Cutting down to 1800 calories a day and but I am so hungry all the time
tdavis1994
Posts: 18 Member
I have recently cut down to 1800 to 2000 calories a day and I have been constantly hungry since I made the change. I have been drinking lots of water to try to help but there is still a constant feeling of hunger. How much protein should I be eating? Maybe I don't have enough. Any suggestions?
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Replies
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what are you currently eating now?
what is your current weight and goal weight?6 -
Try playing around with your macro intake. See if carbs, fats or proteins fill you up better. If it turns out that one of them does, modify your diet to make sure you hit that macro.2
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Are you eating enough fat and preotein?1
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Are you doing lots of exercise but not including that in your calorie count?2
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It may just take your body some adjusting. You could increase protein. I always felt hungry the first time i cut down to 1200 calories. But you just have to find your balance.1
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Concentrate on eating things that satisfy your hunger. For me, that means avoiding anything that tastes sweet. A donut makes me want to chew the drapes whereas the equivalent calories of cheese chases hunger away.9
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I feel your pain. I've been trying to cut to 1500 a day. It SUCKS for the first two or three weeks but once your body gets used to it and starts regulating your blood sugar and metabolism you'll start feeling a lot better. Hunger will still be there, not gonna lie to you, but it's infinitely more manageable. Just let your body adjust.1
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Satiation is very individual. Try some variations in timing & composition of your eating, each for a day or two at a time, and see whether you can find a routine that helps you feel more full, more of the time.
By timing, I mean when you eat: 3 meals a day, one meal a day, snacks or no, 5 small meals, big breakfast with smaller meals later, save calories for evening snacking, skip breakfast to have big dinner - that sort of thing.
By composition, I mean which categories of food you emphasize, within a healthy range of each. Some people find protein more filling, some find fats are necessary to feel full, some need volume (usually from lots of low-cal high-fiber veggies). Some people find they need carbs (potatoes, bread, etc.) to feel full, while others find that eating increased carbs makes them crave even more of them.
Try a new approach for a day or two, see if you feel better. If not, try something else.
Personally, I need solid protein in each meal (especially breakfast) and some high-volume veggies sometime during the day. Your formula will differ, but I'll bet you can find something that helps.
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I am currently have it set for 30 percent of my diet is protein. I am 322 pounds and looking to get down to 185 ultimately but my first goal is 300.4
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I don't think that's enough cals. What does MFP say you should eat to lose at 2lbs per week?2
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Have you tried eating less frequent meals? So when I was trying to eat 1400 calories a day, I would eat 3-4 small meals and snacks all day long because I was so hungry all the time! That meant I was only eating roughly 300-400 calorie meals plus the extras for small snacks. This kept me craving food constantly. No matter howuch protein, fats I was eating. (Keto Diet) So when I fasted and ate two bigger meals, I was much more satiated. 700 calorie meals were more doable and I didn't need to snack. After that I tried eating all my calories in one meal- it was the best I've ever had! Full all day, feeling so content! So try having bigger meals less frequently, it may work for you as it did for me.2
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What are you eating on a typical day?0
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What's your height, sex and activity level? How are you measuring your intake? Were you losing weight on 2000 calories? At what rate? What does your typical food intake look like?
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If you are 322 lbs, maybe 2000 is just sustainable for you. You should be on a significant deficit at 2000, maybe try adding in a couple short walks a day to make up the deficit instead?3
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tdavis1994 wrote: »I am currently have it set for 30 percent of my diet is protein. I am 322 pounds and looking to get down to 185 ultimately but my first goal is 300.
I started off at the same weight just over a month ago and found I could drop to 1400-1800 calories per day just by increasing my protein intake and filling up on veggies later in the day with my evening meal. It might not be the same for you but I was never at the point of being hungry as I could use protein shakes to "snack" between meals. Keep it up and you will see the benefits
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I was 408, am now 364 ... i rarely go under 2000, my MFP allowance in 2120
But i have set my protein goal to 160g / day .... and it's making managing hunger much better....
I know weeks that i up my carbs and drop my protein are weeks i don't lose ... its hard but changing old habbits about snacking too help .... eating 100g of super lean ham as a snack vs eating a cookie .... you'll feel so much more hunger snacking on carbs than protein.
As impatient as i am (and i am!) i'm just about averaging 2lb a week .... the weight is going slowly and steadily ... no point crashing - this is a long-term realignment of me ... not some race ... its permanent10 -
tdavis1994 wrote: »I am currently have it set for 30 percent of my diet is protein. I am 322 pounds and looking to get down to 185 ultimately but my first goal is 300.
Eat more. I ate 1800 calories to lose weight when I was half your weight. I understand the urge to cut calories significantly in order to lose faster but it makes the weight loss process unnecessarily uncomfortable. You truly do not need to cut your calories that low. Go back and read @highlightshadow 's post.4 -
tdavis1994 wrote: »I am currently have it set for 30 percent of my diet is protein. I am 322 pounds and looking to get down to 185 ultimately but my first goal is 300.
Eat more. I ate 1800 calories to lose weight when I was half your weight. I understand the urge to cut calories significantly in order to lose faster but it makes the weight loss process unnecessarily uncomfortable. You truly do not need to cut your calories that low. Go back and read @highlightshadow 's post.
Totally agree. Sometimes you just have to increase to be more comfortable. You can't go very far on any diet if you are miserable everyday! I'd rather lose slowly but be happier than lose fast but end up quitting because it's just not sustainable.2 -
I recommend trying something like Whole30, just for a month. You can still track and log, but it'll force you to step outside your comfort zone, research new meals, cook (a lot) and incorporate a lot more veggies into your diet. When when I went "back" and started reintroducing old favorites, my wife and I had a whole new repertoire of healthy, go-to dishes (lamb burgers w/o bun and sweet potato fries, almond chicken, cucumber salads, quinoa patties) that are delicious, decently-low calorie and totally fill me up.
My personal experience: I was hungry at first, but within a week or two I discovered through trial and error what was more satiating within my balance of meals. Pistachios (something I would've previously avoided for being so calorie high) do wonders for hunger in small amounts. Avocado <-- the same.
You don't have to subscribe to "clean eating" dogma -- but taking a few weeks to limit your pantry and discover new satiating options can be a fun and productive challenge and help w/ long-term goals.0 -
I'm fast learning that unless I feel hungry at east once each day for a period of time, I'm not in caloric deficit.1
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tdavis1994 wrote: »I am currently have it set for 30 percent of my diet is protein. I am 322 pounds and looking to get down to 185 ultimately but my first goal is 300.
You may need 2,000 calories to stay satisfied. I'm more than 100 pounds less than you and with exercise, I need around 2,000 to prevent hunger outside right before meal times.
That said, are you tracking fiber? If not, and if you have no medical reason to track Sugar or Sodium, swap one of them out for Fiber. Hitting your fiber goal each day should help with satiety. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings
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Have you cleared this with your doctor? That is a very low calorie amount for your weight. People in here are full of advice and that's great but maybe have a chat with the doc?0
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I'm going to go with the folks who recommend eating more. I truly believe that most people will not stick with a diet (food plan? eating habits?) if they're always hungry, and that weight loss is not a race. What is working for me so far is that I worked out how many calories I need to eat to maintain my current weight (TDEE) and made it my first goal to stick to that for a month or two. Then the last couple of months I've started gradually reducing my averages every couple of weeks. I've been losing 2-3 lbs a month all year even eating right around TDEE (which is about 2200 at my current weight) probably because I've been religious about over-counting calories in and under-counting calories out. I'd like to accelerate that a bit, but I want to do it in a sustainable way, which means not being hungry. Obviously it differs by person and by where you're starting out, but I'm guessing that starting at 322, you'll find that you will lose weight even eating significantly more than 1800/month.1
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I suggest playing with the macro mix. For me the, default carb setting is too high. When I first started logging and tracking I was trying to drop about 25 lbs and set my diet for the default macro split at 2lbs/week. I'd be consistent on hitting my targets, not lose much week-to-week and be hungry constantly. I started to trade carbs for protein and started losing more weight and feeling less hungry immediately.0
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Before you decide to eat more, make sure you are absolutely confident in the accuracy of your calorie count. My goal is 1,500 or less a day. Sometimes I'm hungry. My weekly calorie intake for the last 8 weeks has been 10,000 calories or less.
But. I eat out a lot. And I have to trust the general calorie count of MFP. For example, I will order a cheeseburger with no bun at a diner. Is that really 380 calories? Maybe 420? I don't increase my calorie count because I assume there's some underestimating involved in my logging.
Sometimes hunger and boredom are identical twins for me. I try to replace boredom with exercise (or writing). Also, yes I'm often hungry. But when I was eating terribly and way too much, I was also often hungry. Might as well be hungry and healthy (er).0 -
My nutritionist put me on 1800 to 2000 calories a day. I am generally around 1900. I am not getting a lot of physical activity because of an injury so I am not burning extra calories. I generally eat 3 500 calories meals and 2 200 calories snacks. I am eating chicken, boiled eggs, lots of veggies, yogurt, one starchy thing a day like toast, potato etc. should I try 3 600 calorie meals and two snacks?1
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tdavis1994 wrote: »My nutritionist put me on 1800 to 2000 calories a day. I am generally around 1900. I am not getting a lot of physical activity because of an injury so I am not burning extra calories. I generally eat 3 500 calories meals and 2 200 calories snacks. I am eating chicken, boiled eggs, lots of veggies, yogurt, one starchy thing a day like toast, potato etc. should I try 3 600 calorie meals and two snacks?
Experiment and see how you make out. Personally, I'd cut out the snacks and eat larger meals - eating 5 times a day is disastrous for me, that's 5 times to overeat. A large 700 calorie breakfast, light 400/500 calorie snack/lunch and an indulgent 800/900 calorie dinner would be my calorie split. It's individual. Just keep trying until you find the eating pattern that works for you.3 -
AlabasterVerve wrote: »tdavis1994 wrote: »My nutritionist put me on 1800 to 2000 calories a day. I am generally around 1900. I am not getting a lot of physical activity because of an injury so I am not burning extra calories. I generally eat 3 500 calories meals and 2 200 calories snacks. I am eating chicken, boiled eggs, lots of veggies, yogurt, one starchy thing a day like toast, potato etc. should I try 3 600 calorie meals and two snacks?
Experiment and see how you make out. Personally, I'd cut out the snacks and eat larger meals - eating 5 times a day is disastrous for me, that's 5 times to overeat. A large 700 calorie breakfast, light 400/500 calorie snack/lunch and an indulgent 800/900 calorie dinner would be my calorie split. It's individual. Just keep trying until you find the eating pattern that works for you.
Totally...
Honestly right now my macros are split up about like this. If you're experimenting, you could even try this (though I'm not sure it'll help w/ hunger pangs at first):- 10% breakfast
- 30% lunch
- 60% dinner
Also I like intermittent fasting.
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Dietary fat's important, too. You said you're eating chicken -- if you're eating chicken breasts, change to thighs. They're a little fattier, which will help with satiety, and *I* think they're tastier, too. If you like avocado, try a tomato-avocado salad with Caesar dressing. Make sure your yogurt is full-fat. I've been a volume eater for most of my life, but since I changed up my eating habits to include the full-fat versions, I've needed a lot less food to be un-hungry. And my weight's coming off very nicely, so it's all good.2
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