Using hunger as a gauge
tnebell
Posts: 17 Member
So question. Over the past two weeks I have actively been working out, tracking my food and so on. I've thought of something though. When I am non stop hungry, is this a sign that I'm in calorie deficit? I would think yes, but I'm sure this is not an accurate way to tell.
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Replies
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Not for me. I'm often hungry, sometimes even right after a meal, even while I'm over eating. If my hunger cues worked, I wouldn't have gained weight in the first place.18
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Huger cues may or may not be accurate.
However, how many of your exercise calories are you eating?
Unlike other sites which use TDEE calculators, MFP uses the NEAT method (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis), and as such this system is designed for exercise calories to be eaten back. However, many consider the burns given by MFP to be inflated for them and only eat a percentage, such as 50%, back. Others, however, are able to lose weight while eating 100% of their exercise calories.
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf/p14 -
I tolerate hunger up to 1.5h before a meal. Otherwise I take something like a 65cal square of dark chocolate or a large glass of water with liquid enhancer.2
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My hunger cues are beyond useless. They don't tell me when I should eat and then when I have gone too long without food they don't tell me when to stop.8
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My hunger cues seem to have gone on a very long vacation (hopefully somewhere sandy and sunny!) since I started seriously losing weight. I haven’t had a single feeling of hunger for about 3 months. Slightly disconcerting because if I’m busy I don’t realise I need to eat until I’m nauseous and feeling generally really shaky and lightheaded.
I don’t think you can rely on hunger pains to tell you very much at all.2 -
Sounds like your metabolism is speeding up or very fast if you are non stop hungry which is a good sign.0
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Hunger cues translate well for some of us still. I’ve been tracking on and off for over 5 years and have found my hunger cues to be very reliable, so long as I’m sticking to a healthy diet. I’ve gone long periods without tracking and still lost weight. Generally, if I’m hungry, I’m in a deficit, and scale movement is mostly predictable. Vaguely hungry at bedtime translates to a small deficit, very hungry (which I try to avoid) means a large deficit.0
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if you're non-stop hungry, it's not a good thing and it doesn't mean you're eating at a deficit.6
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Since joining I am occasionally hungry at bed time. Usually I can ignore it and sleep though. If i cant I have genenerally a cracker and peanut butter, seems to do the trick. But weither ive felt hungry or not, does not seem to affect my weight loss0
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Most often, I am hungriest when eating more sugar than anything else. In other words, skip supper, have cake and ice cream instead, and I wake up ravenous for cake and ice cream. If I eat more meat, vegetables, starch, and limited sugar, I sometimes don’t ever feel hunger at all. I guess everyone is a little different.4
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I would say it's not the most reliable for many people. However for me it works as one of the measures I use (the other being my bathroom scale).. if I'm a bit hungry I know I'm probably in a deficit, if I'm really hungry I'm probably not eating enough. If I'm satisfied I'm usually at maintenance, if I'm always stuffed and bloated .. surplus.7
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My hunger cues are completely unreliable and useless. So useless that I do my best to completely ignore them. I eat when and how much my MFP food diary says to eat, no less, no more, because otherwise I immediately start gaining weight.3
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After a short adjustment period (couple of weeks?), I was rarely uncomfortably hungry when in a calorie deficit (calorie deficit verified by the fact that I was actually losing weight
). If I got hungry, and a meal wasn't coming up soon, I'd have a small protein-y snack, like a hard boiled egg, some lowfat string cheese, or something bulky like an apple or a couple of sliced tomatoes, to tide me over.
Some people say they're hungry all through weight loss. Some are able to find strategies (changing what they eat, when) that avoid hunger.
Like so many others, my hunger cues are not a good guide. If I'm not eating in the ways that work best for me, and counting calories, I can easily be hungry in a calorie surplus.6 -
I think it depends on what you mean by being non stop hungry. I often feel like I could eat or like I would like to eat. It feels like there is an empty space in my stomach, I guess, but that doesn’t necessarily equate to hunger. When I am actually hungry, it feels different. My stomach often growls, I think about food a lot more than I usually do, and sometimes I feel a drop in my energy levels.
I can assume a deficit from the empty stomach feeling, but actual hunger can happen in a surplus, too. If it’s been awhile since I ate, or if I am experiencing PMS, or if I have had a hard workout, or if my food choices have been high calorie but not filling. Those are all reasons to feel hunger that don’t necessarily require a deficit.
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My hunger triggers suck, or perhaps I suck at heeding or abiding by my hunger triggers.
Either way intuitive eating just doesn't seem to be in my repertoire of natural gifts or abilities hence the need to take a more conscious deliberate approach to consuming food.2 -
elitesportsdude wrote: »Sounds like your metabolism is speeding up or very fast if you are non stop hungry which is a good sign.
Since metabolic abnormalities are so rare it is more likely the OP is undereating or eating foods that don't satisfy them.
For example, it's common for people to inadvertently undereat because they don't realize they are supposed to eat back exercise calories.2 -
To the question - no. Your body/mind is not capable of recognizing deficit, maintenance, or surplus. These are abstract calculations with little markers in reality.
Are you first distinguishing between hunger and appetite?
Hunger is physiological need for food and slow growing over time - several hours.
Appetite is a mental/habit based desire for food - tending to be sudden, immediate, and specific - salty/sweet.4 -
If ate whenever I was hungry I'd be the size of a small country 😂6
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For me personally feeling 'hungry' is completely disconnected from my calorie intake. Instead it's tied to habits/boredom/time of day/time of month and where I am in my hormonal cycle, and then what my macros splits are.2
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There's a certain "in tune with your body" sort of intuition that can be gained from long term athletics and eating for a goal over time...you shouldn't ignore it.1
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i smoke weed so using hunger as a gauge is a horrible idea for me =/3
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If you're genuinely feeling hungry all the time you're probably eating too little, or you're not eating a fairly balanced diet. But like people have said it could also be your hunger cues out of whack, or even thirst can feel like hunger.0
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oops! Never realized people were commenting! So, for instance right now. I sit here working and my stomach has been growling non stop for the past hour. I've been daydreaming of a small avocado I have in the fridge. LOL
Lunch was a tuna fish sandwich and some homemade kohlrabi pickles. Breakfast was an english muffin, peanut butter and a hard boiled egg.
Its not an constant usually but there are days that I've eaten the recommended 1200 calories but I get past lunch and realize I'm really hungry. (aka big noisy growls from stomach). Today I know I'll be over because I would have to pretty much skip dinner in order to be within my 1200 calories.0 -
oops! Never realized people were commenting! So, for instance right now. I sit here working and my stomach has been growling non stop for the past hour. I've been daydreaming of a small avocado I have in the fridge. LOL
Lunch was a tuna fish sandwich and some homemade kohlrabi pickles. Breakfast was an english muffin, peanut butter and a hard boiled egg.
Its not an constant usually but there are days that I've eaten the recommended 1200 calories but I get past lunch and realize I'm really hungry. (aka big noisy growls from stomach). Today I know I'll be over because I would have to pretty much skip dinner in order to be within my 1200 calories.
Can you give us more info? Very often when someone says they are sticking to a goal of 1200 calories and are hungry a lot, it’s because their target is too low.7 -
>1200 calories
Are you on the lose-two-pounds-a-week setting? Why so low? Are you in a hurry? If not, maybe slow it down.
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I trust my hunger cues about as much as I trust my satiety cues, which is to say not at all.
If I waited until I 'felt full' it would be long past the time I actually was full. By 'full' I really mean satisfied.
My discipline crutch is coffee. Since I use an IF protocol to limit my caloric intake (because I like more food in a given sitting), I don't generally eat until about 2pm and stop about 8pm. I wake up early feeling hungry. I ignore it for awhile, then I feel a bit more hungry about 10am. That's coffee time. 1 cup and I'm good until 2pm, without much effort.
I acknowledge that being in a deficit gives me more 'hunger' cues than maintenance, but those pass. Probably doesn't work for everyone, but does for me.2 -
Hunger is truly in the mind. Ran by hormones. It lies.1
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oops! Never realized people were commenting! So, for instance right now. I sit here working and my stomach has been growling non stop for the past hour. I've been daydreaming of a small avocado I have in the fridge. LOL
Lunch was a tuna fish sandwich and some homemade kohlrabi pickles. Breakfast was an english muffin, peanut butter and a hard boiled egg.
Its not an constant usually but there are days that I've eaten the recommended 1200 calories but I get past lunch and realize I'm really hungry. (aka big noisy growls from stomach). Today I know I'll be over because I would have to pretty much skip dinner in order to be within my 1200 calories.
Who or what recommended 1200kcal to you? Even if it was accurate given your height, weight, body fat,etc., you are consistently active according to your initial post. While exercise in general burns less than most people think, it still carries energy expenditure and depending on the type of exercise, your body would need nutrients to recover.
Everyone who diets experiences hunger to a degree and that's just part of the game. But experiencing gnawing hunger is likely a sign of not eating enough usually because the deficit is too steep for too long, which doesn't do much good for developing long term eating habits. Try adjusting your calorie goal to a less aggressive daily goal or have some days higher with some lower days. As long as you're averaging a net deficit, you're fine.6
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