So noticed a while ago that my appetite it directly related to TOM. The we of TOM my hunger levels are normal, maybe some small cravings for junk food. The week after I have a huge decrease in hunger, the week of ovulation hunger levels are normal, the week after I'm hungrier, but it's manageable and the the week before my period I'm ravenous, just a complete bottomless pit. It's almost unbearable and often leads to bingeing.
So I'm curious if anyone has noticed a similar cycle and what to do about the ravenous hunger. When I was losing weight I generally would just white knuckle it. Now in maintenance I'm struggling a little bit. It hasn't been a big issue, I haven't gained, so I'm not too concerned, but I'd love some suggestions of how to deal with the bottomless pit syndrome. I've tried small healthy extra snacks, gum, extra water, extra protein and all the typical suggestions, but nothing is quite doing the trick. I just hate that feeling of never being satisfied even after you know you've had a meal that's fully satisfied you in the past.
Literally most of my weight was put on during TOM weeks. I was rabidly hungry during the days before and just after my period starting. I used to joke that I had a one week opportunity to lose weight everyr month. I was so hungry that I felt literally starving hungry even after eating until my stomach hurt. It would take me two weeks to get the TOM weight off, and I had one week to lose.
If I was very diligent and super vigilant all month, every single moment, I might be able to increase my window of opportunity to two weeks, but I really only was able to exert that level of concentration on prescription diet pills.
If there was only one thing I could change about my life, it would be getting me on birth control when I was 10 instead of almost 30. I had such severe TOM issues, that I missed school almost every month, I had a 9 day period and a 25 day cycle, and cramps that made me wish for death (until NSAIDS came out, nothing otc worked at all. When ibuprofen came out, it worked if I started taking it the day before my period started. If I waited until I actually had cramps, nothing would help except prescription pain killers, which I refused to take after I fell asleep in class and was drooling on my desk. So embarassing).
If I'm not on bc, hubby calls me werewolf, because of the severe mood swings and cravings for beef and chocolate.
I don't notice an appetite change during TOM, but during an accidental pregnancy I managed to pack on about 5-7 pounds in less than four weeks due to neverending hunger. I felt the same way in the couple weeks after I stopped smoking cigarettes. Never satisfied, craving food but not knowing what kind of food I wanted, a vicious sweet tooth.
I have nothing to offer as I am constantly struggling myself (haven't lost a pound in almost a month), but I offer sympathy and hugs. There are no easy solutions I can think of aside from a return to white-knuckle mode and frequent reminders that TOM is a temporary period of misery.
I also get ravenous and insatiable. Normally, staying within 12 - 1600 calories is totally doable. I average 1400. But, according to my calorie excel sheet, on Friday December 10th I ate 1865 and on Saturday December 11th, I ate 2110 calories in preparation for my period. So, Friday I jogged for 60 minutes outside, and Saturday I jogged 60 minutes outside in the morning, and then that afternoon, I walked around shopping in Dusseldorf (great German city) for four hours.... I guestimate that I burned around 900 calories that day. So I was sort of feeding my hunger, but keeping very active. I have TREMENDOUS feelings of guilt and exercise is the only thing to alleviate that.
I haven't found any 'tricks' with food and I am not on birth control.
I try to start the day out with some heavier meals that have more fat. For example, I may eat a couple of eggs with spinach and feta, slice of toast and a glass of milk for breakfast, a 1/2 english muffin with 1T peanut butter and a pear for a snack, and a nice filling salad for lunch. Usually, that kills the hunger. Your body is telling you it "needs" more, so you can switch your calories around and give it what it wants. A protein bar in the afternoon (chocolate of course) and a salmon or chicken/veggie/brown rice dinner round out the day.
I *am* on birth control but I still get extra hungry right before TOM. I tend to crave red meat, and usually eating some of it calms down the hunger (must be my body saying it needs more iron?). I usually eat more if I'm hungry but make up for it later.
...what to do about the ravenous hunger.
When I was losing weight I generally would just white knuckle it.
Now in maintenance I'm struggling a little bit.
I'd love some suggestions of how to deal with the bottomless pit syndrome.
Although I'm post-menopausal, I still have periods of ravenous hunger.
In Maintenance they're just as bad, if not worse,
as they were during Weight-loss...even after almost 5 years.
Now my hormones do all they can to get my body to regain that lost weight.
I've recently started experimenting
to see whether low-carb eating will help with this,
but other than that, I'd say
"don't use those feelings as an excuse to overeat,
and learn to live long-term with white-knuckling".
Last edited by Bright Angel; 12-16-2010 at 09:40 AM.
Howdy,
If it is "hunger" then a good healthy food will do. So I eat low cal/carb healthy snacks so that if I start eating too much of them, it won't derail me. My go to choices are Kale Chips, green beans (raw and roasted), raw mushrooms, and occasionally nuts (weighed to grams). I do not go overboard on nuts but I do not always eat them either, keeping in mind that I might over eat. No fruit (even with peanut butter, cal count to high for me with the rest of my plan for the day) and string cheese either. This has worked so far.
Weight gain and cravings tend to occur near ovulation more than TOM for me.
I second the suggestion about red meat. You need the iron and protein. If you don't eat red meat, then you could try work out alternatives--but you may still find yourself feeling "hungry."
I do what hatethesweatpants does... Usually dinner is my heavier meal (I just prefer it that way), but one week out of the month (two weeks before TOM starts) I switch it so breakfast is my heavier meal. It helps a ton. =)
Ravenous cycle
Although I'm post-menopausal, I still have periods of ravenous hunger. 
