Does anyone else need to eat high calories to feel full

takemetosingapore19 · May 2018

Hi! My total and net calories are very different I’ll start by saying... I don’t eat all my exercise calories back but I eat TOTAL 2500ish calories a day or else I feel starving.. my net works out to about 1200-1600 after all my exercise (training for a half marathon). I’m 19, 5’10” and very active. I have tried having total 2000 calories but I was starving. Even on 2500 total before exercise I still feel borderline hungry. I am losing on this amount. About 0.5lb per week now that the fast initial loss has slowed. I am very happy with this rate. I just worried something could be wrong with me to be this hungry all the time? Is it because I’m young and active? Anyone my age or older eat this much while losing?

janejellyroll · May 2018

I doubt that anything is wrong with you. It's relatively common to get hungry when you're training for a half marathon -- running can use a lot of calories.

EatLikeAHuman · May 2018

It could depend on what you're eating. I feel a lot fuller when I try my best to get proteins, fats, and fiber in me. Eating a bigger percentage of carbs makes me ravenous even if it was the exact same number of calories. For example I normally have a breakfast of hemp seeds and yogurt (such fats! such proteins!) and feel full for hours, but yesterday I had a sweet muffin and could have eaten a small village by noon.

Your mileage may vary!

Jadub729 · May 2018

It does depend on what I eat, I could eat 300 calories of potato chips and be starving an hour later or I can eat 100 calorie yogurt, 150 calorie roasted chicken, and 50 calories in broccoli and that will get me through most of the afternoon

nickssweetheart · May 2018

takemetosingapore19 wrote: »

Hi! My total and net calories are very different I’ll start by saying... I don’t eat all my exercise calories back but I eat TOTAL 2500ish calories a day or else I feel starving.. my net works out to about 1200-1600 after all my exercise (training for a half marathon). I’m 19, 5’10” and very active. I have tried having total 2000 calories but I was starving. Even on 2500 total before exercise I still feel borderline hungry. I am losing on this amount. About 0.5lb per week now that the fast initial loss has slowed. I am very happy with this rate. I just worried something could be wrong with me to be this hungry all the time? Is it because I’m young and active? Anyone my age or older eat this much while losing?

Sounds like you're doing a ton of heavy exercise and really need to be eating the 2500 calories, if your net is bringing you into the 1200-1600 calorie range. Arguably, on days you are on the low end of that range you could maybe eat more.

But yeah, there are ways to make sure you get the most satisfaction for your calories, and that's going to vary from person to person, just like the other posters say. For me, I can eat carbs and protein until the cows come home but if I don't get a reasonable amount of fat and fiber I find myself ready to eat the paint off the walls. So you might want to play with your eating some: add more vegetables, fruits, fat, protein, etc. See what works for you.

collectingblues · May 2018

You're young, you're active, and you're likely not fully out of puberty yet. Since you're losing on that amount, stop worrying -- enjoy the fact that you get to eat so much and lose at a decent pace.

toxikon · May 2018

Running makes me ravenous! Even a little 3k or so. Definitely normal.

mbaker566 · May 2018

i keep a good balance of fat, protien and fiber.
runner's world cookbook helps me stay full and squeeze as much nutrition out of it as possible.

CSARdiver · May 2018

Is this hunger or appetite? Appetite is desire for specific foods - sweet/salty/etc. Hunger is your body's need for food, which given your activity level is expected.

When I was going through some of the more demanding training I was tracking calories ~5000 kcals/day and still hungry. It depends on your activity.

IGbnat24 · May 2018

You’re young and running a lot—enjoy that metabolism! I’m 34 training for a marathon. I eat 2500-3000 calories a day and am losing about 1/2lb per week. I love to eat so I’m not complaining. Dessert everyday

cmriverside · May 2018

I'm old, female and retired. All I do is walk for an hour 3-4 times a week, and I eat 2000-2200 to maintain my weight of 140. I'm 5'8".

I could eat more. I want to eat more. I know I don't need to eat more.

HoneyBadger302 · May 2018

Go by your body and your weight - sounds like you've got a pretty good handle on what all of that is telling you!

I know when I was in my 20's and even my very early 30's, BEFORE I got the dreaded "desk job" it was not uncommon for me (a 5' 7", at that time 128 lb female) to eat 2000-5000 calories a day. If the scale started to creep up to 130, I'd just cut back on fast food/soda/candy bars and be right back to my "happy weight" as I called it.

If you're trying to lose, and have steady losses at the rate you mention, then stick to what you're doing. You may be okay with slowing that a tiny bit and eating at maintenance a couple days a week, too.

Ddsb11 · May 2018

Rungry they say. Totes norm.

Aaron_K123 · May 2018

Uh yeah, I require calories to feel full or satisfied. I think you and me share that in common with all of humanity...perfectly normal.

From your general description sounds like you are doing it right to me....eating more to support activity and netting at a level that has you losing at a reasonable rate. Good job honestly.

takemetosingapore19 · May 2018

Thanks everyone I feel like it’s more normal now after reading your posts... I thought I was doing something wrong at first because I see all these “1200 calories” posts... I couldn’t imagine eating that little lol

sardelsa · May 2018

I need a lot of calories to fuel my body. I typically cannot go higher than 0.5lb loss per week. It just doesn't work well for me. I always thought the same way (years ago) that I was eating way too much.. but for me slow and steady is the way to go.

You are young, tall, very active and will need more calories than someone who is older, shorter and sedentary. If you are losing, I say keep doing what you are doing. You can try playing around with your macros...more protein, more fibre, higher volume foods, more water.. and meal timing if you are still feeling hungry at the higher cal amount.

Aaron_K123 · May 2018

takemetosingapore19 wrote: »

Thanks everyone I feel like it’s more normal now after reading your posts... I thought I was doing something wrong at first because I see all these “1200 calories” posts... I couldn’t imagine eating that little lol

A 5'10'' 19 year old who is active should certainly not be eating 1200 calories a day. Your numbers are perfectly normal.

I am 6' tall and 39 years old and when I was last dieting to lose weight when I was 36 I was losing about a pound a week eating around 2000-2500 calories a day depending on activity level. I am not at all suprised that an active 5'10'' 19 year old would feel hungry at 2500 cals a day.

acorsaut89 · May 2018

Also, not sure if anyone mentioned, your body isn't craving 2500 calories worth of food, your body is craving that volume. Like others have said, your numbers are perfectly normal . . . however the foods you might be choosing to eat might be less volume for the calories, so you could look into more volume foods. But again, this seems normal for your stats.

Aaron_K123 · May 2018

acorsaut89 wrote: »

Also, not sure if anyone mentioned, your body isn't craving 2500 calories worth of food, your body is craving that volume. Like others have said, your numbers are perfectly normal . . . however the foods you might be choosing to eat might be less volume for the calories, so you could look into more volume foods. But again, this seems normal for your stats.

I don't agree with this. Clearly your body cares not only about volume but also about caloric content, otherwise you could feel satisfied by eating a sufficient volume of grass or celery and good luck with that.

sardelsa · May 2018

acorsaut89 wrote: »

Also, not sure if anyone mentioned, your body isn't craving 2500 calories worth of food, your body is craving that volume. Like others have said, your numbers are perfectly normal . . . however the foods you might be choosing to eat might be less volume for the calories, so you could look into more volume foods. But again, this seems normal for your stats.

I don't agree. Calorie do matter. I could have all the volume, high protein, high fibre etc in the world but if I need that many calories based on my stats and activity level, yes I do want that many calories.

PAV8888 · May 2018

At ~49 yo and 5ft 8" I lost a substantial amount of weight at an average rate of 1.39lbs a week for 52 weeks while EATING 2560 Cal a day on average

At ~50 yo, I lost a comparatively small amount of weight at an average rate of 0.21lbs a week for 52 weeks while EATING 2913 Cal a day on average.

More recently I am maintaining while eating on average 2873 Cal a day.

It is NOT only how much you eat. Your TDEE also matters (and ultimately your NET intake). And your NET is probably lower than it should be given your age and height.

If you are continuing to be hungry (in conjunction with your intense training) the hunger level may be negatively impacting your actual training and non training activity level INTENSITIES in relatively imperceptible ways.

Losing at 0.5lbs a week, in my personal experience you may be occasionally hungry, but not totally hungry all of the time if you're choosing a good enough mix of food, and if you haven't been doing this for multiple years.

So, if you're continuously hungry (enough so as to make a post about it), I would actually consider trying to eat more of your exercise calories back over a period of a few weeks to see whether this impacts positively on your activity levels in such a way that you may actually end up losing the same, or more, than you are currently losing while at the same time eating a greater percentage of your estimated/purported TDEE than you are currently eating.

I am assuming, of course, that you're using a trending weight application or some sort of averaging when looking at your weight changes over a sufficiently long period of time...

Does anyone else need to eat high calories to feel full

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