This may be a silly question...

By the time I leave work around midnight, I am hungry. Not overly so- just mildly uncomfortable I guess you could say. So my question: does being hungry at the end of the day mean I am in a calorie deficit? Or, can I have eaten more than my TDEE and still be hungry?

Replies

  • manhnguyen123
    manhnguyen123 Posts: 40 Member
    Yeah it also could be a dehydration issue. Make sure you take in a good glass of water before you consume something. Your body might not be used to eating and processing the food you're eating now since its expected your usual diet.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    Hunger does not always correlate with a caloric deficit. Being in a caloric deficit as per your diary is the only sure way to know. I have days where I'm in a caloric deficit and not hungry at all, and days where I'm in a surplus and pretty hungry. You can have eaten more than your TDEE, no way to know unless you've logged it.
  • buggleuh749
    buggleuh749 Posts: 27 Member
    Hm these are all helpful. It just seemed to me that if I'm hungry, it's my body's signal that I need calories and that if I'm not hungry, that means my body is in homeostasis and doesn't need a thing atm. So confusing that that isn't how it works. :(
  • buggleuh749
    buggleuh749 Posts: 27 Member
    @amusedmonkey those are very good points.
  • ogtmama
    ogtmama Posts: 1,403 Member
    edited June 2017
    Hm these are all helpful. It just seemed to me that if I'm hungry, it's my body's signal that I need calories and that if I'm not hungry, that means my body is in homeostasis and doesn't need a thing atm. So confusing that that isn't how it works. :(

    I'm sure it does work that way for a lot of people...but we're not all on mfp because we were good at following our body's natural cues.

    Imagine I ate a pint of Ben and Jerry's for breakfast (no really, let's sit back and imagine that for a second...sigh ;) ). That's almost all my calories for the day and yet I would likely spend the rest of the day hungry.
  • Seffell
    Seffell Posts: 2,244 Member
    If hunger was working like that there will be no obese people.