Struggling to maintain

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  • fourfiftythree
    fourfiftythree Posts: 203 Member
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    as you increase your caloric intake, your leptin levels increase. leptin is the hormone that regulates your feelings of hunger...increased leptin means increased hunger cues. It will level off as your body balances out the hormone to normal levels.

    It is the same reason people diet and after a few days they're like, "hey...I can eat 2 calories and I'm not even hungry." They're leptin levels are in the tank and thus not properly sending hunger cues. This is why it's ill-advisable to go off of hunger cues alone when you're dieting or when you're overweight...overweight/obese individuals have high leptin levels and can eat and eat and eat without feeling "full".

    Do these hunger cues from increased leptin come as a just mental desire to eat, or as the growling pit of your stomach desire to eat? I am going through same thing as OP after upping cals and my stomach growls all day long. Trying to increase calories slowly but feeling this ravenous is very hard to overcome.
  • MLunaSprint
    MLunaSprint Posts: 1
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    Here is what you must do:
    Stop. Stop counting calories.

    Do you know know what a calorie is? It's a unit. Just like inches, or ounces.
    So how can a unit make you fat exactly?

    So just stop and look at what you're eating.
    Are you eating chocolate flavored protein shakes and romaine lettuce salads with light dressing?
    OR
    Are you eating FRESH ORGANIC Kale salads sprinkled chia seeds with a side of brown rice and fresh broccoli with lime juice?
    Do you eat this meal with lots of good water and for dessert do you eat fresh blended bananas instead of 100 calorie "brownies" junk.

    You must eat. You must eat food that your cells will absorb effortlessly and thrive.
    Because whats REALLY makes us fat is sugar. If you think about it, it kinda makes sense because sugar is really in everything. It's evaporated cane sugar, it's high maltose corn syrup, it's maltodextrin, and it's in everything.

    So please revolutionize your diet please, because I'm tired of seeing people count calories.
    So go out there and be healthy :wink:
  • billpriday
    billpriday Posts: 5 Member
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    You need to eat,but what you eat is very important. To help fight the hunger pangs, stay away from carbs and sugars. Up your protein and fiber contents and drink water...lots of water. I find that the more protein and fiber I get, the less hungry I am. For snacks I usually go with almonds or pistachios or a Quest Nutrition Protein Bar. The Quest bars are little pricey but they taste good, have high fiber and protein content with low calories...approx. 190 cals per bar. Expect to pay around $2.25 to $2.60 per bar. Other good snack items are watermelon and celery...high water content and virtually no calories.
  • Danielle56321
    Danielle56321 Posts: 3 Member
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    It is so nice to see I'm not thee only one trying to gain and maintain a weight. With so many people working hard to loose sometimes I feel bad saying anything about wanting to gain a few pounds. :) Good luck
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    as you increase your caloric intake, your leptin levels increase. leptin is the hormone that regulates your feelings of hunger...increased leptin means increased hunger cues. It will level off as your body balances out the hormone to normal levels.

    It is the same reason people diet and after a few days they're like, "hey...I can eat 2 calories and I'm not even hungry." They're leptin levels are in the tank and thus not properly sending hunger cues. This is why it's ill-advisable to go off of hunger cues alone when you're dieting or when you're overweight...overweight/obese individuals have high leptin levels and can eat and eat and eat without feeling "full".

    Do these hunger cues from increased leptin come as a just mental desire to eat, or as the growling pit of your stomach desire to eat? I am going through same thing as OP after upping cals and my stomach growls all day long. Trying to increase calories slowly but feeling this ravenous is very hard to overcome.

    Couple comments, one right below yours shares the reason why that can happen, it's not usually growling from the hormones.

    It's the increased calories has more carbs now, perhaps not as balanced in the meal or snack as the dieting intake was, and now you have some sensitivity to too many carbs at once, or without protein and fat, or first in a meal or snack.
    Overshoots the insulin response, drops the blood sugar too low - you feel hungry.
    And the too many carbs in the stomach can lead to growling, though that can be separate issue.

    You can eat more carbs, but try confirming by eating the fat and protein in a snack or meal prior to the carbs - same effect later of being hungry? Or eat slightly less carbs and more fat/protein.
  • Laura3BB
    Laura3BB Posts: 250 Member
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    I don't have a solution for you - but I have to say I'm also a little hungry on maintenance (eating around 2000 cals per day though!)
    I wonder if it isn't a psychological thing about counting calories and logging that gets us thinking way too much about FOOD!
  • husseycd
    husseycd Posts: 814 Member
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    Are you eating more often? For me, my first meal starts the hunger cycle. When I was in weight loss mode, I typically skipped breakfast and ate a low calorie frozen meal for lunch in order to save my calories to have dinner with my family (small portions of whatever we were having...even fried chicken or pizza) followed by a small portion of dessert.

    Once I moved to maintenance, I thought I could add back my favorite breakfast foods, but I found that if I ate breakfast, I actually felt more hungry a few hours later and was "starving" by lunch and tended to eat more than I did when I skipped breakfast altogether. Now, I delay my first meal until I'm really hungry (sometimes lunch, sometimes dinner, but rarely breakfast), and I generally have fewer hunger pangs than if I eat more often.

    Just another idea in addition to the others offered here. It may just be a matter of experimenting until you figure out what works best for you.

    This is true for me too.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    HBO Health of the Nation, most if not all on youtube, shared one study that the setpoint theory had more to do with the hormone response.

    At lighter weight than body was used to, you kept hormone levels of higher weight, meaning your body was trying to get back to prior weight. Hunger is one way to accomplish that.

    The study only lasted 9 months I think, though they did followups on the folks later, so no comment on how long that might last.

    But it was interesting how the leptin changed as weight changed, but didn't match prior levels or someone already at lighter weight not through losing it.

    So indeed, anything you can do with diet to help get rid of that hunger will be useful.
  • L33TBl0nde
    L33TBl0nde Posts: 54 Member
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    The simple answer is: Exercise more = eat more.
  • Makoce
    Makoce Posts: 938 Member
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    The simple answer is: Exercise more = eat more.

    I do this. Im at the gym for over an hour sometimes.
  • einzweidrei
    einzweidrei Posts: 381 Member
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    I eat every 3 hours.

    That always makes me hungrier!

    Like someone else mentioned, whenever I eat breakfast, I tend to overeat non-stop. This is when I'm living like a day person. For me, delaying my intake always worked better.

    Working nights, it's almost the same. But on different hours.
  • laurenz2501
    laurenz2501 Posts: 839 Member
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    Are you eating more often? For me, my first meal starts the hunger cycle. When I was in weight loss mode, I typically skipped breakfast and ate a low calorie frozen meal for lunch in order to save my calories to have dinner with my family (small portions of whatever we were having...even fried chicken or pizza) followed by a small portion of dessert.

    Once I moved to maintenance, I thought I could add back my favorite breakfast foods, but I found that if I ate breakfast, I actually felt more hungry a few hours later and was "starving" by lunch and tended to eat more than I did when I skipped breakfast altogether. Now, I delay my first meal until I'm really hungry (sometimes lunch, sometimes dinner, but rarely breakfast), and I generally have fewer hunger pangs than if I eat more often.

    Just another idea in addition to the others offered here. It may just be a matter of experimenting until you figure out what works best for you.

    I'm the SAME way!! Sometimes I don't get hungry 4/5 hours after I wake up!
  • MattLBennett
    MattLBennett Posts: 24 Member
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    Yes, I have my stuff set to sedentary and add back exercise because my exercise is very unpredictable in terms of a schedule.

    BUT, I set those other sites to sedentary as well! So, that doesn't quite explain it.

    The other sites will adjust the daily calorie allowance depending on your activity level, MFP doesn't. Set the activity level to what you like and the daily calorie allowance doesn't change, it expects all exercised to be logged.
  • Makoce
    Makoce Posts: 938 Member
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    Yes, I have my stuff set to sedentary and add back exercise because my exercise is very unpredictable in terms of a schedule.

    BUT, I set those other sites to sedentary as well! So, that doesn't quite explain it.

    The other sites will adjust the daily calorie allowance depending on your activity level, MFP doesn't. Set the activity level to what you like and the daily calorie allowance doesn't change, it expects all exercised to be logged.

    But I set other sites according to sedentary, just like I set MFP to sedentary.

    So, isnt it the same calculation? Where in both cases you eat back calories?
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
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    Yes, I have my stuff set to sedentary and add back exercise because my exercise is very unpredictable in terms of a schedule.

    BUT, I set those other sites to sedentary as well! So, that doesn't quite explain it.

    The other sites will adjust the daily calorie allowance depending on your activity level, MFP doesn't. Set the activity level to what you like and the daily calorie allowance doesn't change, it expects all exercised to be logged.

    But I set other sites according to sedentary, just like I set MFP to sedentary.

    So, isnt it the same calculation? Where in both cases you eat back calories?

    No, their calculations are going to be different because they are different types of calculators.
  • Makoce
    Makoce Posts: 938 Member
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    Ah.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Yes, sedentary on MFP is 1.25 x Mifflin BMR, normal TDEE tables are 1.2 x Harris or Mifflin BMR, if they tell you which one they use.
    Some let you select Katch BMR if you know bodyfat %.
  • Makoce
    Makoce Posts: 938 Member
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    So again it's all just estimated.
    So start with the lower maintenance and up it if needed I guess right
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Actually no.

    Studies show your body will adapt to lower eating levels by lowering metabolism.
    You also risk burning off muscle mass when eating too little.

    It's much safer to start higher, and then after a month figure out what the true maintenance must have been, and adjust down.

    Less risk of just slowing metabolism down and risking muscle mass further slowing it down.

    It's going to happen anyway as it takes less energy to move less mass, you'll lose some LBM from carrying less water, but no need to lose muscle or LBM before it's time, extra metabolism.
  • skinnybythanksgiving
    skinnybythanksgiving Posts: 159 Member
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    No, you don't have to ignore hunger or cravings. When you eat, focus on the specific foods that satisfy hunger.

    http://www.mendosa.com/satiety.htm

    I eat this way and can vouch for it, especially oranges and whole eggs. It really works, I am rarely starving or craving. I don't eat sugar or artificial sweetners, ever.

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