Wy am I less hungry?
 

I went from eating a bazillions calories a day (over 3000) to 1100 overnight. I switched to my "in control" diet and I was just eating for hunger. I was not documenting it until yesterday. Then, out of curiosity, I decided to log what I ate the past 3 days. 1100 is generous. And I'm not hungry.

How is that even possible? Now...I am only walking a mile or two a day, so not going all out with exercise, but never in my life have I been satiated for more than a day at 1100. A 1100 day is usually followed by a higher calorie day so it balances it out.

Is it because I've been pigging out and my body is just living on more stores? Or what? I'm trying to understand this. I am NOT eating at this level to drop weight fast. One of the reasons I wasn't counting was that first I just wanted to get the kinds of foods I was eating back to normal, but since April 1st, I haven't been very hungry!

What gives?

I wouldn't discount the idea of a honeymoon effect from rebooting. You're super-motivated right now and reaping the rewards from being so psyched up. Enjoy it while it lasts!

(Another possibility maybe is the effects of restarting meds?)

Melissa, have you lowered the amount of carbohydrates that you are eating? Low carb has really helped my hunger issues.

I know! It won't last! And It wasn't like this last time, but you know... I didn't think about the meds. I am taking the same thyroid medicine and one of the same blood pressure medicines, but the other is new. (And hopefully I won't be on it long). That could be causing it too as that coincides with my not feeling hungry.

Yes, but I did tht before and I didn't change this dramatically. But I am eating Lower carb than last time too... Interesting.

It's weird, but for me, the more I eat, the hungrier I am all day. Ya, and more carbs equals more hunger for me. Even in maintenance I'm eating low carb.

Have you been sleeping better? That's a big one, too.

The reason why carbs make you feel hungry is explainable by science. Carbohydrate demands insulin production to stabilize your blood sugar and the presence of insulin in all animals (you included) will potentiate fat storage.
If what you eat is stored as fat then your tissues (organs, muscles) will send a feeding signal to the brain because they want fuel and the fuel you just ate got stored as fat instead of saturating the blood.
The way a PhD who did his thesis on fuel metabolism summed it up for me was "Starving in the face of obesity".

This has been tested many times in livestock and it is the reason ranchers (though they don't know it) feed their cattle high carbohydrate diets composing of mostly grains/corn... it makes them eat much larger meals and much more often, making them huge in a very short period.

And because I'm sometimes an idiot, I know this and still eat a heavy carb meal and then "mysteriously" get hungry again 2-3 hours later.

It seems Tolstoy had this figured out in the 1870s, Anna Karenina, Chapter 19: "...but he still had to avoid gaining flesh, and so he eschewed farinaceous* and sweet dishes. He sat with his coat unbuttoned over a white waistcoat, resting both elbows on the table, and while waiting for the steak he had ordered...”.

Always interested in these kinds of things, made my ride into work a lot less boring.

Good luck and take care!


*farinaceous is snob speak for starchy

Um... I know this... but... it doesn't explain how a 236 pounds woman can be satisfied with eating 1100 calories in a day even if it is low carb. I did low carb for two years and I was NEVER this satiated. It's something more to it. I just can't figure out what.

Or is it OLD AGE? I am 44 and definitely dealing with perimenopause. Maybe I just need that much less when I'm not super active yet?

Melissa, I noticed that when I was first starting to lose, I wasn't hungry even though I had significantly lowered my calorie count (from who knows what 'cause I wasn't counting---probably 2500-3000----to 1400). I am hungrier now than I was then. From what I've read, it may have something to do with leptin and having more of it when we have some weight on us and less when we lose that weight.

I also agree with the other poster who mentioned the "honeymoon" phase.

Finally, although I need the self regulation of calorie counting, I find that sometimes I eat more just because I have the knowledge of how many calories I've eaten. In other words, if I know I've eaten only 1000 calories, in the back of my mind, I'll always be thinking, "I can eat more!" (and I usually do). If I had just not recorded what I ate, I probably would be perfectly satisfied with that little amount. I've often thought about trying an experiment of just recording my food intake on paper rather than using my smartphone for a week. My smartphone app automatically shows me my calories, but if I wrote my food choices down on paper, I would not know my exact calories unless I made an effort to add them. Then, at the end of the week, I would like to see how many calories I actually ate. I don't know why I haven't tried that yet . . .

I'm stuffed at 1400 most days and I'm 370 pounds. It may just be where your metabolism is at. But, I agree that psychologically your drive to get the weight off may be a factor.

This is so true for me as well! If I am busy, I rarely even think about food and can go nearly all day without it. For instance, twice this week, I went to work without eating anything and didn't get home until 2:00 - 2:30. I didn't actually have any hunger pangs, though. Nevertheless, when I got home, I ate (almost out of habit---as if the food was my reward for working and I wanted to relax with it). When I ate, I didn't just eat a sandwich and leave it at that, though, I felt compelled to eat a yogurt . . . and then a piece of fruit . . . and then a couple of cookies, etc. I didn't necessarily pig out, but I did eat just as many calories as I would have if I had eaten a full breakfast and lunch. That angers me because, again, I was not physically hungry. I think I would have been better off just waiting until dinner to eat (since I eat dinner fairly early anyway). This is why Intermittent Fasting is probably an ideal plan for me, except that social obligations often get in the way of me following it.

I have found that the more water I drink the less I eat for sure. I used to be a Coca-Cola addict! When I drank soda, I found myself much hungrier than now drinking at least 5 bottles of water a day. I also find it hard to eat my allotted 1200 calories a day after two months of restricting. I have a feeling that I was probably very dehydrated before and my body was confusing that with hunger instead of wanting water. Now, the more water I drink everyday, the more thirsty I seem to feel. I don't remember feeling this thirsty while having mostly soda intake. Bizarre!

I'm curious how long this will last. I will not starve myself. No worries there, but I'm curious when my body will go, "OK... this is not a temporary switch. She MEANS it" and then I'll start to get hungry.

I also think my body knows that it's been pigging out. I think my leptin might be higher and therefore the panic button to EAT hasn't been sent to the brain yet.

And that just doesn't make logical sense, right? It's really fascinating actually. Our bodies are AMAZING!

I drink a lot of water and always have. But, it doesn't keep me from feeling hungry for long if I'm really hungry. My body can't be fooled into thiking water is a meal! :-)

I think there's a huge psych component here. I have the same thing happen- when I get mad enough and disgusted enough to come up with a plan to lose weight, I have very low appetite at first. I can't explain how/why it happens, but it always happens to me if I am fed up enough with my weight to do something about it.