 1200 calories and working out like mad for a long time. I didn't lose any weight for 6 plus months.

I increased my calories to 1500-1600 (sometimes 1700) about a month ago. Weight started coming off, yay!

While I was on 1200 calories I felt satiated, but now, eating more, I'm hungry ALL the time. I eat very healthy, and allow myself a treat every other day or so.

Is my increase in hunger because my metabolism is moving more quickly? Any ideas? This is driving me nuts!

Made about the same change starting yesterday, and I am already starving! Did you get hungry that quickly?

curlygirly80

I have been eating about 1800 calories and can't get enough food. I am eating 6 times a day, hitting my macros (off slightly sometimes) and am starving. I do cardio 5 days a week and lift 3 days a week. I think I could eat a cow right now. That should put me over in my protein! LOL

bekdavis

bump

nellyett

Yes, that happened to me too. I had read somewhere that in addition to stretching your stomach (like someone mentioned), you are also 'stoking the furnace'.

You are fueling your body and firing up your metabolism. I have a hard time staying under 2000 cals per day at the moment!! LOL

I think that maybe the cold weather has something to do with it too....that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it!! :):)

heybales

Besides the metabolism increase, you may be doing different workouts than before, and for sure now eating enough to get something out of them.

So that is the body wanting more energy (barring some insulin spike low-blood sugar issue) to make even more improvement.

At some point, you'll have to decide if you feed it to see the improvement and get less deficit, or back off on the exercise intensity to just lose the weight and fat with same deficit.

Or, if you can deal with the hunger, press forward, if your body doesn't have the resources it just won't make the improvements, performance plateau. Which is kind of an automatic backing off of intensity.

heybales

I think that maybe the cold weather has something to do with it too....that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it!! :):)

Now that is very true too.

Increased metabolism is literally more heat being produced, so you probably can stay warming now then with a slower metabolism.

But if colder too, body needs to produce extra warmth, so increased energy needs.

Some people try to do that when they don't eat enough even for their BMR to get by, body can't be fooled, it'll either let you feel cold, or it will warm up and just rob the calories from other functions.

berthabunny

I may well have not done enough research to come up with the answer to this, but how much weight should I expect to gain int he first couple of weeks?
And do I need to keep my calories at BMR, or around what I have been increasing to (including workout days) on non-workout days? Example: I have been increasing to 1700-1800 on 2h+ workout days, but this weekend I'll have one or two days of rest, where do I want my calories to be?
Thanks!

heybales

I may well have not done enough research to come up with the answer to this, but how much weight should I expect to gain int he first couple of weeks?
And do I need to keep my calories at BMR, or around what I have been increasing to (including workout days) on non-workout days? Example: I have been increasing to 1700-1800 on 2h+ workout days, but this weekend I'll have one or two days of rest, where do I want my calories to be?
Thanks!

The TDEE method takes your total weekly activity and averages it out to a daily basis.

So your eating level on big workout days is not really enough to cover the workout usually, and it's the rest day eating at the same level that balances it out.

If you included the exercise in the TDEE level estimate, you eat that every day. Workout or not.

If you miss a planned workout, you skip about 200 cal / hr on that day, unless it sends you under BMR. If you make it up on another day, or add another odd workout, you eat another 200 cal / hr on that day.

As to how much you will gain, depends on how fast your metabolism responds.
If you have had no weight or measurement loss for at least 3 wks, you were already eating at real suppressed TDEE, hence eating at maintenance. So 500 cal surplus daily for 7 days is 1 lb. So just do the math for potential, taking into account the metabolism should slowly raise.

uwdawg07

Thanks guys! I guess maybe I am getting my metabolism going again.

To whoever asked - it took about 2-3 weeks for this crazy hunger to hit. I was actually too full at the start because I wasn't used to eating so much. Now I can't get enough!

But heck, I'm losing weight like crazy, so I'll keep eating and enjoying it I'm going to try bumping my calories up a bit more too - in a few weeks. I'm about 5 pounds away from goal, so I'm trying to get up to a reasonable maintenance amount that I can live on for years.

grantsmommy

I have noticed the same thing!!! I figure if i'm really that hungry, I'm going to eat. I just still make sure that I eat healthy choices.