The Fat Loss TroubleshootThis is your place to troubleshoot your fat loss problems from nutrition to training. This section is led by Leigh Peele, author of "The Fat Loss Troubleshoot," the ultimate fat loss manual. If your results have slowed or stalled this is the place to come for advice for all your fat loss needs.
.... 1200 is very low to begin with for someone at your current weight. I am actually surprised you would be started at such a low intake. Maybe it has to do with what level you are? I am a Level 2 and started close to 1200 weighing in the low 120's.
(I am level 2-3, and sedentary. Leigh confirmed 1200 cal for now)
Regarding the 1200 cal and hunger:
I was gonna have a protein shake last night to up the calories above 1050, but it was 11pm and I wasn't hungry at all.
Hunger is an issue I'd like to learn more about. When I used to eat/overeat junk I was gnawing hungry all day feed feed feed like a sheep/animal, but never knew hunger cause I always fed chocolate & pizza & ice cream all day. Then I'd do an 800 cal diet or WeightWatchers.
Then with BFL 3 years ago, and protein at every meal, I'm rarely hungry but in a satisfied kind of way. But Renee Skwigg Skwigg's World suggested "if you're not hungry, and not losing, perhaps you're eating too much and not counting/weighing properly." But now I'm weighing food, and my days are about the same as they had been. Maybe I was 100-250 cal per day estimating too high, but with things like a pack of Orbit gum and some sprays of olive oil in my frying pan...
So the question I have is, "can I lose fat weight if I'm not hungry, or is hunger a sign of the weight coming off/being burned?" Oprah Winfrey once said, "I love that hunger feeling, it is the little fat cells running off of my big hips!"
1. So, if I'm not hungry can I still be losing weight or what?
2. I read all of you lifters here who say if you don't eat x calories you don't have the energy to lift. I was lifting my TT weighs on my EatStopEat days (2 per week) where I ate 400-700 cal that night, on a diet averaging 1200 cal/week, and had lots of energy. If I have enough sleep and have been eating clean I generally have good energy. So I just don't understand my body at all. How come I'm not hungry eating 1200 calories? Why then do I need 2000 calories? Maybe at 62, 1200 is maintenance, and I'll need to eat 800 to lose fat weight.. and that's my (sad), but acceptable if necessary, reality? (Note: I was lifting 25lb DB Row and had just got up to 25lb DB Chest Press; I know heavy is relative)
Now I'm giving REPAIR and OPT a good effort and commitment, to see in the next 6 months whether that is just a silly story, and I'm like the 99% who have just injured my metabolism.
But what's the deal on my not being hungry? I have never in my life really recognized or felt hunger signs, unless
1. I had been eating junk carbs and didnt' for a few hours, and had cravings, which were often in my upper chest, not in my upper or lower stomach
2. I have occasional days on BFL clean macros, where I am starving all day for 1 whole day. Then I never know whether to listen to that hunger, and feed it good protein, or to appreciate that it a sign of fat loss, and suffer with the hunger knowing the "fat is running from my hips!"
Oh, nor do I recognize signs of being full after a meal, unless I overeat, and then I know it. Sometimes lately, 20 min after finishing the meal, I am aware of being satisfied. So portion control of BFL was a god-send for me.
looking forward to discussion about hunger etc.
Etana (day 7 of REPAIR)
(I am level 2-3, and sedentary. Leigh confirmed 1200 cal for now)
Regarding the 1200 cal and hunger:
I was gonna have a protein shake last night to up the calories above 1050, but it was 11pm and I wasn't hungry at all.
Hunger is an issue I'd like to learn more about. When I used to eat/overeat junk I was gnawing hungry all day feed feed feed like a sheep/animal, but never knew hunger cause I always fed chocolate & pizza & ice cream all day. Then I'd do an 800 cal diet or WeightWatchers.
Then with BFL 3 years ago, and protein at every meal, I'm rarely hungry but in a satisfied kind of way. But Renee Skwigg Skwigg's World suggested "if you're not hungry, and not losing, perhaps you're eating too much and not counting/weighing properly." But now I'm weighing food, and my days are about the same as they had been. Maybe I was 100-250 cal per day estimating too high, but with things like a pack of Orbit gum and some sprays of olive oil in my frying pan...
So the question I have is, "can I lose fat weight if I'm not hungry, or is hunger a sign of the weight coming off/being burned?" Oprah Winfrey once said, "I love that hunger feeling, it is the little fat cells running off of my big hips!"
1. So, if I'm not hungry can I still be losing weight or what?
2. I read all of you lifters here who say if you don't eat x calories you don't have the energy to lift. I was lifting my TT weighs on my EatStopEat days (2 per week) where I ate 400-700 cal that night, on a diet averaging 1200 cal/week, and had lots of energy. If I have enough sleep and have been eating clean I generally have good energy. So I just don't understand my body at all. How come I'm not hungry eating 1200 calories? Why then do I need 2000 calories? Maybe at 62, 1200 is maintenance, and I'll need to eat 800 to lose fat weight.. and that's my (sad), but acceptable if necessary, reality? (Note: I was lifting 25lb DB Row and had just got up to 25lb DB Chest Press; I know heavy is relative)
Now I'm giving REPAIR and OPT a good effort and commitment, to see in the next 6 months whether that is just a silly story, and I'm like the 99% who have just injured my metabolism.
But what's the deal on my not being hungry? I have never in my life really recognized or felt hunger signs, unless
1. I had been eating junk carbs and didnt' for a few hours, and had cravings, which were often in my upper chest, not in my upper or lower stomach
2. I have occasional days on BFL clean macros, where I am starving all day for 1 whole day. Then I never know whether to listen to that hunger, and feed it good protein, or to appreciate that it a sign of fat loss, and suffer with the hunger knowing the "fat is running from my hips!"
Oh, nor do I recognize signs of being full after a meal, unless I overeat, and then I know it. Sometimes lately, 20 min after finishing the meal, I am aware of being satisfied. So portion control of BFL was a god-send for me.
looking forward to discussion about hunger etc.
Etana (day 7 of REPAIR)
I can't help ya on that one because I am almost always hungry no matter if eat 100% clean or 100% junk unless I am eating 1800+ calories a day. My dad and I joke that we missed out on the "fullness gene" because seriously I can eat and eat and still not feel full. He claims to have only felt stuffed a few times during his life, one being when he was in a White Castle hamburger eating contest LOL
I have tried high protein/moderate fat/low carb, balanced protein/carb/fat, high carb/low fat etc and while balanced (like 40/30/30 prot/carb/fat) seems to work best for me I am still hungry a lot unless calories are at a certain point.
1200 cals/day to me is almost starvation. I will never feel full and always feel hungry, even one hour after eating a good, clean, balanced, etc meal. I will wake up starving in the middle of night on this calorie level and have trouble sleeping.
1200 is not maintenance for anyone of any age unless perhaps you are confined to a bed or weigh 90 lbs. If you are maintaining on 1200 calories then me thinks it is a damaged metaboilsm. But that is why you are doing REPAIR, to fix that
My hunger mechanism turns off after a few days of low cal. And then it's easy to stay the course, hard to get over 1000 cals, and weight comes off just fine, and I'm MOST DEFINITELY in a deficit.
More food (the 1600 range) tends to be at a small deficit but makes me hungrier. Intensity in workouts can make me hungry and hard to stay the course because I if I don't get hungry I'm just frickin tired and therefore no NEAT.
the "you can't lose if you're not hungry" is BS. Everyone is different. I remember reading somewhere that losing hunger on pretty low cal is a survival mechanism. If you're not eating at all, like in famine or drought, and therefore starving, it's just mean to also be hungry. So hunger shuts down. True or no, I've seen it happen to plenty of people (not all) and usually it takes a few days at a fairly high deficit before it kicks in.
ETA, because apparently I didn't actually type what I thought…
So the high intensity that knocks my NEAT down can be why at a low cal I "don't lose," because that makes my deficit much smaller, and therefore I won't see change as quickly, and be only in a 200 deficit which will take a few weeks for a pound, and the scale can't be relied upon for real accuracy at <1lb.
I can't help you on the specifics for you, however, I can share my mother's details with you. She's 80, slightly under 5', weighs ~120lbs, does no specific exercises (but lots of NEAT), and eats 1800-2000 cals a day. Basically she eats 1200 cals between breakfast and lunch and then whatever dinner I've made for the two of us. Oh yes, and there's an unknown amount of candy and chocolate that she buys for herself when picking up her bread on Fridays.
Just throwing those numbers out so you don't think at 62 you suddenly have to stick to a minimal number of calories.
Under eaters cannot typically listen to thier hunger mechanisms. They are essentially broken or at least they are in my own life. I have to force feed myself and eat the level of calories I designate in order to lose weight. Last week I went on a business trip and went off my strict diet. I made it a point to eat all the time to the point where my coworkers made fun of how much I ate. Since I wasn't really tracking calories formally (too many meals out) I don't know what I ate but figured it was around 2500 cals. Endedup that I lost too much weight.... If you are eating whole, clean foods and typically undereat you will always struggle with not really being hungry at least for some times. Stick to your plan is my advise and eat. If your plan is to get 1200 cals in then do it.
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The BIGGER I get the smaller you look
Under eaters cannot typically listen to thier hunger mechanisms. They are essentially broken or at least they are in my own life. I have to force feed myself and eat the level of calories I designate in order to lose weight. Last week I went on a business trip and went off my strict diet. I made it a point to eat all the time to the point where my coworkers made fun of how much I ate. Since I wasn't really tracking calories formally (too many meals out) I don't know what I ate but figured it was around 2500 cals. Endedup that I lost too much weight.... If you are eating whole, clean foods and typically undereat you will always struggle with not really being hungry at least for some times. Stick to your plan is my advise and eat. If your plan is to get 1200 cals in then do it.
you lost on 2500? And wasn't last week your rest week too?
I agree with Aoife. I do not find my self hungry and I am only eating about 1200 calories on the OPT program. I was hungry for a few days after my refeed week, but then thing settled in again. I think that the balance of c/f/p that Leigh does really does seem to help with curbing hunger. But everyone is different. Some people on this board do not do well in a deficit and are hungry alot. So I guess what I would say is consider yourself lucky! Dieting should be easier for you.
(for those that have FLTS I discuss this in Chap 8. and really dive in better I believe after page 62.)
The short and annoying answer is that hunger is so beyond complicated and fickle that to give in precise answer would be a lie. That being said there are GENERAL helps, problems, fixes, causes, etc that apply to hunger. The main thing to remember is...
Hunger is hardly ever "hunger".
What this means is that the majority of signals and things that we label as hunger usually are not. Thirst, stress, emotion, sugar spikes, etc all shadow over and are much stronger than true hunger signals. The better you treat your body (rest, exercise, nutrition, and water) and the better your genetic code (things you can't help) then the better it all works. I will say that the latter being a problem is a LOT more RARE than people like to think.
As for following a program, any program (TNT, OPT, NROL, REPAIR), if it has a specific caloric amount to hit, training, protein, etc then you need to do the best you can to hit it IF you are following a specific program and not doing your on thing. It is a program for a reason, hopefully the author does a good job at explaining why and you the follower try and follow it the best you can. In the end you just have to do the best you can but the better you follow the program the more likely you are to get the results the program "promises".
I can't help ya on that one because I am almost always hungry no matter if eat 100% clean or 100% junk unless I am eating 1800+ calories a day. My dad and I joke that we missed out on the "fullness gene" because seriously I can eat and eat and still not feel full. He claims to have only felt stuffed a few times during his life, one being when he was in a White Castle hamburger eating contest LOL
I have tried high protein/moderate fat/low carb, balanced protein/carb/fat, high carb/low fat etc and while balanced (like 40/30/30 prot/carb/fat) seems to work best for me I am still hungry a lot unless calories are at a certain point.
1200 cals/day to me is almost starvation. I will never feel full and always feel hungry, even one hour after eating a good, clean, balanced, etc meal. I will wake up starving in the middle of night on this calorie level and have trouble sleeping.
I'm with you Lara - I have never been known to "forget" to eat! I can sometimes ignore hunger or get busy and then the time passes, but I'm never not hungry when I eat under... 2000 kcals-ish... And 1200 kcal is AWFUL for me. Like you, I've tried many balances and higher protein (but NOT low-carb) works relatively well... but as Leigh has said - I have to learn to get in, get out, and "embrace the suck" of being tired and hungry.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Leigh P.
The short and annoying answer is that hunger is so beyond complicated and fickle that to give in precise answer would be a lie. That being said there are GENERAL helps, problems, fixes, causes, etc that apply to hunger. The main thing to remember is...
Hunger is hardly ever "hunger".
What this means is that the majority of signals and things that we label as hunger usually are not. Thirst, stress, emotion, sugar spikes, etc all shadow over and are much stronger than true hunger signals. The better you treat your body (rest, exercise, nutrition, and water) and the better your genetic code (things you can't help) then the better it all works. I will say that the latter being a problem is a LOT more RARE than people like to think.
Hope that helps
Wish there WAS a simple answer, but yet - thanks - it's helpful. Although a cure for hunger while eating at deficit would be MORE helpful
I am definitely in the "Happy Feeder" category. Been that way for the last 15 yrs or so every since my eating disorder when I subsisted on about 600 calories a day and intense workouts 7 days a week. Once I came out of that it was like no amount of food is enough.
How a body can change so much over time is beyond me.
Etana, depending on what I've eaten that day, there are times when I'm 200-300 under my calories but not feeling hungry at the end of the night. I try to follow Leigh's recommendations as close as I can, though, so those are the evenings that I pick a higher calorie thing that maybe won't be so filling. I figure she gave us those caloric recommendations for a reason and I'm going to do my best to hit them. This is, I think, even more important for people on the REPAIR program because they are trying to increase their caloric needs to make up for undereating. If you've been an undereater before, then you probably have to reteach your body all sorts of new signals. (And I'd wager a guess that 800 cal is probably not a good idea for almost anyone as it seems that just about everybody agrees that it's dangerous to go under 1000 calories.)
__________________
"Do you choose to simply know the path, or do you choose to walk it?"
Your body keeps an accurate journal regardless of what you write down...
you lost on 2500? And wasn't last week your rest week too?
I know it's siq. I was eating out most meals so not quite sure what the real calories were but I ate and ate and ate each and every day. I was the joke of the week on the business trip and even the Chinese girls (the little things that eat so much) were making fun of how much I ate and how little I was. And yes it is a rest week for me and I have hardly moved outside of work and a walk here and there. My trainer thinks I revved up the metabolism from throwing so much food into my body. Same thing happened last time I bulked. I was at a point then where I could not gain weight with 2700 cals a day. It is ridiculous how this stuff works... Not very predictable...
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The BIGGER I get the smaller you look
I know it's siq. I was eating out most meals so not quite sure what the real calories were but I ate and ate and ate each and every day. I was the joke of the week on the business trip and even the Chinese girls (the little things that eat so much) were making fun of how much I ate and how little I was. And yes it is a rest week for me and I have hardly moved outside of work and a walk here and there. My trainer thinks I revved up the metabolism from throwing so much food into my body. Same thing happened last time I bulked. I was at a point then where I could not gain weight with 2700 cals a day. It is ridiculous how this stuff works... Not very predictable...
crazy! I can not even begin to tell you how much I envy that. Certainly doesn't work that way for me. Just coming off rest and refeed of 2000-2400 and was lucky to have only gained a few doing that! And that was with counting every morsel.
crazy! I can not even begin to tell you how much I envy that. Certainly doesn't work that way for me. Just coming off rest and refeed of 2000-2400 and was lucky to have only gained a few doing that! And that was with counting every morsel.
It could though, you eat enough and move enough it starts to work that way. You have to embrace eating in order to be able eat. That is too if you need all those calories.
Some people just don't need them so making blanket calorie eating statements is just annoying. If you move a lot and burn a lot then you get to eat a lot. The only time this is a problem is if you have been mistreating your body or have a disease.
However, unless you have a disease, people who get to eat more and don't gain just move more, they don't have superturbofreaky charged metabolisms.
"If you move a lot and burn a lot then you get to eat a lot"
I'd have to climb Mt Kilimanjaro to get to eat the way I'd like!!! I am like LaraT, I can eat and eat and never get full - I am sure it is from my ED days as well. I would love to get to the place where I can eat "normal" amounts and feel satisfied. When I get done reading my FLTS and MRM, maybe I can get there! But my goal is definitely to be one who moves enough to get to eat more!!
I do TurboJam/Turbokick - will that give me a "superTURBOfreaky" metabolism??
I move A LOT. I walk several miles every day just to/from work, errands, etc and that is on top of training hard 5-6 x/week. Of course, while doing REPAIR I haven't been training but still doing all that walking because that is just a necessity of my daily life. Plus lots of NEAT that I never even realized was "activity" until I read FLTS.
So could these weeks of eating 2000+ and rest make it more likely for me to be able to eat more and not gain? I know in theory that is how it is supposed to work but I don't see that happening with me just based on past experience. I would love to test the theory but for someone that needs to lose fat isn't Metaburn what you are supposed to do after REPAIR? That puts me back down to 1300 cals.
Are those of you who say you're always hungry eating 40% or more of protein? Is your protein NOT luncheon meat?
Are you eating often enough?
I assume since you're posting here, you're not eating processed foods? I assume since you're posting here, you are eating just fantastic, and know all this stuff already.... but in case I'm mistaken, when I changed to 5-6 small meals a day, with each meal containing 20 gm or more of protein, plus a fist-sized carb, and most of my carbs being fruits and vegetables, and eating lots of vegetables, and some healthy fats, my hunger/cravings just disappeared...
The only thing that messes that up is if i start eating breads, cakes, sweets, I then just want more and more.
Are you eating enough low calorie foods like vegies... I just assume anyone that made it here is a professional dieter like me and knows all the secrets... There are some foods that are more filling than others, even though the macros might be the same. ... no, probably you can get more food of the purer variety within the allotted calories. It seems i'm eating so much food at 1200 calories, but I've totally stopped 95% processed foods since I started REPAIR
It would be interesting to hear what foods Karla "pigs out on' at the hotel, vs what foods the hungry gals are eating.... Is it just our different body-makeup, or is it something within our power to change?
Some people just don't need them so making blanket calorie eating statements is just annoying. If you move a lot and burn a lot then you get to eat a lot. The only time this is a problem is if you have been mistreating your body or have a disease.
However, unless you have a disease, people who get to eat more and don't gain just move more, they don't have superturbofreaky charged metabolisms.
Just for the record. I did not make a blanket calorie statement. Just making sure nobody thought I had. I said that if the plan calls for 1200 cals, then one should eat 1200 cals even if they are not hungry. This due to the fact the hunger mechanisms are often broken especially in chronic under-eater types.
So here is the freaky thing about this eating a lot stuff. I think I am moving LESS now than I used to. I lift really freakish heavy. Usually to the point where my heart is pounding in my throat and my whole body shakes. I do this 3-4 times a week. I have all but stopped my cardio except for the walking that I do because as my bf gets lower I simply cannot do all that cardio and lift. I would never believe this could happen if you had just told me about it. I swear it is true though.
To be fair, I am a "live-wire" kind of a person. I rarely ever sit still or relax if you will. I walk circles in my office on the phone all day and I twitch or fidget when I am sitting. I do not have a TV and do have a farm that I try to upkeep mostly alone. Perhaps that is all good enough activity? I don't know. I just know that I don't have to do all that freak'n cardio anymore.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Etana
IT would be interesting to hear what foods Karla "pigs out on' at the hotel, vs what foods the hungry gals are eating.... Is it just our different body-makeup, or is it something within our power to change?
Etana
I think I am a Mesomorph type of person not an ectomorph like you might think. When I first started with my trainer I was eating around 1400 cals a day of food and then doing some cheats here and there. Probably more than I remembered at the time. I ate a LOT of processed foods and sugars. My metabolism was tanked out. He taught me that I needed to eat more and more often and then he helped me to understand the value of eating specific types of foods and not eating others. Slowly (week by week) he eliminated foods from my diet. The pretzels were the hardest for me btw.
Today I eat almost no processed sugars including white breads or pretzles. I will eat a piece of whole wheat (pita for pizza), and occasionally some popcorn but other than that, most of my carbs come from fresh fruits and vegetables. I don't have anything against cheating and because I believe that it all boils down to calories overall I would except I generally do not do it. This is because when I do and eat something loaded with sugar it makes me feel too badly for hours and hours. In fact if I eat foods loaded with animal fat the same thing happens.
So when I pig out at restarants I am eating primarily whole foods and lots of meat. I went to El Pollo Loco and got a 4 piece meal (all white meat) with cole slaw and a salad when I first got to CA last week. Then I went to the grocery store and got some peaches and had some of those (I think 2). Before I went to bed I had cottage cheese and melon. The next day I had a TON of sushi so got some white rice in that meal and loads of sodium. (Still it is hard to overeat sushi) When we got home I ate peaches again (they are so in season here) and some 90% chocolate pieces. (here I had only small pieces so I was okay- probably less than 1.5 oz total)
Most days I eat more than 6 times a day. A typical meal might be apple, cottage cheese and peanut butter, cottage cheese and fruit, chicken and vegetables, pizza (using pita bread, turkey burger, etc). I always start my day with 20 or more grams of protein, end my day with 20 or more grams of protein and end each workout the same. I usually eat bigger meals in the "hour of power" which is the hour after a workout. Some days I split my workout so that I do part of it in the AM and part in the PM and this allows me to eat bigger meals 2 times that day. It also allows me to get in heavier lifts.
For whatever cals I am shooting for during the week I try do 1.5 g of protein per lb of bw and at least .4g of fat per lb of bw. Adding more fat to my diet recently has really helped me to lose weight. It used to be hard for me to do but I am adjusting.
Hope this answers the question (sheds some light) a bit.
__________________
The BIGGER I get the smaller you look
Etana, as a self-professed "professional dieter" I think that you might have made your own case for why you need to force yourself to eat the calories outlined in the program. As Leigh wrote somewhere else, REPAIR is designed to help undereaters learn how to eat more. If you're struggling to get the starting number of calories that Leigh outlined in her program, I'd say that maybe you need to focus on really pushing yourself to meet that caloric goal. After all, you don't want to be dieting forever, do you? I know that I sure don't--I will eventually be able to eat maint. and be less strict about my food choices, but I'm following a plan so that I can get to that point.
Good for you for making so many changes to your diet. I'm making most of those changes as well, and you're right--WHAT I eat has a huge impact on if I'm hungry or not when I've hit my deficit caloric goal for the day.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kfisherx
To be fair, I am a "live-wire" kind of a person. I rarely ever sit still or relax if you will. I walk circles in my office on the phone all day and I twitch or fidget when I am sitting. I do not have a TV and do have a farm that I try to upkeep mostly alone. Perhaps that is all good enough activity? I don't know. I just know that I don't have to do all that freak'n cardio anymore.
Uh, yeah. That sounds like a total NEAT day. I can't imagine how you were doing all of that AND tons of cardio, too! lol No wonder you can't do tons of cardio. hehehe
__________________
"Do you choose to simply know the path, or do you choose to walk it?"
Your body keeps an accurate journal regardless of what you write down...
Etana, as a self-professed "professional dieter" I think that you might have made your own case for why you need to force yourself to eat the calories outlined in the program. As Leigh wrote somewhere else, REPAIR is designed to help undereaters learn how to eat more. If you're struggling to get the starting number of calories that Leigh outlined in her program, I'd say that maybe you need to focus on really pushing yourself to meet that caloric goal. After all, you don't want to be dieting forever, do you? I know that I sure don't--I will eventually be able to eat maint. and be less strict about my food choices, but I'm following a plan so that I can get to that point.
Good for you for making so many changes to your diet. I'm making most of those changes as well, and you're right--WHAT I eat has a huge impact on if I'm hungry or not when I've hit my deficit caloric goal for the day.
e
UNDEREATER???? MEEEEE???? ha ha ha ha ha
Ya got the wrong gal
At my worst in my 20's i'd bring home a shopping bag of oreos, milk, 2 pints of icecream (after eating pizza on my way home), and put 1/2 of it all away, fall asleep, wake and eat the rest. Til at some point I realized this was my HEROIN.
Then even after I started to eat my stirfry brown rice and vegies as a hippie, the 2 pints of Hagendasz weren't too far away, nor the binges. Diet and binge. Diet for 4 months, binge for 6 months
Then 3 years ago I found Body For Life, and my proteins carbs got much more proportioned.
But candy and overeating always lures me. Chocolate is a magnet, luring me. I steal chocolate from office workers desks. I hunt for chocolate at 3pm. If there is no chocolate in the house, I'll eat the worst food there is: cheese; no cheese, how about cereal? no cereal, how about binging on dried cranberries.. ALL of that keeps me hungry.
++++++++
Eating as I am now, clean and at my macro and totally unprocessed foods keeps me completely full and satisfied.
I've been so satisfied on REPAIR, since I'm not exercising and eating 100% clean, that is why I sometimes feel I have to push to get in the last meal..... NOT because I'm an undereater Yes, I am doing the program as written and eating all. I have to eat it all earlier in the day, I think.
> After all, you don't want to be dieting forever, do you?
NO, that's why "I'm" doing REPAIR; "get in and get out." love it!
Quote:
Originally Posted by maggieandmommy
...and you're right--WHAT I eat has a huge impact on if I'm hungry or not when I've hit my deficit caloric goal for the day.
This was the main point of the message I wrote, commenting on those of you who are hungry all day.
Etana
p.s. I don't mean "professional dieter" or "professional" in any formally trained sort of way; just life experience... I know there are 'professionals' in the health field here on these boards.
Etana you mentioned that in the past you have eaten below 1200, intermittent fasting, etc. That is UNDEREATING if you ask me.
back to your question about food choices. Yes, I am hungry despite eating 30-40% in protein, tons of fruits/veggies, no processed foods etc
I am less hungry eating this way then if I ate lots of simple carbs, sugar, processed foods, etc but still quite hungry nonetheless.
To be fair, I am a "live-wire" kind of a person. I rarely ever sit still or relax if you will. I walk circles in my office on the phone all day and I twitch or fidget when I am sitting. I do not have a TV and do have a farm that I try to upkeep mostly alone. Perhaps that is all good enough activity?
Karla - Your "baseline" calorie burn is SO high based on what you describe, it's no wonder you eat a lot. One point I recall from FLTS (or somewhere in these forums) is that figety people like you tend to be much leaner because you get so much NEAT.
I am NOT a fidgety person. I can, if I let myself, sit on the couch with my feet up and watch tv or surf the web for hours... truly. I wish that weren't the case, but it's probably a large part (along with an AWFUL diet) of how I got fat when I was younger. I have to MAKE myself move more, be conscious of getting NEAT, because I won't do it if left to my own devices. At least I'm aware of it now
I'm not wearing my Bugg right now (needed a break after 6-7 straight weeks and I have a pretty good idea of my burn) but I did notice that it motivated me to MOVE because I wanted to see that graph have spikes in it...
Quote:
Originally Posted by LaraT
Etana you mentioned that in the past you have eaten below 1200, intermittent fasting, etc. That is UNDEREATING if you ask me.
back to your question about food choices. Yes, I am hungry despite eating 30-40% in protein, tons of fruits/veggies, no processed foods etc
I am less hungry eating this way then if I ate lots of simple carbs, sugar, processed foods, etc but still quite hungry nonetheless.
Etana - two things: First, your tendency to binge (which is what I'd label the eating described earlier in this thread) along with your former restrictive dieting tells me that you DO need to just follow the numbers as laid out. You may have a good idea of what to do based on being a "professional" dieter, but you still have to DO IT. You've both over- and under-eaten in the past. If that were me, I'd think that I'm not a good judge of how much to eat if left to my own body signals...
Secondly - yes, by the time we get here we do know what to eat and how it affects us. I am much like Lara, in that hunger is an ongoing problem.
I eat a minumum of 30% protein, but beyond that, I think this forum is a great example of how different programs work for different people. Bottom line is that nothing I've tried that involves eating at a deficit (ie: changing my macros, changing my deficit levels, changing the quality of food) abates my hunger. I may be more or less hungry on certain eating plans, but I am always hungry when eating at deficit. Period.
Wish I could be someone who isn't hungry, who feels "full" on 1200 or even 1400 kcals, but I just don't .
Etana you mentioned that in the past you have eaten below 1200, intermittent fasting, etc. That is UNDEREATING if you ask me.
back to your question about food choices. Yes, I am hungry despite eating 30-40% in protein, tons of fruits/veggies, no processed foods etc
I am less hungry eating this way then if I ate lots of simple carbs, sugar, processed foods, etc but still quite hungry nonetheless.
When I did ESE, my total calories for the week never averaged under 1200/day. When I was tempted to drop lower than that, I came here to FLTS and began REPAIR
Lara and Bytsi,
Are you less hungry if you eat more than 40% protein?
However, I just thought: if you are lucky enough to be eating 1500 or 2000 calories now, than more than 40% protein is probably too much... But I am only talking from my experience on 1200 calories
Etana - two things: First, your tendency to binge (which is what I'd label the eating described earlier in this thread) along with your former restrictive dieting tells me that you DO need to just follow the numbers as laid out. You may have a good idea of what to do based on being a "professional" dieter, but you still have to DO IT. You've both over- and under-eaten in the past. If that were me, I'd think that I'm not a good judge of how much to eat if left to my own body signals....
Thanks for the reply!
For the past 5 months I have written and measured (not weighed until I came here) my food, kept at first 1400 then 1200 average, TT, HIIT, & Jazzercise. At the end of that period I had a 3 day binge. Then I began REPAIR. So although my tendency/desire is to binge, I have managed about 5 years, long months alternating deficit dieting and binging, but especially in the past 5 months I have been super diligent, and have no results of fat loss or inches lost.
That is why I am here, doing REPAIR, as Leigh has written it. I was just commenting here, in this conversation, saying that when I eat more than 40% protein (I'm eating 45-48% now), I'm not hungry.
Karla - Your "baseline" calorie burn is SO high based on what you describe, it's no wonder you eat a lot. One point I recall from FLTS (or somewhere in these forums) is that figety people like you tend to be much leaner because you get so much NEAT.
But somehow along the line I got pretty darned fat AND I tanked my metabolism and stalled and struggled. I think that when I was obese that I did not fidget as much 'cause I was always sluggish compared to now. Back then no amount of work or working out dropped the weight. It wasn't until I started to eat super cleanly and all the freak'n time and started lifting that all this magic stuff started to happen. Along with the magic came this excess energy that I feel like I cannot control. I just want to move all the time 'cause I feel good and healthy and alive. Really it is not the case that I am one of those naturally skinny people with nothing to worry about though it sure seems so now. It seems no matter how much I eat now, I won't gain. Guess I am a "poster child" for the repaired metabolism.
Honestly though it took so much faith to get here. Embracing eating is just plain scary and yet it seems to be the thing that keeps off the weight. If you do it too much though you get fat.
I just don't get it right now but I am not complaining. In the overall trend scheme I am doing exactly what I set out to do. I just have to back off the weight loss a tiny bit more again as I burn higher.
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The BIGGER I get the smaller you look
I thought you lost most of your weight awhile back and were pretty much at normal weight (weight not body fat) when you started with your trainer last year?
I thought you lost most of your weight awhile back and were pretty much at normal weight (weight not body fat) when you started with your trainer last year?
I was almost to normal weight (I think I was 5lbs or so away) but my bf was 31% when I saw him. I looked horrible. I also injured myself (overuse hamstring tear in tendon and muscle) from doing so much running and cardio the year prior. It took me almost a year to heal those injuries in part due to my 1400 cal diet. Even with that low cal diet by the time I saw my trainer I could not lose any more weight by myself. It was a very bad place overall. Took a lot of paradigm shifts.
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The BIGGER I get the smaller you look
UNDEREATER???? MEEEEE???? ha ha ha ha ha
Ya got the wrong gal
I was just responding to the idea that you mentioned earlier about thinking that maybe you needed to be at 800 to lose and that you had to push yourself to eat all 1200 calories on some days.
Like somebody (Bytsi, I think?) said, a history of binges (even if that was years ago) and undereating might be a good clue to do as you're doing and follow the program as exactly as you can even if you have to force yourself to eat. It sounds like that's the conclusion that you've come to, so yay.
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"Do you choose to simply know the path, or do you choose to walk it?"
Your body keeps an accurate journal regardless of what you write down...
I was just responding to the idea that you mentioned earlier about thinking that maybe you needed to be at 800 to lose and that you had to push yourself to eat all 1200 calories on some days.
Like somebody (Bytsi, I think?) said, a history of binges (even if that was years ago) and undereating might be a good clue to do as you're doing and follow the program as exactly as you can even if you have to force yourself to eat. It sounds like that's the conclusion that you've come to, so yay.
Yeah, I have...
Well, I can't exactly say, "i have to FORCE myself" to eat,"
But sometimes it is 11:30 and I still have a mini-meal to go... I need to adjust my meals earlier, that's all. This program is similar but not the same as Body For Life... just some adjustments needed.
I'm feeling very optimistic and good after 1 week REPAIR!
Hungry or not...
True or no, I've seen it happen to plenty of people (not all) and usually it takes a few days at a fairly high deficit before it kicks in.
And 1200 kcal is AWFUL for me. Like you, I've tried many balances and higher protein (but NOT low-carb) works relatively well... but as Leigh has said - I have to learn to get in, get out, and "embrace the suck" of being tired and hungry.
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Linear Mode
