You’re hungry.
To add to that, if the calorie deficit is small enough, the hunger feeling will be reduced over time as your body adjusts to the new calorie intake, but will always be there until the body is a weight that matches the calorie intake.
Example: Someone who is overweight eating the calories for their target weight will have a calorie deficit that becomes less of a deficit until they reach that target weight and at that point they should no longer feel hungry except when they actually need to eat to maintain weight. Obviously other factors can create a feeling of hunger when the body isn’t actually sending the hunger signals or people wouldn’t be overweight.
As someone on semaglutide therapy, I can share that a large calorie deficit hits you in the wills to live. At some point even just eating feels like a stop at the gas station to fuel up, and it hardly matters whether it’s 87 or 95 octane. Hell, rancid fry oil would even work. At some point, you stop caring whether you eat because it feels like another chore.
Eventually your metabolism syncs up again with your energy demand and you start getting interested in food, except you’re way more selective about how you’re (edit:
spending) acquiring those calories. I almost can’t abide by junk food, fast food, or breaded fried crap anymore. But neither do I want salad or vegetables because they’re “fluffy.” Too much volume, not enough calories. I want about 6 or 10 forks full of food, and then that’s it. And it’d best taste good, or I can’t be bothered. Restaurants easily stop looking like a good deal.Anyway that’s a digest of my diary for the last 22 months. Do with the info as you will.
Same!
This isn’t correct. Even when someone who has lost weight hits caloric balance they stay hungry. Fat cells produce hunger signals when it’s at lower than it’s previous stored energy levels.
It takes several years for fat cells to adapt to the new normal and not try to reach their previous levels.
After the hunger fades you just feel sorta empty/light but eventually that fades too and you stop noticing it. Atleast in my experience
Hunger
What do you mean? Have you never had one?
First world problem.
A bit of mental health as well, I’m just not sure what’s wrong with me yet
I’ve tried but ended up eating my maintenance over 12 weeks of calorie counting, but I know I have lost weight because my hands are more boney, but that was due to diet change and I’ve since had my weight go up and down on accident. So I’ve not know what the feeling should be like, so I know that I’m in a calorie deficit.
It still astounds me that some people have to actively manage their food so they dont get fat.
I honestly had the same thought too. I don’t really get hungry, at least not the same way people describe it. It sounds awful.
Is that actually astounding?
Yeah ive never really thought about it i just eat what i enjoy when im hungry.
After retiring early at 62 I found I don’t eat nearly as often as when I was working. Bowl of cereal in the morning and nothing until around 3pm, then either a small snack and dinner later or something bigger and just a bite later. Definitely no 3 meals a day routine. I didn’t have a physically strenuous job, just software development, but it seems like I needed to eat more. Stress maybe. Used to be when I got hungry I also felt slightly unsteady, like low blood sugar or something. But now if I get hungry I’m just hungry. I’ve learned that if I ignore it nothing bad happens - which almost feels like a superpower. I was never all that heavy but I’ve lost about 15 lbs and am stable within about 5 lbs of my high school weight, and I feel great.
For me:
If it comes from exercise and I can eat what feels like enough, I don’t notice. Like, literally lost 30lb when I started Jazzercise after having my last kid and had no idea, thought I’d just ‘toned up’ and was confused I needed new clothes, I was underweight by the time I realized, because I was not eating enough to fund the workouts. Appetite did not adjust.
If it comes from diet or fasting, I feel fine in the daytime but it is a migraine trigger. I feel so good going to bed kinda hungry but it makes wake up feeling crappy and also messes up my sleep.
If it comes from anxiety or emotional upset, well, it feels better than eating (I get stress anorexia definitely cannot eat when upset).
My husband said bulking, gaining weight and working out, was the best he has ever felt, physically.
I get cold easier and my clothes keep getting looser but that’s about it. I don’t count calories so I’m not sure when exactly I’m running a deficit or for how long but I have been steadily losing weight. I was a few pounds into the overweight range when I decided to start losing weight, now I’m down at least 14% from my peak and basically right in the middle of the healthy weight range for my height. About a year ago I started eating less, and started only eating until I didn’t feel hungry, and significantly reduced my alcohol intake. Its about the laziest diet possible because I still eat whatever whenever and still drink regularly but the net result is I’m running a calorie deficit often enough to lose a fair amount of weight. It doesn’t really feel like anything, or it feels about the same as running a calorie surplus. I imagine if I was running a larger or more sustained deficit it might be unpleasant and feel like starving but a minor irregular deficit isn’t something I really notice.
Your head hurts.
The second and third day of fasting feel amazing.
It depends. If you eat frequently, regardless of how much you eat, you’re going to feel hungry relatively soon at any given point. So, eating at a deficit just amplifies that. It’s hard to ignore.
However, I’m a big fan of fasting (though I haven’t been very consistent with it lately). Once my body eventually gets used to not eating multiple times per day and instead, say, eating one big meal once per day, I don’t feel hungry at all until dinner time.
Even if you do eat at a reasonable deficit, and your daily meal is healthy/has enough fiber/protein, it’s way more likely to satiate you.
Not really related to the post, but if I’m doing OMAD (one meal a day) consistently, fasting also makes me feel great. I get a noticeable increase in energy and mental clarity.
Deficits are a funny thing.
How are you doing it? How long for? How big a deficit?
Previously its been hard, but I did a lot of research about macros, meals, using fat content to slow digestion etc… Once I got my diet dialed it was easy, because I figured out a few meals that were FUCKING HUGE and still low enough in calories that I got to be “full” at least once a day and hit all my nutrients.
That being said I’m on the last 2 weeks of a 750 cal deficit for 12 weeks and yeah, its starting to get real. Ive had a couple of days this week where Ive said “Fuck it” and had a second protein bar after dinner taking my deficit to only 500. After this I’ll be transitioning back to maintenance cals for 8 weeks although I have promised myself a “Mega blowout” meal of a whole costco pizza and I can eat until I dont want any more pizza in 1 sitting.
Its not so much that you feel “hungry” but you learn to love the feeling of not existing on a sugar and fat cocktail 24 hours a day. I think I’m actually going to have trouble readjusting to an extra 750 cals a day, let alone going onto bulking cals at some point.
