Should you feel hungry in a deficit?
wndlady
Posts: 70 Member
I have about 10-15 more lbs to lose. At first I felt very hungry in a deficit, but now very rarely. Is this normal?
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Replies
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I don't really know but when I first began in deficit I was hungry all the time, at least I thought I was. Now not so much and I' learning the difference of being hungry and just eating because I am sitting idly around.7
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No, you're supposed to be able to get the nutrients your body needs and not feel hungry. Also, your body will adjust to eating less as you lose weight and time goes on. At least mine has.2
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Yes, that's very normal.2
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Totally depends on a lot of things! Depends on your goal and what you eat.1
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I always feel slightly hungry in a deficit, but how hungry I feel varies.2
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I've heard of people who claim to have lost weight w/o feeling hungry. That's never been my experience at all.4
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It depends. Some do, some don't. It depends on how large your deficit is. It depends on what you are used to, what you recognise as hungry and full. It depends on what you eat, whether you get in all the nutrition you need. There really is no logical reason why we should feel more hungry in a deficit, our body's energy stores make up for that deficit. We can even fast for 8 hours with no ill effect - we do this every night... while we are sleeping. We regularly take in, and continuously expend, energy, no matter if we are in a deficit, or maintenaning, or gaining. In a deficit, the amount of energy out in the course of a day or a week, just exceeds the amount of energy in, in the course of a day or a week.5
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I would say that some hunger is completely normal however if you're able to diet without any hunger, congrats, that's a bonus.3
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I've never solved the hunger issue completely. fats/protein/carbs/fruit/veggies and a million and one steaks, hunger always seems to hit somewhere.
What I have solved is dealing with the fact that some hunger is pretty normal, maybe even healthy.2 -
That's how it worked for me. Hunger is subjective and not always an indication of needing food/not meeting nutritional requirements. I've found that for me, eating adequate amounts of protein and staying hydrated usually keeps the hungries at bay. TOM/hormones can affect hunger as can some medications, too. If you're really struggling, you can increase your intake by a couple hundred calories for a week and then gradually decrease to your prescribed deficit. No need to do it all in one fell swoop.2
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I've found the more I exercise the less likely I am to feel hungry. Doesn't make any sense at all, but I'm OK with it.0
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That sounds pretty normal to me. I was hungry some right at first but not bad and that was with a huge deficit. Learning to adjust my diet, which allowed for larger portions, helped a lot but what helped even more was understanding that much of that hunger wasn't real. Most of it was simply boredom. My deficit is much less now that I have a lot less body fat but still pretty large and hunger is not an issue.0
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I think that anyone who's not overeating will feel hungry some of the time. Otherwise, you're eating when you're not hungry.
I don't think you need to feel starving* all the time in a deficit. If you're miserably hungry the whole time, you need to either (a) find more satiating foods or (b) reduce your deficit or (c) both.
*Yes, it's hyperbole. First world problems. Yadda yadda.
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I've found the more I exercise the less likely I am to feel hungry. Doesn't make any sense at all, but I'm OK with it.
Same here. Im a night time snacker but If I workout for 30mins at around 6pm(when my 7 month old goes to bed) I can eat my dinner at 7pm and be fine for the night. I usually have flavoued rice cakes as a snack at night if I need to (50cals for a cheese flavoured rice cake is fine for me so I save 100 calories for two)1 -
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I don't really know but when I first began in deficit I was hungry all the time, at least I thought I was. Now not so much and I' learning the difference of being hungry and just eating because I am sitting idly around.
This was the case for me. I was uncomfortable at first when I started my deficit. After a couple weeks it got much better, but I don't know if that's because I came up things to eat (high volume/low cal) that would keep me full, OR....I started getting used to the fact that my body didn't need all the extra food that made me fat.
I think there's a mental component to this too and if people simply THINK they need to be eating more then they're going to feel hungry.
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I think a big part of the mental component is that probably many of us subconsciously believe that any hunger is bad, that we're never supposed to feel it. I've dealt with the issue by mindfully paying attention to what my body is feeling, and accepting the fact that neither being too full nor too hungry feels good. But there's a pretty broad area in between that feels anywhere from okay to great.2
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I don't really know but when I first began in deficit I was hungry all the time, at least I thought I was. Now not so much and I' learning the difference of being hungry and just eating because I am sitting idly around.
This was the case for me. I was uncomfortable at first when I started my deficit. After a couple weeks it got much better, but I don't know if that's because I came up things to eat (high volume/low cal) that would keep me full, OR....I started getting used to the fact that my body didn't need all the extra food that made me fat.
I think there's a mental component to this too and if people simply THINK they need to be eating more then they're going to feel hungry.
That is probably true for many of us.1 -
I have about 10-15 more lbs to lose. At first I felt very hungry in a deficit, but now very rarely. Is this normal?
If you feel hungry, space out your meals more (4-6 + meals) and ensure you are getting enough food each day, go through the process of checking your daily calories and avoid eating processed foods.0 -
Thanks for the responses. No, I'm not hungry anymore, especially at night. Only right before meals. Just wondering if others felt their hunger tapering off after a few weeks of calorie deficit. I think I am also learning which low calorie foods fill me up more than others and how to save a few calories for the evening if I need them.0
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