No Appetite

getfitgrl1993 · March 2021

About a month and a half ago I cut caffeine from my diet and now only drink water. About a week ago I decided to cut sugar, and am currently on day 6. Since cutting sugar from my diet, I've noticed I have absolutely zero appetite. Sometimes I can "unintentionally fast" up to 16-24 hours. When I do eat, I get full very quickly and almost have to force myself to eat because I'm extremely below my TDEE (usually by 1000 calories). I'm currently overweight. I've struggled with BED (binge eating disorder) my entire life, and while I'm happy to see the number on the scale go down, I also don't want to trade one eating disorder for another. Is this normal? Any help would be appreciated! ♥♥♥

Iwannabeapunkrockmom · March 2021

I have to say that the same thing happened to me when I reduced sugar from my diet. I'm sure that someone here will have some better and more wonderful advice, but I'll share what works for me. There are days when I just have zero appetite. I'm a very sedentary person. I have mobility challenges thanks to Rheumatoid arthritis and don't move a lot. I tend to spend most of time time in my home, which isn't very large. I am a homeschool mom and spend a lot of time sitting with my kids doing lessons. I decided that I needed to get more active to build my appetite. So I make sure to spend time getting my blood pumping. I get hungry when in get active. I've also learned that I can always eat fun salads no matter how I'm feeling. I don't eat dressing but will use orange, lemon, or lime slices to squeeze the juice and lightly flavor my salad. Protein shakes are a great way to boost your intake for the day too. I don't love that option, but it's there if you need it.

And of course I'm going to recommend seeing a professional. I see a psychiatrist and psychologist for a myriad of reasons, but they've helped so much in my weight loss journey as well.

There are so many ways to sneak extra calories into your day. And it's possible. Sometimes it's just a matter of getting past the mental block that food is your enemy. It's not. Food is your friend, just keep healthy boundaries.

I hope that helps.

cmriverside · March 2021

I think cutting sugar can/will affect insulin levels a lot and that will help stabalize your hunger.

Questions, to see where we can help:

How did you arrive at your calorie goal?
Are you using a fitbit or some other device to get your calories?
What did you set as your rate of loss?
How much weight do you need to lose to be in the Healthy BMI for your height?
How are you calculating your exercise calories (if you exercise?)
How are you calculating the calories you are eating? Are you logging everything? Checking each food to be sure the data (if on Myfitnesspal) is correct? How long have you been logging food consistently?

I'm asking because it's pretty common for people to be eating a lot more than they think they are eating and if that's the case combined with your lower sugars, you may be eating enough.

Since we can't see your Food page and we know little about you, all we can do is guess.

As far as, "is this normal?" again, maybe. Maybe not.

am00r · March 2021

Hi,
I’m having almost the same case happening with me this month.
I decided to minimize my coffee intake just to one in morning, and almost cut all sugars and sweets and replace them with only fruits, and it worked well with me, and here are my observation on myself.

I start noticing really decreasing in my appetite alot, as u mentioned, also one good thing to mention, my stress level was really decreased and i was able to notice that.
i may not eat all day and not feeling hungry, but i felt fatigue and loss of energy, obviously, and this was of course of low daily calories intake.

As u know we all thought that carbs is the enemy, and with cutting sugar i was happy eating less, and it worked for a couple of weeks till i started hit a fatigue, less focus and hit a plateau in losing weight and this due that i’m eating way bellow my BMR, even though i was doing HIIT, LISS and walking 10k steps a day.
Eating to way less was harming my body and mental focus and day to day performance.

I did some researches and i came up to a conclusion that in order to loss weight I must eat right and enough to my body that keeps me energized most of the day, by noticing my energy level through out the day and noticing also my food intake, and considering as possible other factors like sleep and stress.

Whole foods, protein, fruits and veggies helped me gain my control back, i started to increase my carb intake to be around 40-50% and the rest is prot and fat, all within my BMR, Still doing HITT , Liss and some strength training.

Also one thing to mention,
I’m trying not to focus on scale as i’m trying to balance my food intake, energy and exercise, Which i believe will result by itself to weight loss.

Ddsb11 · March 2021

My husband tells me I eat like a snake. Some weeks I have zero appetite, then I’ll have a week where I eat more than him at every meal. It’s like my body has feast and fast phases. Just track your calories and think of the big picture in terms of nutrition. As long as my calories even out and I’m getting all the vitamins and minerals I need I’m fine. But I also know what my hunger trends are and how to manage them. You are given a goal, try to adhere to it as much as possible. Sounds like you are naturally eating IF, which many people do. There’s nothing wrong with that, but making sure you are meeting your dietary needs is important. You’re trying to win the marathon at the end, and you won’t by sprinting at the beginning.

IrisElizabethPG · March 2021

Wow, that's interesting. I, too, cut sugar and chips out of my life and I find that I don't really have an appetite. I eat because I have to and get full really fast (which is a good thing, I guess).

cmriverside · March 2021

am00r wrote: »

Hi,
I’m having almost the same case happening with me this month.
I decided to minimize my coffee intake just to one in morning, and almost cut all sugars and sweets and replace them with only fruits, and it worked well with me, and here are my observation on myself.

I start noticing really decreasing in my appetite alot, as u mentioned, also one good thing to mention, my stress level was really decreased and i was able to notice that.
i may not eat all day and not feeling hungry, but i felt fatigue and loss of energy, obviously, and this was of course of low daily calories intake.

As u know we all thought that carbs is the enemy, and with cutting sugar i was happy eating less, and it worked for a couple of weeks till i started hit a fatigue, less focus and hit a plateau in losing weight and this due that i’m eating way bellow my BMR, even though i was doing HIIT, LISS and walking 10k steps a day.
Eating to way less was harming my body and mental focus and day to day performance.

I did some researches and i came up to a conclusion that in order to loss weight I must eat right and enough to my body that keeps me energized most of the day, by noticing my energy level through out the day and noticing also my food intake, and considering as possible other factors like sleep and stress.

Whole foods, protein, fruits and veggies helped me gain my control back, i started to increase my carb intake to be around 40-50% and the rest is prot and fat, all within my BMR, Still doing HITT , Liss and some strength training.

Also one thing to mention,
I’m trying not to focus on scale as i’m trying to balance my food intake, energy and exercise, Which i believe will result by itself to weight loss.

Go back and do some more research.

You don't want to eat BELOW your BMR. BMR is the amount of calories you would need at your current weight if all you did was lay in bed all day.

You want to eat MORE than that.

(BMR + Daily Activity (like your job and chores, and showering and walking around) + Your Exercise ) - a daily calorie deficit if you're trying to lose weight.

Not under BMR.

Under (BMR+Activity+Exercise) - 500 for a deficit.

Let's say you are 5'10'', male, 38 YO, 220 pounds and you sit at a desk all day. That would be a BMR of 1924. Your daily "stuff" like showering, dressing, preparing meals, taking out the garbage, etc. use another additional 400(ish) calories. You take the dog for a 45 minute jog, another 300 calories. One pound loss per week would be 500 calories less per day. So it would look like this:

(1924+400+300) - 500 = 2100

2100 would be your daily weightloss calorie goal for one pound loss per week.

lemurcat2 · March 2021

What are people meaning in this thread by no appetite? Like you used to want to eat all the time and now you are satisfied with a reasonable amount of food/your deficit cals? If so, great, seems like there's no problem.

Or are you meaning -- as I am reading it -- that you have no appetite at all, have to force yourself to eat or don't really want to eat, are eating (or desiring to eat) way less than even your MFP deficit cals. If that, honestly, it seems weird and bad to me, and I'd either check with a doctor or do some soul searching as to whether I am mentally thinking it's good not to eat if not craving something specific or if I am replacing sugary foods with foods that aren't tasty to me. Since cutting out added sugar shouldn't get rid of normal appetite.

I cut out added sugar for a while in 2014, and still do from time to time, and normally eat very little of it anyway, and yet trust me, my appetite is not gone and never was. Even when I first started and was eating no added sugar and 1200 + exercise cals, I enjoyed and felt hungry for the foods I ate at meal times, although I wasn't otherwise hungry (I don't think one should be hungry when dieting, but I also think that's quite different from having no appetite).

am00r · March 2021

cmriverside wrote: »

am00r wrote: »

Hi,
I’m having almost the same case happening with me this month.
I decided to minimize my coffee intake just to one in morning, and almost cut all sugars and sweets and replace them with only fruits, and it worked well with me, and here are my observation on myself.

I start noticing really decreasing in my appetite alot, as u mentioned, also one good thing to mention, my stress level was really decreased and i was able to notice that.
i may not eat all day and not feeling hungry, but i felt fatigue and loss of energy, obviously, and this was of course of low daily calories intake.

As u know we all thought that carbs is the enemy, and with cutting sugar i was happy eating less, and it worked for a couple of weeks till i started hit a fatigue, less focus and hit a plateau in losing weight and this due that i’m eating way bellow my BMR, even though i was doing HIIT, LISS and walking 10k steps a day.
Eating to way less was harming my body and mental focus and day to day performance.

I did some researches and i came up to a conclusion that in order to loss weight I must eat right and enough to my body that keeps me energized most of the day, by noticing my energy level through out the day and noticing also my food intake, and considering as possible other factors like sleep and stress.

Whole foods, protein, fruits and veggies helped me gain my control back, i started to increase my carb intake to be around 40-50% and the rest is prot and fat, all within my BMR, Still doing HITT , Liss and some strength training.

Also one thing to mention,
I’m trying not to focus on scale as i’m trying to balance my food intake, energy and exercise, Which i believe will result by itself to weight loss.

Go back and do some more research.

You don't want to eat BELOW your BMR. BMR is the amount of calories you would need at your current weight if all you did was lay in bed all day.

You want to eat MORE than that.

(BMR + Daily Activity (like your job and chores, and showering and walking around) + Your Exercise ) - a daily calorie deficit if you're trying to lose weight.

Not under BMR.

Under (BMR+Activity+Exercise) - 500 for a deficit.

Let's say you are 5'10'', male, 38 YO, 220 pounds and you sit at a desk all day. That would be a BMR of 1924. Your daily "stuff" like showering, dressing, preparing meals, taking out the garbage, etc. use another additional 400(ish) calories. You take the dog for a 45 minute jog, another 300 calories. One pound loss per week would be 500 calories less per day. So it would look like this:

(1924+400+300) - 500 = 2100

2100 would be your daily weightloss calorie goal for one pound loss per week.

U missed the whole point,
I was talking about my personal experience and observation, each is different from other.

binge reading the internet and fitness articles doesn’t mean u r doing what is right for u, what’s is right is try-and-adapt till u find what works well for u.

On the other hand,
Alot of actors and and even athletes b4 competitions can do fad diet under the supervision of doctors, they could eat up to 500 cals aday with supplements of MVs they stay healthy.

Even the old greek philosophers, religious people and people living outside the city was and still eat less for mind clarity and live longer, they tried and adapted till found what works well for them.

U can search the internet for the benefit of fasting, not IF and eat ur calories, complete fasting with very little food and the enormous health benefits and longevity.

So to summarize,
It’s not only a fitness issue, it’s a lifestyle and what works well for u.

darlindaisymay · March 2021

Hi! I have always struggled maintaining a consistent weight; I either have no appetite and go full days without eating or eat everything in front of me practically subconsciously. Tracking my calorie intake has helped me notice these things before I am dealing with the negative consequences, but what really helped me keep a balance to prevent from going from one extreme to the other was to build recipes based on my cravings that filled my calorie and nutrient goals. So when I wake up and don't feel like eating anything, I make a high-protein salad that I don't really notice as I'm eating because it's so light, and when I wake up and want to eat something right away, I will make something heavy and quick then make healthy snacks to grab throughout the day instead of sitting down for a meal. Setting myself up for success in the mornings has really lowered my stress levels, especially on days that I don't feel like eating and then stress out about not eating enough and want to eat even less😅
I hope this is helpful for you!

No Appetite

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