How Hungry Are You?

meg7117 wrote: »

Do your caloric deficits leave you feeling hungry or satisfied? I'm at 1780 cals per day and they leave me feeling a little hungry at the end of the day. My exercise is pretty high though. I'm just curious!

I'm at 1250 a day ... and when I don't exercise, I'm hungry.

But thank goodness for exercise, because it gives me some extra calories to use.

Today I did an 11.7 km hike which gave me about 550 extra calories. That's about 1800 cals which is more than enough. I've only eaten about 1600 cals today, and I'm feeling satisfied, not hungry.

On a day when I make less than nutritious choices, I make sure I have a nice big chunk of something protein filled at the end of the day. Usually, that's a chicken breast or some other nice hunk of meat. Calories do go over and I try to have exercise cover at least some of it, but usually protein is the only macro I'm suffering too low on days I'm not eating the best choices.

I do eat back some or most of my exercise calories. I also adjust the exercise calories burned to a lower number when I enter into MFP since I think burned estimates can run a little high even with my heart rate monitor.

edited because apparently I need more coffee this morning to make sense lol

FoxyMars25 wrote: »

I aim to eat around 1700 a day. I workout 6 days a week. And I am always hungry to the point where I am miserable sometimes. I eat protein (eggs, chicken, turkey), lots of veggies and fruit, try to stay away from white bread/potatoes, stay away from sugary sweets, drink water and coffee and green tea. I don't know what my issue is.

Do you eat grains? When I started I craved bread ... and found that a slice of bread with a little bit of cheese went a long way toward feeling full. Whole wheat crackers helped too.

For me it totally depends on where I am in my menstrual cycle, pretty much. Some days I could be full at 1300 calories, some days I'm starving until I eat 2600. My goal is 1800 (to lose .75 lb a week) but it's low on purpose to make up for the days when I eat more - because I WILL eat all my calories, even if I'm not hungry (typically in the form of sweets, which prevents me from binging later). That includes exercise.

I'm only 2 pounds from my goal weight (might be closer now, I haven't weighed in ages), and I've been hungrier the closer I get.

Even on 2500 calories a day with 90g of fat, 30-50g of fiber and 160-180g of protein, I am hungry quite often. But I am sure it doesn't help that I lift like a beast.

Rarely if ever do I feel hunger that I'm unable to deal with by simply eating something.

I don't think it a coincidence that making just slightly better food choices throughout the day makes it pretty easy for me to stay at 2K calories. Whereas some of my previous habits had me consuming more but feeling less satisfied.

Generally I am a little hungry but it's not so bad that I can't ignore it. When I am working I usually start to get uncomfortably hungry by a bout 10:30-11 am. I try to spread the calories out over the day (three meals/three snacks) so every time my stomach is starting to think about feeling hungry it gets a little something. That helps keep the mad hunger pains at bay. This has been a tricky week since the hormone hungriness has also been rearing it's head.

I eat 1500 when I exercise and 1350 when I don't, this gives me a 250 calorie deficit about.

Sounds little, but I'm a little person

Usually I'm not hungry on it. If I'm too hungry I eat up to maintenance or drink loads of water, tea and coffee.

I'm not hungry and haven't been throughout this process. As someone else said, certainly I might get hungry before I eat, but I don't feel like I'm any more hungry than I was before watching my calories or that I end the day hungry.

I'm a volume eater, though, so just put lots of veggies on my plate and that takes care of physical hunger. My bigger problem is struggling with the emotional eating stuff, which can present as a feeling of hunger or that you need to eat.

Machka9 wrote: »

Do you eat grains? When I started I craved bread ... and found that a slice of bread with a little bit of cheese went a long way toward feeling full. Whole wheat crackers helped too.

Yes, I will eat one slice of ezekiel bread with my breakfast and sometimes lunch will be a high fiber, low carb whole grain wrap (with turkey, spinach, and hummus). Then occasionally I will eat brown rice or quinoa, but that isn't very often.

It is very hard for me to eat over my calorie allowance, even if I try. If you asked me to eat to and past my maintenance intake, you have to get me high first to see it happen on my diet. The spikes in my avatar are for weight gain, and those periods of weight gain were when I went off diet and didn't track calories or macros.

For perspective, I am at a 500cal/day deficit, so a 0 reading each day theoretically should yield a 2 lb per week weight loss. Often, I leave hundreds of calories in the green. Also, I am 28, male, 195ish and I am pretty active.

eating the way I do leaves me full for 8+ hours, without hunger. When I finally do get hungry, I can still sustain for a few more hours. Sometimes, I don't even have to eat back the exercise calories, and my workouts are colossal (up and over 1000 calories an hour, usually). My breakfast in the afternoon is usually colossal as well, about 1100-1400 calories.

Fats are more calorie dense, but they keep you satiated. I eat a bunch of saturated fats (60+% of fat intake, or 80-100 grams), so I cannot speak for all the plant fats, like in beans or avocados. The sodium provides me with abundant muscle movement; I never stop workouts due to a lack of electrolytes. Have perfect bloodwork as of March 2.

Bottom line....if you eat more carbs, you will have more mealtimes because you get hungry quicker. If you eat more fats, you will be satiated for longer periods of time, and hunger will not be a major factor in when you eat. That is my personal opinion based on analysis of personal experience.