Normal hunger levels vs. Clearly need to eat more

rheddmobile wrote: »

The answer to the question depends a lot on what you're eating - do you need to eat more? are you getting enough nutrients? Take a look at your healthy fats, fiber, and iron levels - are you getting the recommended amounts? Do you eat carbs and protein after workouts to replenish your supplies?

For me, that sort of deep seated hunger is usually a sign that I should up my calories for a week, get some rest, and recover. Then I can plunge back in, refreshed.

I watch my macros pretty carefully and always get more than the minumum recommended amount of proteins, fat and fiber. I get enough carbs, too. I really think it's more the question of calories. Which is why I'm asking how do I know if the chosen rate of weight loss is simply too drastic for me. I'm very active so my average TDEE is 2200 or more some weeks. So even a deficit of 500 calories still means I get to eat a lot. But the deep seated lingering constant kind of hunger I start to experience several weeks into restricting makes me think sometimes that I'm not eating enough. Eating at over my TDEE for several days, usually does help.

CattOfTheGarage wrote: »

Similar to how you tell the difference between an insignificant pain, like muscle fatigue or nerve twinge, and a pain that means you're hurting yourself. To me, there is a difference in the depth of the feeling and the emotion that goes with it.

Superficial pain may be annoying or frustrating but is not *distressing* - there's no fear or malaise associated with it. The only message or carries is "ouch", whereas a pain associated with damage carries other messages - "ouch STOP" or "too much" or "please no", a feeling of overwhelm, anxiety or misery. By contrast, the burn of a muscle being well used or the ache of recovery can actually be enjoyable on some level, while also being sore.

Hunger is similar. The hunger of a moderate deficit is annoying and it does gnaw and you do feel driven to satisfy it, but it's basically a good sensation. It carries the anticipation of being satisfied, makes food taste better, can even make you feel energised.

Hunger of being underfed has a malaise, an anxiety and a feeling of bone-tiredness that goes with it. It's distressing. It doesn't make you feel energised or fill you with anticipation. It's accompanied by a sense of unease or overwhelm or even resentment. A bit like if you are ill and you try to do too much, that "I can't deal with this" feeling. That feeling is your body telling you it's not on an even keel and you need to help it recover.

That's my experience, anyway. It needs time to learn these signals, because it isn't easy to distinguish, especially since if you have a long habit of self-soothing with food, there probably will be a sense of resentment when you choose to eat in a healthier way.

Thanks for such a detailed reply. The way you're explaining it, makes it sound really obvious. I guess for some people it is. However, in my experience different kinds of hunger are different not just in intensity, but in general quality.

The deep seated kind of hunger that I was talking about is not a particular located sensation like the superficial acute hunger of not eating for a few hours. It's more like a general feeling, it's hard to pinpoint. It develops slowly, over weeks. I don't just feel it in my stomach, but everywhere in my body. It's a particular state of mind, too. I notice that I get preoccupied with foid and fixated on these thoughts, I become hyperaware of food around me. Many things that usually interest me, become less interesting and food takes more and more headspace. Eating a neal, even a big one rarely makes it go away, it just takes the edge off - and sometimes makes it even stronger. The only thing that does make it gi away is eating over my TDEE for a couple of days.

What makes me doubt sometimes that it's true hunger due to undereating is the fact that I have a relatively small deficit (500 cals or less) and since I'm very active I get to eat a lot (1700-2100 or even more some days). So it's kind of hard to believe that I could be that underfed on so many calories considering that I'm a small female.

Another reason is that I have history with eating disorders (bulimia and EDNOS) and in tbe past the urges to binge developed and felt very similar to that, which is in part logical since binging is often a body's response to severe caloric restriction. But sometimes I wonder if it isn't just a binge urge building up for days.