Hunger

[Tokash]

My body has a pattern to weight loss, when I am about to take a dip in weight I get EXTREAMLY hungry to the point of hangry. Today is one of those days. I get so hungry that I get crampy and nothing satisfies my hunger. Today I had two protein smoothies. Depending on what I put in the smoothie it typically ranges from 25- 30 grams of protein. Today one was 27 and the other was 35 because I used a protein shake and added things to it. In a typical day I have one smoothie; today I had 2 because I was starving and tried to hold it off. The 35 gram one I had at 330 and by 530-6 I wanted to eat a horse.

Any tips on how to get through these days? Thankfully when it happens it's only a day or 2 that it lasts and I do really good at sticking to my calories/protein/ water but I'm not satisfied at all and usually end up going to bed early to avoid eating when I shouldn't.

 

[Kayleigh]

Some days I’m not that hungry and barely eat anything and other days I’m ravenous. I tried drinking more water yesterday when I was having hunger spells. I drank water with lemon and that sensation passed. I’m an emotional eater and have struggled with determining real hunger from emotional eating.

 

[Tokash]

Some days I’m not that hungry and barely eat anything and other days I’m ravenous. I tried drinking more water yesterday when I was having hunger spells. I drank water with lemon and that sensation passed. I’m an emotional eater and have struggled with determining real hunger from emotional eating.

This isn't emotional at all. Most days I'm not hungry to only hungry at meal times. I have had this dynamic even before surgery. Extreamly hungry before I drop in weight, just significantly more noticeable since surgery.

 

[WazzuCoug]

I often experience a similar thing. I'll be a little more insatiable, and I always think..."well, I'm going to weigh more tomorrow after this" and then the next day, or maybe two days later I'll suddenly be down a few pounds. The extra hunger is almost always a single day here or there, for me, perhaps once a week.

As far as getting through those days, I don't know that I'd worry about it too much. Unless you are going off the rails (which I know you are not) with calorically dense foods, processed foods, sugary foods, and such, you are almost certainly still maintaining a caloric deficit. I think the food choices we make are much more important than the overall calories.

I sometimes feel that an occasional increase in calories actually tells our brain that food is abundant and it doesn't need to hold on to fat or reserve energy. That being said, I have no scientific research to back that up...it is totally just what I "feel" sometimes. I haven't counted any calories since I was about 2 months post-op. So basically, for the last four months I've been trying to eat intuitively and focus on eating the right foods for me. I feel pretty good about it. I'm not quite at 6 months post op and I'm down 80lbs since surgery on July 16, 2020 and 90.5 lbs since July 2, 2020.

 

[Tokash]

I often experience a similar thing. I'll be a little more insatiable, and I always think..."well, I'm going to weigh more tomorrow after this" and then the next day, or maybe two days later I'll suddenly be down a few pounds. The extra hunger is almost always a single day here or there, for me, perhaps once a week.

As far as getting through those days, I don't know that I'd worry about it too much. Unless you are going off the rails (which I know you are not) with calorically dense foods, processed foods, sugary foods, and such, you are almost certainly still maintaining a caloric deficit. I think the food choices we make are much more important than the overall calories.

I sometimes feel that an occasional increase in calories actually tells our brain that food is abundant and it doesn't need to hold on to fat or reserve energy. That being said, I have no scientific research to back that up...it is totally just what I "feel" sometimes. I haven't counted any calories since I was about 2 months post-op. So basically, for the last four months I've been trying to eat intuitively and focus on eating the right foods for me. I feel pretty good about it. I'm not quite at 6 months post op and I'm down 80lbs since surgery on July 16, 2020 and 90.5 lbs since July 2, 2020.

I'm not "worried" about it its more of a major distraction and the intense hunger pulls me from focusing on work. This doesn't happen weekly but rather more infrequent. Since I started losing decent again I noticed in past 3 weeks I lose 4, 1 and 3 pounds. The weeks with the bigger loss it was very noticeable. Like I said iisually go to bed early to stop the focus on being hungry and the physical cramp that goes with it. But during the day its really hard to focus on work.

 

[3momchaos]

I kind of do the same thing. I try to drink more water or have smaller, quelling, snacks. Maybe just a couple peanuts to stop the hunger a little.

 

[Kayleigh]

This isn't emotional at all. Most days I'm not hungry to only hungry at meal times. I have had this dynamic even before surgery. Extreamly hungry before I drop in weight, just significantly more noticeable since surgery.

I would suggest reaching out to your RD to see what he/she thinks. You’ve been losing weight and following your recommendations so perhaps it’s a temporary phase your body is going through.

 

[Tokash]

I would suggest reaching out to your RD to see what he/she thinks. You’ve been losing weight and following your recommendations so perhaps it’s a temporary phase your body is going through.

This isn't anything new for me. It has always been a pattern, just not as intense. Even pre surgery when I would yoyo weight it was the same thing. Pretty sure it's the norm for me.