What do you eat when...

Might be worth trying to pinpoint what helps you stay satisfied longer be it protein, carbs or fat, and plan your meals around that. Or some super low cal snacks that you can manage to squeeze in.

If this happened often I'd eat more on a regular basis. If it's just once in a while I usually go for a handful of nuts or a spoonful of peanut butter, which I know are high calorie foods but it's what is filling for me.

This happens to me sometimes. SkinnyPop popcorn is low in calories and you can eat a good bit of it. That usually fills me up and doesn't do too much damage on the calorie budget.

I tend to go for lots of veggies when I don't have many calories left. I like a large bowl of zucchini noodles with hot sauce on them

If I've already eaten my exercise calories back, I first make double sure that I am actually hungry. I've been known to binge, emotional and bored eat.

If I'm sure I am actually hungry then I'll go for low sugar fruit, or celery with nut butter, small protein shake, etc.

Is your calorie goal attempting to create a small or large deficit (primarily from the rate of loss selected)?

Is this "STARVING" happening once in a while or frequently? (Once in a while then you might decide to have a maintenance day rather than a deficit day.)
Especially if you are training hard in a deficit an odd day (or more) without a deficit can really help with energy levels and recovery.

It's also worth trying to defer (OK - if I'm still hungry in 20 minutes then it's genuine and I'll have something), or distract (make yourself busy, get up and move around, occupy your mind and your hands).

It's not compulsory to eat the same amount daily or have a deficit every day. Deficit over an extended period of time is the only necessity. Borrow some calories from another day, use some calories you may have "banked".

Can you move your calorie/food allowance around? From a time when you are less hungry to the time you suspect you will be. I can easily skip breakfast without being anymore (or less!) hungry for example.

Different types and intensities of exercise promote or suppress hunger but that response can be different from person to person. For me low to moderate intensity/long duration cardio gives me far higher burns that the resulting hunger, high intensity/short duration cardio or intense weight training gives me more hunger than the modest calorie burns.

Experiment with different foods. Not all hunger is to do with calories or satiated by calories alone, macros, different foods within the same macro, taste, texture, enjoyment all play roles.

fitanastasia1 wrote: »

I am eating my workout calories. Those are really a rough estimate based on the Fitness Blender trackers because I don't have a personal tracker yet.

I have found that the calorie estimate on their newer workouts tend to be fairly accurate (I use an Apple Watch and am usually toward the lower end but not under their number) but the older ones can be off quite a bit. Just my experience so far, but if you use their lowest number for now you'll probably be okay.

What time do you exercise, and what time do you get hungry?

On Sundays I do my long run which is 2-3 hours. I tend to eat quite minimally all day, and save most of my calories for the evening. It seems to catch up with me then. If I ate a larger lunch after running (when I don't have much of an appetite anyway), it doesn't seem to make much difference to my beast appetite in the evening, so I just stick to a small lunch or a shake and plenty of fluids, and then enjoy my evening. If I am truly still hungry, I just aim for anything under maintenance. Something is better than nothing and as I am prone to binge-eating, it's better long term to avoid that as much as possible and lose more slowly, than to get back into a binge cycle. I think I'm going to stick to this routine from now on, eating at maintenance (or close) the day before and the day of my heaviest exercise days, and sticking to my deficit the other days. It seems the most sustainable way to go about it (for me, at least).

If it's a one off, I'd have a small meal with a good amount of protein and deduct the calories off the next few days. I refuse to go to bed starving, so if I'm truly hungry I'll eat and average out the week to my calorie goal.

My health coach once told me it's ok to be hungry when you know you've had enough food, for me the indication is how I feel. If my stomach is just rumbly but I've eaten, I drink something and try to distract myself. If I can feel my blood sugar off balance or know it's time to refuel, I aim for an apple. The sugar and fiber ward off the Hangry and keeps me satiated until my next meal.