Always hungry.
DavidRich83
Posts: 16 Member
So I’m at maintenance weight and I’m constantly hungry. The problem once i eat something I just want to keep eating.
I’m currently at 1800 calories and I eat back my exercise which I track from runs etc and that adds about another 700 calories. Even with this I’m hungry all the time. Really don’t want to feel like this forever.
I’m currently at 1800 calories and I eat back my exercise which I track from runs etc and that adds about another 700 calories. Even with this I’m hungry all the time. Really don’t want to feel like this forever.
9
Replies
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What's your age, weight, height, and non-exercise activity level? 1800 seems a bit low to me.
What type of foods are you eating, what are you macro breakdowns? Sometimes switching up macros can help, as well as eating less calorie dense foods, like cruciferous vegetables. If that doesn't work, playing with your eating schedule can help sometimes too. Some people find that IF, where they eat only during certain times of the day, keeps them more full. For others, several small meals throughout the day does that.7 -
What's your age, weight, height, and non-exercise activity level? 1800 seems a bit low to me.
What type of foods are you eating, what are you macro breakdowns? Sometimes switching up macros can help, as well as eating less calorie dense foods, like cruciferous vegetables. If that doesn't work, playing with your eating schedule can help sometimes too. Some people find that IF, where they eat only during certain times of the day, keeps them more full. For others, several small meals throughout the day does that.
So non exercise activity I have as sedentary. Im in the gym about 1.5 hours a day 7 days a week. Age 36 height 5ft 9 and weight around 63.5kg. Iv come down from 82.5kg so keen not to head back that way
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Try playing around with your macros. I find higher protein, moderate fat and carbs does it for me.
Also how is your sleep? If I don't sleep properly (have gone through numerous bouts of insomnia over the years) my hunger is through the roof.
Another thing to consider is reducing cardio workouts a bit, as a friend here often says "Runger is Real" .4 -
tinkerbellang83 wrote: »Try playing around with your macros. I find higher protein, moderate fat and carbs does it for me.
Also how is your sleep? If I don't sleep properly (have gone through numerous bouts of insomnia over the years) my hunger is through the roof.
Another thing to consider is reducing cardio workouts a bit, as a friend here often says "Runger is Real" .
Yeah running is what I'm doing a lot of im training to do a marathon lol. Runger not heard of that0 -
I think 2500 daily is probably too low for you. Looking at a TDEE calculator, I imagine you fall somewhere between Heavy Exercise (2683 calories per day) and Athlete (2955 calories).
You are already at a pretty low BMI, so I wouldn't be surprised that at even a slight deficit, your body is screaming at you to feed it more, which is why you feel hungry. I would play around with upping your calories a bit, to see how it affects you.6 -
I think 2500 daily is probably too low for you. Looking at a TDEE calculator, I imagine you fall somewhere between Heavy Exercise (2683 calories per day) and Athlete (2955 calories).
You are already at a pretty low BMI, so I wouldn't be surprised that at even a slight deficit, your body is screaming at you to feed it more, which is why you feel hungry. I would play around with upping your calories a bit, to see how it affects you.
Yeah I think I may have to. Any tips on doing this so I don't suddenly jump up 10kg. For some reason I crave chocolate as well.0 -
The real question is, what is your weight doing?
After doing such a big reduction in weight, depending on how aggressively you’ve cut the weight, your hormones may be trying to recover giving you false signals to eat.
I would agree just based off your numbers and seemingly pretty active and in decent shape now, that 2500 calories is pretty low. But if your weight is not moving much, I would be hesitant to move your calories drastically.
So my question would be, what has your weight looked like during this maintenance? If it’s been stable, I would then ask what macro nutrient breakdown you head during your deficit. If you’ve had low fat during those periods, I would reduce carbohydrates a little and add in some additional fats to help your body normalize hormone levels.5 -
DavidRich83 wrote: »tinkerbellang83 wrote: »Try playing around with your macros. I find higher protein, moderate fat and carbs does it for me.
Also how is your sleep? If I don't sleep properly (have gone through numerous bouts of insomnia over the years) my hunger is through the roof.
Another thing to consider is reducing cardio workouts a bit, as a friend here often says "Runger is Real" .
Yeah running is what I'm doing a lot of im training to do a marathon lol. Runger not heard of that
Runger = Running Hunger.4 -
DavidRich83 wrote: »I think 2500 daily is probably too low for you. Looking at a TDEE calculator, I imagine you fall somewhere between Heavy Exercise (2683 calories per day) and Athlete (2955 calories).
You are already at a pretty low BMI, so I wouldn't be surprised that at even a slight deficit, your body is screaming at you to feed it more, which is why you feel hungry. I would play around with upping your calories a bit, to see how it affects you.
Yeah I think I may have to. Any tips on doing this so I don't suddenly jump up 10kg. For some reason I crave chocolate as well.
Responding to the chocolate piece. In my experience it’s USUALLY a magnesium deficiency. I would increase fat intake and take a magnesium supplement before increasing calories to start. Unless you’re still losing weight. Then all the above and increase calories to meet maintenance
ETA: usually probably bad way to phrase it because it really could be anything. But in my experience, if magnesium is added with some fat, it greatly reduces that relentless hunger feeling4 -
DavidRich83 wrote: »I think 2500 daily is probably too low for you. Looking at a TDEE calculator, I imagine you fall somewhere between Heavy Exercise (2683 calories per day) and Athlete (2955 calories).
You are already at a pretty low BMI, so I wouldn't be surprised that at even a slight deficit, your body is screaming at you to feed it more, which is why you feel hungry. I would play around with upping your calories a bit, to see how it affects you.
Yeah I think I may have to. Any tips on doing this so I don't suddenly jump up 10kg. For some reason I crave chocolate as well.
That's mathematically impossible. You may see a small fluctuation in water weight, but 200 calories is equal to less than .2kg per week of weight. So even if you were eating at maintenance now, and 200 calories would put you in a surplus, it would take a very long time to add any measurable weight back.3 -
DavidRich83 wrote: »I think 2500 daily is probably too low for you. Looking at a TDEE calculator, I imagine you fall somewhere between Heavy Exercise (2683 calories per day) and Athlete (2955 calories).
You are already at a pretty low BMI, so I wouldn't be surprised that at even a slight deficit, your body is screaming at you to feed it more, which is why you feel hungry. I would play around with upping your calories a bit, to see how it affects you.
Yeah I think I may have to. Any tips on doing this so I don't suddenly jump up 10kg. For some reason I crave chocolate as well.
Responding to the chocolate piece. In my experience it’s USUALLY a magnesium deficiency. I would increase fat intake and take a magnesium supplement before increasing calories to start. Unless you’re still losing weight. Then all the above and increase calories to meet maintenance
ETA: usually probably bad way to phrase it because it really could be anything. But in my experience, if magnesium is added with some fat, it greatly reduces that relentless hunger feeling
Agree it will probably do no harm to add a general electrolyte mixture of Potassium/Magnesium/Sodium if you're training for a marathon, when I am training for long distance rowing races I sweat out a lot of salts and always feel better when I am taking some extra back.2 -
DavidRich83 wrote: »I think 2500 daily is probably too low for you. Looking at a TDEE calculator, I imagine you fall somewhere between Heavy Exercise (2683 calories per day) and Athlete (2955 calories).
You are already at a pretty low BMI, so I wouldn't be surprised that at even a slight deficit, your body is screaming at you to feed it more, which is why you feel hungry. I would play around with upping your calories a bit, to see how it affects you.
Yeah I think I may have to. Any tips on doing this so I don't suddenly jump up 10kg. For some reason I crave chocolate as well.
That's mathematically impossible. You may see a small fluctuation in water weight, but 200 calories is equal to less than .2kg per week of weight. So even if you were eating at maintenance now, and 200 calories would put you in a surplus, it would take a very long time to add any measurable weight back.
Probably right in terms of 10kg. That likely would not happen with a 200 calorie increase. But if he is truly at maintenance and glycogen depleted from his long diet, putting on 4-5kg over a few weeks wouldn’t be outrageous and could be slightly discouraging if you don’t know what’s going on.
Not saying I’m advising against it necessarily but needs to be mentioned that more than just the 3500 calories in a pound of fat formula needs to be considered when talking about pure weight changes0 -
The real question is, what is your weight doing?
After doing such a big reduction in weight, depending on how aggressively you’ve cut the weight, your hormones may be trying to recover giving you false signals to eat.
I would agree just based off your numbers and seemingly pretty active and in decent shape now, that 2500 calories is pretty low. But if your weight is not moving much, I would be hesitant to move your calories drastically.
So my question would be, what has your weight looked like during this maintenance? If it’s been stable, I would then ask what macro nutrient breakdown you head during your deficit. If you’ve had low fat during those periods, I would reduce carbohydrates a little and add in some additional fats to help your body normalize hormone levels.
So it seems pretty static depending on the time of day I range from around 63.5kg to 65kg and have for a few weeks. If I don't eat everything back from the exercise though I find myself dropping again. Would upping the base calories help this or just make sure I eat everything back.0 -
DavidRich83 wrote: »I think 2500 daily is probably too low for you. Looking at a TDEE calculator, I imagine you fall somewhere between Heavy Exercise (2683 calories per day) and Athlete (2955 calories).
You are already at a pretty low BMI, so I wouldn't be surprised that at even a slight deficit, your body is screaming at you to feed it more, which is why you feel hungry. I would play around with upping your calories a bit, to see how it affects you.
Yeah I think I may have to. Any tips on doing this so I don't suddenly jump up 10kg. For some reason I crave chocolate as well.
That's mathematically impossible. You may see a small fluctuation in water weight, but 200 calories is equal to less than .2kg per week of weight. So even if you were eating at maintenance now, and 200 calories would put you in a surplus, it would take a very long time to add any measurable weight back.
is that 200 calories per day over a week0 -
DavidRich83 wrote: »I think 2500 daily is probably too low for you. Looking at a TDEE calculator, I imagine you fall somewhere between Heavy Exercise (2683 calories per day) and Athlete (2955 calories).
You are already at a pretty low BMI, so I wouldn't be surprised that at even a slight deficit, your body is screaming at you to feed it more, which is why you feel hungry. I would play around with upping your calories a bit, to see how it affects you.
Yeah I think I may have to. Any tips on doing this so I don't suddenly jump up 10kg. For some reason I crave chocolate as well.
That's mathematically impossible. You may see a small fluctuation in water weight, but 200 calories is equal to less than .2kg per week of weight. So even if you were eating at maintenance now, and 200 calories would put you in a surplus, it would take a very long time to add any measurable weight back.
Probably right in terms of 10kg. That likely would not happen with a 200 calorie increase. But if he is truly at maintenance and glycogen depleted from his long diet, putting on 4-5kg over a few weeks wouldn’t be outrageous and could be slightly discouraging if you don’t know what’s going on.
Not saying I’m advising against it necessarily but needs to be mentioned that more than just the 3500 calories in a pound of fat formula needs to be considered when talking about pure weight changes
yeah been trying to get my head around the macros. How do I up Glycogen levels cause at the moment I seem to be eating a little and often all day until I run out of calories. My body became so used to not really eating till the evening Id end up having 2000 calories come the evening. Im trying to work against that now as eating that much in a short period before sleep didn't feel good. Meals seem to be everywhere at the moment0 -
DavidRich83 wrote: »The real question is, what is your weight doing?
After doing such a big reduction in weight, depending on how aggressively you’ve cut the weight, your hormones may be trying to recover giving you false signals to eat.
I would agree just based off your numbers and seemingly pretty active and in decent shape now, that 2500 calories is pretty low. But if your weight is not moving much, I would be hesitant to move your calories drastically.
So my question would be, what has your weight looked like during this maintenance? If it’s been stable, I would then ask what macro nutrient breakdown you head during your deficit. If you’ve had low fat during those periods, I would reduce carbohydrates a little and add in some additional fats to help your body normalize hormone levels.
So it seems pretty static depending on the time of day I range from around 63.5kg to 65kg and have for a few weeks. If I don't eat everything back from the exercise though I find myself dropping again. Would upping the base calories help this or just make sure I eat everything back.
If your weight is static I’d just keep doing what you’re doing in terms of calculating your daily expenditure.
If adding in a little extra calories helps you get through it, you’ll be fine doing that. Adding in 200 calories likely won’t have any effect on your fat mass at all. It may make the scale rise a bit, but you’ll likely subconciously increase activity to negate any effect the 200 calories would have.
I would consider increasing calories by 100-200 every 2 weeks until you get closer to the 3,000 calorie level.
This is all what I would do myself and if you were my client what I would suggest you do. So take that for what’s it worth, but you’d be surprised how easily your body can subconsciously make adjustments to caloric intake.
Again first move I think would be the magnesium and fat intake. And as mentioned above probably better just to take a full electrolyte supplement to just get it all in one full swoop. Good advice2 -
DavidRich83 wrote: »DavidRich83 wrote: »I think 2500 daily is probably too low for you. Looking at a TDEE calculator, I imagine you fall somewhere between Heavy Exercise (2683 calories per day) and Athlete (2955 calories).
You are already at a pretty low BMI, so I wouldn't be surprised that at even a slight deficit, your body is screaming at you to feed it more, which is why you feel hungry. I would play around with upping your calories a bit, to see how it affects you.
Yeah I think I may have to. Any tips on doing this so I don't suddenly jump up 10kg. For some reason I crave chocolate as well.
That's mathematically impossible. You may see a small fluctuation in water weight, but 200 calories is equal to less than .2kg per week of weight. So even if you were eating at maintenance now, and 200 calories would put you in a surplus, it would take a very long time to add any measurable weight back.
Probably right in terms of 10kg. That likely would not happen with a 200 calorie increase. But if he is truly at maintenance and glycogen depleted from his long diet, putting on 4-5kg over a few weeks wouldn’t be outrageous and could be slightly discouraging if you don’t know what’s going on.
Not saying I’m advising against it necessarily but needs to be mentioned that more than just the 3500 calories in a pound of fat formula needs to be considered when talking about pure weight changes
yeah been trying to get my head around the macros. How do I up Glycogen levels cause at the moment I seem to be eating a little and often all day until I run out of calories. My body became so used to not really eating till the evening Id end up having 2000 calories come the evening. Im trying to work against that now as eating that much in a short period before sleep didn't feel good. Meals seem to be everywhere at the moment
Yeah, your body will be able to more successfully digest and store glycogen in the muscle if meals are more spread throughout the day.
Glycogen is just stored glucose which is generally from carbohydrates but can be provided from protein and fats. Best to think about it as stored carbohydrate energy that can be used easily by the muscle cells.
Hope that makes sense...1 -
DavidRich83 wrote: »The real question is, what is your weight doing?
After doing such a big reduction in weight, depending on how aggressively you’ve cut the weight, your hormones may be trying to recover giving you false signals to eat.
I would agree just based off your numbers and seemingly pretty active and in decent shape now, that 2500 calories is pretty low. But if your weight is not moving much, I would be hesitant to move your calories drastically.
So my question would be, what has your weight looked like during this maintenance? If it’s been stable, I would then ask what macro nutrient breakdown you head during your deficit. If you’ve had low fat during those periods, I would reduce carbohydrates a little and add in some additional fats to help your body normalize hormone levels.
So it seems pretty static depending on the time of day I range from around 63.5kg to 65kg and have for a few weeks. If I don't eat everything back from the exercise though I find myself dropping again. Would upping the base calories help this or just make sure I eat everything back.
If your weight is static I’d just keep doing what you’re doing in terms of calculating your daily expenditure.
If adding in a little extra calories helps you get through it, you’ll be fine doing that. Adding in 200 calories likely won’t have any effect on your fat mass at all. It may make the scale rise a bit, but you’ll likely subconciously increase activity to negate any effect the 200 calories would have.
I would consider increasing calories by 100-200 every 2 weeks until you get closer to the 3,000 calorie level.
This is all what I would do myself and if you were my client what I would suggest you do. So take that for what’s it worth, but you’d be surprised how easily your body can subconsciously make adjustments to caloric intake.
Again first move I think would be the magnesium and fat intake. And as mentioned above probably better just to take a full electrolyte supplement to just get it all in one full swoop. Good advice
Thanks I’ll look into the supplements hopefully make me feel a bit better
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I think 2500 daily is probably too low for you. Looking at a TDEE calculator, I imagine you fall somewhere between Heavy Exercise (2683 calories per day) and Athlete (2955 calories).
You are already at a pretty low BMI, so I wouldn't be surprised that at even a slight deficit, your body is screaming at you to feed it more, which is why you feel hungry. I would play around with upping your calories a bit, to see how it affects you.
Agreed, when the body hits a certain lower bf range in my own experience, it bumps back HARD. I would advise maybe thinking about maintenance, or maybe lean bulking. Change your goals. I would also ask, is getting any leaner WORTH it?3 -
psychod787 wrote: »I think 2500 daily is probably too low for you. Looking at a TDEE calculator, I imagine you fall somewhere between Heavy Exercise (2683 calories per day) and Athlete (2955 calories).
You are already at a pretty low BMI, so I wouldn't be surprised that at even a slight deficit, your body is screaming at you to feed it more, which is why you feel hungry. I would play around with upping your calories a bit, to see how it affects you.
Agreed, when the body hits a certain lower bf range in my own experience, it bumps back HARD. I would advise maybe thinking about maintenance, or maybe lean bulking. Change your goals. I would also ask, is getting any leaner WORTH it?
Yeah I’m not trying deliberately to become any leaner. It helps to run having lost the weight. I guess I just want to stay the same but eat anything lol which isn’t possible.
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Are you drinking enough water? Often if you drink water when you think you are hungry that will curb it. Try drinking a glass of water when you feel hungry and see what that does.2
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When I first went to maintenance I added carbs - milk, bread, etc. That's dumb. When I eat carbs I am always hungry.
If I up my protein and fat I'm not. I don't avoid carbs (except often skipping the bread on 'sandwiches'). But I consciously choose protein and I conscientiously take small portions, in a bowl, and walk away from the kitchen with it.3 -
I found that giving up all added sugar for 30 days made all the difference for me. Sometimes I think it's a sugar addiction rather than hunger.
And you have nothing to lose by trying it 😃8 -
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Some points to consider.
Carb re-feeds ARE a thing. Perhaps boiled potatoes would work better than candy canes in terms of satiety; but carb refeed may bring up hormones a bit faster (assuming protein remains adequate).
If you're bumping at maintenance minus there may be a couple of hundred calories before you bump at maintenance plus.
Especially at the tail end of loss there is some adaptation. Thus the weight loss the past few weeks is not a reliable indicator or necessarily the limit of how much you can add before heading into a weight regain trend.
Sounds as if a bit more food is in order...1 -
1800 at 5'9"! Try 2400...there's no hurry; if you gain, you can always lose. If you are hungry, eat. Just be careful what you eat.
Yesterday, I ate 3500 and the scale this a.m. read 167, a loss of 2 over the last few days. I ride on the trails here for an hour and do free weights at the home gym every other day. Summer on the mountain...
Note that I'm eat mostly home cooked veggies; no junk food, booze. My greatest sin is thc edibles and they're like 5 calories.2 -
He is only 63 kg though, so very light.0
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I ran 8 miles on Friday and ended my day with a 500 calories deficit but woke up Saturday hungry as a bear. It’s a feeling I don’t typically experience nowadays.
I had to eat big earlier than normal yesterday and I did. I finally got that satisfied feeling after about a 1,500 calories early lunch. I had resigned myself to it being a big calorie day and planned on 1,000 calories or more over maintenance.
Guess what?
That satisfied feeling lingered and I ended my day, much to my surprise, about 50 calories under maintenance.
The lesson I learned.
Nip real hunger in the bud by front loading your eating and pick “smart” food choices to do so.
As I peck this post on my iPhone, I’m 17 hours into my fasting period and not hungry one bit. I tamed my hungry as a bear hunger well yesterday by doing what I shared.
Good luck.4 -
I’m a woman at about the same height/age and 10 lbs lighter and my minimum maintenance calories is around 1860...so 1800 is too low. Also, what’s your daily activity? Are you understanding your exercise calories?0
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I apologize for not having much to add but I'm going through something similar. It's not fun at all, so I can definitely empathize. I'm also at the lower end of the BMI range for my height, always hungry (especially on lifting days), crave chocolate (and usually allow myself to have at least a little bit each day of the dark chocolate variety), and have that feeling of wanting to just keep eating after I've finished eating. I also do what you do and eat more frequently during the day until I hit calories. What was mentioned by @Rammer123 was very helpful for me, and I hope it will be for you as well. I'm experimenting with macro adaptations (and considering upping calories because I may have underestimated my activity level when calculating TDEE), so hopefully that will cease this hunger sensation.1
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