Why am I getting more hungry the thinner I get?

Okay, so I am not even close to being thin yet but I have so far lost just about 85lbs and have gone from a bit over 300lbs to now about 223 or so pounds. I am 5ft2 and 31 years old.  I know that I have a long way to go.

Anyway, I have done most of my weight loss by aiming for around 1500 calories a day and under 40 grams of fat.  On most days I don't get to over 25 or 30 grams of fat simply because of food choices rather than doing so on purpose.  

I usually exercise between 30 and 40 minutes every weekday.  

I have PCOS and so things can go really slowly for me but this has been working.

Nothing, to my knowledge, has changed.  Yet, up until now I have been very okay with 1500 a day and often would be a bit (but not a lot) under that simply because I was full.  I am eating a lot of Low Gi stuff that fills you up and isn't very high on calories.

For about the last two weeks, for the first time, I am feeling really hungry if I try to keep to 1500 and find myself going to 1700 or so a few days just to not feel like my stomach is eating itself.

I see the big 100 in the horizon but I don't get why I am getting so much more hungry as I get smaller.  Any ideas?

 

Are you becoming more active as you get slimmer perhaps?   You know, it's not a bad thing to have a day every so often where you eat more than normal.   As a general rule, if you feel hungry - eat.  Keep chosing those Low GI foods because they're really helping you combat the insulin resistance that tends to go with PCOS.  At your weight you should proabably be able to lose weight on 1700, so why not stay with that for a while?  As you get into the 100's you could trim it back to 1500.

The heavier you are, the more your body needs to fuel - and so the more calories you require overall. You might not've been eating enough (doesn't this sound bizarre?) at 1500, considering you also exercise! According to http://www.apennyearned.co.uk/bmr-calculator. html this calculator, you'd burn 1771 calories doing nothing at all. So, perhaps try eating that level on your workout days? It may help kick your metabolism in the bum in the long run. ^__^ Congrats on your loss so far, by the way, that's brilliant!

I don't think that I am any more active.  I am more or less doing my same 30-40 minutes on my exercise bike (depending on how long whatever I am watching at the same time lasts) and a bit of walking the dogs every few days.

Is it possible for my metabolism to have improved or do you pretty much stick with that you are given?

A sort of related question comes to mind when I mention exercise.  I have long wondered if I can trust the activity section of calorie counter with how it calculates how many calories I burn during exercise.

For example, today, I did 38 minutes on my exercise bike and in that time did about 10 and a half miles (normally do about 12 but was lazy) and the activity log here has that as a burn of 456 calories.  Does that sound possible?  I always wonder if those numbers are correct.

If they are that means if I am eating 1500 calories it is really like 1050 due to the exercise?  Am I getting this right?

So many different daily calorie requirement calculators have given me different answers on what I need daily that it got confusing and a bit frustrating which is why I went for 1500.

As far as low gi..that is just how I eat these days.  I do have insulin resistance and the low GI has helped to control things and it had crossed my mind that maybe I was getting more hungry because of something to do with insulin.  Nearly every member of my family is diabetic but me.  I did go and get tested though and they said I haven't developed diabetes which I partially put down to eating to control insulin through Low Gi.

 

 

 

 

I don't actually trust the calorie counters on calories burned.  I much prefer to set the average at 'light' or 'medium' exercise to reflect reality and only add on extra exercise if it's significantly more than I'd normally do.  And even then, I'm more likely to just eat a little more rather than do lots of complicated maths.

Metabolism can change.  Usually, if you've been cutting back on calories for a long time it tends to slow down rather than speed up.  But I think you can worry about these things unduly... :-)

Seriously... try 1700 for a while.   The worst that will happen is that you'll lose the horrible hunger pangs but lose weight a little more slowly.  The best that happens is that you stop getting the horrible hunger-pangs, you lose weight at the same speed or possibly faster.

I actually had this happen to me not too long ago. I am getting really near my goal weight and I was suddenly HUNGRY again. I raised my calories up 100 per day once a week for a couple weeks (so a 200 calorie a day raise overall), felt much better, still kept losing weight at pretty much the same rate.

I'm currently experiencing the same thing.  I think part of it is that I've incorporated more non-exercise-physical-activity into my life (walking to any store that's realistically walkable, biking to work, the school term has started so I'm back to standing for a lot of the day, etc.) so that may be helping my metabolism.  However, I've also been stuck on a plateau for the last two weeks so I suspect that what has happened is that my body's burned all the "easy" fat - i.e. the stuff I put on over the last year or two - and now I have to start burning off the fat that's been with me for 15+ years.  Thoroughly unscientific, I know, but it does seem that it's easier to lose "new" weight than "old" weight so that may be a factor. 

Someone might have already said this (I just kind of skimmed through the responses), but you probably have more muscle mass than you used to which burns more calories than fat, so you're getting hungrier. Listen to your body - if it wants food, give it food! As long as your eating healthy food and your sure it is actual hunger pangs (and not just boredom, or thirst). Drink a glass of water first and wait a few minutes and if you still feel hungy have a snack consisting of healthy fat/protein/whole grains.

I think your calories are way too low.  Did you go to the tools, BMI, Burn Meter, and Calorie Target screens to see what your calorie count should be at your current weight of 223?  It would be 1600 if you were sedentary which you are not.  When you are asked to enter a goal date, leave it blank and the program will determine your calorie count to lose 1.5 lbs a week which is the recommendation.  It seems that your body is trying to tell you to add more calories.  With your activity level, I would say 1700 is a good choice. 

Hi!  I also have PCOS and lots of people in my family are diabetic . . . we are doing a great thing for ourselves in losing weight and eating low GI, before we get diabetes too.

Congratulations on your loss!

I think it is definitely possible that your metabolism is improving.  I think it is very strange that you are hungrier now without any change.  My hunger level seems to fluctuate all on it's own with no correlation to eating or activity level.  I would not worry about adding a couple hundred extra calories occasionally if they are below maintenance and you are truly hungry.

 

I have worried in the past that I might be going to low but then even at my highest weight if I went higher than 1800 I didn't lose weight.  Admitly, at my highest weight I wasn't doing much exercise other than walking because I actually had to drop enough weight to be within the safe weight range for my exercise bike.

I have had so many different answers from various online tools about what my calories should be that it does take my head for a whirl sometimes.  It has taken my nearly two years now to drop these 85 pounds so I am hoping going slowly will be the right path.  It just feels weird that after two years of eating mostly correctly (everybody has the odd off day) that I am getting a grumbling tummy now.

I haven't weighed this low since I was about 12 years old, which has to be a good thing for my body.  However, I have also probably had PCOS (though I didn't know it until later) since I was about 12 or 13 too and so my cycle has never been normal.  I started early and then around 15 I stopped having periods at all (sorry guys) and then barely ever had one at all until about four years ago and then suddenly I was having a non-stop one. I am on pills and a contraceptive coil that stop me having a period so it is hard to judge if I am having proper cycles.

So, one thing that has crossed my mind is maybe after all these years and going back to the weight I pretty much was at when my period started  if my cycles are kicking in again.  Do cycles make you more hungry at certain times of the month?  I was without one to speak of for SO many years that I don't even really know what goes with it?

I know that a lot of the other symptoms from PCOS have become under control for me recently.  I used to have hair growth and that has more or less stopped. So, the thought that perhaps my hormones were adjusting themselves has crossed my mind.  It is so weird (but a good weird) to have my body changing.

I have my monthly weighin at the nurse next week. I think I get a bit stressed the week before that too just on the chance that I won't drop much even though there is no reason for that stress as the nurse is very nice and encouraging.

It sounds like after my weighin I should experiment with going up with my calories a bit for the following month and see if it makes any difference to both my tummy and my rate of weight loss.

 

 

 

That is all very good news!  From what I have read about PCOS, it is possible that with weight loss you can stop having PCOS anymore.  I have lost a lot of my symptoms, but I am still hoping on some.  PCOS is very strange and I encourage you to read up on it.  One thing is that PCOS is both caused by and causes insulin resistance which is a metabolism thing.  Both PCOS and insulin resistance affect our hormones.  It is all very complicated. 

Since your metabolism has improved and you are exercising more and more, you may be able to eat more than you used to and still lose weight. 

You are doing all the right things!  Keep up the good work!

Original Post by sarah_jayne:

So, one thing that has crossed my mind is maybe after all these years and going back to the weight I pretty much was at when my period started  if my cycles are kicking in again.  Do cycles make you more hungry at certain times of the month? 

 Oh yeah!  The week before my period, I'm ravenous.  Essentially, I get a four week pattern of hunger:

Week 1: low to normal appetite; relatively easy to stay below 1600 cals/day (BMR is 1450-1500, depending who you ask)

Week 2: normal appetite; I typically want to eat about 1700 cals/day

Week 3: ravenous; very difficult to eat below 1700 cals/day; typically eat 1800+ and exercise extra to make up for it; also, this week, I need more sleep than usual

Week 4: TTOM; appetite back to normal

Original Post by ivyrose:

I think your calories are way too low.  Did you go to the tools, BMI, Burn Meter, and Calorie Target screens to see what your calorie count should be at your current weight of 223?  It would be 1600 if you were sedentary which you are not.  When you are asked to enter a goal date, leave it blank and the program will determine your calorie count to lose 1.5 lbs a week which is the recommendation.  It seems that your body is trying to tell you to add more calories.  With your activity level, I would say 1700 is a good choice. 

For some reason, when I do the calorie advice thing it tells me I should be eating 1350 calories a day which just doesn't feel right.

This could be way out there, but somebody on this site said that they thought they kept being really hungry, even after eating but then got diagnosed with Acid reflux.  Could it be the burning feeling you have is that?  Sometimes after a really good workout, my stomach feels kind of burning, not hungry,  and a couple of antacids do the trick.  Just a thought.  Great Job though!  I hope you figure out what you need.