Cravings disguised as hunger?

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leanlicorice
leanlicorice Posts: 84 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I have been feeling very hungry in the afternoons this week. I have increased my cardio intensity and accordingly increased my calorie intake but it still has not been enough, despite a relatively generous ~1700 calories/day.

I am prone to emotional eating in the afternoons so I am not sure if it is just cravings disguised as hunger. I have been keeping up my water intake so I don't believe that is the issue.

My questions are as follows:
- Can cravings be disguised as hunger?
- Does the hunger go away? (This is my 2nd week on MFP.)
- If not, are there techniques that I can use to survive the hunger without giving up and binge eating?

Replies

  • seska422
    seska422 Posts: 3,217 Member
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    It may help to alter your macro percentages a bit. More protein and fat may leave you more satiated.
  • oh_happy_day
    oh_happy_day Posts: 1,138 Member
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    Not sure what your stats are but I assume your calorie intake is sufficient and you're not under-eating. Yes, the hunger goes away to an extent. I'm now used to feeling satiated as opposed to full/stuffed. I eat high protein and fat which helps. I drink lots of water and other fluids (e.g. herbal tea). I think you get better at distinguishing between cravings and hunger. Like is your stomach rumbling or do you just want to eat? I often crave sugar when I get overly hungry. I don't actually need/want sugar, the feeling will go away after I've had a decent snack.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    For me the only cravings that are disguised as hunger are hormonal ones. It mostly happens around ovulation, the week before my period, and maybe the first two days of my period, and it's a physical thing - if I don't eat I get shaky/dizzy. Otherwise, the two things are pretty distinctive for me.

    Nothing helps for hormonal hunger for me, but for normal hunger, increasing your protein, fat and fibers usually helps a lot. I try to limit bread etc, and when I have them, I try to use whole grains for extra fiber, and I always have them with fat and/or protein. If you opened your diary we might be able to give some suggestions to help with hunger.

    About whether the hunger goes away, well, I wasn't hungry much at all when I started losing, to be honest, but the more I lost, the hungrier I got. My goal is 1800 right now (I've been maintaining for a year but vacations have made me gain a couple pounds so I'm trying to lose them now, even though I've been over all week due to PMS), and I know that if I have more than 300 calories of 'junk' (bread, ice cream, chocolate, chips etc), I'll go to bed hungry most days. But it totally depends on my cycle.. some days I'll eat 2600 calories and still be hungry, some days I can be full on 1400.
  • dreamof_perfection
    dreamof_perfection Posts: 26 Member
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    I usually have food cravings (for carbs most of the time) when I haven't eaten enough protein during the day. I usually will just have a healthy snack instead of what I'm craving and the feeling goes away.
  • leanlicorice
    leanlicorice Posts: 84 Member
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    Thank you very much to each of you for your advice! I will try increasing protein and fat to curb cravings. It might also be hormone-related as I am at the end of my menstrual cycle.
  • softblondechick
    softblondechick Posts: 1,276 Member
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    My issue is craving a specific food, usually pasta, I can eat a salad, bread, whatever, and not be hungry, but still hung up on the craving.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    softblondechick wrote: »
    My issue is craving a specific food, usually pasta, I can eat a salad, bread, whatever, and not be hungry, but still hung up on the craving.

    Yeah that's definitely not hunger. For me cravings are specific, while hunger isn't.
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,626 Member
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    Cravings are very different than hunger for me. Cravings for pasta - I'd have them like crazy before my periods and now have them only if I eat white pasta. But it was never a hunger issue. I'd have cravings whether I was hungry or not.

    Hunger is when I have an actual, physical sensation.

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