Hunger at maintenance

[AtomicBlondeRose]

Last summer I weighed in at 11.5 stone at 5 foot 4 and decided I had to make a change. For the last six/seven months I have been doing intermittent fasting and logging food on MFP, as well as working out and really concentrating on food quality and exercise.

I have been disciplined but not overly restrictive and enjoyed meals out and even an all-inclusive holiday in that time! I like getting up early to exercise and have found my energy levels through the roof, so the whole thing has suited me really well.

Anyway, now I find myself at 9 stone, in great physical shape and very happy with how I look. I realise I need to up my calories, especially as I’m working out with heavier weights (doing Caroline Girvan Iron at the moment), so I’ve been focussing on upping my protein, but honestly, I’m STARVING! I went months on 1200 calories and was never really hungry - with the IF I could go to 3/4pm without eating and honestly not even think about food but now I can’t make it until 12 before my stomach's rumbling. I have a hefty amount of food with me at work - today I have smoked mackerel with salad, a tub of dates and peanut butter, a banana, some Skyr with fruit and pumpkin seeds, and a nut bar if I’m still hungry, and I’ll still be peckish on the way home. I try to avoid too much in the way of white carbs but I’ve been craving them recently. The other evening I had two hot cross buns when for 7 months I’ve stopped eating after dinner and rarely snacked at all in the evening. I don’t feel like it’s bingeing after restricting because I never felt restricted in the first place and I am honestly hungry (after months of trying to listen to hunger cues and eat mindfully I do feel like am on top of this).

Anyone had this? Do I just keep eating more? I’m worried about set point weight and that my body is trying to get my weight back up again!

I'm no expert but have you tried having a boiled egg? I find it really stops the hunger

Have you worked out your TDEE as you are quite active? This will tell you what your maintenance is. Or are you already eating at this and still hungry?

I did add a boiled egg a couple of days last week and that’s quite effective tbf! I just never remember to boil the fuckers in advance.

@Menora - I did try this and got myself tied up in knots about the activity level. Because in MFP I log my exercise but you shouldn’t eat back the calories (that’s what I’ve always gone on). So then in a TDEE calculator I felt wary about it overestimating. Or should I just set my MFP calories to maintain AND eat back some (all probably a bad idea) exercise cals? I’m very good at eating to a calorie limit but when it comes to adding more I get really scared because it suddenly seems like way more food and when I’m still hungry it’s like…what? I was better off eating less and being less hungry! I feel there’s a sort of balancing point I need to find but it’s harder than just losing weight!

I know what you mean. I would try to work out your level of activity for the purposes of a TDEE calculator and ignore MFP. They always over estimate activity, it’s not always realistic. So go on what a TDEE calculator says

i found these links about how to work it out it might be helpful the second is a calculator

https://www.fitmatecoach.com/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-tdee-and-how-can-it-help-with-weight-loss

https://livelighter.com.au/physicalactivity/calculator

So in a sort of workaround to psychologically trick myself I set my MFP to maintain with a higher activity rate and then try to come in below that every day - so I get the feeling of being in an deficit without necessarily being in one! Stupid I know but it works for me as then I feel better about eating more. I realised looking at amounts of protein etc that I naturally have smallish portions and so I’m not hitting the amount of protein I need. Eg I’d look at the nutritional value of the Skyr and then assume I was getting quite a lot of protein but my go-to serving size was probably about half what they recommended. Same with things like chicken. So I’ve tried to make those things bigger (for example I’d put half a tin of tuna on my lunch but upped to to a full tin). Funnily enough, eating more makes me less hungry!

And this has given me an insight into why I managed to put on weight despite eating smallish portions - I’ve traditionally “held back” on meat, dairy etc but then been hungry and made up for it in, yep, sugar and white carbs. Which is where I can eat large amounts and still feel hungry for more!

Good way to view it - yes chicken in a meal could be 200-300 calories which is a lot in a meal, for me that’s HALF the meal 😂 but in terms of hunger management it’s far more effective to fill you for longer than the same amount of cals in carbs and also I have had noticeable better weight loss since I try to aim for 100g carbs a day.

I do the other way round I have myself at ‘light’ active for calories then I am getting a good deficit from being moderately active but if I am not well and work out less, I am not penalising myself

I think I know how you feel, I’m also maintaining weight and I often feel hungry. I noticed that I am much more focused on food when I have tasks requiring a lot of sustained attention at work so I interpret this as my brain wandering away and not necessarily as being hungry/needing food. I also learned to accept that feeling hungry is a normal part of life and it doesn’t mean that I have to eat something immediately.

I still track calories but I look at the whole week. Sometimes I go over, sometimes I eat less than my calorie limit. I am usually very hungry after running or cardio in general and less so after strength training or my martial arts classes.