Did anyone experience That.. It's harder to lose weight when Light Vs your heavier self
Lullaby2021
Posts: 121 Member
I ask this, Because I've been having harder time. I went from 167-136 difficulty fair.Since I hit the 130s to lose. Even my five pound goal. To get back to 131lbs.. I'm always craving or hungry, Even on days My protein is at 90.. Which is as high as I can get it. I'm 136lbs, I was 131 but gained some back. How do more lean people deal with. The hunger and them high cravings? I haven't been able to lose significant pounds for months. Since my problem with the ques of hunger and craving are holding me back. More info I'm 5'7 and I eat 1,400-1560 calories perday. I exercise five times per week. Has anyone went through this phase? How do you get and keep control of it?
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Replies
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Yes it’s harder to lose weight when you are close to goal. I’m at 134 and 5 feet 5 inches and I estimate if I want to get to 125 it would take the rest of this year. I also lose slowly intentionally as to try to keep muscle as much as possible.2
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Yeah, it's a lot harder, and a lot *slower*, to lose weight when you're closer to goal.
I know it's frustrating!
It's because smaller bodies need less energy (calories) to maintain.
Either our deficits are no longer deficits at all, or they are smaller deficits which mean slower weight loss.
...and that's okay. Every lb lost is more noticeable at lower weights too.
I will say... you're eating what's appropriate for someone at your weight but half a foot shorter. Which would be roughly a 500 calorie, 1lb per week deficit if you *weren't* working out.
Since you are, you should be eating more calories to compensate for that. This could be why you're always hungry.
I know that it sounds counterproductive to eat more if your weight loss has stalled, but plateaus, especially near the start and near your goal, are perfectly normal. Weight can stay near the same, or even spike a little for a couple of months. The best way to handle it tends to be to patiently wait it out.
If you're always starving, you're more likely to binge, or even to give up entirely.
I'd double check your logging, make sure you're getting *enough* to eat, check your sodium and water intakes, and then, honestly, just... give it some time.2 -
Well it sounds like your weight is perfectly fine. I have been pretty lean, and your body does not want to be at that point. Ghrelin and leptin (hunger and fullness hormones) get all messed up and you become more food focused. Perhaps you have settled into a body fat your body is meant to sit at. Not everyone is meant to be super lean.1
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A deliberate extended break at maintenance might help.
Hungry all the time, feeling cold, feeling lethargic can all be signs people need a diet break.
"Even on days My protein is at 90" - protein isn't universally the most satiating. Starchy carbs are my most satiating macro and that's not unusual as mashed potato often tops the lists of most satiating foods. Those lists tend to have items that are mainly carbs, mainly fat or mainly protein. Experimentation is required to find your best combination.
"More info I'm 5'7 and I eat 1,400-1560 calories perday. I exercise five times per week" - that sounds a very low level. How do you account for your exercise expenditure? Have you experimented with a smaller deficit?
How do I lose weight when already light?
Either very slowly or I do on/off dieting - sometimes a combination of the two.
Can be just picking odd days to have a significant deficit and rest of my days at or around maintenance or one or two weeks dieting / one or two weeks maintaining works well for me.
The one thing I never do is aim for an everyday deficit as that kills my motivation and energy levels. Unlike most people I eat a lot more maintaining and slim than I did before I lost weight as both my activity and exercise levels are much higher now.
Personally I don't find it harder but I have no ambitions to be ultra lean and taking a reasonable deficit from a high food allowance is a lot easier to put up with.
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I'm currently more or less where you are: those 'last few lbs'. I'm 5ft5 and around 133lbs. And I'm eating a lot more than you. Around 2200 kcal per day on average. And still losing weight, slowly (around 3lbs the past 4 months). Surprisingly, really, since I've just been very hungry and eating more than I 'should' (according to MFP and my fitness tracker).
Granted, I don't know what your exercise is those 5 times a week, nor how active you are outside exercise (I work out nearly daily and get a fair amount of steps in on top of that. But you're taller than me, so your calorie goal strikes me as low. I think a maintenance break or some reverse dieting might be in order.
Also, I'm wondering if your goal is appropriate? What is the reasoning behind the number you're trying to reach? If you're trying to get back to a weight you were when you were younger, it might not be appropriate. You might already be leaner than then (more muscle due to exercise) - I know that certainly is the case for me at my current weight. Trying to be too lean can certainly push hunger hormones higher too.3 -
YES! Add a few inches of height and pounds and I'm exactly where you are!! It's frustrating and my first knee-jerk reaction is to further limit my calories. BAD IDEA.
Then my evil twin on the other shoulder keeps telling me 'why bother if it's this hard?' Been hard keeping that evil twin quiet, I tell ya! 
I'm 5'9", currently weigh 145(bounced from 144-146.5 the past 3 weeks). I know in my brain 145 is great for me but the other part of me really wants to see 140. And I truly am not sure why.
I would keep doing what you're doing because it sounds like you're following MFP guidelines and eating healthy. At least I assume you are because you state trying to hit protein goals, so I assume your eating habits, in general, are pretty healthy. And yes, sadly, our weight loss does slow wayyyy down as we near our goals. Maybe it's our body's way of saying 'whoa, slow down, stay healthy!'
Good luck and stay patient!!3 -
YES! Add a few inches of height and pounds and I'm exactly where you are!! It's frustrating and my first knee-jerk reaction is to further limit my calories. BAD IDEA. Then my evil twin on the other shoulder keeps telling me 'why bother if it's this hard?' Been hard keeping that evil twin quiet, I tell ya!
I'm 5'9", currently weigh 145(bounced from 144-146.5 the past 3 weeks). I know in my brain 145 is great for me but the other part of me really wants to see 140. And I truly am not sure why.
I would keep doing what you're doing because it sounds like you're following MFP guidelines and eating healthy. At least I assume you are because you state trying to hit protein goals, so I assume your eating habits, in general, are pretty healthy. And yes, sadly, our weight loss does slow wayyyy down as we near our goals. Maybe it's our body's way of saying 'whoa, slow down, stay healthy!'
Good luck and stay patient!!
Yeah Mfp guidline for 1/2 pound per week is 1,425. I have the evil twin as well. Like why bother anymore if it's hard. I think my body. It may be set in it's ways a bit. Like It's saying to me. I can't possibly let you get that low. Even tho it's only 5 pounds to lose haha. It's really hard at times. Rarely had these problems losing my first 36 pounds... After that it's been weirdly difficult. Even -250 perday, which is a very small deficit.0 -
I just came from a diet break. That lasted for 18days. My deficit is as small. As Dealable for results (-250) per day. Mfp give me 1,420 to eat. True, Sometimes carbs are more satisfying. Potatoes are very filling yep. I exercise as in.. I do 30 min of body weight training 4x per week. Then I walk 2-3 times per week. Each one of them being 1-1.5 hour. Idk what the expenditure is really at all. I log my 30 min workouts as 100-150 calories burned. As for my walk, I get the calories from a step app. which usually say I burn 100-150. During my walks, it vary with how fast i walk from time to time. Hmm.. Maybe I won't aim for a deficit everyday. It's going to take long any way. So I should get comfortable..A deliberate extended break at maintenance might help.
Hungry all the time, feeling cold, feeling lethargic can all be signs people need a diet break.
"Even on days My protein is at 90" - protein isn't universally the most satiating. Starchy carbs are my most satiating macro and that's not unusual as mashed potato often tops the lists of most satiating foods. Those lists tend to have items that are mainly carbs, mainly fat or mainly protein. Experimentation is required to find your best combination.
"More info I'm 5'7 and I eat 1,400-1560 calories perday. I exercise five times per week" - that sounds a very low level. How do you account for your exercise expenditure? Have you experimented with a smaller deficit?
How do I lose weight when already light?
Either very slowly or I do on/off dieting - sometimes a combination of the two.
Can be just picking odd days to have a significant deficit and rest of my days at or around maintenance or one or two weeks dieting / one or two weeks maintaining works well for me.
The one thing I never do is aim for an everyday deficit as that kills my motivation and energy levels. Unlike most people I eat a lot more maintaining and slim than I did before I lost weight as both my activity and exercise levels are much higher now.
Personally I don't find it harder but I have no ambitions to be ultra lean and taking a reasonable deficit from a high food allowance is a lot easier to put up with.0 -
I'm currently more or less where you are: those 'last few lbs'. I'm 5ft5 and around 133lbs. And I'm eating a lot more than you. Around 2200 kcal per day on average. And still losing weight, slowly (around 3lbs the past 4 months). Surprisingly, really, since I've just been very hungry and eating more than I 'should' (according to MFP and my fitness tracker).
Granted, I don't know what your exercise is those 5 times a week, nor how active you are outside exercise (I work out nearly daily and get a fair amount of steps in on top of that. But you're taller than me, so your calorie goal strikes me as low. I think a maintenance break or some reverse dieting might be in order.
Also, I'm wondering if your goal is appropriate? What is the reasoning behind the number you're trying to reach? If you're trying to get back to a weight you were when you were younger, it might not be appropriate. You might already be leaner than then (more muscle due to exercise) - I know that certainly is the case for me at my current weight. Trying to be too lean can certainly push hunger hormones higher too.
I'm not sure how active. That I am either.. Besides walking 2-3 times perweek. Working out 4x perday.
I am off my feet and sitting most time. I don't think I'm that active. Mfp say my maintenance is 1,670 without exercise. Idk much more beyond that. Activity trackers are not always right. If I were to take a wild guess.. Daily I'm burning 1,770-1,820 perday. It's just a guess and I am not sure.. The number I'm trying to reach is 131. Trying to get back there. To lose the fat I gain. Over the past few months. I was already in plenty of breaks. Just I gained 5..I easily got down to the 131 in january. Now this time is proven harder.0 -
How fast did you lose that first good-sized increment? Losing relatively fast reportedly can contribute to more snap-back hunger in the longer run, as well as potentially depressing calorie expenditure somewhat through adaptive thermogenesis. (At 5'5", I'd lose at your current calorie intake, even without exercise.)
You're also striving to be on the thin side for your height (BMI 21-ish), though not underweight. (I prefer to be BMI 20-21 myself, so that's not a dig, just a comment.) Without knowing your body composition, I don't have an opinion about whether that could be part of the hunger issue or not.
Have you noticed any particular patterns around your hunger, especially with respect to time of day, sleep quality/quantity, stress levels, timing around exercise of particular types (day of or day after), etc.?
FWIW: I didn't experience what you're experiencing, as a generality. I did have some short bouts of increased hunger at times along the way during loss or maintenance, but so far have been able to problem-solve my way through them without major slowdowns/backsliding. That may just be luck, honestly.
I started losing weight at 183 pounds (just over the line into class 1 obese for my 5'5" height), lost down to the 120s in just under a year (intentionally slowing the rate as goal weight got closer). I didn't join MFP until mid-150s pounds, which is pretty close to where you started BMI-wise (26.x). I've been in maintenance for 6+ years since, up and down a bit, currently in upper 120s. I'd estimate I'm around 25% body fat right now, maybe a bit below, so I'm not what I'd call lean.
I can't say why that's been my experience, but it was different from yours.
I'd only lost a lot of weight once before in my life, decades earlier. That time, I think there was more adaptive thermogenesis. (I started feeling cold all the time back then, for example. This time, I didn't.)1 -
How fast did you lose that first good-sized increment? Losing relatively fast reportedly can contribute to more snap-back hunger in the longer run, as well as potentially depressing calorie expenditure somewhat through adaptive thermogenesis. (At 5'5", I'd lose at your current calorie intake, even without exercise.)
You're also striving to be on the thin side for your height (BMI 21-ish), though not underweight. (I prefer to be BMI 20-21 myself, so that's not a dig, just a comment.) Without knowing your body composition, I don't have an opinion about whether that could be part of the hunger issue or not.
Have you noticed any particular patterns around your hunger, especially with respect to time of day, sleep quality/quantity, stress levels, timing around exercise of particular types (day of or day after), etc.?
FWIW: I didn't experience what you're experiencing, as a generality. I did have some short bouts of increased hunger at times along the way during loss or maintenance, but so far have been able to problem-solve my way through them without major slowdowns/backsliding. That may just be luck, honestly.
I started losing weight at 183 pounds (just over the line into class 1 obese for my 5'5" height), lost down to the 120s in just under a year (intentionally slowing the rate as goal weight got closer). I didn't join MFP until mid-150s pounds, which is pretty close to where you started BMI-wise (26.x). I've been in maintenance for 6+ years since, up and down a bit, currently in upper 120s. I'd estimate I'm around 25% body fat right now, maybe a bit below, so I'm not what I'd call lean.
I can't say why that's been my experience, but it was different from yours.
I'd only lost a lot of weight once before in my life, decades earlier. That time, I think there was more adaptive thermogenesis. (I started feeling cold all the time back then, for example. This time, I didn't.)
The first 27 pounds I was eating 1,100-1,675 to lose. Then the next 9pounds I ate 1,400-1,545 Most days.Then regained 5 pounds back. Which I'm trying to lose now. Idk what my Bf% is really. My scale say 25% but idk to trust that completely. It maybe fairly close to accurate. I've notice when I haven't had enough sleep or more stress I feel way more hungry than usual. Like I'll be craving a lot sugar. then after I deal my cravings. I'm hungry for actual food. So I go over my goal. It wasn't this hard before. When I got down to 131 the first time. Which was back in january.. So I'm just as confused..1 -
Lullaby2021 wrote: »How fast did you lose that first good-sized increment? Losing relatively fast reportedly can contribute to more snap-back hunger in the longer run, as well as potentially depressing calorie expenditure somewhat through adaptive thermogenesis. (At 5'5", I'd lose at your current calorie intake, even without exercise.)
You're also striving to be on the thin side for your height (BMI 21-ish), though not underweight. (I prefer to be BMI 20-21 myself, so that's not a dig, just a comment.) Without knowing your body composition, I don't have an opinion about whether that could be part of the hunger issue or not.
Have you noticed any particular patterns around your hunger, especially with respect to time of day, sleep quality/quantity, stress levels, timing around exercise of particular types (day of or day after), etc.?
FWIW: I didn't experience what you're experiencing, as a generality. I did have some short bouts of increased hunger at times along the way during loss or maintenance, but so far have been able to problem-solve my way through them without major slowdowns/backsliding. That may just be luck, honestly.
I started losing weight at 183 pounds (just over the line into class 1 obese for my 5'5" height), lost down to the 120s in just under a year (intentionally slowing the rate as goal weight got closer). I didn't join MFP until mid-150s pounds, which is pretty close to where you started BMI-wise (26.x). I've been in maintenance for 6+ years since, up and down a bit, currently in upper 120s. I'd estimate I'm around 25% body fat right now, maybe a bit below, so I'm not what I'd call lean.
I can't say why that's been my experience, but it was different from yours.
I'd only lost a lot of weight once before in my life, decades earlier. That time, I think there was more adaptive thermogenesis. (I started feeling cold all the time back then, for example. This time, I didn't.)
The first 27 pounds I was eating 1,100-1,675 to lose. Then the next 9pounds I ate 1,400-1,545 Most days.Then regained 5 pounds back. Which I'm trying to lose now. Idk what my Bf% is really. My scale say 25% but idk to trust that completely. It maybe fairly close to accurate. I've notice when I haven't had enough sleep or more stress I feel way more hungry than usual. Like I'll be craving a lot sugar. then after I deal my cravings. I'm hungry for actual food. So I go over my goal. It wasn't this hard before. When I got down to 131 the first time. Which was back in january.. So I'm just as confused..
"How fast" was the question, i.e., how long did the first 27 pounds take, and the next 9? You don't have to answer that, but I'd asked it that way because that sheds more light on what effective deficit was, than calorie intake does. (MFP and other calculators tend to be way off, for me, hundreds of calories off, so I tend to think in terms of loss rate, not simply someone else's calories and size. Bodies are individual.)
Losing as fast or faster than 0.5-1% of then-current weight per week might be considered fast, maybe more toward the 1% could be OK if like 50 pounds or so to lose, for sure more like 0.5% or below during the last 10-20 pounds before goal. From what I've read, fast loss is more likely to correlate with later hunger/craving issues.
If you've noticed sleep/stress correlations, I hope the implication is that you've been working on improving sleep quality/quantity as much as practical, and on applying non-food stress management techniques if possible. If those are among root causes of cravings, then working on the root causes can be helpful, of course.
For me, sugar cravings abated after I started making it a point to get more fruit, like 3 servings daily. That doesn't help everyone, but I'm not the only person here who's reported that as helping.
To put a sharp point on it, the research I've seen (and individual's anecdotes here) suggest that dieting hard, dieting for a long time, and trying to get quite lean are all things that can potentially trigger more hunger, as the process goes on. The definitions of "hard", "long time" and "quite lean" that can do that each seem to vary in individual cases.
In one sense, the "why" doesn't matter, since we can't change the past. It may or may not suggest strategies going forward.
I'm not sure how to say this next bit diplomatically: The way you are writing about this, I'm - maybe incorrectly - reading you as feeling quite stressed about the current situation. (That would be understandable, if you are - not suggesting otherwise!)
If that's true, the problematic side of it is that stress itself can potentially increase water retention (via cortisol), and mask fat loss on the scale. In extreme cases - which I don't sense that you're at - this can create a spiral of "not losing - go harder - more physical/psychological stress - more water retention - more not losing - go harder . . . " etc.
Again, underscoring that I'm not suggesting you're at that extreme (in fact I think it's no probable at this point), this is a good article that explains what that might look like, in cases where it does happen:
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
I've got nothing, I'm sorry to say, in the "what to do about this" department, other than the generality of trying to break it down into sub-problems that can suggest some potential experiments to try, to improve the situation.
Hoping you can find some strategies to try . . . and sorry I can't be more helpful.
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Lullaby2021 wrote: »How fast did you lose that first good-sized increment? Losing relatively fast reportedly can contribute to more snap-back hunger in the longer run, as well as potentially depressing calorie expenditure somewhat through adaptive thermogenesis. (At 5'5", I'd lose at your current calorie intake, even without exercise.)
You're also striving to be on the thin side for your height (BMI 21-ish), though not underweight. (I prefer to be BMI 20-21 myself, so that's not a dig, just a comment.) Without knowing your body composition, I don't have an opinion about whether that could be part of the hunger issue or not.
Have you noticed any particular patterns around your hunger, especially with respect to time of day, sleep quality/quantity, stress levels, timing around exercise of particular types (day of or day after), etc.?
FWIW: I didn't experience what you're experiencing, as a generality. I did have some short bouts of increased hunger at times along the way during loss or maintenance, but so far have been able to problem-solve my way through them without major slowdowns/backsliding. That may just be luck, honestly.
I started losing weight at 183 pounds (just over the line into class 1 obese for my 5'5" height), lost down to the 120s in just under a year (intentionally slowing the rate as goal weight got closer). I didn't join MFP until mid-150s pounds, which is pretty close to where you started BMI-wise (26.x). I've been in maintenance for 6+ years since, up and down a bit, currently in upper 120s. I'd estimate I'm around 25% body fat right now, maybe a bit below, so I'm not what I'd call lean.
I can't say why that's been my experience, but it was different from yours.
I'd only lost a lot of weight once before in my life, decades earlier. That time, I think there was more adaptive thermogenesis. (I started feeling cold all the time back then, for example. This time, I didn't.)
The first 27 pounds I was eating 1,100-1,675 to lose. Then the next 9pounds I ate 1,400-1,545 Most days.Then regained 5 pounds back. Which I'm trying to lose now. Idk what my Bf% is really. My scale say 25% but idk to trust that completely. It maybe fairly close to accurate. I've notice when I haven't had enough sleep or more stress I feel way more hungry than usual. Like I'll be craving a lot sugar. then after I deal my cravings. I'm hungry for actual food. So I go over my goal. It wasn't this hard before. When I got down to 131 the first time. Which was back in january.. So I'm just as confused..
"How fast" was the question, i.e., how long did the first 27 pounds take, and the next 9? You don't have to answer that, but I'd asked it that way because that sheds more light on what effective deficit was, than calorie intake does. (MFP and other calculators tend to be way off, for me, hundreds of calories off, so I tend to think in terms of loss rate, not simply someone else's calories and size. Bodies are individual.)
Losing as fast or faster than 0.5-1% of then-current weight per week might be considered fast, maybe more toward the 1% could be OK if like 50 pounds or so to lose, for sure more like 0.5% or below during the last 10-20 pounds before goal. From what I've read, fast loss is more likely to correlate with later hunger/craving issues.
If you've noticed sleep/stress correlations, I hope the implication is that you've been working on improving sleep quality/quantity as much as practical, and on applying non-food stress management techniques if possible. If those are among root causes of cravings, then working on the root causes can be helpful, of course.
For me, sugar cravings abated after I started making it a point to get more fruit, like 3 servings daily. That doesn't help everyone, but I'm not the only person here who's reported that as helping.
To put a sharp point on it, the research I've seen (and individual's anecdotes here) suggest that dieting hard, dieting for a long time, and trying to get quite lean are all things that can potentially trigger more hunger, as the process goes on. The definitions of "hard", "long time" and "quite lean" that can do that each seem to vary in individual cases.
In one sense, the "why" doesn't matter, since we can't change the past. It may or may not suggest strategies going forward.
I'm not sure how to say this next bit diplomatically: The way you are writing about this, I'm - maybe incorrectly - reading you as feeling quite stressed about the current situation. (That would be understandable, if you are - not suggesting otherwise!)
If that's true, the problematic side of it is that stress itself can potentially increase water retention (via cortisol), and mask fat loss on the scale. In extreme cases - which I don't sense that you're at - this can create a spiral of "not losing - go harder - more physical/psychological stress - more water retention - more not losing - go harder . . . " etc.
Again, underscoring that I'm not suggesting you're at that extreme (in fact I think it's no probable at this point), this is a good article that explains what that might look like, in cases where it does happen:
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
I've got nothing, I'm sorry to say, in the "what to do about this" department, other than the generality of trying to break it down into sub-problems that can suggest some potential experiments to try, to improve the situation.
Hoping you can find some strategies to try . . . and sorry I can't be more helpful.Lullaby2021 wrote: »How fast did you lose that first good-sized increment? Losing relatively fast reportedly can contribute to more snap-back hunger in the longer run, as well as potentially depressing calorie expenditure somewhat through adaptive thermogenesis. (At 5'5", I'd lose at your current calorie intake, even without exercise.)
You're also striving to be on the thin side for your height (BMI 21-ish), though not underweight. (I prefer to be BMI 20-21 myself, so that's not a dig, just a comment.) Without knowing your body composition, I don't have an opinion about whether that could be part of the hunger issue or not.
Have you noticed any particular patterns around your hunger, especially with respect to time of day, sleep quality/quantity, stress levels, timing around exercise of particular types (day of or day after), etc.?
FWIW: I didn't experience what you're experiencing, as a generality. I did have some short bouts of increased hunger at times along the way during loss or maintenance, but so far have been able to problem-solve my way through them without major slowdowns/backsliding. That may just be luck, honestly.
I started losing weight at 183 pounds (just over the line into class 1 obese for my 5'5" height), lost down to the 120s in just under a year (intentionally slowing the rate as goal weight got closer). I didn't join MFP until mid-150s pounds, which is pretty close to where you started BMI-wise (26.x). I've been in maintenance for 6+ years since, up and down a bit, currently in upper 120s. I'd estimate I'm around 25% body fat right now, maybe a bit below, so I'm not what I'd call lean.
I can't say why that's been my experience, but it was different from yours.
I'd only lost a lot of weight once before in my life, decades earlier. That time, I think there was more adaptive thermogenesis. (I started feeling cold all the time back then, for example. This time, I didn't.)
The first 27 pounds I was eating 1,100-1,675 to lose. Then the next 9pounds I ate 1,400-1,545 Most days.Then regained 5 pounds back. Which I'm trying to lose now. Idk what my Bf% is really. My scale say 25% but idk to trust that completely. It maybe fairly close to accurate. I've notice when I haven't had enough sleep or more stress I feel way more hungry than usual. Like I'll be craving a lot sugar. then after I deal my cravings. I'm hungry for actual food. So I go over my goal. It wasn't this hard before. When I got down to 131 the first time. Which was back in january.. So I'm just as confused..
"How fast" was the question, i.e., how long did the first 27 pounds take, and the next 9? You don't have to answer that, but I'd asked it that way because that sheds more light on what effective deficit was, than calorie intake does. (MFP and other calculators tend to be way off, for me, hundreds of calories off, so I tend to think in terms of loss rate, not simply someone else's calories and size. Bodies are individual.)
Losing as fast or faster than 0.5-1% of then-current weight per week might be considered fast, maybe more toward the 1% could be OK if like 50 pounds or so to lose, for sure more like 0.5% or below during the last 10-20 pounds before goal. From what I've read, fast loss is more likely to correlate with later hunger/craving issues.
If you've noticed sleep/stress correlations, I hope the implication is that you've been working on improving sleep quality/quantity as much as practical, and on applying non-food stress management techniques if possible. If those are among root causes of cravings, then working on the root causes can be helpful, of course.
For me, sugar cravings abated after I started making it a point to get more fruit, like 3 servings daily. That doesn't help everyone, but I'm not the only person here who's reported that as helping.
To put a sharp point on it, the research I've seen (and individual's anecdotes here) suggest that dieting hard, dieting for a long time, and trying to get quite lean are all things that can potentially trigger more hunger, as the process goes on. The definitions of "hard", "long time" and "quite lean" that can do that each seem to vary in individual cases.
In one sense, the "why" doesn't matter, since we can't change the past. It may or may not suggest strategies going forward.
I'm not sure how to say this next bit diplomatically: The way you are writing about this, I'm - maybe incorrectly - reading you as feeling quite stressed about the current situation. (That would be understandable, if you are - not suggesting otherwise!)
If that's true, the problematic side of it is that stress itself can potentially increase water retention (via cortisol), and mask fat loss on the scale. In extreme cases - which I don't sense that you're at - this can create a spiral of "not losing - go harder - more physical/psychological stress - more water retention - more not losing - go harder . . . " etc.
Again, underscoring that I'm not suggesting you're at that extreme (in fact I think it's no probable at this point), this is a good article that explains what that might look like, in cases where it does happen:
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
I've got nothing, I'm sorry to say, in the "what to do about this" department, other than the generality of trying to break it down into sub-problems that can suggest some potential experiments to try, to improve the situation.
Hoping you can find some strategies to try . . . and sorry I can't be more helpful.
Oh sorry, To answer your question it took me 8.5 months to lose 27. Then it took me 3 months to lose 9 pounds.
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Lullaby2021 wrote: »Lullaby2021 wrote: »How fast did you lose that first good-sized increment? Losing relatively fast reportedly can contribute to more snap-back hunger in the longer run, as well as potentially depressing calorie expenditure somewhat through adaptive thermogenesis. (At 5'5", I'd lose at your current calorie intake, even without exercise.)
You're also striving to be on the thin side for your height (BMI 21-ish), though not underweight. (I prefer to be BMI 20-21 myself, so that's not a dig, just a comment.) Without knowing your body composition, I don't have an opinion about whether that could be part of the hunger issue or not.
Have you noticed any particular patterns around your hunger, especially with respect to time of day, sleep quality/quantity, stress levels, timing around exercise of particular types (day of or day after), etc.?
FWIW: I didn't experience what you're experiencing, as a generality. I did have some short bouts of increased hunger at times along the way during loss or maintenance, but so far have been able to problem-solve my way through them without major slowdowns/backsliding. That may just be luck, honestly.
I started losing weight at 183 pounds (just over the line into class 1 obese for my 5'5" height), lost down to the 120s in just under a year (intentionally slowing the rate as goal weight got closer). I didn't join MFP until mid-150s pounds, which is pretty close to where you started BMI-wise (26.x). I've been in maintenance for 6+ years since, up and down a bit, currently in upper 120s. I'd estimate I'm around 25% body fat right now, maybe a bit below, so I'm not what I'd call lean.
I can't say why that's been my experience, but it was different from yours.
I'd only lost a lot of weight once before in my life, decades earlier. That time, I think there was more adaptive thermogenesis. (I started feeling cold all the time back then, for example. This time, I didn't.)
The first 27 pounds I was eating 1,100-1,675 to lose. Then the next 9pounds I ate 1,400-1,545 Most days.Then regained 5 pounds back. Which I'm trying to lose now. Idk what my Bf% is really. My scale say 25% but idk to trust that completely. It maybe fairly close to accurate. I've notice when I haven't had enough sleep or more stress I feel way more hungry than usual. Like I'll be craving a lot sugar. then after I deal my cravings. I'm hungry for actual food. So I go over my goal. It wasn't this hard before. When I got down to 131 the first time. Which was back in january.. So I'm just as confused..
"How fast" was the question, i.e., how long did the first 27 pounds take, and the next 9? You don't have to answer that, but I'd asked it that way because that sheds more light on what effective deficit was, than calorie intake does. (MFP and other calculators tend to be way off, for me, hundreds of calories off, so I tend to think in terms of loss rate, not simply someone else's calories and size. Bodies are individual.)
Losing as fast or faster than 0.5-1% of then-current weight per week might be considered fast, maybe more toward the 1% could be OK if like 50 pounds or so to lose, for sure more like 0.5% or below during the last 10-20 pounds before goal. From what I've read, fast loss is more likely to correlate with later hunger/craving issues.
If you've noticed sleep/stress correlations, I hope the implication is that you've been working on improving sleep quality/quantity as much as practical, and on applying non-food stress management techniques if possible. If those are among root causes of cravings, then working on the root causes can be helpful, of course.
For me, sugar cravings abated after I started making it a point to get more fruit, like 3 servings daily. That doesn't help everyone, but I'm not the only person here who's reported that as helping.
To put a sharp point on it, the research I've seen (and individual's anecdotes here) suggest that dieting hard, dieting for a long time, and trying to get quite lean are all things that can potentially trigger more hunger, as the process goes on. The definitions of "hard", "long time" and "quite lean" that can do that each seem to vary in individual cases.
In one sense, the "why" doesn't matter, since we can't change the past. It may or may not suggest strategies going forward.
I'm not sure how to say this next bit diplomatically: The way you are writing about this, I'm - maybe incorrectly - reading you as feeling quite stressed about the current situation. (That would be understandable, if you are - not suggesting otherwise!)
If that's true, the problematic side of it is that stress itself can potentially increase water retention (via cortisol), and mask fat loss on the scale. In extreme cases - which I don't sense that you're at - this can create a spiral of "not losing - go harder - more physical/psychological stress - more water retention - more not losing - go harder . . . " etc.
Again, underscoring that I'm not suggesting you're at that extreme (in fact I think it's no probable at this point), this is a good article that explains what that might look like, in cases where it does happen:
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
I've got nothing, I'm sorry to say, in the "what to do about this" department, other than the generality of trying to break it down into sub-problems that can suggest some potential experiments to try, to improve the situation.
Hoping you can find some strategies to try . . . and sorry I can't be more helpful.Lullaby2021 wrote: »How fast did you lose that first good-sized increment? Losing relatively fast reportedly can contribute to more snap-back hunger in the longer run, as well as potentially depressing calorie expenditure somewhat through adaptive thermogenesis. (At 5'5", I'd lose at your current calorie intake, even without exercise.)
You're also striving to be on the thin side for your height (BMI 21-ish), though not underweight. (I prefer to be BMI 20-21 myself, so that's not a dig, just a comment.) Without knowing your body composition, I don't have an opinion about whether that could be part of the hunger issue or not.
Have you noticed any particular patterns around your hunger, especially with respect to time of day, sleep quality/quantity, stress levels, timing around exercise of particular types (day of or day after), etc.?
FWIW: I didn't experience what you're experiencing, as a generality. I did have some short bouts of increased hunger at times along the way during loss or maintenance, but so far have been able to problem-solve my way through them without major slowdowns/backsliding. That may just be luck, honestly.
I started losing weight at 183 pounds (just over the line into class 1 obese for my 5'5" height), lost down to the 120s in just under a year (intentionally slowing the rate as goal weight got closer). I didn't join MFP until mid-150s pounds, which is pretty close to where you started BMI-wise (26.x). I've been in maintenance for 6+ years since, up and down a bit, currently in upper 120s. I'd estimate I'm around 25% body fat right now, maybe a bit below, so I'm not what I'd call lean.
I can't say why that's been my experience, but it was different from yours.
I'd only lost a lot of weight once before in my life, decades earlier. That time, I think there was more adaptive thermogenesis. (I started feeling cold all the time back then, for example. This time, I didn't.)
The first 27 pounds I was eating 1,100-1,675 to lose. Then the next 9pounds I ate 1,400-1,545 Most days.Then regained 5 pounds back. Which I'm trying to lose now. Idk what my Bf% is really. My scale say 25% but idk to trust that completely. It maybe fairly close to accurate. I've notice when I haven't had enough sleep or more stress I feel way more hungry than usual. Like I'll be craving a lot sugar. then after I deal my cravings. I'm hungry for actual food. So I go over my goal. It wasn't this hard before. When I got down to 131 the first time. Which was back in january.. So I'm just as confused..
"How fast" was the question, i.e., how long did the first 27 pounds take, and the next 9? You don't have to answer that, but I'd asked it that way because that sheds more light on what effective deficit was, than calorie intake does. (MFP and other calculators tend to be way off, for me, hundreds of calories off, so I tend to think in terms of loss rate, not simply someone else's calories and size. Bodies are individual.)
Losing as fast or faster than 0.5-1% of then-current weight per week might be considered fast, maybe more toward the 1% could be OK if like 50 pounds or so to lose, for sure more like 0.5% or below during the last 10-20 pounds before goal. From what I've read, fast loss is more likely to correlate with later hunger/craving issues.
If you've noticed sleep/stress correlations, I hope the implication is that you've been working on improving sleep quality/quantity as much as practical, and on applying non-food stress management techniques if possible. If those are among root causes of cravings, then working on the root causes can be helpful, of course.
For me, sugar cravings abated after I started making it a point to get more fruit, like 3 servings daily. That doesn't help everyone, but I'm not the only person here who's reported that as helping.
To put a sharp point on it, the research I've seen (and individual's anecdotes here) suggest that dieting hard, dieting for a long time, and trying to get quite lean are all things that can potentially trigger more hunger, as the process goes on. The definitions of "hard", "long time" and "quite lean" that can do that each seem to vary in individual cases.
In one sense, the "why" doesn't matter, since we can't change the past. It may or may not suggest strategies going forward.
I'm not sure how to say this next bit diplomatically: The way you are writing about this, I'm - maybe incorrectly - reading you as feeling quite stressed about the current situation. (That would be understandable, if you are - not suggesting otherwise!)
If that's true, the problematic side of it is that stress itself can potentially increase water retention (via cortisol), and mask fat loss on the scale. In extreme cases - which I don't sense that you're at - this can create a spiral of "not losing - go harder - more physical/psychological stress - more water retention - more not losing - go harder . . . " etc.
Again, underscoring that I'm not suggesting you're at that extreme (in fact I think it's no probable at this point), this is a good article that explains what that might look like, in cases where it does happen:
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
I've got nothing, I'm sorry to say, in the "what to do about this" department, other than the generality of trying to break it down into sub-problems that can suggest some potential experiments to try, to improve the situation.
Hoping you can find some strategies to try . . . and sorry I can't be more helpful.
Oh sorry, To answer your question it took me 8.5 months to lose 27. Then it took me 3 months to lose 9 pounds.
Not really excessively fast, then, as a general thing. While (as I said) details are individual, that makes speed seem like an unlikely contributor to the problem, in your case.
Hmmm.1 -
Thanks everyone that try to help : ). I learned a Few things. With this post I'll correct some of the problems. That I have like with stress less and sleep more. Make sure I'm eating enough. Also not having a high expectancy of losing certain pounds. Of Wl which increase stress also.Lullaby2021 wrote: »Lullaby2021 wrote: »How fast did you lose that first good-sized increment? Losing relatively fast reportedly can contribute to more snap-back hunger in the longer run, as well as potentially depressing calorie expenditure somewhat through adaptive thermogenesis. (At 5'5", I'd lose at your current calorie intake, even without exercise.)
You're also striving to be on the thin side for your height (BMI 21-ish), though not underweight. (I prefer to be BMI 20-21 myself, so that's not a dig, just a comment.) Without knowing your body composition, I don't have an opinion about whether that could be part of the hunger issue or not.
Have you noticed any particular patterns around your hunger, especially with respect to time of day, sleep quality/quantity, stress levels, timing around exercise of particular types (day of or day after), etc.?
FWIW: I didn't experience what you're experiencing, as a generality. I did have some short bouts of increased hunger at times along the way during loss or maintenance, but so far have been able to problem-solve my way through them without major slowdowns/backsliding. That may just be luck, honestly.
I started losing weight at 183 pounds (just over the line into class 1 obese for my 5'5" height), lost down to the 120s in just under a year (intentionally slowing the rate as goal weight got closer). I didn't join MFP until mid-150s pounds, which is pretty close to where you started BMI-wise (26.x). I've been in maintenance for 6+ years since, up and down a bit, currently in upper 120s. I'd estimate I'm around 25% body fat right now, maybe a bit below, so I'm not what I'd call lean.
I can't say why that's been my experience, but it was different from yours.
I'd only lost a lot of weight once before in my life, decades earlier. That time, I think there was more adaptive thermogenesis. (I started feeling cold all the time back then, for example. This time, I didn't.)
The first 27 pounds I was eating 1,100-1,675 to lose. Then the next 9pounds I ate 1,400-1,545 Most days.Then regained 5 pounds back. Which I'm trying to lose now. Idk what my Bf% is really. My scale say 25% but idk to trust that completely. It maybe fairly close to accurate. I've notice when I haven't had enough sleep or more stress I feel way more hungry than usual. Like I'll be craving a lot sugar. then after I deal my cravings. I'm hungry for actual food. So I go over my goal. It wasn't this hard before. When I got down to 131 the first time. Which was back in january.. So I'm just as confused..
"How fast" was the question, i.e., how long did the first 27 pounds take, and the next 9? You don't have to answer that, but I'd asked it that way because that sheds more light on what effective deficit was, than calorie intake does. (MFP and other calculators tend to be way off, for me, hundreds of calories off, so I tend to think in terms of loss rate, not simply someone else's calories and size. Bodies are individual.)
Losing as fast or faster than 0.5-1% of then-current weight per week might be considered fast, maybe more toward the 1% could be OK if like 50 pounds or so to lose, for sure more like 0.5% or below during the last 10-20 pounds before goal. From what I've read, fast loss is more likely to correlate with later hunger/craving issues.
If you've noticed sleep/stress correlations, I hope the implication is that you've been working on improving sleep quality/quantity as much as practical, and on applying non-food stress management techniques if possible. If those are among root causes of cravings, then working on the root causes can be helpful, of course.
For me, sugar cravings abated after I started making it a point to get more fruit, like 3 servings daily. That doesn't help everyone, but I'm not the only person here who's reported that as helping.
To put a sharp point on it, the research I've seen (and individual's anecdotes here) suggest that dieting hard, dieting for a long time, and trying to get quite lean are all things that can potentially trigger more hunger, as the process goes on. The definitions of "hard", "long time" and "quite lean" that can do that each seem to vary in individual cases.
In one sense, the "why" doesn't matter, since we can't change the past. It may or may not suggest strategies going forward.
I'm not sure how to say this next bit diplomatically: The way you are writing about this, I'm - maybe incorrectly - reading you as feeling quite stressed about the current situation. (That would be understandable, if you are - not suggesting otherwise!)
If that's true, the problematic side of it is that stress itself can potentially increase water retention (via cortisol), and mask fat loss on the scale. In extreme cases - which I don't sense that you're at - this can create a spiral of "not losing - go harder - more physical/psychological stress - more water retention - more not losing - go harder . . . " etc.
Again, underscoring that I'm not suggesting you're at that extreme (in fact I think it's no probable at this point), this is a good article that explains what that might look like, in cases where it does happen:
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
I've got nothing, I'm sorry to say, in the "what to do about this" department, other than the generality of trying to break it down into sub-problems that can suggest some potential experiments to try, to improve the situation.
Hoping you can find some strategies to try . . . and sorry I can't be more helpful.Lullaby2021 wrote: »How fast did you lose that first good-sized increment? Losing relatively fast reportedly can contribute to more snap-back hunger in the longer run, as well as potentially depressing calorie expenditure somewhat through adaptive thermogenesis. (At 5'5", I'd lose at your current calorie intake, even without exercise.)
You're also striving to be on the thin side for your height (BMI 21-ish), though not underweight. (I prefer to be BMI 20-21 myself, so that's not a dig, just a comment.) Without knowing your body composition, I don't have an opinion about whether that could be part of the hunger issue or not.
Have you noticed any particular patterns around your hunger, especially with respect to time of day, sleep quality/quantity, stress levels, timing around exercise of particular types (day of or day after), etc.?
FWIW: I didn't experience what you're experiencing, as a generality. I did have some short bouts of increased hunger at times along the way during loss or maintenance, but so far have been able to problem-solve my way through them without major slowdowns/backsliding. That may just be luck, honestly.
I started losing weight at 183 pounds (just over the line into class 1 obese for my 5'5" height), lost down to the 120s in just under a year (intentionally slowing the rate as goal weight got closer). I didn't join MFP until mid-150s pounds, which is pretty close to where you started BMI-wise (26.x). I've been in maintenance for 6+ years since, up and down a bit, currently in upper 120s. I'd estimate I'm around 25% body fat right now, maybe a bit below, so I'm not what I'd call lean.
I can't say why that's been my experience, but it was different from yours.
I'd only lost a lot of weight once before in my life, decades earlier. That time, I think there was more adaptive thermogenesis. (I started feeling cold all the time back then, for example. This time, I didn't.)
The first 27 pounds I was eating 1,100-1,675 to lose. Then the next 9pounds I ate 1,400-1,545 Most days.Then regained 5 pounds back. Which I'm trying to lose now. Idk what my Bf% is really. My scale say 25% but idk to trust that completely. It maybe fairly close to accurate. I've notice when I haven't had enough sleep or more stress I feel way more hungry than usual. Like I'll be craving a lot sugar. then after I deal my cravings. I'm hungry for actual food. So I go over my goal. It wasn't this hard before. When I got down to 131 the first time. Which was back in january.. So I'm just as confused..
"How fast" was the question, i.e., how long did the first 27 pounds take, and the next 9? You don't have to answer that, but I'd asked it that way because that sheds more light on what effective deficit was, than calorie intake does. (MFP and other calculators tend to be way off, for me, hundreds of calories off, so I tend to think in terms of loss rate, not simply someone else's calories and size. Bodies are individual.)
Losing as fast or faster than 0.5-1% of then-current weight per week might be considered fast, maybe more toward the 1% could be OK if like 50 pounds or so to lose, for sure more like 0.5% or below during the last 10-20 pounds before goal. From what I've read, fast loss is more likely to correlate with later hunger/craving issues.
If you've noticed sleep/stress correlations, I hope the implication is that you've been working on improving sleep quality/quantity as much as practical, and on applying non-food stress management techniques if possible. If those are among root causes of cravings, then working on the root causes can be helpful, of course.
For me, sugar cravings abated after I started making it a point to get more fruit, like 3 servings daily. That doesn't help everyone, but I'm not the only person here who's reported that as helping.
To put a sharp point on it, the research I've seen (and individual's anecdotes here) suggest that dieting hard, dieting for a long time, and trying to get quite lean are all things that can potentially trigger more hunger, as the process goes on. The definitions of "hard", "long time" and "quite lean" that can do that each seem to vary in individual cases.
In one sense, the "why" doesn't matter, since we can't change the past. It may or may not suggest strategies going forward.
I'm not sure how to say this next bit diplomatically: The way you are writing about this, I'm - maybe incorrectly - reading you as feeling quite stressed about the current situation. (That would be understandable, if you are - not suggesting otherwise!)
If that's true, the problematic side of it is that stress itself can potentially increase water retention (via cortisol), and mask fat loss on the scale. In extreme cases - which I don't sense that you're at - this can create a spiral of "not losing - go harder - more physical/psychological stress - more water retention - more not losing - go harder . . . " etc.
Again, underscoring that I'm not suggesting you're at that extreme (in fact I think it's no probable at this point), this is a good article that explains what that might look like, in cases where it does happen:
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
I've got nothing, I'm sorry to say, in the "what to do about this" department, other than the generality of trying to break it down into sub-problems that can suggest some potential experiments to try, to improve the situation.
Hoping you can find some strategies to try . . . and sorry I can't be more helpful.
Oh sorry, To answer your question it took me 8.5 months to lose 27. Then it took me 3 months to lose 9 pounds.
Not really excessively fast, then, as a general thing. While (as I said) details are individual, that makes speed seem like an unlikely contributor to the problem, in your case.
Hmmm.
Thank you : )1 -
Thanks everyone that try to help : ). I learned a Few things. With this post I'll correct some of the problems. That I have like with stress less and sleep more. Make sure I'm eating enough. Also not having a high expectancy of losing certain pounds. Of Wl which increase stress also. Thank you everyone, I think I have my answers : )0
-
Indeed. My first 10kg went surprisingly easily and quickly once I got into the routine of dieting. The 2nd 10kg is going much slower and is fighting a lot harder to stay.
There's a great Youtube video on this subject called "Does Dieting Actually Get Harder When You Are Leaner?" Essentially your body works harder to hold onto each pound the more you lose because each pound represents a higher percentage of your overall body fat.2 -
SpaghettiandSauce wrote: »Indeed. My first 10kg went surprisingly easily and quickly once I got into the routine of dieting. The 2nd 10kg is going much slower and is fighting a lot harder to stay.
There's a great Youtube video on this subject called "Does Dieting Actually Get Harder When You Are Leaner?" Essentially your body works harder to hold onto each pound the more you lose because each pound represents a higher percentage of your overall body fat.
Going to look into the video. I thought it was just me.0 -
You are well within the healthy BMI range for your height. When you're heavier you have excess fat stores available so weight loss can come relatively easily. At a healthy BMI you do not have excess fat stores available...you have normal amounts of fat.
Biologically speaking, being super lean is not something the human body wants to be and it's a relatively new phenomena for humans to try to achieve it. Having some fat is protective and from an evolutionary standpoint something beneficial in regards to food scarcity. When you're already relatively lean, your body is going to fight against becoming leaner with hormonal changes (hunger is driven by hormones) amongst other things.
This is also often the point where most people really need to look at body composition. A lot of people think they need to continue to diet and cut more weight to look a certain way when in reality to achieve the look they're wanting they need to work more on body composition rather than being some specific weight.3 -
At 5’7” I got as low as 127.
I thought I “needed” to get back to my wedding day weight of 125. That was my ideal.
It took a caring trainer staying on my *kitten* to finally get me to see it was too too low. Even my husband was afraid to say anything. Apparently I had developed a (worse than usual) bark and bite.
I’m maintaining at 135 now, yet the wedding dress I wore at 125 fits comfortably, even loosely.
Our bodies change, even though our perceptions don’t. What may have been a great weight X number of years ago may not be now, due to age, childbirth, or any number of factors.
The weight you may be seeking in your head just may not be the appropriate weight for you any longer.
Have you considered recomp?4
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