Will my extreme hunger go away?
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psychod787 wrote: »Tolstolobik wrote: »
But on the other hand knowing that what she's feeling is a normal reaction and that some time eating at a normal maintenance diet will go a long way towards alleviating the intensity of what she's feeling may give her enough hope to stay the course of eating as close to maintenance as possible so that she can retain most of her loss as opposed to giving up in despair.
This^. I have reached maintenance at the end of last year. Since raising my calories (mind you I was eating at a very moderate deficit while losing fat) my body (hormones?) don't know what satiety is. Most days I am white-knuckling hunger. I am constantly trying to find most-satiating foods/combinations. I do get reprieve now and again...but most of the time I am food focused. I wish I was never overweight and that my body didn't fight me to go back to the weight I was from about the age 15 thorough mid 30-ies. The struggle is real!
Well... I think we all wish were not obese or overweight, but it is what it is. My intention was not to promote disrepair to OP, just the reality for some of us currently. Will things improve? Who knows? Will I give up? Hell no! OP, give it hell! I an pulling for you.
We'll keep on fighting!2 -
Interesting additional insight, all.0
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Thank you all for the support! I will try to maintain at maintenance levels! U guys have been a great help!6
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Thank you all for the support! I will try to maintain at maintenance levels! U guys have been a great help!2
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Thank you all for the support! I will try to maintain at maintenance levels! U guys have been a great help!
OP, that is the beauty of this forum. We all tend to support each other. Now, we may not always agree, but we are shooting for the same goal in general. Having a support group is one of the things that are associated with weight loss maintenance. I have never met @ PAV8888, consider him a friend as in would somenof the people I know in real life.8 -
I had that too when I came out of an extremely restrictive diet. It was like I eat eat eat and still have a gaping hole in my stomach.
I am still struggling to maintain a "normal" after that actually. I am now in a cycle of yo-yo-ing - mind you, not mega weight gain, just the same 2-4 kilos that people can say is "maintenance fluctuations" but the thing is if I didn't stop when the weight crept up to the 4 kg mark it would turn into 14 in no time - so as soon as it gets too high for comfort, I diet again. Repeat.
I find it very hard to just eat at my normal 'maintenance' calories. It's like i'm still hungry - but i'm not really. Possibly a lot of it is emotional eating-related too, but I do think that somewhere in my brain is a bit of a trauma from the restricted diet and misery I put myself through that I still haven't quite recovered from.10 -
everyone gave great advise & insight, it helped me too. I'd just like to share one thing...sometimes, like tonight I'm extra hungry so I volume eat. I cut up a large amount of lettuce & chopped up a ground chuck patty, added cheese, olives, onions, one egg & zero calorie dressing. I got so full but not a lot of calories. You can do this with veggies too. There's a volume eater's thread on here that gives me ideas4
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Cahgetsfit wrote: »I had that too when I came out of an extremely restrictive diet. It was like I eat eat eat and still have a gaping hole in my stomach.
I am still struggling to maintain a "normal" after that actually. I am now in a cycle of yo-yo-ing - mind you, not mega weight gain, just the same 2-4 kilos that people can say is "maintenance fluctuations" but the thing is if I didn't stop when the weight crept up to the 4 kg mark it would turn into 14 in no time - so as soon as it gets too high for comfort, I diet again. Repeat.
I find it very hard to just eat at my normal 'maintenance' calories. It's like i'm still hungry - but i'm not really. Possibly a lot of it is emotional eating-related too, but I do think that somewhere in my brain is a bit of a trauma from the restricted diet and misery I put myself through that I still haven't quite recovered from.
I'm right there with you. I had a severe eating disorder as a teen, and am having to come to grips with the 6 years I thought I was 'recovered' I was just gaining and losing the same 7-10 pounds over and over in slightly disordered ways (with my set weight point slowly creeping up) and thinking that was healthy. Determined to find a good balance this time because good grief, it's exhausting.5 -
everyone gave great advise & insight, it helped me too. I'd just like to share one thing...sometimes, like tonight I'm extra hungry so I volume eat. I cut up a large amount of lettuce & chopped up a ground chuck patty, added cheese, olives, onions, one egg & zero calorie dressing. I got so full but not a lot of calories. You can do this with veggies too. There's a volume eater's thread on here that gives me ideas
I do that too. Big fan of roasting loads of cauliflower and broccoli and putting on a salad then adding the protein, fat, and carbs (e.g. meat or veggie patty, some cheese or avocado, and some beans and/or rice)5 -
When I feel hungry and it is outside of my usual meal times, I first try to find out if I am actually "hungry" or "thirsty". Usually a good cuppa will do the trick.3
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@Cahgetsfit i am feeling this too. Yesterday i just had a massive binge. I dont know if its my starvation talking or if it is just me emotional eating. Its caused me great depression. I havent been weighing myself at all since the beginning of the weight loss and dont know if i should actually.1
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Its like my cravings for the things that i’ve restricted in the past are so high now. Its begining to scare me2
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Its like my cravings for the things that i’ve restricted in the past are so high now. Its begining to scare me
It's hard! I have found that the flexible dieting approach is the most sustainable with me, but I still go off on tangents and binge on stuff - like some things I just can't portion control. So I tend to not have them in the house, or, if i REALLY want to eat it, I will buy one packet (for example - chips) and make peace with the fact that i'm going to eat the entire thing alone in one go. So I do. Then I won't eat it again for ages until the urge strikes again more than once!
Some things trigger me more than others, but I am able to roughly maintain a decent 80:20 nourishing food : empty calories food. Particularly during the week. On the weekends things sometimes go to the *kitten*.
Keep at it though, a lot of it IS mental, we just need to work past it. (Easier said than done!)9 -
Its like my cravings for the things that i’ve restricted in the past are so high now. Its begining to scare me
If you want to eat something you've been restricting, make a conscious choice to eat it in a controlled manner. You can do this!!5 -
I have been through this too. Took me a LONG time to get over. I spent years restricting and then binging. I was lucky enough to maintain a normal weight despite these habits. Anyway, I did a couple things that helped me get over it. 1. I upped my maintenance calories. Most calculators tell me I maintain about 200-500 lower than I actually do. 2. I upped my fat intake. 3. I stopped freaking out if I went over by 100-400 calories here and there. True maintenance should be flexible. You will have hungry days but then you’ll have the opposite eventually once you are out of that initial phase of getting over the restriction.
I recommend reading up on intuitive eating and using some of those principles to help guide you. I know I may get burned at the stake for this, but I think combining intuitive eating and tracking can be a really good combination for weight maintenance. For example, if I’m truly hungry, I’m going to let myself eat something. However, with the knowledge you gain from tracking, you can say to yourself, sure that cupcake sounds good right now but I already had one today and it didn’t really fill me up. And it was a lot of calories and sugar (which is fine to eat but it’s good to find balance). Maybe I’ll try some fruit and yogurt instead.
I also think the calories in some foods aren’t intuitive, like olive oil, caloric drinks, etc. Do I still have these things? Sure but I’m not naively thinking that olive oil doesn’t count and using 500 cals worth of it to sautéed veggies.
I spent months at the beginning eating a little over maintenance to get over the restriction and gained maybe 3 lbs that eventually went away. I had to get it though my head that going over by a little to feel satisfied was way better than binging. And then from there I slowly became less crazy around food and didn’t feel like a bottomless pit anymore. I’m not perfect, but I’ve maintained a healthy weight for over 2 years with relative ease after all of that. Good luck! Combine the knowledge you are getting from your body with the knowledge in your brain and you will be good.17 -
I have been through this too. Took me a LONG time to get over. I spent years restricting and then binging. I was lucky enough to maintain a normal weight despite these habits. Anyway, I did a couple things that helped me get over it. 1. I upped my maintenance calories. Most calculators tell me I maintain about 200-500 lower than I actually do. 2. I upped my fat intake. 3. I stopped freaking out if I went over by 100-400 calories here and there. True maintenance should be flexible. You will have hungry days but then you’ll have the opposite eventually once you are out of that initial phase of getting over the restriction.
I recommend reading up on intuitive eating and using some of those principles to help guide you. I know I may get burned at the stake for this, but I think combining intuitive eating and tracking can be a really good combination for weight maintenance. For example, if I’m truly hungry, I’m going to let myself eat something. However, with the knowledge you gain from tracking, you can say to yourself, sure that cupcake sounds good right now but I already had one today and it didn’t really fill me up. And it was a lot of calories and sugar (which is fine to eat but it’s good to find balance). Maybe I’ll try some fruit and yogurt instead.
I also think the calories in some foods aren’t intuitive, like olive oil, caloric drinks, etc. Do I still have these things? Sure but I’m not naively thinking that olive oil doesn’t count and using 500 cals worth of it to sautéed veggies.
I spent months at the beginning eating a little over maintenance to get over the restriction and gained maybe 3 lbs that eventually went away. I had to get it though my head that going over by a little to feel satisfied was way better than binging. And then from there I slowly became less crazy around food and didn’t feel like a bottomless pit anymore. I’m not perfect, but I’ve maintained a healthy weight for over 2 years with relative ease after all of that. Good luck! Combine the knowledge you are getting from your body with the knowledge in your brain and you will be good.
This^. Thank you for sharing your journey so eloquently. I have a lot in common with you. Except I started my journey to sane maintenance at the beginning of this year. When I choose to eat around maintenance my hunger becomes less of an emergency. Like you I use IE combined with CC. This approach has been liberating me from disordered eating.6 -
I have been through this too. Took me a LONG time to get over. I spent years restricting and then binging. I was lucky enough to maintain a normal weight despite these habits. Anyway, I did a couple things that helped me get over it. 1. I upped my maintenance calories. Most calculators tell me I maintain about 200-500 lower than I actually do. 2. I upped my fat intake. 3. I stopped freaking out if I went over by 100-400 calories here and there. True maintenance should be flexible. You will have hungry days but then you’ll have the opposite eventually once you are out of that initial phase of getting over the restriction.
I recommend reading up on intuitive eating and using some of those principles to help guide you. I know I may get burned at the stake for this, but I think combining intuitive eating and tracking can be a really good combination for weight maintenance. For example, if I’m truly hungry, I’m going to let myself eat something. However, with the knowledge you gain from tracking, you can say to yourself, sure that cupcake sounds good right now but I already had one today and it didn’t really fill me up. And it was a lot of calories and sugar (which is fine to eat but it’s good to find balance). Maybe I’ll try some fruit and yogurt instead.
I also think the calories in some foods aren’t intuitive, like olive oil, caloric drinks, etc. Do I still have these things? Sure but I’m not naively thinking that olive oil doesn’t count and using 500 cals worth of it to sautéed veggies.
I spent months at the beginning eating a little over maintenance to get over the restriction and gained maybe 3 lbs that eventually went away. I had to get it though my head that going over by a little to feel satisfied was way better than binging. And then from there I slowly became less crazy around food and didn’t feel like a bottomless pit anymore. I’m not perfect, but I’ve maintained a healthy weight for over 2 years with relative ease after all of that. Good luck! Combine the knowledge you are getting from your body with the knowledge in your brain and you will be good.
thank you!4 -
I have been through this too. Took me a LONG time to get over. I spent years restricting and then binging. I was lucky enough to maintain a normal weight despite these habits. Anyway, I did a couple things that helped me get over it. 1. I upped my maintenance calories. Most calculators tell me I maintain about 200-500 lower than I actually do. 2. I upped my fat intake. 3. I stopped freaking out if I went over by 100-400 calories here and there. True maintenance should be flexible. You will have hungry days but then you’ll have the opposite eventually once you are out of that initial phase of getting over the restriction.
I recommend reading up on intuitive eating and using some of those principles to help guide you. I know I may get burned at the stake for this, but I think combining intuitive eating and tracking can be a really good combination for weight maintenance. For example, if I’m truly hungry, I’m going to let myself eat something. However, with the knowledge you gain from tracking, you can say to yourself, sure that cupcake sounds good right now but I already had one today and it didn’t really fill me up. And it was a lot of calories and sugar (which is fine to eat but it’s good to find balance). Maybe I’ll try some fruit and yogurt instead.
I also think the calories in some foods aren’t intuitive, like olive oil, caloric drinks, etc. Do I still have these things? Sure but I’m not naively thinking that olive oil doesn’t count and using 500 cals worth of it to sautéed veggies.
I spent months at the beginning eating a little over maintenance to get over the restriction and gained maybe 3 lbs that eventually went away. I had to get it though my head that going over by a little to feel satisfied was way better than binging. And then from there I slowly became less crazy around food and didn’t feel like a bottomless pit anymore. I’m not perfect, but I’ve maintained a healthy weight for over 2 years with relative ease after all of that. Good luck! Combine the knowledge you are getting from your body with the knowledge in your brain and you will be good.
And thank you <as I think what you describe applies to a lot of us>6 -
I have been through this too. Took me a LONG time to get over. I spent years restricting and then binging. I was lucky enough to maintain a normal weight despite these habits. Anyway, I did a couple things that helped me get over it. 1. I upped my maintenance calories. Most calculators tell me I maintain about 200-500 lower than I actually do. 2. I upped my fat intake. 3. I stopped freaking out if I went over by 100-400 calories here and there. True maintenance should be flexible. You will have hungry days but then you’ll have the opposite eventually once you are out of that initial phase of getting over the restriction.
I recommend reading up on intuitive eating and using some of those principles to help guide you. I know I may get burned at the stake for this, but I think combining intuitive eating and tracking can be a really good combination for weight maintenance. For example, if I’m truly hungry, I’m going to let myself eat something. However, with the knowledge you gain from tracking, you can say to yourself, sure that cupcake sounds good right now but I already had one today and it didn’t really fill me up. And it was a lot of calories and sugar (which is fine to eat but it’s good to find balance). Maybe I’ll try some fruit and yogurt instead.
I also think the calories in some foods aren’t intuitive, like olive oil, caloric drinks, etc. Do I still have these things? Sure but I’m not naively thinking that olive oil doesn’t count and using 500 cals worth of it to sautéed veggies.
I spent months at the beginning eating a little over maintenance to get over the restriction and gained maybe 3 lbs that eventually went away. I had to get it though my head that going over by a little to feel satisfied was way better than binging. And then from there I slowly became less crazy around food and didn’t feel like a bottomless pit anymore. I’m not perfect, but I’ve maintained a healthy weight for over 2 years with relative ease after all of that. Good luck! Combine the knowledge you are getting from your body with the knowledge in your brain and you will be good.
@HotFrieZ
This, and many of the other posts, are SUCH important posts!
Essential info for folks, like me, who are slowly moving into that quasi last few pounds-maintenance land.
I lost weight with a small daily deficit, mostly created by part of my exercise burn & the other part I ate! 😂
I never thought I could lose on so many calories, but I could if I accepted slow weight loss (Max 1lb per week) over 40 months - 75 lbs - early 60’s.
I also have had my macros 40F/40-45C/15-20P for most of my journey. Curbs the hunger pains.
Thank you again. I will refer to this post often as I venture forward.4 -
I experience the ravenous hunger pretty frequently in maintenance, especially when eating more. I don't know how to get rid of it entirely, but I have experimented a bit and I know what makes it worse.
Carbs and anything sweet (even erythritol) make it much, much worse. So does dehydration, stress, and working out early in the day.
I've developed a weird system of intermittent fasting (which I'm not recommending, necessarily, but might be helpful), breaking the fast with a homemade protein shake, then keeping busy for at least an hour to let that set in (post-gym shower, laundry) before I eat dinner. If I stick to this, it really works.
I also have found that alcohol or any other inhibition-lowering substance will make overeating inevitable and is a no-go. Even once starts a cycle that takes a lot of effort to break.6
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