After a few days of counting calories, feeling fuller a lot sooner
baby_browniebear
Posts: 8 Member
Has this happened to anyone? I'm only on day eight and I can't reach my goal of 1880 calories because I feel so full from the day before. It looks like I cannot complete my diary if I haven't met a minimum of 1k calories, so I added what I
would've eaten. I don't know if this is normal 🙈. Note, I don't eat late so there was a definite time gap between my last meal and breakfast this morning which I forced myself to eat, but I honestly wasn't hungry. I even ate later than usual around 10. I normally have breakfast between 730-830am and dinner at 430-5pm.
would've eaten. I don't know if this is normal 🙈. Note, I don't eat late so there was a definite time gap between my last meal and breakfast this morning which I forced myself to eat, but I honestly wasn't hungry. I even ate later than usual around 10. I normally have breakfast between 730-830am and dinner at 430-5pm.
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Replies
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Since my early 20's and probably before that I have never been hungry for breakfast. I generally do get hungry around lunch.
You can meet your calorie goal you have probably just restricted yourself from eating "treat" food that is more calorie dense. You should not start a habit of starving yourself when the answer could be as simple as something like ice cream.
You should also consider getting a food scale and increasing your logging accuracy. You may not be as low as you think you are.
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10634517/you-dont-use-a-food-scale/p1
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide/p19 -
Don't worry about completing the diary. There's really no benefit to it.2
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Are you saying you're not eating even 1,000 calories??? If so, that'd be a problem. The 1k minimum is there for a reason. It's unsafe to eat less.
In my experience, there's a kind of "honeymoon" phase to a new diet. You suddenly feel much less hungry on much less food -- stunning, really, to suddenly see and feel how little food is actually required to feel "full" when you're not in gorge/fat person mode. Weight melts off much faster than expected in the honeymoon phase. The whole thing seems easy and effortless. There's a euphoria, partly from watching the scale plummet day after day in the first week or two, and partly from a new feeling of sovereignty - taking control of the situation, getting in charge of your own body and well being, feeling like you can do this & ARE doing it! Definitely, part of the honeymoon for some people is feeling unusually not hungry. I know I was basically uninterested in food at all for the first few weeks; I was too busy working out and getting on and off the scale and digging through my clothes to see if any of them fit better yet LOL
Like all shiny new things, your diet will get its first scratch eventually (a binge, or just blowing a day by a little because you're out with friends but still leaving you feeling like you departed from your diet and maybe should take a 2nd day off before you reset, etc.) and the initial water drainage masking the slow fat loss will be complete, leading to sloooooow scale changes starting around week 3-4, and ... your appetite will come back, for some people with a vengeance. At that point, it'll be crucial to have a good plan and habits in place for hitting the right calorie target - not overeating, but not undereating either. For this reason, I suggest eating every single calorie of your daily calorie target, day in, day out, not going over and not going under. You want to really lock in hitting that number as a behavior and habit and something you "just do" every single day. Don't undereat now; it may lead to binging later, because you won't have a well-developed habit of reliably hitting your calorie target.
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First, do you use a food scale and check the database entries to be sure you really are eating as little as you think?
Second, have you changed the kind of foods you eat? Often people switch to eating lots of watery, fibrous vegetables and other plant foods that have a high volume-to-calorie ratio, and on top of that they drastically cut out fat. If you're doing this, you might want to put a few more calorie-dense foods back in your diet.
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I'm on day 5 and am experiencing the similar "symptoms". I'm not that hungry, but I am more energized, and I feel like I have to force myself to consume my total calorie count. The post about the honeymoon phase helps. I'm guessing there's a bit of excitement, ambition and adrenaline that might be causing me to feel less of an appetite right now. I'm eating high proteins, lots of veggies, and limited carbs. I'm not sure I'd want to take a scoop of ice cream just to get to my totals at the end of the day though... I don't use a food scale, but I do measure my portions with measuring spoons/cups and check accuracy on my food labels to the MFP database. Also, I find I'm never hungry immediately after exercising, but maybe a couple hours later.2
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surfbug808 wrote: »I'm on day 5 and am experiencing the similar "symptoms". I'm not that hungry, but I am more energized, and I feel like I have to force myself to consume my total calorie count. The post about the honeymoon phase helps. I'm guessing there's a bit of excitement, ambition and adrenaline that might be causing me to feel less of an appetite right now. I'm eating high proteins, lots of veggies, and limited carbs. I'm not sure I'd want to take a scoop of ice cream just to get to my totals at the end of the day though... I don't use a food scale, but I do measure my portions with measuring spoons/cups and check accuracy on my food labels to the MFP database. Also, I find I'm never hungry immediately after exercising, but maybe a couple hours later.
Weigh ALL your food. Forget you own any measuring cups or spoons.
Think of it this way: imagine a cup of rice. Now imagine you put a few more grains on top. Then add a few more. And a few more over on that side. And a little more on top.
Is it still a cup of rice? The rice probably isn’t spilling out of the cup at this point, so it is still a “cup,” but it obviously has more calories than the original cup did. You can add quite a lot of rice—and calories—yet still call it a “cup.”
Weigh your food.6 -
The fact is you, me, none of us got overweight by being unable to eat excessive amounts of calories. Eating more calories is how we put the weight on in the first place so it's definitely not a case of being unable to eat enough calories. So what is it?
In my experience this "I can't eat all those calories" thing happens as a result of an extreme and radical diet change. People get all motivated and gung-ho at the start of a weight loss effort and get fixated on 'eating healthy' and 'cutting out the junk' and massively over-correct. They make sweeping SUPER strict changes to the food they eat and all of a sudden are trying to stick to idealistic (unrealisitic) food choices regardless of how unappetising they find them and rigidly avoid anything even slightly calorie dense. So people struggle to eat enough calories because the food they're now eating isn't food they enjoy coupled with the fact that they need to consume these "meh" foods in enormous quantities because they're all so low calorie dense.
I mean, a tablespoon of peanut butter is gonna add about 200cals, a hand full of nuts could be as much as 400cals, Even dropping 4 tablespoons of olive oil into your cooking/food is going to add about 450cal.
Of course there's always the option of using those extra calories to treat yourself. Eat some chocolate, or donuts, or ice cream.
Can't say for sure if this the case specifically here but it's something I've seen time and again and something I've definitely done before.10 -
surfbug808 wrote: »I'm on day 5 and am experiencing the similar "symptoms". I'm not that hungry, but I am more energized, and I feel like I have to force myself to consume my total calorie count. The post about the honeymoon phase helps. I'm guessing there's a bit of excitement, ambition and adrenaline that might be causing me to feel less of an appetite right now. I'm eating high proteins, lots of veggies, and limited carbs. I'm not sure I'd want to take a scoop of ice cream just to get to my totals at the end of the day though... I don't use a food scale, but I do measure my portions with measuring spoons/cups and check accuracy on my food labels to the MFP database. Also, I find I'm never hungry immediately after exercising, but maybe a couple hours later.
Weigh ALL your food. Forget you own any measuring cups or spoons.
Think of it this way: imagine a cup of rice. Now imagine you put a few more grains on top. Then add a few more. And a few more over on that side. And a little more on top.
Is it still a cup of rice? The rice probably isn’t spilling out of the cup at this point, so it is still a “cup,” but it obviously has more calories than the original cup did. You can add quite a lot of rice—and calories—yet still call it a “cup.”
Weigh your food.
I'm listening to all you experienced folks, cuz I'm completely new to weight-loss. Ok, I hear you on weighing food for accuracy.
I'm probably being super strict otherwise (this is my habit when I try something new that requires discipline, kind of perfectionist... not good) so I'm going to treat myself to make sure I get my total cals so there's more pleasure in it and it'll keep me balanced on eating enough. Right now, even without having the accuracy of a scale at home, I can see that I'm severely lacking b/c I'm not fully making up for my exercise calories spent.
It sounds like if people are too extreme they binge the other way later, and I don't want to swing from one end to the other, not healthy for me. I'm learning a lot from reading the posts at MFP. Thanks for everyone's tips!
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Weigh ALL your food. Forget you own any measuring cups or spoons.
Think of it this way: imagine a cup of rice. Now imagine you put a few more grains on top. Then add a few more. And a few more over on that side. And a little more on top.
Is it still a cup of rice? The rice probably isn’t spilling out of the cup at this point, so it is still a “cup,” but it obviously has more calories than the original cup did. You can add quite a lot of rice—and calories—yet still call it a “cup.”
Weigh your food.
Yep.
Bought a jar of chickpea butter today to try out - tastes great, just like peanut butter and maybe even better, but 15 % less calories!! Anyway, loaded up a tablespoon, which is supposed to be 85 cals. Then I saw on the jar a tbsp was supposed to be 14 grams. Weight mine and it was 23. That's more than 50 % more calories!! Had to keep leveling and leveling it to get it down to the 14 grams.
"Measuring cup" is synonymous with "you're eating a lot more calories than you think you're eating".
Weigh EVERYTHING.7 -
surfbug808 wrote: »It sounds like if people are too extreme they binge the other way later, and I don't want to swing from one end to the other, not healthy for me. I'm learning a lot from reading the posts at MFP. Thanks for everyone's tips!
You've got it. If you undereat at first, you'll probably end up overeating (or just not dieting anymore) later. The solution is discipline from the opening bell: learning to eat the same # of calories every day, rain or shine, happy or sad or stressed out, hungry or not hungry. Train your mind and stomach that you always get the same amount of food everyday, then make sure the food is mostly food you love and crave, not just super-healthy diet foods you don't really want. The less torture is involved in your diet, the more likely you are to stick with it and the longer it will last.
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surfbug808 wrote: »It sounds like if people are too extreme they binge the other way later, and I don't want to swing from one end to the other, not healthy for me. I'm learning a lot from reading the posts at MFP. Thanks for everyone's tips!
You've got it. If you undereat at first, you'll probably end up overeating (or just not dieting anymore) later. The solution is discipline from the opening bell: learning to eat the same # of calories every day, rain or shine, happy or sad or stressed out, hungry or not hungry. Train your mind and stomach that you always get the same amount of food everyday, then make sure the food is mostly food you love and crave, not just super-healthy diet foods you don't really want. The less torture is involved in your diet, the more likely you are to stick with it and the longer it will last.
Spelling it out like that is good. No matter what, just stick to the calorie count and make it enjoyable. Got it!
I'll also experiment with snacking through the day instead of forcing too much during a meal or filling up the final make-up cals in the evening. I don't want to develop a habit of binging last minute. And weigh everything. Very helpful!3 -
I'm going to differ slightly from some of the opinions in this thread - I think having some flexibility around your calorie intake can be beneficial to being able to stick to your goals. Being extremely rigid ("I will eat exactly my goal, not one single calorie over or under") can lead to feeling like you might as well give up for the day if you accidentally go over by a few calories, and then (for me at least!) you end up binging.
I have my goal set as 1200 but I mentally allow myself a range of 1150-1350 on a typical day. If I'm at 1200 at the end of the day and am craving something sweet, I find it better for me to eat a mini chocolate bar or drink a hot chocolate (~100 calories) than to feel deprived.
Similarly, if I am socialising with friends or family, I will make healthy choices where possible but not let calorie counting prevent me from enjoying the occasion.
Obviously you can't get into the habit of doing this every day, particularly if your target calorie deficit is smaller, but for me this helps me to feel that it is more sustainable and keeps me motivated. I've started and stopped many weight loss attempts over the last few years, but this is the first one that seems to have stuck! 4 months in, 17kg down
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Having said the above - feeling unable to eat over 1000 calories when your target is 1800 goes beyond the point of "flexible calorie goals" and suggests unsustainability. There's a list (somewhere on this site...!) of high calorie density foods such as nuts, avocado, oils etc that you could add in to get some extra calories. I tend to cook with Frylight cooking spray but if it looks like I'll be under my calories for the day I'll measure out a teaspoon or two of olive oil and use that to cook dinner. Or I'll grate some cheese onto my pasta, or have a slice of toast with peanut butter as an evening snack.
Edit - I found the thread but I'm on mobile and can't work out how to link it! Search in the forum for "A list of calorie dense foods" and there's a thread by Diannethegeek with loads of ideas2 -
" Weigh ALL your food. Forget you own any measuring cups or spoons.
"Measuring cup" is synonymous with "you're eating a lot more calories than you think you're eating".
Weigh EVERYTHING."
All of that.
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surfbug808 wrote: »surfbug808 wrote: »I'm on day 5 and am experiencing the similar "symptoms". I'm not that hungry, but I am more energized, and I feel like I have to force myself to consume my total calorie count. The post about the honeymoon phase helps. I'm guessing there's a bit of excitement, ambition and adrenaline that might be causing me to feel less of an appetite right now. I'm eating high proteins, lots of veggies, and limited carbs. I'm not sure I'd want to take a scoop of ice cream just to get to my totals at the end of the day though... I don't use a food scale, but I do measure my portions with measuring spoons/cups and check accuracy on my food labels to the MFP database. Also, I find I'm never hungry immediately after exercising, but maybe a couple hours later.
Weigh ALL your food. Forget you own any measuring cups or spoons.
Think of it this way: imagine a cup of rice. Now imagine you put a few more grains on top. Then add a few more. And a few more over on that side. And a little more on top.
Is it still a cup of rice? The rice probably isn’t spilling out of the cup at this point, so it is still a “cup,” but it obviously has more calories than the original cup did. You can add quite a lot of rice—and calories—yet still call it a “cup.”
Weigh your food.
I'm listening to all you experienced folks, cuz I'm completely new to weight-loss. Ok, I hear you on weighing food for accuracy.
I'm probably being super strict otherwise (this is my habit when I try something new that requires discipline, kind of perfectionist... not good) so I'm going to treat myself to make sure I get my total cals so there's more pleasure in it and it'll keep me balanced on eating enough. Right now, even without having the accuracy of a scale at home, I can see that I'm severely lacking b/c I'm not fully making up for my exercise calories spent.
It sounds like if people are too extreme they binge the other way later, and I don't want to swing from one end to the other, not healthy for me. I'm learning a lot from reading the posts at MFP. Thanks for everyone's tips!
Great attitude about learning from the veterans and posts for long term success! If you haven’t already, read the stickied most helpful forum posts at the top of the getting started section. They have tons of helpful info on a number of topics.0 -
Most people who "diet" change their food choices. Instead of a pop tart for breakfast, they have say, oats and eggs. The properties of these foods are more filling per energy unit. So, you may not be as hungrier and stay more full. I mean, I have not looked at your journal, but its just a pattern i have seen. The leaner you get, the hungrier you will be in general. Jmho2
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surfbug808 wrote: »surfbug808 wrote: »I'm on day 5 and am experiencing the similar "symptoms". I'm not that hungry, but I am more energized, and I feel like I have to force myself to consume my total calorie count. The post about the honeymoon phase helps. I'm guessing there's a bit of excitement, ambition and adrenaline that might be causing me to feel less of an appetite right now. I'm eating high proteins, lots of veggies, and limited carbs. I'm not sure I'd want to take a scoop of ice cream just to get to my totals at the end of the day though... I don't use a food scale, but I do measure my portions with measuring spoons/cups and check accuracy on my food labels to the MFP database. Also, I find I'm never hungry immediately after exercising, but maybe a couple hours later.
Weigh ALL your food. Forget you own any measuring cups or spoons.
Think of it this way: imagine a cup of rice. Now imagine you put a few more grains on top. Then add a few more. And a few more over on that side. And a little more on top.
Is it still a cup of rice? The rice probably isn’t spilling out of the cup at this point, so it is still a “cup,” but it obviously has more calories than the original cup did. You can add quite a lot of rice—and calories—yet still call it a “cup.”
Weigh your food.
I'm listening to all you experienced folks, cuz I'm completely new to weight-loss. Ok, I hear you on weighing food for accuracy.
I'm probably being super strict otherwise (this is my habit when I try something new that requires discipline, kind of perfectionist... not good) so I'm going to treat myself to make sure I get my total cals so there's more pleasure in it and it'll keep me balanced on eating enough. Right now, even without having the accuracy of a scale at home, I can see that I'm severely lacking b/c I'm not fully making up for my exercise calories spent.
It sounds like if people are too extreme they binge the other way later, and I don't want to swing from one end to the other, not healthy for me. I'm learning a lot from reading the posts at MFP. Thanks for everyone's tips!
This is a great attitude to have! You'll get there. I found myself in a similar place a couple weeks in, but I added in a couple foods containing fat and protein (protein to prevent muscle loss) as snacks, such as Greek yoghurt / Skyr (protein yoghurt), mini Babybel Lights and small pots of fromage frais, as well as the aforementioned peanut butter (yummy with banana on toast!). Now I'm finding I struggle to keep to my limit unless I exercise, but a swim every day or two keeps me right So look into the importance of protein - you'll feel better about eating "extra" food because, while you might not be hungry, you body *does* need the protein so as not to burn your muscle along with fat. Good luck! 2 -
surfbug808 wrote: »surfbug808 wrote: »It sounds like if people are too extreme they binge the other way later, and I don't want to swing from one end to the other, not healthy for me. I'm learning a lot from reading the posts at MFP. Thanks for everyone's tips!
You've got it. If you undereat at first, you'll probably end up overeating (or just not dieting anymore) later. The solution is discipline from the opening bell: learning to eat the same # of calories every day, rain or shine, happy or sad or stressed out, hungry or not hungry. Train your mind and stomach that you always get the same amount of food everyday, then make sure the food is mostly food you love and crave, not just super-healthy diet foods you don't really want. The less torture is involved in your diet, the more likely you are to stick with it and the longer it will last.
Spelling it out like that is good. No matter what, just stick to the calorie count and make it enjoyable. Got it!
I'll also experiment with snacking through the day instead of forcing too much during a meal or filling up the final make-up cals in the evening. I don't want to develop a habit of binging last minute. And weigh everything. Very helpful!
Yes and no. You do not need to rigidly adhere to daily calories. Your daily calories need to be your average over a week. Some people find great success is daily management. Others, like me, find flexibility to be more important. I like the fact that I eat less on some days because it gives me more calories to enjoy food that I want to eat on the weekends or special occasions. I manage myself on a weekly basis. As long as I eat enough calories in a day to fuel the day and not feel tired/fatigued I am fine to "bank" the excess calories to spend at another time.2 -
Ok so I haven't done the scale thing, I will definitely be weighing my food going forward. I was using the spoons and cups, and as mentioned may be underreporting, tnx for the tips everyone! My first day after really feeling full was after my dinner which was a chickpeas salad that I found on pinterest lol. Those things are so filling.1
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surfbug808 wrote: »Spelling it out like that is good. No matter what, just stick to the calorie count and make it enjoyable. Got it!
I'll also experiment with snacking through the day instead of forcing too much during a meal or filling up the final make-up cals in the evening. I don't want to develop a habit of binging last minute. And weigh everything. Very helpful!
Yep, you've definitely got the right mindset about it. Everyone's different but I think it can be said nearly universally that a consistent # of calories/day (or, as @novusdies notes, per week) helps avoid binging and dieting nosedives. I really try to stay focused on that aspect of things. I sometimes eat more than my MFP number when I feel like it, but never less. Here's my chart of the last 90 days:
One thing you might not have thought about is pre-logging your food for the day so you don't get stuck in the "uh oh it's 11 pm and I'm 300 calories under" trap. It doesn't need to be exact; you can refine it as you go, but it's definitely helpful to go into the MFP diary in the morning (if possible) and take a first pass at your food intentions for the day, see how they add up, adjust things a little so it looks like a satisfying food day and adds up to the right number, and then go about your day and fine-tune it later. Doing this can not only help you avoid ending up with hundreds of calories to eat before bed, but also will lead to more satisfying meals and snacks during the day, since it'll be all mapped out in advance. For instance, maybe a Kit Kat bar will fit in perfectly at 3 pm!! And you can savor every molecule of it at 3 pm because you already know it fits into the plan, because you've mapped out the whole day!
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