Hunger - a good sign?

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gashinshotan
gashinshotan Posts: 753 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
When I'm hungry and I ate all my calories for the day I know its my metabolism burning calories... and I kinda like it. I'm eating around 1600 cals a day with a TON of cheat days (at least two a week for the past month) and it seems like I am more hungry now than when I was eating 1220 cals for the three months before I switched to higher cals... the thing is when I started at 1220 experienced the same hunger and it was during that time that I lost the most weight... but within a month the hunger went away but the weight loss also slowed significantly. I think my resting metabolism just dropped because I was getting in crazy mileage (at one point I did 35 miles in a week) but I just wasn't losing much weight. Well since boosting my calories that same kinda hunger I had when I was just starting the 1220 calorie diet came back which I think indicates that my metabolism is back on track and I have lost 4 lbs over the past week and a half. At first I gained like 3 lbs but after two weeks it just started dropping again even though I had those cheat days and even though my weekly mileage actually decreased. As of tonight I am 1 lb lighter since I ended 1220 cals and it seems as if I'm losing weight almost as fast as the beginning of my initial weight loss (30lbs) So my theory is that hunger is a good indicator that your metabolism is high :).

Replies

  • pratod
    pratod Posts: 68 Member
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    glad you posted this. thanks!
  • AirCircleI
    AirCircleI Posts: 334 Member
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    When I started working out more and eating better I noticed an increase in the frequency of my hunger. My trainer said that it was my metabolism going up. Personally, I could never do around 1200 calories, mine here is set for 1450 and the only way I keep to that is by getting extra exercise calories.

    I used to do 6 small meals a day but that was awkward to manage, so now I do 3 meals plus snacks in between. Keeps the hunger at bay and also breaks up my work day. I figure that being hungry is a good sign if I am eating well (as opposed to startving oneself hunger), and generally have something to eat every 2-3 hours.
  • gashinshotan
    gashinshotan Posts: 753 Member
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    That's true that real hunger from eating well is a good thing - but even for starvation haha I think it still indicates that your metabolism is high because when I first started 1220 I was really hungry the first month but then it just went away and I found myself sometimes eating net 1100 calories even with 5-10 miles of running 4x a week. I think our metabolisms adapt very fast based on that experience and also with my experiences with water fasting in which hunger and the desire for food was completely gone by the fourth day.
    When I started working out more and eating better I noticed an increase in the frequency of my hunger. My trainer said that it was my metabolism going up. Personally, I could never do around 1200 calories, mine here is set for 1450 and the only way I keep to that is by getting extra exercise calories.

    I used to do 6 small meals a day but that was awkward to manage, so now I do 3 meals plus snacks in between. Keeps the hunger at bay and also breaks up my work day. I figure that being hungry is a good sign if I am eating well (as opposed to startving oneself hunger), and generally have something to eat every 2-3 hours.
  • grinch031
    grinch031 Posts: 1,679
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    Don't know if I consider hunger a good sign. When I was eating bad, I was eating 3500+ calories, on a calorie surplus, and hungry all the time.

    The only good sign I see of a fast metabolism is feeling energized. If you feel good, then your body is not conserving its fat stores.
  • gashinshotan
    gashinshotan Posts: 753 Member
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    I guess Im viewing it from the perspective of someone attempting rapid weight loss with a low calorie diet like what I did - because a lack of hunger at low calories indicate that you need to boost calories either daily or with cheat days... when my weight loss slowed and eventually plateaued about a month into my 1220 diet (when I also lost my hunger pangs completely) because of never taking cheat days I did not want to cheat because I felt like I would gain weight but now I know that if I had included cheat days earlier I probably could have broken through the plateaus faster (I started including cheat days about two months in of my three month 30lb weight loss journey). Like you, when I was eating badly and 3500+ calories I was also hungry all the time but I think that's a good sign that our bodies were revved up enough that dropping calories significantly would result in rapid weight loss.
    Don't know if I consider hunger a good sign. When I was eating bad, I was eating 3500+ calories, on a calorie surplus, and hungry all the time.

    The only good sign I see of a fast metabolism is feeling energized. If you feel good, then your body is not conserving its fat stores.

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