I've been successful losing weight with WeightWatchers/counting calories so far.
But for the past few weeks, I've found it really hard to stay under my daily points/calorie target. Some of it is probably due to stress and emotional eating, but some of it is definitely just stomach-growling hunger.
Has anyone else had this problem as they got closer to their goal weight? Any advice?
I don't mind losing more slowly, but I don't want to start going in the wrong direction!
1) Maintenance calories around 1650-1700? I've been eating 1200-1300 calories/day for the past few weeks. But in the past I was eating closer to 1000 calories/day (although I mainly focused on eating 26 or fewer WW points/day).
2) Ouch...I didn't even realize Myfitnesspal tracked this. Looks like calorie breakdown for past week is 50% carbs, 30% fat, and 20% protein.
You could just push through it but I'd advise you to stop worrying about your scale weight for a while and starting finding a WOE (way of eating) and an exercise you can live with forever. This might be a big help psychologically.
TOM doesn't help matters and certainly fewer carbs would help but you've been dieting for a while and taking a break might not be a bad idea. Leptin is a big controller of hunger and research shows as you get thinner your leptin levels decrease.
Start increasing calories until you find maintinence is something worth considering. In a couple weeks you can resume dieting.
No good reason for the lack of exercise except that I need to make myself do it :-)
In terms of eating, I thought I was doing ok with eating in a way that I could maintain long-term, but it's certainly not sustainable if I'm hungry all the time.
Interesting about the leptin...I didn't know that.
I think I will increase calories for awhile and see if that helps, although the idea of increasing calories is kind of a scary thought. I guess I will have to do that eventually anyway for maintenance, so might as well work on it now.
So I guess I don't really know what I'm asking anymore, but I appreciate the advice and will try to put it to good use. :-)
Thanks for taking the time to respond. You're one of the most helpful posters I see on 3FC.
Also, maybe all that simply winter coming back? It's getting much colder here now, and it seems logical to me that our bodies may start demanding more food to keep themselves warm. (Uh, that is, if you're like me and are pushing back the moment to turn the heaters on, because if I don't it'll just be too expensive in the end. ^^; )
if i were you id try more protein and mess around with your calories. you cant maintain if you're always hungry and sometimes its just trial and error.
For me that type of unrelenting hunger can almost always be traced to poor water intake. It sounds ridiculously simplistic but that's what always ends up fixing it.
I've had that happen, too. I'm pretty close to goal and I do WW online.
In addition to the adding more protein suggestion, something that has helped me is to incorporate some new foods into my routine. I will typically eat the same things about 85% of the time, just a big rotation of items, so it's always odd when I've eaten the same things I have in the past, yet I feel hungry. I find recipes/items with the same points total as what I "normally" eat and switch it out and that really has helped (and I've found a lot of great new options to add into my routine so I don't get bored).
Also, I find if I eat a larger meal late at night, I'm way more hungry throughout the morning (even after breakfast) - so a light dinner helps, too.
I also agree 100% with the more liquids suggestion, dehydration can really feel like hunger.