Monday, January 5, 2015

The Hunger Struggle Redux

One of the things I hated about my last journey is that while I was very good at being strict with my calorie counts, and I set my limit at 1800 a day. Back then I did not do net calories, I did gross calories. So my thought for this time around was I will go ahead and do net calories. I take off my exercise calories, then I allow myself to get to 2,000 calories net a day. The reason was I was CONSTANTLY hungry before. I don't mean like a nagging kind of discomfort hungry, I mean I was so starving, it felt like I hadn't eaten in days! So for the past 2-3 weeks, I have been doing a good job keeping myself in the calorie budget, and up until a couple of days ago, I wasn't having the hunger problems. Now, after 2-3 weeks of consistent dieting and exercise, the starving is coming back. I am typing this right now having had 3 scrambled eggs at 5:30 a.m., a cup of cereal with 1% milk, and a handful of almonds. My calorie count is 510 at 10:00 a.m. I feel like I haven't eaten since supper last night!

Does anybody else have this problem? My thinking is I may have to add some calories to my diet, but that seems like a counter-intuitive action. Thoughts?

6 comments:

  1. Shane, it's the starch/grains/carbs. Drop the cereal, and add another egg, or cheese if you can handle it, and your hunger pangs should go away. The more protein you eat, and less carbs/starch/grains, the less hunger you feel. At any weight. I promise. :)

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  2. Or if you don't want to give up carbs entirely, try some slow cook oatmeal. I find that very filling with almond milk, and a few nuts. Maybe some Greek non sweet yogurt. Upping your calories is not a terrible idea -- if you plan for it. I have lost and kept off 55 lbs, and I am a big fan of the plan :-) (not necessarily calories, but meeting most days prepared).

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  3. If you're starving, you won't stick to it. Starving isn't going to work! My obesity Dr. says to eat at least 20 g of protein with every meal and 10 g with every snack. That count is for a woman, not sure about a man.

    If you go to the.dietfix.com and scroll to the bottom and click on resources, you can put in your current weight, age, gender and activity level and it will calculate the calories you need to consume to maintain your current weight, lose 1 pound per week, or 2 pounds per week. It also divides up the calories and protein minimums (not maximums) into either 3 meals and 2 snacks per day or just 3 meals if you like eating that way.

    And I agree with Gwen, drop the cereal and add another egg or some bacon. (turkey bacon?)

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  4. Up the protein for sure, but you might try to lower the intensity of your workouts. Working out very intensely often leads to increased hunger (do a google search)... and abs are made in the kitchen-- that is to say losing weight is 90% food choices, 10% exercise. Exercise *is* critical for weight maintenance, but for now, work on moderate intensity fat burning stuff. (Just my $0.02, but I've been maintaining 40% weight loss for 5 years now.)

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  5. I find that when I'm on and my metabolism is going hard I get very hungry every 3 hours. However just a small snack making sure some of it is protein (about 300 calories for the snack) and I'm good for another 3 hours. I eat like that all day long and it seems to keep the hunger at bay.

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    Replies
    1. I actually do this FD. That is why it baffles me why I get so hungry. It isn't even just irritating hunger, it is nagging hunger I can't annoy. I did up my calories yesterday and that did fix it. But I got all crazy about doing more calories so I am backing back to my original level for today and see what happens.

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