Did you feel less hungry after a while eating in a deficit?
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mudonthetires856 wrote: »I sometimes wonder if people actually know the difference between hunger and appetite?
Hunger is not a requirement for weight loss...I think that is one of the reasons people often fail.
Too few calories and too little protein to help keep you feeling fuller longer and the fats for satiety that lots feel are "bad"...this is what causes the problem
I mean to say you are "ravenous" or "hungry all the time" seems well...not a good thing.
For me, I was never truly hungry because I always ate before I felt it. I get hungry now and eat when it happens. I'm not hungry all the time. The "ravenously hungry" was only for a few weeks while my body got used to such a large drop in calories. I could easily eat a large pizza to myself and then follow it up with some brownies. This was after a 1,000 calorie breakfast. Going from that to 1,300-1,500 daily made me STARVE in the beginning.
Hunger is absolutely a part of weight loss because we aren't eating at the levels we used to. If I continued to eat without ever feeling hungry, I definitely wouldn't lose anything. I start to get hungry at lunch time, so I eat. I'm good until dinner time and then get hungry again, so I eat. It took a bit to recognize the difference between hunger and cravings. Also a struggle to learn it's okay to get hungry. I'm not going to die if I don't eat in the next 30 seconds.
The bolded part is not always part..might have been for you due to your large drop in calories but that wasn't necessary that was your choice.
I didn't gain weight fast it was a slow process that happened with a few pounds here and there so for me to lose weight I consumed 1600 calories a day to lose 1lb a week then switched to 1800 a day...keeping it filled with protein and fats...
even now I maintain on about 2200-2400 calories and I might get a little peckish right before meals but not what I call hungry....even remotely close.
I think we are just looking at the word "hunger" differently. Hunger to me doesn't mean stomach grumbling and wanting to eat everything in sight. Just my body telling me it's time to eat. Not starving, not ravenously hungry, just time to eat. Also, I never meant for it to be an "everyone is this way". I was speaking to the OP's situation and in this case, yes, hunger (in my meaning of the word) is a part of weight loss. What I was trying to portray is that the OP has to learn the difference between being hungry and just wanting to eat. I may not have worded it correctly.
For the OP, I was trying to make the point that the beginning is harder while your body adjusts and the hunger (or peckishness) will get easier over time. They struggle with the feeling as did I.
I have to admit, I'm a bit jealous of your maintenance. The large drop in calories was a necessity for me because I gained pretty quickly after I dealt with some stomach issues and have a much lower maintenance. However, even though my drop was large, some people still struggle with a small deficit because either their mind or body needs to adjust.
My macros are split pretty evenly with some days being higher in fat, some days higher in protein. I'm satisfied most of the time, so I consider my hunger manageable.2 -
mortuseon_ wrote: »I really think it is something to do with the eating disorder. I am more in control of my hunger cues now (4 years recovered, bulimia), but getting hit with sudden, ravenous HUNGER still occasionally happens. I don't think people quite understand that it isn't just 'having an appetite', it's a huge, sudden, consuming urge, one that used to cause me to eat things like entire cheesecakes (and more) in one go. I will say that it has levelled out a bit now after 4 years of eating what I want and including a lot of fruit and veg in my diet to satisfy the volume component. I know it's not very healthy, but I drink a lot of non-calorie drinks (like Diet Coke) and coffee (black, or iced coffee with almond milk is only something like 25 calories) to suppress my appetite as much as possible. I also eat more fatty food in the evening which tends to be when I get hungrier. It's not perfect, but those things might help if your hunger cues are weird like mine!
I feel like you're the only person in this thread who understands what kind of hunger I'm talking about. I think you are right and it is a consequence of my ED. It is, like you said, ravenous, and all consuming at times. It is different from regular hunger. Some days I can go without eating for many hours and my tummy is empty and growling, but it is easy to tolerate, it even feels nice in a way. But then other times, it's the crazy all consuming hunger where I can't focus on anything else. Sometimes it's sudden, sometimes it builds up for several days. But it's really hard to resist. This is where I often end up overeating.
I think that, like you, the longer I maintain healthy eating pattern, have normal suzed meals at scheduled times and resist overeating, the rarer I should have these urges. At least I hope so.1 -
longstocking wrote: »mortuseon_ wrote: »I really think it is something to do with the eating disorder. I am more in control of my hunger cues now (4 years recovered, bulimia), but getting hit with sudden, ravenous HUNGER still occasionally happens. I don't think people quite understand that it isn't just 'having an appetite', it's a huge, sudden, consuming urge, one that used to cause me to eat things like entire cheesecakes (and more) in one go. I will say that it has levelled out a bit now after 4 years of eating what I want and including a lot of fruit and veg in my diet to satisfy the volume component. I know it's not very healthy, but I drink a lot of non-calorie drinks (like Diet Coke) and coffee (black, or iced coffee with almond milk is only something like 25 calories) to suppress my appetite as much as possible. I also eat more fatty food in the evening which tends to be when I get hungrier. It's not perfect, but those things might help if your hunger cues are weird like mine!
I feel like you're the only person in this thread who understands what kind of hunger I'm talking about. I think you are right and it is a consequence of my ED. It is, like you said, ravenous, and all consuming at times. It is different from regular hunger. Some days I can go without eating for many hours and my tummy is empty and growling, but it is easy to tolerate, it even feels nice in a way. But then other times, it's the crazy all consuming hunger where I can't focus on anything else. Sometimes it's sudden, sometimes it builds up for several days. But it's really hard to resist. This is where I often end up overeating.
I think that, like you, the longer I maintain healthy eating pattern, have normal suzed meals at scheduled times and resist overeating, the rarer I should have these urges. At least I hope so.
Is it related to your hormonal cycle? Because this is an exact description of my hormonal hunger on certain days. I'm ravenously hungry, and if not hungry it's the cravings, and if it's not the cravings there is this weird drive to eat, and if it's not that, it's food seeking behavior where I look at recipes, plan foods, think about food...etc. It's as if I have a brain transplant every month. I'm usually extremely well adapted to hunger, then suddenly I'm not. Unfortunately, this kind of hunger is consistent every month and did not go away after more than 100 lbs of weight loss. I just accept it like it is reminding myself that not all days are like that, and grin and bear it.0 -
Like many others here have said high carb diet causes me more hunger. I am not doing Keto but cut carbs down to 25-30% on most days and it helped. I also eat 5 meals at around 300cals each and it really helps.
Swimming is my hunger trigger. After I do 30-60 minutes of laps I am ravenous. I could eat my whole cal goal in one sitting. I just try to bring one of my meals with me and eat in car right after. It helps and by the time I get back to office or home I am not nearly as bad off.
This happens to me too! I don't know what it is about swimming but I actually gave up training for a mini triathlon a few years ago because the swimming was causing me to overeat and my weight started to creep up.0 -
amusedmonkey wrote: »longstocking wrote: »mortuseon_ wrote: »I really think it is something to do with the eating disorder. I am more in control of my hunger cues now (4 years recovered, bulimia), but getting hit with sudden, ravenous HUNGER still occasionally happens. I don't think people quite understand that it isn't just 'having an appetite', it's a huge, sudden, consuming urge, one that used to cause me to eat things like entire cheesecakes (and more) in one go. I will say that it has levelled out a bit now after 4 years of eating what I want and including a lot of fruit and veg in my diet to satisfy the volume component. I know it's not very healthy, but I drink a lot of non-calorie drinks (like Diet Coke) and coffee (black, or iced coffee with almond milk is only something like 25 calories) to suppress my appetite as much as possible. I also eat more fatty food in the evening which tends to be when I get hungrier. It's not perfect, but those things might help if your hunger cues are weird like mine!
I feel like you're the only person in this thread who understands what kind of hunger I'm talking about. I think you are right and it is a consequence of my ED. It is, like you said, ravenous, and all consuming at times. It is different from regular hunger. Some days I can go without eating for many hours and my tummy is empty and growling, but it is easy to tolerate, it even feels nice in a way. But then other times, it's the crazy all consuming hunger where I can't focus on anything else. Sometimes it's sudden, sometimes it builds up for several days. But it's really hard to resist. This is where I often end up overeating.
I think that, like you, the longer I maintain healthy eating pattern, have normal suzed meals at scheduled times and resist overeating, the rarer I should have these urges. At least I hope so.
Is it related to your hormonal cycle? Because this is an exact description of my hormonal hunger on certain days. I'm ravenously hungry, and if not hungry it's the cravings, and if it's not the cravings there is this weird drive to eat, and if it's not that, it's food seeking behavior where I look at recipes, plan foods, think about food...etc. It's as if I have a brain transplant every month. I'm usually extremely well adapted to hunger, then suddenly I'm not. Unfortunately, this kind of hunger is consistent every month and did not go away after more than 100 lbs of weight loss. I just accept it like it is reminding myself that not all days are like that, and grin and bear it.
I doubt that it's hormonal for me because I'm on the pill (have been on it for the last 5 years) so I don't really have a mentstrual cycle. And even before I started taking the pill, I never really noticed any PMS related hunger. And more importantly, the hunger I'm taking about isn't, like, one week straight each month. It's more like 1-3 random days each week. But it's true that PMS related hunger/cravings many people on MFP describe sound a lot like what I'm experiencing.0 -
No, I don't get hungry unless I have a very active day.0
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For me the issue is in being bored or idle. I had a screensaver on my phone that said "You are not hungry, you are bored!" Any time I would start thinking about eating something, knowing full well that I had enough to eat at my last meal, I would find something to do to take my mind off the food. That definitely cut out a lot of TV time
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I sometimes wonder if people actually know the difference between hunger and appetite?
Hunger is not a requirement for weight loss...I think that is one of the reasons people often fail.
Too few calories and too little protein to help keep you feeling fuller longer and the fats for satiety that lots feel are "bad"...this is what causes the problem
I mean to say you are "ravenous" or "hungry all the time" seems well...not a good thing.
To be honest, while I agree that hunger is not an absolute requirement for weight loss, feeling at least some hunger from time to time seems only natural. Evolutionary speaking our bodies are develeped for conditions where food is scarce and continuously losing fat is scary for our bodies even if we are overweight (and some of us who are trying to lose some more fat aren't even overweight). Feeling hungry eating at maintenance is one thing, but feeling hungry when you eat eith a caloric deficit is normal in my opinion. It's the natural way that are bodies tell us, "you didn't eat enough calories, seek more food". This is how intuitive eaters control their weight, no?
But of course feeling like you are starving all the time is a sign that your deficit us too big. And there are ways to deminish hunger during weight loss: eating more foods with lower coloric density, eating more fat and/or protein, etc. Different things work for different people.
I can believe that there are some people who absolutely never feel any hunger during weight loss but I think there are rather a minority.0 -
I found this thread because I searched "not hungry." I was curious because I haven't been hungry in 3 days, despite some significant exercise on days 1 and 2. Thinking about it, I have been getting plenty of protein, lots of high-volume/low-cal veggies, and not a lot of carbs, which in general has helped me avoid hunger in the past. But I'm not even hungry when I should be, like the morning after a 1,400-cal day during which I did about an hour of yard work.
I don't know--it's such a huge change because, though I have no diagnosed eating disorder, I have had some truly spectacular binges (e.g. $40 worth of takeout Chinese in one sitting) in addition to some other very unhealthy eating habits. My poor eating happens most when I am sleepy, bored, or stressed, and I've been fighting off the sleepiness by shoveling gravel and doing other intense yard-cleanup tasks. I think there might be hope for you though, OP, as your body adjusts to new routines.1 -
I sometimes wonder if people actually know the difference between hunger and appetite?
Hunger is not a requirement for weight loss...I think that is one of the reasons people often fail.
Too few calories and too little protein to help keep you feeling fuller longer and the fats for satiety that lots feel are "bad"...this is what causes the problem
I mean to say you are "ravenous" or "hungry all the time" seems well...not a good thing.
To be honest, while I agree that hunger is not an absolute requirement for weight loss, feeling at least some hunger from time to time seems only natural. Evolutionary speaking our bodies are develeped for conditions where food is scarce and continuously losing fat is scary for our bodies even if we are overweight (and some of us who are trying to lose some more fat aren't even overweight). Feeling hungry eating at maintenance is one thing, but feeling hungry when you eat eith a caloric deficit is normal in my opinion. It's the natural way that are bodies tell us, "you didn't eat enough calories, seek more food". This is how intuitive eaters control their weight, no?
But of course feeling like you are starving all the time is a sign that your deficit us too big. And there are ways to deminish hunger during weight loss: eating more foods with lower coloric density, eating more fat and/or protein, etc. Different things work for different people.
I can believe that there are some people who absolutely never feel any hunger during weight loss but I think there are rather a minority.
agreed.
I also think my definition of "hunger" is different from what others are thinking.
I get "peckish" about 11-1130 am for lunch so I have a yogurt to keep it from getting to the point of "hunger"
but to actually feel "starved" is what I mean...and a lot of people feel that during weight loss because their deficit is too larger.0 -
I do still get hungry but I'm getting better at ignoring it and reminding myself that I have fat that my body can burn. I usually run about 1K a day sometimes popping up to 1200 but I try to stay closer to 1K since I'm working on losing 2lb a week.0
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I am hungry at 1600 calories a day, regardless of what kind of food I eat. Not starving, but going to bed slightly hungry.
Some days more than others obviously, but I usually wake up very hungry.0 -
I am almost 2 weeks in eating roughly 1350 calories per day and I am finally starting to adjust. For the last 2 days I have not been feeling nearly as hungry as I was in the beginning. I can't let myself get too hungry at any point during the day though, so I always bring my lunch and pre-measured nuts and/or fruit for snacks.0
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On previous nutrition plans that's been my experience. I get less hungry as I eat less. Then again, I've never been very solidly attached to hunger.Are there a lot of people who felt hungry in the beginning but after a while their hunger levels demished?
Our current plan which is substantially lower carb and higher fat than yours. That's also the distinguishing feature from previous diets of ours. We find fat, in particular, to pretty much be the off-switch for hunger. Protein runs second place. For my wife and I, hunger was much more a part of our previous "typical western diet with no caloric restrictions" than it is our new diet.
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