Weight Loss Theory

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laurimaki
laurimaki Posts: 47 Member
edited February 2017 in Health and Weight Loss
I don't know if there's any science behind this, but I am interested to hear what other people think. Often I read a comment online or a post on MFP with someone complaining about things not keeping them full or mentioning which snacks keep them full longer. My theory is that we are meant to feel hunger, ESPECIALLY if we are trying to lose weight. I mean, if your body adjusts to eating a certain amount of calories when you are at a higher weight, it needs that many calories every day to not feel hungry and sustain said weight. So if you start eating less and feeling hungry, doesn't that hunger mean that you are burning fat? Doesn't that mean there is no food in your stomach being burned up as fuel, so your stomach is shrinking and your body is using fat to sustain itself?

My theory for losing weight has always been that I have to not eat until I'm truly hungry, and going to bed hungry (NOT starving myself, just being a little hungry) after eating dinner a few hours earlier is not a bad sign, but a sign that my body is noticing there is less food, trying to get me to put more food in there, but instead burns fat to keep my body fueled. Thoughts? It is the one major thing among many minor changes that has worked for me to lose the weight I already have lost, and I know it would work to lose the rest I want to lose...it's just always about the battle of will power isn't it? And being hungry is hard haha.

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Replies

  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,981 Member
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    I'm just hungry right before meals.

    I don't like going to bed hungry, as inevitably hunger will wake me in the middle of the night, and I won't be able to go back to sleep until I eat, and I am much more productive when I'm able to sleep through the night. I save a few hundred calories for a bed time snack.
  • BusyRaeNOTBusty
    BusyRaeNOTBusty Posts: 7,166 Member
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    I think some people can lose weight and not be "hungry", but I do think that for a lot of us being hungry is just what you have to deal with, maybe not every day, maybe eating certain things can minimize it, but yeah, I know for myself I am going to have to be a little hungry. This is why I usually skip breakfast, I like to keep my "hungry" to one time of the time, the time of the day when I'm best able to ignore it and when eating doesn't really seem to help it anyway.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    edited February 2017
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    I was more hungry when I gained weight, because I was malnourished. While losing, I have never aimed for a bigger deficit than my fat stores could handle easily, and getting in better nutrition leads to less hunger, and more manageable hunger. Never feeling hungry is not a reasonable goal. I like to feel pleasantly hungry before I eat, that makes my meal taste better too.

    I also aimed to rely as little as possible on willpower. I plan meals and shopping and cook delicious meals. Weight management is almost effortless when you tune out the noise.
  • laurimaki
    laurimaki Posts: 47 Member
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    Look_Its_Kriss wrote: »

    I don't agree with this.
    The body is burning calories and your fat as fuel regardless of if your stomach is empty or not, its a 24 hour process and thats because it's fueling your primary needs, breathing, heart beating, digestion, Etc.
    There is absolutely no requirement to feel hungry through weight loss, you don't lose weight any quicker and for most people feeling hungry would probably make them go over their calories. Planning your day and macros to the way your body works and maintaining a calorie deficit is how you lose weight. Honestly the stomach is one size, it stretches to fit a consumption of food but it only goes back to its original size, it doesn't get smaller therefor making you want less food. If you are honestly putting yourself through this just to lose the rest of your weight, it really does seem unnecessary.

    When you eat food your body burns the food in your stomach as fuel first before fat from what I understand...you aren't constantly burning fat if you have a stomach full of food. That's why when you eat too much and your body doesn't use all that said food, it converts that food to fat.

    Also, obviously your stomach doesn't become lesser size, but it still "shrinks" back to its original size as you mentioned, that's what I mean by shrink. The shrink that causes hunger. When it's full and stretched, there is no hunger.
  • nvmomketo
    nvmomketo Posts: 12,019 Member
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    I think food choices have a lot to do with hunger. Some foods drive me to need to eat again within a couple of hours and other foods leave me full and satisfied for well over half a day.
  • laurimaki
    laurimaki Posts: 47 Member
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    kommodevaran wrote: »
    Never feeling hungry is not a reasonable goal. I like to feel pleasantly hungry before I eat, that makes my meal taste better too.

    I also aimed to rely as little as possible on willpower. I plan meals and shopping and cook delicious meals. Weight management is almost effortless when you tune out the noise.

    I agree that avoiding hunger is not reasonable, I guess that's why I am always baffled at the amount of people talking about wanting to feel full all the time. Being hungry makes me feel alive haha. I do struggle with willpower, that's great that you have been successful in eliminating the need to fight that "noise". My wife makes delicious meals, but I'm still a sucker for sweets and fast food, it's one of my major weaknesses. We mostly don't buy that stuff because we will eat it, but it's just too easy to stop somewhere and get it when the craving hits..

  • laurimaki
    laurimaki Posts: 47 Member
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    Look_Its_Kriss wrote: »
    Right, it burns what you ate but it's still needing a required number of calories over a 24 hour period, so if you eat food less then what you need the body is still going to use fat for fuel regardless of how often you put food in your stomach

    It doesn't matter how many times I eat or when I eat (I'm a fan of intermittent fasting myself), you need to put less in than what is expended, agreed. I guess that's the point of my original post, if you are eating less than your body needs to maintain it's current weight, would that not lead to hunger? For me, I feel it does. So that is why when I lose weight successfully, I am more often hungry than not.
  • CasperNaegle
    CasperNaegle Posts: 936 Member
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    Sometimes I'm hungry and sometimes I'm not. I generally stay pretty satiated with what I eat.
  • 150poundsofme
    150poundsofme Posts: 523 Member
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    I sometimes get hungry around 11 or 12 at night. I think I didn't have enough to eat at dinner. I do wait a bit but then get a snack. I don't think I could sleep feeling hungry. But next time this happens, I will try not to get a snack. Sometimes I take a sip of water to stop the hunger but I don't like to drink too much at night because then I will wake up and have to use the bathroom.
  • laurimaki
    laurimaki Posts: 47 Member
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    CasperNaegle wrote: »
    Sometimes I'm hungry and sometimes I'm not. I generally stay pretty satiated with what I eat.

    That's good to hear. Do you feel like you are mainly eating when you're hungry or at set times? That's when I notice that I gain weight on certain days, when I eat and am not hungry.
  • SteveC_71
    SteveC_71 Posts: 31 Member
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    I don't necessarily agree that you need to fight off hunger as this can sometime lead to low blood sugars and poor food choices later on. But I do think that some people early on confuse not being full as being hungry.

    Personally I like to eat when I'm hungry but not fighting it off so if I'm several hours from my next meal I'll take it some fruit or a low calorie snack so when I come to eat I'm nicely hungry and not overly so otherwise I know I'll overeat.

    As for calories burning on a full or empty stomach. It doesn't make much difference it's calories in and calories out over the day that matters, the small difference in getting calories from food just digested or fat reserves is really so small it's not worth worrying about unless your grasping at gimmicks to sell some quacky new approach or diet.
  • laurimaki
    laurimaki Posts: 47 Member
    edited February 2017
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    Look_Its_Kriss wrote: »

    Hunger before a meal is fine..
    But the way i took your post was that you are having times when you are just feeling hungry and putting up with that feeling because you feel that is what you need to do in order to lose weight and that is simply not the case.

    That's NOT what my post was intending....I don't starve myself by any means. I just make sure to avoid eating when I'm not hungry as I believe that's when I gain weight. And if it's at night and I'm hungry (not starving), I find no shame in going to bed and not eating. Sometimes I snack if I'm hungry enough. Believe me, I am FAR from starving myself and avoiding eating LOL. That's why losing the 160+ pounds I've lost has taken me 8+ years.

  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    laurimaki wrote: »
    Look_Its_Kriss wrote: »

    I don't agree with this.
    The body is burning calories and your fat as fuel regardless of if your stomach is empty or not, its a 24 hour process and thats because it's fueling your primary needs, breathing, heart beating, digestion, Etc.
    There is absolutely no requirement to feel hungry through weight loss, you don't lose weight any quicker and for most people feeling hungry would probably make them go over their calories. Planning your day and macros to the way your body works and maintaining a calorie deficit is how you lose weight. Honestly the stomach is one size, it stretches to fit a consumption of food but it only goes back to its original size, it doesn't get smaller therefor making you want less food. If you are honestly putting yourself through this just to lose the rest of your weight, it really does seem unnecessary.

    When you eat food your body burns the food in your stomach as fuel first before fat from what I understand...you aren't constantly burning fat if you have a stomach full of food. That's why when you eat too much and your body doesn't use all that said food, it converts that food to fat.

    Also, obviously your stomach doesn't become lesser size, but it still "shrinks" back to its original size as you mentioned, that's what I mean by shrink. The shrink that causes hunger. When it's full and stretched, there is no hunger.

    This isn't really how your body works...you are constantly cycling between fuel sources depending on what you do and constantly cycling between fat storage and oxidation...all that matters is your net energy position in the end...if you're in a deficiency of energy, you can't have a net increase in fat storage.

    Think of it like a bank account...let's say you have 2,500 in your bank account and you're you're constantly making deposits and withdrawals throughout the day...if your withdrawals exceed your deposits, will your bank account grow? Of course not...the fact that you made deposits throughout the day is irrelevant...you don't grow your bank balance if at the same time your withdrawals exceed your deposits.

    If I need 3,000 calories to maintain my weight, I'm going to lose about 1 Lb per week eating 2500 calories despite having food in my stomach at any particular time, etc...I'm not providing enough energy (calories) for my body to maintain and thus I burn body fat (stored energy) to make up the deficiency of energy.
  • laurimaki
    laurimaki Posts: 47 Member
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    I guess that's why everyone is different as I really have no issues falling asleep when I am hungry. If I am hungry enough where it's bothering me, I will eat. I could fall asleep anytime I want, I LOVE IT, even talking about sleep right now is making me want to take a....ZZZzzzZzzZz....

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