Is it normal to be starving at night? Still figuring out maintenance calories

Going to bed hungry can be hard psychologically and after a while can feel like torture. Maintenance should be about recovery and getting back to normal and if you’re hungry it might mean you need to eat more. (You could also be dehydrated).

One thing I’ve been doing for a long time is having a high protein snack before bed. My usual go-to has been a serving of chicken bone broth, collagen peptides and a serving of Greek yogurt. That’s about 40g of protein and about 200 calories. I budget for them through out the day. I’m currently in a fat-lose phase so I’m eating about 1700-1800 while running and lifting weights. But I’m not hungry before bed and the casein protein from the yogurt is slower digesting protein which means it stays in my system longer which gives me a benefit as I sleep and recover from weight lifting. Plus it keeps me from eating my pillow when I wake up .

Just a suggestion that might work for you as it’s worked for me. Try either adding that snack in as part of your existing calorie budget or adding them on top of what your taking in. Give it about two weeks and see how the scale responds. If you start gaining then you can back off. But if your still maintaining then you’re golden. Hope this helps. Sorry if it was too wordy.

If you're on what some calculator (including MFP) or fitness tracker tells you is maintenance calories, it may or may not be your personal, individualized maintenance calories. If your weight is stable** over multiple weeks to multiple months, you're at maintenance calories - that's really the way to know, because calculators/trackers just spit out population averages for similar people, and you're an individual.

** Stable weight = meandering randomly up and down through the same small number of pounds day to day over a long time period, not one single exact weight.

That said, hunger isn't necessarily a good guide. Other things also affect hunger. Sub-par nutrition can trigger appetite. Specific food choices can trigger appetite, and which foods are most sating varies by individual. For some people, food timing matters for appetite/satiation. Poor sleep quality/quantity can trigger appetite, as can high stress. Some people find that certain types of exercise trigger higher appetite.

soldodunja81 wrote: »

Hi there so I am on maintenance calories and the fitness app sais they should be 1600-1800 for moderately active.. however at night after I’ve eaten these calories I’m literally starving I am just wondering should I go to bed hungry? I feel ok and not starving if I eat … 2000… I work out a few days a week . I do think I have a fast metabolism because I lost weight eating 1600 1200 definitely to low for me .. is it safe to raise my maintenance calories? Should I follow my hunger ?

If you lost weight at 1600, then 1600-1800 can't really be maintenance (at least not the lower end). I think your own experience is showing that you can eat more to maintain, so try upping it a bit to avoid going to bed hungry.