Your body might release more fat with enough calories, too. Sometimes less is not really better. I discussed my own pattern with my trainer yesterday and she wants me to increase my calories (eat red meat a couple times a week, vs my fish and cottage cheese that are my staples) & add flax seed oil on top of the healthy fats I already eat, as well as an additional protein and an additional carb each day. Thanks for this thread! You prompted me to examine my situation. I look forward to hearing how your plan works for you.
Robin & CountingDown, I do already follow a "small, frequent meals" approach to eating. And Robin, I try to use a lot of your tricks for getting lots of food for few calories - salads the size of mixing bowls, whole heads of curried cauliflower, that sort of thing. With all that stuff, I'm hungry again not long after - I think that once it exits my stomach, my body immediately realizes that it was tricked & didn't actually get many calories!
I guess for now, my goal is going to be maintenance in the 135-139 range (I just DON'T want to go back to 140...!). That seems to be sort of where my body is trying to settle, so if I can give it more calories & still stay within that range, then maybe that is what I need to be doing for now.
I'm sorry if you've addressed this and I missed it - but are you eating a sufficient amount of protein? Are you drinking lots of water? Water really does fill me.
I've been very fortunate in the fact that I am rarely hungry. I'm sorry this is not the case for you. Because like I said earlier, hungry just can't be an option. It can't.
I think focusing on maintaining that range of 135-139 is a good idea. I'd right away start re-arranging your calorie budget and adding in some high quality calories. Give yourself permission to do so freely, as being hungry just isn't is a way to live. And binging is no solution either. See what happens. You can always re-assess as need be. Keep us posted. We're pulling for you.
I agree with Robin - not only do I have to eat often, I have to balance my calories EVERY time I eat. If I don't get enough protein AND Fat each time, I'm scouring the planet for food within an hour or so. 40/30/30 seems to be the ideal mix for me, but experiment to see what works for you.
And - as everyone has said - keep posting here with your progress. You CAN eliminate that awful hunger sensation - it may just take some experimenting to get there.
This is a journey - and unfortunately, there isn't an aha plan that works forever. What worked for me 6 months ago isn't what my body needs today. It is a constant discovery process.
Robin - Yes, I drink tons of water - about 4L of straight water per day, in addition to other beverages. (This might seem excessive at first - but I can easily sweat out 2L in my hot yoga class, so I figure it's really the same as someone who didn't do the exercise I do drinking about 2L.) I also get plenty of protein - although it is mostly fish, chicken, eggs, & dairy, so Midwife, what your trainer said to you about adding in more red meat may be something I need to try. CountingDown, maybe I should also try adding more good fats - I do get SOME, but I think I tend to err on the lower-fat side because it allows me to eat a greater volume of food, which I've though (maybe erroneously!) would help me to feel fuller longer.
Last night, I ended up having to snack at 9 and again at 10 in order to not be hungry - I would normally try to just make myself sleep rather than snacking that late in the evening, but I thought of this thread & figured, well, feed the hunger. Woke up at 7:00 this morning already completely ravenous, so went ahead & ate again first thing...we will see where this leads me!
I can't add much except this: THANKS for opening this thread, Su-Bee and thanks everybody who has given their advice - I've been struggling with very similar issues lately, and this thread has helped me a lot.
My post won't bring anything new to the topic, but still, I'm with Meg and the others who say it's probably worth to go into maintenance mode for a while.
I can only speak of my own experience, but perhaps it's simply your body having adjusted, and sort of telling you something. In my case, there was a point where I was constantly hungry, I couldn't drop any more weight, it was partly what led me to binge, too. Then after a few months of trying to simply maintain and not lose, my body started dropping a few more pounds, just like this. Maybe it was because I gave my body some time to 'rest', I don't know.
Thanks everybody. I am now on my 4th day of attempting to maintain my weight by eating totally intuitively, but logging my food to monitor what, exactly, my intuition is telling me to eat! So far, my weight seems to have maintained in the 133-135 range, which is actually lower than I'd dared to hope - I was determined to be happy as long as I didn't have to see the 140s again. My calories - and again, it's only been three full days so far - have come in at an incredible 2,700 per day. Whoa. I can only conclude that, despite my best efforts to be healthy, my weight loss efforts must have convinced my body that it was starving. I'm thinking this number may drop once my body gets used to having more food - it seems really high to be my REAL maintenance number - but I will continue logging, & will let you all know what happens!
Su-Bee -- I struggle with a similar issue sometimes. I have found that certain carbs are trigger foods for me and I do better to completely avoid them. Maybe if you look at your food journal, you'll see patterns, perhaps a particular food is setting you off? White carbs do it to me, especially bread/bagels, any sugary sweets, potatoes, rice, things like that. If I have a bagel, OMG, it's awful, in a half hour I want more NOW, it almost feels out of control. Not pleasant! Carbs like fruits or oatmeal don't have the same effect. I guess I'm wierd.
Also, sometimes I think that my body is telling me that I need some nutrient that I'm not getting enough of. I can certainly relate, sometimes I can eat a huge volume of low calorie density veggies, and be full but not "satisfied". If I've been going really low-fat for a while, then I try to add back something like almonds, or flaxseed meal, to get some healthy fats in, and that seems to help too.
Thanks for the update, Su-Bee! I really believe that listening to the feedback that our bodies give us makes a lot more sense than relying on calculators that are, at best, guesstimates (and at worst, grossly inaccurate). Your body is going to tell you precisely how many calories you need to maintain and that will keep you satisfied -- all you have to do is listen.
You're doing the right thing by monitoring, tracking, and above all, listening to your body. We're all Laboratories of One in this weight loss/maintenance business and you may discover that your maintenance looks completely different from anyone else's. And that's awesome!
Another week down...it seems that maybe 2700/day really IS my maintenance number of calories! Holy cow. That's been my average intake, a few lower days & then a few higher, and I've still weighed in between 133-135 every day (although this morning I saw 132.4, but then after my coffee was back to my usual 133.6 - I must have just been extra dehydrated!). I'm absolutely thrilled that shifting into maintenance has been so easy for me - and a bit horrified, if this is truly what I eat on maintenance, at the amount I must have been consuming to get to 157 in the first place!
I still would kind of like to see 130...just because...but I DON'T want to go back to the way I was feeling there at the end when actively "dieting." So...I guess I am a "maintainer" now! Maybe I will join all of you in the weekly thread sometime soon!
Wow! It must be all that exercise you're doing! ^^ Good luck maintaining! (or maybe even losing a few more pounds if your body changes its mind later on).
