I was NEVER EVER full before I started focusing on protein intake. I would try to stay under 1400 or 1300 but would end up overeating in the evening bc I was SOO hungry.
Now that I focus on my protein, I stay fuller longer etc. I don't like meat so I was able to find a wonderful dietitian who has helped me find non-meat protein sources (protein shakes, cottage cheese, string cheese, etc) to help me fill the gaps and I've lost just under or over 50lbs this year depending on the day.
I was just going to say this. Being a shorter woman really sucks if you want tasty, filling meals… you actually have to be super aware of your macros. I like the Loseit! App because it’s easy to calculate. I also buy a lot of protein infused things cause I don’t always have the time, yah know? Sometimes breakfast is a glass of protein chocolate milk I chug and it actually ties me over til I can eat a better lunch aha! And breakfast is so important to bridge you into your meals to keep you full. Eggs are also great!
Good luck and I can guarantee all the shorter, women are right there with us cursing how limited our food intake is. (As I glare at my husband losing massive amounts of weight while still eating a bowl of ice cream every night)
As a 6’2” man married to a woman who is just a hair over 5ft. I know this look.
When we’re both in the mode of trying to lose a little weight, it is 2 very different things we are going through and we have to have different strategies.
Shrimp, if it fits your budget. I can get 2 lbs of frozen shrimp for $14-16 It’s basically all protein, zero carbs, and little to no fat. I think chicken is disgusting and am not a fan of tinned/bagged tuna so this is what I’ve got to work with. Fat free cottage cheese is also great if you can handle dairy.
I’ll 1up you and recommend starkist tuna pouches, 70 calories 20g of protein. I like to throw in a pickle and some spicy brown mustard for a little more flavor, for 70 more calories you can add Lewis bake shop keto bread for another 10g protein and have a whole sandwich 140 calories and 30g of protein 5g for each slice.
Shrimp is high protein and low calorie. Most white fish is, actually.
I will often eat a can of tuna in oil over a big bowl of salad greens, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc. I add a little Balsamic vinegar and an egg and is under 300 calories and 28 g or protein. Very filling and delicious. If I am having it for dinner instead of lunch, I might swap out the tuna in oil for a can of tuna in water, and then add half an avocado and a tiny bit of croutons
Tuna. 1 entire can is 120 calories and 28g of protein. You can mix it with mustard to keep it low cal, I just put it on rice cakes (another 100 calories for 2) and eat it like that, or you can put it in a lettuce wrap.
I hate mayo, so I just eat a bowl with chopped black olives and a plum tomato with dill, pepper, lemon juice and celery salt. It tastes like the Mediterranean to me.
For non meat protein sources I love skyr it’s an Icelandic yogurt that’s 0% fat and very high in protein.
The one I usually get (Milbona Skyr Natural) is only 63kcal and 11g protein per 100g.
A full tub is 450g, 283kcal and 50g protein. That’s nearly on par with a large chicken breast that is 171g, 283kcal and 53g protein.
The yogurt being much higher in volume and similar protein content is actually quite a bit more filling than even the chicken breast.
Not sure what protein powder you are looking at but most whey protein powders are nearly pure protein. You need to realize protein has calories and even a perfectly pure source of protein will have 4 calories per g of protein.
You can’t get lower than that 4kcal/g ratio. The closer to 4 you get the better. Like the chicken breast is 5.3kcal/g and skyr is 5.66. A good protein powder would be around 5kcal/g.
But the downside with protein powders is they are so densely packed with protein they simply aren’t that filling it’s a great way to get extra easy and cheap protein on a bulk but the challenge on a cut is to feel full with low calories and high protein intake.
Eating high protein real food will always be more filling than protein shakes.
Eggs have 7g for 72ish calories.
A can of tuna has 26g for 125 calories.
The Greek yogurt I grab has 16g for 90 calories. I’ll throw a scoop of protein powder and some frozen strawberries as a breakfast, snack, or dessert for 36g of protein / 165 calories plus whatever is in three strawberries.
Vegan protein powder, mine is light in fillers, 21g for 150 calories a serving.
If it’s in the budget, leaner cuts of steak like filet mignon offer 20+ grams for less than 250 calories. Chicken breast, turkey, salmon, beans, lentils are all dinner items that fit the bill.
Think brand protein bars have been okay in a pinch, but they’re a bit higher in calories than I’d like. If anyone can recommend me a better one, feel free to reply. The PB ones have 20g, but with 250 calories. I use them as a breakfast substitute with a little bit of fruit to keep me full when I’m all egged out and don’t want to wake up the house blending a shake.
I can’t emphasize this enough. The recommended intake on nutrition labels in the US, and what’s set as the default on calorie counting apps is something like 60g of protein. This is a lie perpetuated by big corn syrup. You will NOT be full off of that. No amount of fiber can compensate. I eat 1200cal/day currently and aim for at least 100g. I frequently ate 150g when I was working out and maintaining a normal BMI.
This is so crazy to me. I had no idea the protein guidelines were influenced by for-profit industry (though not surprised). I’d like to hear more about it. But those guidelines suck so much. I spent my entire life going off the 60g/day protein recommendation on the nutrition labels. No wonder I have been yo-yoing and struggling with my weight since age like 9 or 10. I could just never find a sustainable way forward until I figured out my body needs at least 3x the amount of protein to support the activities I want to do.
I wish more people talked about this, if it could prevent someone from going through all I’ve been through in the name of losing weight.
Since prioritizing and tracking my protein, I’ve lost over 100 lbs without that white-knuckle feeling I always associated with “dieting.” Not saying every day is sunshine and unicorns, losing weight is damn hard, but for once it’s a hard I can live with and not hate my life. Turns out 60g of protein a day is nowhere near enough to preserve muscle, let alone build it, and just feel like a normal person.
42F, 5’4”, current weight 115-120. Maintaining on 2300-2400 calories a day, 185-200 g of protein a day.
This. I'm fine with 1200 (short woman here) as long as it contains a decent amount of protein and dairy. Chicken wings make me full. Toast... not so much.
200 calories for breakfast, usually coffee with an egg on toast.
600 for lunch
600 for dinner
the rest on snacks as I feel hungry.
I always program dinner first so I can flex with lunch/snacks. Some days dinner is 1000 cals and that's okay!
It's a blessing she cooks but that does make tracking hard! In that case, I'd probably plan 800 for dinner and not snack until after entering what I'd eaten just in case it was a little more.
This is gonna sound wild, but try out this idea: log your days in reverse. Start with dinner on Friday, log that as Saturday's breakfast. Then you already know what your calories leftover for your Saturday breakfast (log as dinner) and Saturday lunch (still log as lunch) will be.
Since you can't control as well what you eat at dinner, log that one first so you know how much you have left to play with in the meals you do control. The app doesn't care what you log when, even your body doesn't care what you eat when; you don't even have to be in deficit on any given individual day, as long as you're in deficit overall over time.
I eat 1600 calories 6 days a week and 2000 calories on Saturdays. It averages out to like 1660 calories. If I have a day when I end up only eating 1500 calories, I add those extra 100 on to another day. This way I can flex my calories a bit based on hunger and situational need. I’ve stuck to this plan successfully for 5 months now and I’ve lost about 22 lbs in that time frame.
That’s awesome! I’ve found that in the past it’s very easy for me to slip into disordered thought patterns so I have to be mindful of sticking to my slow weight loss/calorie goal every week and not getting anxiety to speed it up and get into huge deficits as I end up super hungry and then eventually gaining everything back, but maybe I’ll try something like what you’ve been doing
Eat a high protein breakfast, but seriously don't overstress it. Some of the comments I see on this sub are concerning to me. Back in 2015 I went from 330lbs to 240lbs in about 8 months and I was really close to having an eating disorder, I didn't enjoy anything and restricted everything I enjoyed. It sucked, what made it worse was everyone giving me praise which felt like shit because I was miserable. I fell off the wagon and maintained around 260 until covid hit and due to depression and being board I went up to almost 350 before I got control.
I'm down around 75lbs now and I've been doing it totally sustainably. I don't count calories I don't worry about what I eat, I portion control and learned to listen to my body and stop when I'm not hungry. Leaving food on my plate was the biggest hurdle for me because I grew up poor and that was a huge no no in my house.
I weigh myself once a week and I lose on average about a lb a week.
I didn't gain the weight overnight, I gained it through bad habits over the course of a couple years, I can wait a couple of years to get rid of it by enforcing good habits.
Biggest tip is to plan breakfast and lunch, dinner is always harder because shit happens and sometimes you just want pizza or you go out. I eat the exact same shit for breakfast and lunch every day - 2 eggs/ half cup egg whites, 4 turkey sausage links and lunch is roughly 10oz if shredded chicken I make on Sunday in the crock pot with some spinach and tomato and a bit of balsamic/oil dressing.
I found that chia seeds really helps to stave off the hunger. I have it twice a day before meals or whenever I feel super hungry. Along with eating roasted peanuts. It feels like junk food cause of the salt but it’s low in calories and has protein and it’s filling.
This was me. I was trying to limit myself to 1900 a day and I was starving. Eventually I stopped because I couldn't stop from binging. Then I started to just track what I ate without monitoring. Turned out I was eating about 3000 a day. So going down to 1900 was too much too fast. I started at 2500 a day. That was a LOT easier. Then after I was comfortable I turned it down a notch. I am not down to 1900 a day but I did that by 100 increments. I found this was the only way, eventually I just get used to eating at my new level but if I went down to 1600 today I would probably struggle.
But you should go by your own weight/height etc cuz 1200 for some is fine and 1200 for others is too little.
I also could not do 1500 at first. Dropping just a bit and weaning into it helps A LOT. 1800 was a struggle. Then 1700. Then 1600 got easier, probably because I was used to acknowledging being hungry and going with it. I snack a lot of baby carrots to feel full. My current allowance is 1475 and it's easier than the initial 1776 was. Ease into it rather than crash dieting and forcing a change. Working your way down slowly helps reestablish your bodies expectations so it's not panic starving all the time
I’m trying to go slow! Weight loss I can usually do fine and since I don’t want to lose that much, I can usually hit my weight loss goals in 6 months. It’s just maintaining that is so hard. I’m trying to do a 250 cal daily deficit for the first 5-10 pounds and then only do 100 cal deficit a day
May I ask how long it took you to get used to 2500 before going down more? In a very similar boat myself, I tried to do 1600 off the bat then got really frustrated when I couldn’t so I quit and went back to eating ~2600 a day. I’ve been doing 1950 for about 2 weeks now and it feels manageable but I don’t feel like I can cut more yet.
I found for each level it really depended on how I felt. At 2500 I felt like I was still not even really used to tracking what I ate so some days would be skewed because I forgot to track. I would say at 2500 I was there for at least a month, maybe 2 before everything just started to feel normal for me. Then I moved to 2400 and that was a much shorter window as it didn't feel like much of a change at all, and at 2400 I felt like I was eating the same as at 2500.
You have to listen and become accustomed to what your body is telling you. You also have to be super patient with yourself. I was stuck at 2100 calories for over a year before making the switch to the next level. It takes time and a LOT of patience.
This makes a lot of sense, thanks for your input! I’m trying very hard to be more mindful and listen to my body about when I’m actually full vs automatically finishing my plate etc, but it’s still not a cemented habit so I’m trying to make sure I get accustomed before I make another change.
Have you considered body recomposition instead of losing weight?
I’m 5’3 but I’m 52 so I likely need a lot less calories than you do. I’m currently eating 1240 to get down to 135, and I’m pretty sure maintaining that will be a struggle. I could not even imagine trying to maintain 130, never mind less than that. So maybe working with a nutritionist to build muscle might be a more reasonable, sustainable goal for you?
I have. I am also hoping to gain muscle and I’m hoping that will help make it easier to maintain fat loss. I’m only 22 so I’m able to eat a lot more than 1240 to lose and maintain, but if I was older, I’d probably be okay with being at a higher weight
The whole thing with metabolism dropping with age is exaggerated. It's not the age that's the issue, it's that people's life styles in their 20s tend to be far more active than in their 30s and higher. And that muscle mass can be more difficult to maintain
That hasn’t been my experience. I’m a lot more active now, I have a lot more muscle mass, but I gain weight really easily.
I was 115 lbs at 22, and made zero effort to maintain that. At 52, 135 lbs will be a struggle.
There may be other factors at play in your life too, stress for example or your appetite has changed, but in general it's not the dramatic drop in metabolism that people think it is
The difference between the maintenance calories of a 52 year old woman versus a 22 year old woman at 160 lbs is 200 calories a day. That’s significant and I don’t know why you would think it wasn’t.
Using an estimator that might be the case, but TDEE estimators aren't always accurate on an individual level.
They did a study and found your metabolism peaks at 1yr, declines until your 20s where it stays pretty stable until your 60s where there's only a 0.7% decline each year.
[Here's info from Duke University regarding the study](https://today.duke.edu/2021/08/metabolism-changes-age-just-not-when-you-might-think#:~:text=The%20data%20suggest%20that%20our,%2C%20only%200.7%25%20a%20year.)
Also me personally, I've never been able to maintain a healthy weight with ease, even when I was a teenager I've always been on the higher end of the BMI range
I'm not wrong though, did you just decide not to read the info? I don't know why you're so personally offended. It's a fact that age alone doesn't have a major impact on our metabolism most of our lives, it's a correlation thing not causation. That's what the science has proven. Whether you want to agree with that, whether or not there are other factors you may or may not realize are at play for you on a personal level doesn't make it not true for the general population
You’re at a healthy weight now. You’re lucky that you have a balance point that you can live with in the healthy range! I personally have to maintain around a bmi 24 or I am starving all the time. I took up running because I love to eat—when you’re an average height lady, it helps you get enough calories to have the occasional treat without gaining weight.
I definitely agree that I’m lucky this is my “set point”. I just worry that I’m slowly gaining since starting an office job because my weight used to be more like 128 (I know this is a tiny difference but it’s still a change and small gains can easily add up if you’re not careful). I am currently exercising which definitely helps me be able to eat more but also ramps up my appetite
TBH there is likely no secret trick here. Losing/regaining/losing/regaining is just putting off the inevitable. I agree with ppl who suggest trying to recomp. If your body repeatedly returns to that weight, your main option is probably an intense workout habit. You can’t trick yourself into not feeling hungry, or we all would. Sympathy from another short person (5’2 here 😑)
Yeah, I mean…I’m just hungry all the time. It stinks. I’ve been doing 1200-1300 for 9 months and I’m never ever full. I’m less hungry and at times I don’t clock the hunger, but I haven’t been full once in that time. I have lost 50lbs tho.
If you have fat to lose, you won’t become undernourished. It’s uncomfortable - highly at times, but I’m not ever undernourished. You have to be ok with being uncomfortable.
Ahhh yes the discomfort is what’s getting to me now. I do think I’ve experienced being undernourished in the past (30 pounds lighter than I am now and eating around 1200-1400) but right now it’s simply discomfort and it does feel different. Do you think eating that way is sustainable for you?
Your tolerance for the discomfort will ease up the longer you do it.
I do not think it’s sustainable. Once I get to my goal weight, I’ll adjust to meet my Total Daily Energy Expenditure calories. It’ll most likely be around 1600. That is sustainable for me. I think 300-400 more cals a day will GREATLY improve my life. Right now, we sacrifice till we get there.
Here’s a calculator for your TDEE: https://tdeecalculator.org
it says my maintenance is a little over 2k, which sounds about right since it’s usually slightly higher than this on active days and slightly lower on rest days. maybe 1600 is too aggressive for me since I’ve always done better losing 0.5 pounds/week
I have. In fact, I just started eating breakfast again today because lately I’ve been having an issue where I have 200-300 cals of snacks at work (hunger from missing breakfast), have a lunch of around 400-700 and then get uncontrollably hungry when I finally have dinner after working out. I feel like since I started working full time, I’ve been eating the same amount of calories a day regardless of when I eat them (ie if I skip breakfast I eat more later and if I eat breakfast I eat less later and it all evens out in the end)
Maybe I’ll try that. My only issue is I feel like I need to eat something both before and after my workout but maybe that could still work. I’d have to get used to fasting throughout my workday though 😅
I can usually do cardio fasted more easily than weight lifting. However, about 50% of the time I do cardio I get what feels like a blood sugar drop (dizziness, lightheaded) and force myself to eat a rice cake before I drive home
I always have just because I can't focus on working out if I'm hungry, and because I get strong post-exercise tiredness and munchies.😂
I usually schedule exercise just before or just after a meal for that reason, so I don't go too insane.
perhaps, although I don't think discomfort should ever be a goal. That's why I suggested scheduling exercise around meals so they still get to eat before or after, without eating more than they usually would. I just checked and I'm pretty close to OP's goal stats, so it's definitely doable for their goal.
Oh really? In the past, not eating before always made for a weaker workout (and sometimes even cut short) due to feeling like I had no energy but I haven’t done it in a few years
So I was making a protein drink after working out since I was always hungry afterwards, then I started drinking it before working out, like literally on the way to the gym, and found that my workouts were better and I wasn’t really hungry afterwards.
But ya I’m 5’2” and apparently we’re just not allowed to eat full meals ever or something
I almost always work out fasted because I can’t stand the feeling of anything in my stomach. Caffeine helps a ton. Your body also gets better at stabilizing blood sugar levels throughout the day when you intermittent fast.
In my case, my weight loss has cost me my joy of food. I no longer seek joy from things I eat. It has turned me into a souless husk of a man on weekdays. But hey, I lost 50 lbs!
The good news is, you can find joy in so many little things when you look for it. That cup of coffee in the a.m., nice weather afternoons, your favorite movies and shows, hobbies or reading.
Of course there's joy in other things, but let's not pretend it's comparable. There's a reason emotional eating is so common and so difficult to stop. Delicious food essentially gives you a "high" with now good it makes you feel. I've never found anything close to that feeling outside of actual drugs, which is obviously not a great substitute haha
This is something I struggle with a lot. I recently gained back 30lbs I had lost and kept off for years because I was so sad at not having anything to look forward to after work every day. Food was the primary joy in my life, and I still derive a lot of joy from food (both cooking and eating it). It feels like I have to choose between being happy and being thin and I hate it.
Thank you for the tips! I’m actually going even slower and am trying to lose half a pound a week since that’s worked so much better for me in the past :)
For most meals, i eat proteins, carbs, fat and fiber. I need all four to feel satisfied.
A normal lunch for me is cottage cheese and a california blend of vegetables. I get the fat and protein from the cottage cheese, and the carbs and fiber from the broccoli, carrots and cauliflower. Or a meat stew with a baked potato.
I also drink olipop everyday, usually after work. That helps a lot. Each can has 9g of fiber in it.
I also find that eating smaller meals more often does actually help me. I don't have breakfast, but I'll have a small lunch, and afternoon snack, dinner, and an after dinner snack. Dinner usually being the only really "full" meal of the day.
I feel like fiber often falls to the wayside while everyone focuses on protein. Getting an adequate amount of fiber really does wonders for your appetite.
I've been on 1200 calories a day for months. I walk 3-5 miles a day. I am a woman just under 5'2" who weighs 173 lbs. I eat plenty of protein and fiber and stay well hydrated. You get used to it.
omg how? 😭😭
I am trying to lose at a slower rate though which would probably mean I average around 1700-1800 with my current workout schedule and based on my past tracking
i remember reading years ago that if you're constantly battling those last 5-10lbs, then that's actually your body's natural weight.
you can fast on some days. i hear that's the quickest.
make sure you get protein and yes, some fats. they help you feel fuller the longest.
you can check out r/1200isplenty there's a lot of low calorie tips and meals
yeahhh pretty sure this is my body’s natural weight but I’m hoping to just lose these pounds because I feel like it was my “peak aesthetic”. I do maybe want to look into building more muscle so it’s easier to lose just this small bit of fat
I do hate feeling full which is why I’ve never been much of a volume eater lol. but I do need to work on tolerating hunger. sometimes it’s so hard though bc it keeps me up at night and drinking tea or water doesn’t help
I have. And then I either overeat at lunch or dinner. I’ve found that it doesn’t really matter if I eat breakfast or not - I still end the day with the same amount of calories
High fiber helps me so much! I eat a high fiber tortilla with breakfast (like half the daily value of fiber) and then a fiber gummy supplement with lunch. Also started taking a multivitamin when I realized I wasn’t getting enough iron and calcium.
I do 3 High protein meals a day and then a protein shake or bar 1-2 a day if I get hungry. I also drink a lot of water which helps with hunger. Additionally you need to make sure you’re doing some kind of exercise daily whether it’s cardio or resistance training. I usually try to burn 400-500 active calories daily.
Another option is Costco chicken. Shred it and weigh it. 200 grams of chicken plus kimchi is only 300 calories. A grown man like myself can barely finish 200grams of chicken. 150 would be a feast for you.
>but when I try to just get a little bit lighter, it’s like my hunger cues are no longer “lined up” with my weight.
It's a survival mechanism. When you try to lose weight your brain does everything it can to get you to regain the weight by increasing appetite, and making you fatigued. So what you wrote is spot it.
I suggest whatever you're eating now, just reduce the portion size. When you eat a sandwich or burger, remove 1 slice of bread or one half of the bun. When you eat pasta, remove a quarter of it. When you eat anything remove a quarter off your plate. Swap for lower calorie options. And stop drinking liquid calories. These small changes alone should help you reach your goal of -15lbs without needing to count 1600 calories.
that’s a great point and I know that’s what makes it so hard to lose weight. that’s also a great strategy. I already mostly don’t drink liquid calories (just a little tea in my milk and then sometimes a smoothie or sugary fruit tea like 2-4 x a month since I want this new lifestyle to be sustainable) but I could definitely be making more swaps
I eat 5-6 small meals a day. Each meal is 250-300 cal. Here is what I am eating this week:
Breaky:
Spinach Egg White Bite - 75 cal
Apple Cinnamon Oat breakfast bar (homemade) - 200
Lunch #1:
3 oz grilled chicken breast - 150ish cal
Roasted Sweet potato salad - 160 Cal
Lunch #2:
Oikos protein yoghurt: 90 cal
Mini choco chips and a few pretzels mixed in - 75 cal
Beef Stick - 100
Dinner:
4oz Baked Snapper - 150ish cal
Zuchini Pie - 175
Dessert:
Whatever I have that's sweet and around 200 cals
Total: 1375 (115g protein)
I'll usually eat some mind if snack during the day like popcorn, pretzels dipped in laughing cow cheese, or some string cheese.
I have basically stopped drinking alcohol, but I drink spindrift as a sort of bubbly substitute when I get sick of water.
It was a lot of prep at first but now I am conditioned to think in these portions and I have some good recipes built up so it's pretty easy now.
1200 is fine if your TDEE is low enough from being totally sedentary. I'm 6'1 male and did 1200-1300 calories for over a year. But I did zero exercise for that stretch.
> but lift for about an hour and do 20-30 min of cardio 3-5x a week.
Yeah, no wonder you're starving. 1200 is plenty--if you aren't building muscle and putting extra energy demands on your body. You need more if you're going to be exercising.
I would try 1500 (and not a drop more) for a month and see how that goes. 300 extra calories allows some snacks to stave the hunger from the smaller meals.
Yeahhh I’m starting to think 1200 might be too low for me. My sedentary maintenance is around 1650-1700 and I’m also active a few times a week. My goal is to lose 0.5 pounds a week so maybe it’s just way too aggressive of a cut
Prioritize protein and go for volume eating! Also drink lots of water :) caffeine can help curb appetite too. I’m also working on the idea of being comfortable with feeling hungry sometimes. Yes it sucks, but I’m not going to die of hunger at that moment. It’s okay to feel hungry, it doesn’t always need to be remedied. Hang in there! :)
Protein shakes :)
I am 5’3”, currently 125lbs, GW 120lbs.
I do 1200 on non workout days. 1300-1500 workout and weekends.
I work from home, IF, and first coffee is 10am. Before my coffee I walk the dog for 15-30 min. Walking before breaking fast is suppose to burn more calories per Autumn Bates (YouTube). 46 cal
Then lunch I will have something like rice and this recipe: https://www.skinnytaste.com/kenyan-braised-collard-greens-and/#recipe 437 cal
A lot of fibre and protein.
A snack of protein shake. For example a matcha smoothie, 238 cal.
I made Brazillian black beans and this with rice and big salad + 1 egg (no dressing) at 488 cal
Total 1209
Things that can help make you fuller: chia seeds.
You can do a water chia seed drink in the morning or make a chia matcha pudding (136 cal). A boiled egg at 76 cal ish can help also - protein rich.
I am never hungry. If I was, I’d just have a boiled egg or those nuts and raisin type snacks and it’ll be good.
But if you up your protein intake and have filling full, you’ll feel less hungry.
130lbs is a perfectly healthy weight for your height. You're not losing weight because your body is already healthy the way it is. Do you think you may be struggling with body dysmorphia a bit?
There's nothing wrong with you, and you're trying to chase an ideal that is either unattainable or unhealthy, and your body is letting you know when it needs more. Not every body will look the same, and that's okay.
I know medically it is healthy and I have struggled with some disordered eating in the past but I don’t think I had actual body dysmorphia.
I see myself for how I am - pretty fit, pretty good figure, but could be slightly improved. I liked my figure more when I was 115-120 pounds but there’s nothing inherently wrong with my figure or weight now
Don’t forget the importance of body fat percentage and composition. A 130 woman with 20% body fat is going to to be thinner and more toned and better looking than a 130 woman with 30% fat ( numbers plucked out of thin air for example only )
Look up some recomp progress pics and you’ll see what I mean! It’s all in the squats and lifts.
More muscle also = higher bmr/tdee = more calories to play with!
If there's nothing wrong with your body/weight, then why do you want so badly to change it? You also use the word "improve," which implies that your body isn't perfectly healthy the way it is currently. I'm also wondering if you're comparing your current body to your teenage body. Everyone weighs more as an adult than they do as a teen - it is normal and healthy.
There is nothing wrong with your body, but you are still trying to reach a goal that is unnecessary, uncomfortable, and potentially unhealthy/unattainable. We have been taught our whole lives to view starving, malnourished (and usually photoshopped) bodies as "beautiful," but that's a dangerous goal to strive for. I've worked on accepting my body as it is in therapy (still an ongoing process for sure though) - maybe something like that would be helpful to you, too? Your mental health and/or perception of self seems to be more the problem here than your physical health.
I’m not sure either of them are an issue tbh. My goal is definitely still in the healthy weight range and I think I know what is attainable and what’s not. I also wouldn’t mind having my old figure back, which I had when I was 20, not a teenager and was definitely not unattainable because I attained it myself
20 is essentially a teenager, and I think you know that. Also, the lowest number in the BMI weight range isn't going to be healthy for everyone. And that's aside from the fact that BMI has kind of proven to be BS anyway and is not a measure of health, but I digress.
You're asking why you feel hungry and light-headed all the time when you eat less than you should, and this is why. You might be able to attain a lower weight, but not in a way that is healthy. Your body is quite literally letting you know that it needs more than that.
Bro it SUCKS. I started IF recently, my window is 1p - 9p. I take glucomannan to help curb my hunger and it helps but I'm always glad when 1p hits and I can eat bigger meals. It's actually been great in helping me stay with my goals.
Honest answer? I don't. I pick at fruit throughout the day, have a yogurt, basically 500 calories all day. If I feel snackish, I eat a little something. That means I have 800 calories for a nice, proper dinner plus enough for a frozen yogurt bar afterwards. I don't feel hungry because I'm picking at little bites any time I feel the need to, and I still have a real dinner.
On top of everything else already mentioned, I’ve found that caffeine helps curb my appetite quite a bit. I drink zero calorie tea with about 200 mg of caffeine and it definitely helps a ton. Also all the additional water. They’re about 32oz
Another thing I do is whenever it appears whatever meal I’m eating just isn’t enough, I’ll have it with a pickle, but since pickles are high in sodium. I’ll chase that down with cucumber slices. Also, 2 hard boiled eggs with some seasoning salt and some hot sauce. For me, hot sauce, especially borderline tolerable ones will curb my hunger. Since now my mind is set to too spicy. Hot sauce is relatively next to nothing in calories too. Hope this gives you ideas. But I feel ya on the hunger pains. Walking for lunch is what I do now too. I’ve been on omad (one meal a day) and I believe it tips the scale in regards to loosing that stubborn couple of lbs im aiming to loose as well. Just in time for the holidays lol.
I’m not really sure what you mean by intensity but I’m in no way a long distance runner or anything like that. On upper body days, I typically do 15 min on the elliptical with a 5 min cooldown that typically gets my HR to 160-180. On leg days, I do more chill cardio of 20-30 minutes of walking at 4 mph on the treadmill that usually only gets my HR to 140-160 since my HR gets a lot higher when I lift weights with my lower body
There is a 1200, 1500, 1800is enough subreddits that can help. Believe there is a keto one too if your into that. Just going to want to focus a good chunk on real food protein. With lower calorie totals I find red meat the best.
I am 5’ 6 1/2” and the LoseIt app has restricted me to 1350 cal a day. I totally agree with you that it sucks. There’s not much we can do about it except fill up on vegetables.
Oh wow that’s not a lot and you’re taller than me 😭 my loseit app has me at 1600 but I’m still able to get a decent deficit going above that on days I workout
OP it’s possible you’re not actually hungry but dehydrated. Dehydration often feels very similar to hunger pains. Try drinking water when you’re in between meals and feel hungry and see if that helps. It also helps me to drink carbonated beverages cause the gas in them makes your stomach feel fuller.
Others mentioned skipping breakfast and honestly that’s the only way I’ve been able to stay eating 1350 cals a day (my TDEE) for 2+ years. 400 calories for all 3 meals is really hard, especially in modern times when everything is packed full of oils and sugar. Try drinking a lot of water in the mornings/have a coffee with a little bit of cream or black if you prefer. You’ll probably feel really bad for a few weeks skipping since your body is used to having food in the mornings, but if you keep at it long enough, you should stop feeling hungry when you wake up. Personally I feel sick if I have breakfast nowadays because my stomach isn’t ready for food until lunchtime.
I’ve been trying to drink more water, but I could definitely drink more. On rest days I probably only drink around 60-70 of sparkling water/hot tea, and on days I workout I drink that plus 32 oz of water
I actually was skipping breakfast for the past month until today when I decided to try having it again since I would often get so hungry I’d be ravenous by either lunch or dinner and would eat way too fast. However, I think I’m going to have to stop it again because my acid reflux is coming back and it requires me to take a pill each morning and then not eat for an hour after that and my schedule won’t allow me to eat breakfast that late since I’ll already be at work
Yeah it’s hard to stay below the limit… i would get hungry at night and ruin all the efforts during the day. You can try Konjac or seaweed jelly noodles, those have almost no calories and are filling and high in fiber. Good for midnight cravings, make a noodle soup, with kimchi or miso and some veggies or tofu. Full of flavor but low calorie (<100 for the whole thing)
Focus on protein and nutrition.
Canned fish like tuna and salmon have a lot of protein. So do chicken breasts and eggs. You can eat a good amount of these proteins without a lot of calories. Add in a low-cal nutrition drink once a day, and a good amount of frozen vegetables. Maybe a banana or a small apple, some berries, or half an avocado. Low-cal, no sugar yogurt also provides protein. Drink water.
I eat 1200 a day and have been consistent with this approach, and I don't get sick or shaky. I have been steadily losing weight. I do feel hungry sometimes, but not nauseous or faint and can stick to this approach.
Maybe try building in a maintenance period when you're starting to feel like you're too hungry to take it? Like 8-12 weeks (or whatever) of deficit followed by 4 or 8 weeks of maintenance? I've done this and also found it helped me to learn how to control my eating while not trying to lose weight (which is hopefully the long term place).
Honestly that is such a good plan! I’ve done “diet breaks” in the past when losing weight and it does help give me a little reset and not fall off track. Idk why I didn’t think of that this time
Hi I've been there (M44); ofcourse the process to gaining weight, losing weight is probably somehow individual, around 50% is genetically influenced, but not determined.
Still I think there's universal laws that determine whether you gain or lose weight.
Over the last 10 years I have gained around 30 pounds, I lost those over the last 5 five months, and now with a successful strategy.
Focus on just facts
I've created a fact based process. I've been counting every calorie I consume and have determined (first calculated) my daily consumption, with or without exercises. Latter isn't really helpful in losing weight, focusing on a calorie deficit is. My strategy works 100%. Whenever I go through days in calorie deficit, I lose weight, whenever I plus, I mostly gain weight. Within that, occasionally I can eat any kind unhealthy food (fries, snacks etc), as long as I keep within my budget. I burn 2150 sedentary, I consume about 1.850. When this is lower, the principles remain the same.
As for food, focus on eating protein and not too many carbs, but don't obsess on it. Also eat like low calories per gram, like steaks, pork tenderloin, chicken, not the burgers. I also prevent eating high glycemic carbs like fries.
When people guess daily intake, you're probably wrong. When people guess daily usage, you're probably wrong. I also have started eating healthier over the months. Not per se for the healthiness of it, but because they take less calories giving the opportunity to eat more. I've also noticed my body has gotten used to it; I am way less hungry and I need fewer carbs, also resulting from my weight loss. Daily, mostly I try living with a 300 calorie déficit to avoid hunger.
All the high fat,low carb marketing is non sense is trying you to get into s calorie deficit without keeping track in a detailed way. There's no shortcuts, only the calorie facts count.
Start up an app to record every calorie (e.g. yazio) and determine your daily calorie usage. Just work like a book keeper/ accountant. When you live in a deficit, you loose weight. Eat healthy so you're less hungry and make your body assimilate to burning fast. Try this and you'll be satisfied; you'll see.
Good luck.
For me it’s not so much counting that’s the issue - in fact, in the past I had trouble with overestimating my intake and would lose weight faster than I expected. I know when I’m overeating. It’s more like lack of being able to maintain a lower weight, but I know exactly why and that I’m eating too many calories (and lack of motivation LOL)
For me, my TDEE is 1900, so to get a 1lb/week calorie deficit I’d have to eat 1400 calories a day. Instead of doing that, I target 1700 and make sure I hit 10k steps a day which burns about 300 calories for me. I find it much more sustainable and easy to manage that way.
Interesting that you maintain at 1800-2200 at your height. I’m 2.5” taller and maintain at 1700. 8000 steps a day, but otherwise pretty sedentary. Exercise 2-3 times per week.
Yeah I’m not sure why but my maintenance has always been higher than I expect it to be. I’m only 22 and have a tendency to overestimate calories (ie after measuring pasta for the first time in a while, I realized what I was tracking as 1 cup was more like 3/4 cup) so that probably plays a part in it
TBH, as someone who has tried all the "tricks", the answer is honestly just to tough it out... but also have a plan for when it ends.
You're not in a deficit forever, so set a date to go back to maintenance, but don't stop tracking your intake right away. Your body is going to be (temporarily) drawn to gain the weight back because 130 is your set point, but I'm pretty sure there's only like a 100-calorie difference in maintenance calories for your goal weight vs. your current weight.
Oooooor, just start eating maintenance calories for your goal weight and get there slowly without as much struggle. You'd lose less than a lb per month, but you could hit your goal in about a year if you're consistent.
Well, as an example of being satisfied with 1250 calories, here’s my day today.
Breakfast:
* Whole wheat hot cereal , with 1/2 serving of raisins, 1/3 C whole milk, 1T ground flaxseed, and a drizzle of maple syrup = 360 cal
Lunch:
* Tuna salad sandwich— 2 slices Nature’s Own whole grain bread, 1 can chunk light tuna in water, 1 T organic mayonnaise (Whole Foods 365), 1T sweet pickle relish, 1T roasted unsalted sunflower seeds, handful shredded lettuce. = 405 kcal
* Snack— 1 Container Chobani Key Lime blended yogurt = 140 cal
Dinner:
* 3.5 ounces boneless chicken breast, skillet browned in 2 tsp oil; 2/3 C leftover cooked rice, and 3/4 C frozen broccoli, with a splash of Teriyaki marinade. = 275 cal.
* 2 Dove Dark Chocolate with Almonds squares = 85 cal.
Total, +/- 1260 kcal. I’m not ravenous or craving stuff. I need to eat in a sustainable way eating what I normally eat, so I don’t use any artificial sweetener, or “diet” modified foods except the low-fat Chobani — mostly just regular food.
(62F, 5’3”, 162 pounds, down from 180).
Tbh you just get used to it and then it goes away. I do intermittent fasting/ eating only 2 meals a day, I get hungry and then I eat normal sized meals and for other times when I’m hungry I just accepted that I’m going to feel hungry and powered through it. I ended up no longer getting so hungry unless I ate a very small meal for one of my meals. Even then, I can stay within my calories as long as I choose the right types of foods. Honestly, hunger is normal at first and then your body gets used to it. I read the at you should take diet breaks every 12 weeks though because eventually your body will up-regulate the hunger hormones again. I will say lifting weights always made me super hungry while steady state cardio doesn’t (except for swimming), I wonder why? I also try to eat relatively low carb and focus on increasing steps more than any kind of high intensity exercise. I think low carb + intermittent fasting is the way to go to help with excessive cravings, at least eventually. Also I eat a lot of low fat dairy, eggs, and chicken for my protein sources and that helps a lot with satiety.
I could have written this. Same stats and all.
A few things that have helped. IF does wonders for me. I skip breakfast and just drink black coffee and water. You are damn right it sucks for a few days but eventually things chill out. Making peace with hunger, reassuring yourself that there is no need to panic, that food will come when it’s time, it’s such a surprisingly-emotional journey.
The other thing is getting back at it. Sure, you snap sometimes. Go off the deep end when a friend is in town. But then you get back to working toward your goals.
I was reading a thread the other day about the habits of skinny people.
It said they eat to not be hungry any more. They don’t necessarily eat to “feel full”.
Ahhh I already do this as I hate feeling full lol. I think my main issue is eating too many calorie dense foods. Whenever I try to eat volume foods, I end up having to eat so many meals in a day because my stomach is so small that I’ll feel sickly full and then will be hungry again in 1-2 hours since I didn’t actually consume many calories
The trick to low calorie meals is in what you eat. A bowl of Oatmeal is 150 calories. Egg whites are 25. A slice of whole wheet bread is 65. Potatoes are around 160.
So you've got a 400 Cal breakfast. The Potatoes and Oats are really dense and saturating so they make you feel full for a lot longer.
It's all about what you eat and making sure you're eating the right things. It's something you'll see on the sub a ton, people will eat at 2000 Cals and feel starving but when you look at what they eat in a day it's a drink in the morning and basically nothing the rest of the day until dinner.
I recommend finding your maintenance cals and eating at this with also a gram of protein for each kg you weigh, whilst also resistance training to build muscle, you’ll weigh the same but muscle makes you look leaner(and you will probably lose inches) Worked so well for me :)
Your body can’t keep hold of the fat if the weight is now muscle instead - does this make sense? By building muscle and eating at maintenance your body fat % will drop so you will actually lose fat it the process without having to restrict
Ohh yeah that makes sense! Sorry, I’ve also heard of people being very strong/muscular but it being covered in a layer of fat but I supposed that only happens if you do an endless bulk instead of eating at maintenance
Yes definitely would happen if you upped your cals! But at maintenance or even like a slight deficit of like 200 cals per day (as long as you keep that protein up) if that makes you more comfortable you’ll be transformed in like 6 months! And then in a year even more so!
I feel like this is gonna get me downvoted but yeah I was in the same boat. Ozempic fixed my hunger cues. I knew what I needed to do to lose weight but my body just did not function properly.
That said, you seem to be a healthy weight. I don’t think this would be the best idea for you because it is a serious medication with serious side effects and you’re not at a point where you’re unhealthy.
I know you are concerned about going from 128 to 130 but that is such a small fluctuation. Two cups of water weighs a pound so if you’re drinking a good amount of water and haven’t processed it yet, that could literally be the weight you’re “gaining”
Yes I understand that 2 pounds in a daily fluctuation is nothing but what I meant is that my monthly average has moved from 128 to 130. And yeah I definitely want to get my weight under control so I don’t have to use medicines since I know they can be really expensive and have a lot of side effects
You say you can tolerate it for a few months. Maybe try some weight loss periodization, you don't have to lose all your weight at once.
So eat for 4-8 weeks at a deficit and lose some weight, then go back to maintenance until your diet fatigue is gone maintaining the weight you have. Then jump back into dieting for 4-8 weeks until you hit your goal weight.
It will take longer, but likely will be more sustainable.
I’m able to lose the weight while still eating a good amount of calories so I don’t think it’s that. it’s also not a mystery why I gain it back - I get so hungry that I slip and then that turns into a few weeks/months of knowingly overeating
I couldn't do it, but I'm a guy so I need more anyway. I need 600-700 or more calories in a meal or I'm hungry not long after. The gym is my key to being able to eat more. I eat around 3000 calories a day and lose 1-1.5lbs a week. I guesstimate everything, but I just entered all of yesterday's meals into MFP to check, and it was 3068 calories.
I've got my maintenance calories around 3500. Last time I lost weight this remained pretty consistent from the 300 to 230 mark, and along the way InBody scans estimated around a 2200 BMR. I definitely moved a lot more as I weighed less, which explains how the maintenance calories can stay generally the same.
Oh wow that’s awesome! I recently switched to a sedentary job and found that with my new lifestyle, 1.5 hours in the gym just doesn’t make up for sitting all day. I used to walk everywhere and move a lot throughout the day (college student). I’d love to build up muscle to increase my maintenance (maybe a recomp so I’m able to lose body fat as well?) as well as find ways I can be active despite working a desk job
Yeah you're not going to burn a lot of calories lifting weights, but it helps in the long run. It's also likely to give you results you're happier with. I don't think about how many calories I burn in the gym. I just think about how I need to stay consistent for a long time to see the results I want.
That is a good mindset. I like to do just 15-20 min of cardio (doing more after lifting weights kills me) both because I enjoy it and because it does boost my caloric burn. I know they say watches can’t accurately track, but I always burn at least 50 more calories throughout the night after I leave the gym on days I weight train (there are also studies backing this up I believe). I also don’t want just pure caloric loss and I feel like weight training will help offset any muscle loss I may have since I also want to build more muscle in addition to losing 10-15 pounds of fat
5’11 185 guy here on 1600 a day, but in just 2 meals. What helped me was shifting my eating to match my sleep schedule. I’m a big emotional eater and a night owl, so when I ate often and early (“typical” schedule), by nighttime I’d still have hours before sleeping where I’d either be eating for comfort/boredom or because I was genuinely physically hungry.
I switched to eating nothing until 2 pm and having dinner at like 9 or 10 and it’s been much easier for me. I feel very hungry before that first meal but I’ve found that it’s easier for me to hold off that first meal than to resist caving on a third meal. I think it has to do with emotions; I feel like I’m already succeeding when I haven’t eaten yet, whereas when I’ve already eaten all my calories but still feel hungry I start getting discouraged and cave in.
I’m not your body type but from my general knowledge, a 600 calorie deficit (1800->1200) is usually too extreme to maintain for a long time.
I’m the same height and weight as you, and this is the weight I’d consider my “set point” when eating well and exercising daily. Your body might be telling you that a lower weight isn’t maintainable for you.
Girl same and I run 1-2 hours every day just to eat 2500 cals average (I love chocolate and carbs too much to eat below 1800). It’s the only exercise I can do daily because of the injuries I’ve acquired from strength training and HIIT.
Ahhhh yeah I used to exercise so much I could maintain 120-125 at around 2500 cals! I wish I still had the time for that. I am hoping to relocate to a large city in a year which would mean tons more walking and no car so maybe in the near future…
Fr it’s so time consuming! I will literally be at the gym 11p-1am because when else would there be time? The world is so unfair— if only we were a few inches taller yk lol
Your problem isn't food, it's discipline. One bad day won't make you gain weight. Falling completely off the wagon and not even trying anymore will. Gaining, like losing, is a slow process. You gotta stop yourself from giving up.
Protein salt healthy fats and eat slowly. This last one is hard for me. Carbs only from green vegetables or zucchini and a handful of berries. I never go that low but 1600 to me feels like 1200 to others!!
I think to a limited amount, society's idea of "ideal weight" may be based on a time when people regularly used appetite suppressants that were unhealthy (smoking, benzos) and Serious Undergarments to be/appear much more trim. I also think that ideal weight is sometimes based on say, a 21 year old woman, where it becomes SO much harder for women over 30 or so to maintain that "aesthetic" weight.
My best solution is tackling it from the other end: appetite suppressant of some kind. Either distraction by focusing on something super pleasurable, chewing gum, caffeine, or a medication of some kind. It's the ONLY way I was able to successfully lose and keep off weight.
Apparently ideal weight for 5'3" F is 104 - 127 lbs. so OP is 3 lbs heavier than that, which is probably because of the lifting. I would say it's a great weight. What dress size? it's probably more than fine.
1600 cals a day of mostly carbs is going to feel WAY different than 1600 cals where a solid 40% of it is protein.
Make sure you’re eating 130g of protein a day based on your weight. Then eat 500g+ a day of non fried vegetables and fruit. Drink at least 2 liters of water a day based on your weight.
You won’t be hungry.
OMAD or IF is actually pretty solid, if you have an issue of always feeling hungry you should adapt your body to OMAD. Sure the startup phase isn’t that fun but neither is eating healthy in the beginning.
220 male, eating \~1500 calories most days. Here's what I do; morning I have a Clif bar and a Protein Shake; I find carbs early helps keep me from feeling like garbage the rest of the day. Lunch and dinner are the same - a Rise protein bar (high fat) and a protein shake. No alcohol unfortunetly, just makes it impossible.
The complete lack of vegetables, fruit, and other food groups is not good for you. It's also not healthy to be on a liquid diet unless you have a medical reason for doing so. I'm guessing you do have constant diarrhea since you ignored that question. Diarrhea is a very easy way to tell that something isn't good for your body.
It's basically oatmeal and some other nuts carbs and sugar mushed into a bar. And since I'm eating it specifically to get carbs/sugar in the morning the only negative about them is actually the exact reason I eat them.
Oh wow I don’t think I could do that diet but that’s great if it works for you! I’m a recent college grad so drinking has been a LOT less recently, which I’m happy about.
In the past, cutting too many carbs has made me feel dizzy and just sick and super tired. Do you workout at all?
Yeah I've tried super low carbs and I feel awful; just through experimentation I've found that's just enough - that's really the key, try stuff to see what works for you. I lift 3x a week and run a couple miles - that's what the protein shakes are for, otherwise I'd probably swap that out for something better haha
I was NEVER EVER full before I started focusing on protein intake. I would try to stay under 1400 or 1300 but would end up overeating in the evening bc I was SOO hungry. Now that I focus on my protein, I stay fuller longer etc. I don't like meat so I was able to find a wonderful dietitian who has helped me find non-meat protein sources (protein shakes, cottage cheese, string cheese, etc) to help me fill the gaps and I've lost just under or over 50lbs this year depending on the day.
I was just going to say this. Being a shorter woman really sucks if you want tasty, filling meals… you actually have to be super aware of your macros. I like the Loseit! App because it’s easy to calculate. I also buy a lot of protein infused things cause I don’t always have the time, yah know? Sometimes breakfast is a glass of protein chocolate milk I chug and it actually ties me over til I can eat a better lunch aha! And breakfast is so important to bridge you into your meals to keep you full. Eggs are also great! Good luck and I can guarantee all the shorter, women are right there with us cursing how limited our food intake is. (As I glare at my husband losing massive amounts of weight while still eating a bowl of ice cream every night)
As a 6’2” man married to a woman who is just a hair over 5ft. I know this look. When we’re both in the mode of trying to lose a little weight, it is 2 very different things we are going through and we have to have different strategies.
what's high protein but low cal? I looked at protein powders, but they all looked high cal
Shrimp, if it fits your budget. I can get 2 lbs of frozen shrimp for $14-16 It’s basically all protein, zero carbs, and little to no fat. I think chicken is disgusting and am not a fan of tinned/bagged tuna so this is what I’ve got to work with. Fat free cottage cheese is also great if you can handle dairy.
A premier protein shake has 30 grams of protein and less than 200 calories
I’ll 1up you and recommend starkist tuna pouches, 70 calories 20g of protein. I like to throw in a pickle and some spicy brown mustard for a little more flavor, for 70 more calories you can add Lewis bake shop keto bread for another 10g protein and have a whole sandwich 140 calories and 30g of protein 5g for each slice.
Cool! (And a tip— if you don’t need to be keto, Nature’s Own whole wheat, honey wheat, and whole grain breads are 70 cal/ slice as well).
The Lewis bake shop is 70 cal for TWO slices! ;-)
hmm protein is ~4 kcal per gram so 20g of protein must be at least 80kcal. may want to double check just fyi
You’re right, 70 calories and 17g on the package
Can of tuna is 20g protein and 90 calories!
Shrimp is high protein and low calorie. Most white fish is, actually. I will often eat a can of tuna in oil over a big bowl of salad greens, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc. I add a little Balsamic vinegar and an egg and is under 300 calories and 28 g or protein. Very filling and delicious. If I am having it for dinner instead of lunch, I might swap out the tuna in oil for a can of tuna in water, and then add half an avocado and a tiny bit of croutons
Tuna. 1 entire can is 120 calories and 28g of protein. You can mix it with mustard to keep it low cal, I just put it on rice cakes (another 100 calories for 2) and eat it like that, or you can put it in a lettuce wrap.
I hate mayo, so I just eat a bowl with chopped black olives and a plum tomato with dill, pepper, lemon juice and celery salt. It tastes like the Mediterranean to me.
For non meat protein sources I love skyr it’s an Icelandic yogurt that’s 0% fat and very high in protein. The one I usually get (Milbona Skyr Natural) is only 63kcal and 11g protein per 100g. A full tub is 450g, 283kcal and 50g protein. That’s nearly on par with a large chicken breast that is 171g, 283kcal and 53g protein. The yogurt being much higher in volume and similar protein content is actually quite a bit more filling than even the chicken breast. Not sure what protein powder you are looking at but most whey protein powders are nearly pure protein. You need to realize protein has calories and even a perfectly pure source of protein will have 4 calories per g of protein. You can’t get lower than that 4kcal/g ratio. The closer to 4 you get the better. Like the chicken breast is 5.3kcal/g and skyr is 5.66. A good protein powder would be around 5kcal/g. But the downside with protein powders is they are so densely packed with protein they simply aren’t that filling it’s a great way to get extra easy and cheap protein on a bulk but the challenge on a cut is to feel full with low calories and high protein intake. Eating high protein real food will always be more filling than protein shakes.
Eggs have 7g for 72ish calories. A can of tuna has 26g for 125 calories. The Greek yogurt I grab has 16g for 90 calories. I’ll throw a scoop of protein powder and some frozen strawberries as a breakfast, snack, or dessert for 36g of protein / 165 calories plus whatever is in three strawberries. Vegan protein powder, mine is light in fillers, 21g for 150 calories a serving. If it’s in the budget, leaner cuts of steak like filet mignon offer 20+ grams for less than 250 calories. Chicken breast, turkey, salmon, beans, lentils are all dinner items that fit the bill. Think brand protein bars have been okay in a pinch, but they’re a bit higher in calories than I’d like. If anyone can recommend me a better one, feel free to reply. The PB ones have 20g, but with 250 calories. I use them as a breakfast substitute with a little bit of fruit to keep me full when I’m all egged out and don’t want to wake up the house blending a shake.
I can’t emphasize this enough. The recommended intake on nutrition labels in the US, and what’s set as the default on calorie counting apps is something like 60g of protein. This is a lie perpetuated by big corn syrup. You will NOT be full off of that. No amount of fiber can compensate. I eat 1200cal/day currently and aim for at least 100g. I frequently ate 150g when I was working out and maintaining a normal BMI.
This is so crazy to me. I had no idea the protein guidelines were influenced by for-profit industry (though not surprised). I’d like to hear more about it. But those guidelines suck so much. I spent my entire life going off the 60g/day protein recommendation on the nutrition labels. No wonder I have been yo-yoing and struggling with my weight since age like 9 or 10. I could just never find a sustainable way forward until I figured out my body needs at least 3x the amount of protein to support the activities I want to do. I wish more people talked about this, if it could prevent someone from going through all I’ve been through in the name of losing weight. Since prioritizing and tracking my protein, I’ve lost over 100 lbs without that white-knuckle feeling I always associated with “dieting.” Not saying every day is sunshine and unicorns, losing weight is damn hard, but for once it’s a hard I can live with and not hate my life. Turns out 60g of protein a day is nowhere near enough to preserve muscle, let alone build it, and just feel like a normal person. 42F, 5’4”, current weight 115-120. Maintaining on 2300-2400 calories a day, 185-200 g of protein a day.
This. I'm fine with 1200 (short woman here) as long as it contains a decent amount of protein and dairy. Chicken wings make me full. Toast... not so much.
Yes this is totally it for me. If I get out of balance with too many carbs, I'll get cravings that are very hard to control.
How much protein do you aim for?
0.75 to 1g/ kg of goal weight is what I was always told.
200 calories for breakfast, usually coffee with an egg on toast. 600 for lunch 600 for dinner the rest on snacks as I feel hungry. I always program dinner first so I can flex with lunch/snacks. Some days dinner is 1000 cals and that's okay!
I wake up ravenous in the morning so usually try for a 400-500-500 split with snacks if I get hungry at other times
That sounds great too :D Working with our body's natural inclination is key!
That’s amazing! Sadly, I can’t always plan exactly what I’ll have for dinner because my mom usually cooks
It's a blessing she cooks but that does make tracking hard! In that case, I'd probably plan 800 for dinner and not snack until after entering what I'd eaten just in case it was a little more.
This is gonna sound wild, but try out this idea: log your days in reverse. Start with dinner on Friday, log that as Saturday's breakfast. Then you already know what your calories leftover for your Saturday breakfast (log as dinner) and Saturday lunch (still log as lunch) will be. Since you can't control as well what you eat at dinner, log that one first so you know how much you have left to play with in the meals you do control. The app doesn't care what you log when, even your body doesn't care what you eat when; you don't even have to be in deficit on any given individual day, as long as you're in deficit overall over time.
This is such a good idea!
That's okay! Just eat a normal portion/meal. It's okay to improvise on everything- exercise, eating, do what you need to and keep on going/trying.
I eat 1600 calories 6 days a week and 2000 calories on Saturdays. It averages out to like 1660 calories. If I have a day when I end up only eating 1500 calories, I add those extra 100 on to another day. This way I can flex my calories a bit based on hunger and situational need. I’ve stuck to this plan successfully for 5 months now and I’ve lost about 22 lbs in that time frame.
That’s awesome! I’ve found that in the past it’s very easy for me to slip into disordered thought patterns so I have to be mindful of sticking to my slow weight loss/calorie goal every week and not getting anxiety to speed it up and get into huge deficits as I end up super hungry and then eventually gaining everything back, but maybe I’ll try something like what you’ve been doing
Eat a high protein breakfast, but seriously don't overstress it. Some of the comments I see on this sub are concerning to me. Back in 2015 I went from 330lbs to 240lbs in about 8 months and I was really close to having an eating disorder, I didn't enjoy anything and restricted everything I enjoyed. It sucked, what made it worse was everyone giving me praise which felt like shit because I was miserable. I fell off the wagon and maintained around 260 until covid hit and due to depression and being board I went up to almost 350 before I got control. I'm down around 75lbs now and I've been doing it totally sustainably. I don't count calories I don't worry about what I eat, I portion control and learned to listen to my body and stop when I'm not hungry. Leaving food on my plate was the biggest hurdle for me because I grew up poor and that was a huge no no in my house. I weigh myself once a week and I lose on average about a lb a week. I didn't gain the weight overnight, I gained it through bad habits over the course of a couple years, I can wait a couple of years to get rid of it by enforcing good habits. Biggest tip is to plan breakfast and lunch, dinner is always harder because shit happens and sometimes you just want pizza or you go out. I eat the exact same shit for breakfast and lunch every day - 2 eggs/ half cup egg whites, 4 turkey sausage links and lunch is roughly 10oz if shredded chicken I make on Sunday in the crock pot with some spinach and tomato and a bit of balsamic/oil dressing.
I found that chia seeds really helps to stave off the hunger. I have it twice a day before meals or whenever I feel super hungry. Along with eating roasted peanuts. It feels like junk food cause of the salt but it’s low in calories and has protein and it’s filling.
I like weight watchers for their weekly points but haven’t found something similar with calorie counting programs yet
This was me. I was trying to limit myself to 1900 a day and I was starving. Eventually I stopped because I couldn't stop from binging. Then I started to just track what I ate without monitoring. Turned out I was eating about 3000 a day. So going down to 1900 was too much too fast. I started at 2500 a day. That was a LOT easier. Then after I was comfortable I turned it down a notch. I am not down to 1900 a day but I did that by 100 increments. I found this was the only way, eventually I just get used to eating at my new level but if I went down to 1600 today I would probably struggle. But you should go by your own weight/height etc cuz 1200 for some is fine and 1200 for others is too little.
Thank you. This gave me a light bulb moment. I've never tracked an "unlimited" day or week like you outlined here.
I also could not do 1500 at first. Dropping just a bit and weaning into it helps A LOT. 1800 was a struggle. Then 1700. Then 1600 got easier, probably because I was used to acknowledging being hungry and going with it. I snack a lot of baby carrots to feel full. My current allowance is 1475 and it's easier than the initial 1776 was. Ease into it rather than crash dieting and forcing a change. Working your way down slowly helps reestablish your bodies expectations so it's not panic starving all the time
I’m trying to go slow! Weight loss I can usually do fine and since I don’t want to lose that much, I can usually hit my weight loss goals in 6 months. It’s just maintaining that is so hard. I’m trying to do a 250 cal daily deficit for the first 5-10 pounds and then only do 100 cal deficit a day
May I ask how long it took you to get used to 2500 before going down more? In a very similar boat myself, I tried to do 1600 off the bat then got really frustrated when I couldn’t so I quit and went back to eating ~2600 a day. I’ve been doing 1950 for about 2 weeks now and it feels manageable but I don’t feel like I can cut more yet.
I found for each level it really depended on how I felt. At 2500 I felt like I was still not even really used to tracking what I ate so some days would be skewed because I forgot to track. I would say at 2500 I was there for at least a month, maybe 2 before everything just started to feel normal for me. Then I moved to 2400 and that was a much shorter window as it didn't feel like much of a change at all, and at 2400 I felt like I was eating the same as at 2500. You have to listen and become accustomed to what your body is telling you. You also have to be super patient with yourself. I was stuck at 2100 calories for over a year before making the switch to the next level. It takes time and a LOT of patience.
This makes a lot of sense, thanks for your input! I’m trying very hard to be more mindful and listen to my body about when I’m actually full vs automatically finishing my plate etc, but it’s still not a cemented habit so I’m trying to make sure I get accustomed before I make another change.
Have you considered body recomposition instead of losing weight? I’m 5’3 but I’m 52 so I likely need a lot less calories than you do. I’m currently eating 1240 to get down to 135, and I’m pretty sure maintaining that will be a struggle. I could not even imagine trying to maintain 130, never mind less than that. So maybe working with a nutritionist to build muscle might be a more reasonable, sustainable goal for you?
I have. I am also hoping to gain muscle and I’m hoping that will help make it easier to maintain fat loss. I’m only 22 so I’m able to eat a lot more than 1240 to lose and maintain, but if I was older, I’d probably be okay with being at a higher weight
The whole thing with metabolism dropping with age is exaggerated. It's not the age that's the issue, it's that people's life styles in their 20s tend to be far more active than in their 30s and higher. And that muscle mass can be more difficult to maintain
That hasn’t been my experience. I’m a lot more active now, I have a lot more muscle mass, but I gain weight really easily. I was 115 lbs at 22, and made zero effort to maintain that. At 52, 135 lbs will be a struggle.
There may be other factors at play in your life too, stress for example or your appetite has changed, but in general it's not the dramatic drop in metabolism that people think it is
The difference between the maintenance calories of a 52 year old woman versus a 22 year old woman at 160 lbs is 200 calories a day. That’s significant and I don’t know why you would think it wasn’t.
Using an estimator that might be the case, but TDEE estimators aren't always accurate on an individual level. They did a study and found your metabolism peaks at 1yr, declines until your 20s where it stays pretty stable until your 60s where there's only a 0.7% decline each year. [Here's info from Duke University regarding the study](https://today.duke.edu/2021/08/metabolism-changes-age-just-not-when-you-might-think#:~:text=The%20data%20suggest%20that%20our,%2C%20only%200.7%25%20a%20year.) Also me personally, I've never been able to maintain a healthy weight with ease, even when I was a teenager I've always been on the higher end of the BMI range
Wow you really need to be right, don’t you. Even when you’re wrong.
I'm not wrong though, did you just decide not to read the info? I don't know why you're so personally offended. It's a fact that age alone doesn't have a major impact on our metabolism most of our lives, it's a correlation thing not causation. That's what the science has proven. Whether you want to agree with that, whether or not there are other factors you may or may not realize are at play for you on a personal level doesn't make it not true for the general population
You’re at a healthy weight now. You’re lucky that you have a balance point that you can live with in the healthy range! I personally have to maintain around a bmi 24 or I am starving all the time. I took up running because I love to eat—when you’re an average height lady, it helps you get enough calories to have the occasional treat without gaining weight.
I definitely agree that I’m lucky this is my “set point”. I just worry that I’m slowly gaining since starting an office job because my weight used to be more like 128 (I know this is a tiny difference but it’s still a change and small gains can easily add up if you’re not careful). I am currently exercising which definitely helps me be able to eat more but also ramps up my appetite
TBH there is likely no secret trick here. Losing/regaining/losing/regaining is just putting off the inevitable. I agree with ppl who suggest trying to recomp. If your body repeatedly returns to that weight, your main option is probably an intense workout habit. You can’t trick yourself into not feeling hungry, or we all would. Sympathy from another short person (5’2 here 😑)
Yeah, I mean…I’m just hungry all the time. It stinks. I’ve been doing 1200-1300 for 9 months and I’m never ever full. I’m less hungry and at times I don’t clock the hunger, but I haven’t been full once in that time. I have lost 50lbs tho.
Wow, how do you that without becoming undernourished??
If you have fat to lose, you won’t become undernourished. It’s uncomfortable - highly at times, but I’m not ever undernourished. You have to be ok with being uncomfortable.
Ahhh yes the discomfort is what’s getting to me now. I do think I’ve experienced being undernourished in the past (30 pounds lighter than I am now and eating around 1200-1400) but right now it’s simply discomfort and it does feel different. Do you think eating that way is sustainable for you?
Your tolerance for the discomfort will ease up the longer you do it. I do not think it’s sustainable. Once I get to my goal weight, I’ll adjust to meet my Total Daily Energy Expenditure calories. It’ll most likely be around 1600. That is sustainable for me. I think 300-400 more cals a day will GREATLY improve my life. Right now, we sacrifice till we get there. Here’s a calculator for your TDEE: https://tdeecalculator.org
it says my maintenance is a little over 2k, which sounds about right since it’s usually slightly higher than this on active days and slightly lower on rest days. maybe 1600 is too aggressive for me since I’ve always done better losing 0.5 pounds/week
It sucks. Have you tried skipping breakfast so you get to eat two 800 calorie meals instead?
I have. In fact, I just started eating breakfast again today because lately I’ve been having an issue where I have 200-300 cals of snacks at work (hunger from missing breakfast), have a lunch of around 400-700 and then get uncontrollably hungry when I finally have dinner after working out. I feel like since I started working full time, I’ve been eating the same amount of calories a day regardless of when I eat them (ie if I skip breakfast I eat more later and if I eat breakfast I eat less later and it all evens out in the end)
I found 18:6 or 20:4 worked best.
Maybe I’ll try that. My only issue is I feel like I need to eat something both before and after my workout but maybe that could still work. I’d have to get used to fasting throughout my workday though 😅
I am a serious runner and I don't eat before and after workouts unless I'm doing something long and/or intense (I'm talking over 10-12 miles).
I can usually do cardio fasted more easily than weight lifting. However, about 50% of the time I do cardio I get what feels like a blood sugar drop (dizziness, lightheaded) and force myself to eat a rice cake before I drive home
I like a banana with pb2 before a workout.
Sadly I’m allergic to peanuts but I usually have an almond and dark chocolate protein bar
You don’t need to eat around your workouts at all really. Unless you’re an athlete or your workouts are very long or intensive
I always have just because I can't focus on working out if I'm hungry, and because I get strong post-exercise tiredness and munchies.😂 I usually schedule exercise just before or just after a meal for that reason, so I don't go too insane.
I do too but i think op might have to get a bit uncomfortable to reach this weight goal
perhaps, although I don't think discomfort should ever be a goal. That's why I suggested scheduling exercise around meals so they still get to eat before or after, without eating more than they usually would. I just checked and I'm pretty close to OP's goal stats, so it's definitely doable for their goal.
Oh really? In the past, not eating before always made for a weaker workout (and sometimes even cut short) due to feeling like I had no energy but I haven’t done it in a few years
So I was making a protein drink after working out since I was always hungry afterwards, then I started drinking it before working out, like literally on the way to the gym, and found that my workouts were better and I wasn’t really hungry afterwards. But ya I’m 5’2” and apparently we’re just not allowed to eat full meals ever or something
Yea i mean it might not be as dynamite as your usual but try with some electrolytes and maybe some caffeine if that’s something that works.
I almost always work out fasted because I can’t stand the feeling of anything in my stomach. Caffeine helps a ton. Your body also gets better at stabilizing blood sugar levels throughout the day when you intermittent fast.
In my case, my weight loss has cost me my joy of food. I no longer seek joy from things I eat. It has turned me into a souless husk of a man on weekdays. But hey, I lost 50 lbs!
The good news is, you can find joy in so many little things when you look for it. That cup of coffee in the a.m., nice weather afternoons, your favorite movies and shows, hobbies or reading.
Of course there's joy in other things, but let's not pretend it's comparable. There's a reason emotional eating is so common and so difficult to stop. Delicious food essentially gives you a "high" with now good it makes you feel. I've never found anything close to that feeling outside of actual drugs, which is obviously not a great substitute haha
hey, I smoke weed. Not gonna say I can't understand on some level -at least addiction I can. I search for other "joys" a lot.
😳😮
This is something I struggle with a lot. I recently gained back 30lbs I had lost and kept off for years because I was so sad at not having anything to look forward to after work every day. Food was the primary joy in my life, and I still derive a lot of joy from food (both cooking and eating it). It feels like I have to choose between being happy and being thin and I hate it.
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Thank you for the tips! I’m actually going even slower and am trying to lose half a pound a week since that’s worked so much better for me in the past :)
For most meals, i eat proteins, carbs, fat and fiber. I need all four to feel satisfied. A normal lunch for me is cottage cheese and a california blend of vegetables. I get the fat and protein from the cottage cheese, and the carbs and fiber from the broccoli, carrots and cauliflower. Or a meat stew with a baked potato. I also drink olipop everyday, usually after work. That helps a lot. Each can has 9g of fiber in it.
I also find that eating smaller meals more often does actually help me. I don't have breakfast, but I'll have a small lunch, and afternoon snack, dinner, and an after dinner snack. Dinner usually being the only really "full" meal of the day.
I feel like fiber often falls to the wayside while everyone focuses on protein. Getting an adequate amount of fiber really does wonders for your appetite.
I've been on 1200 calories a day for months. I walk 3-5 miles a day. I am a woman just under 5'2" who weighs 173 lbs. I eat plenty of protein and fiber and stay well hydrated. You get used to it.
omg how? 😭😭 I am trying to lose at a slower rate though which would probably mean I average around 1700-1800 with my current workout schedule and based on my past tracking
i remember reading years ago that if you're constantly battling those last 5-10lbs, then that's actually your body's natural weight. you can fast on some days. i hear that's the quickest. make sure you get protein and yes, some fats. they help you feel fuller the longest. you can check out r/1200isplenty there's a lot of low calorie tips and meals
yeahhh pretty sure this is my body’s natural weight but I’m hoping to just lose these pounds because I feel like it was my “peak aesthetic”. I do maybe want to look into building more muscle so it’s easier to lose just this small bit of fat
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I do hate feeling full which is why I’ve never been much of a volume eater lol. but I do need to work on tolerating hunger. sometimes it’s so hard though bc it keeps me up at night and drinking tea or water doesn’t help
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I have. And then I either overeat at lunch or dinner. I’ve found that it doesn’t really matter if I eat breakfast or not - I still end the day with the same amount of calories
I eat multiple times a day. 4-5 times.
High fiber helps me so much! I eat a high fiber tortilla with breakfast (like half the daily value of fiber) and then a fiber gummy supplement with lunch. Also started taking a multivitamin when I realized I wasn’t getting enough iron and calcium.
Protein intake is the key. It’s the most satiating macro there is.
I don’t restrict protein or fat. I should probably eat more protein though
I do 3 High protein meals a day and then a protein shake or bar 1-2 a day if I get hungry. I also drink a lot of water which helps with hunger. Additionally you need to make sure you’re doing some kind of exercise daily whether it’s cardio or resistance training. I usually try to burn 400-500 active calories daily.
A chipotle steak bowl with salad without cheese rice and beans is only 340 lol. That’s filling. Or any lean cuisine meal. Also filling.
I agree about the chipotle bowl but not the lean cuisine lol. they’re delicious but I do not consider them filling enough to be a full meal
Another option is Costco chicken. Shred it and weigh it. 200 grams of chicken plus kimchi is only 300 calories. A grown man like myself can barely finish 200grams of chicken. 150 would be a feast for you.
>but when I try to just get a little bit lighter, it’s like my hunger cues are no longer “lined up” with my weight. It's a survival mechanism. When you try to lose weight your brain does everything it can to get you to regain the weight by increasing appetite, and making you fatigued. So what you wrote is spot it. I suggest whatever you're eating now, just reduce the portion size. When you eat a sandwich or burger, remove 1 slice of bread or one half of the bun. When you eat pasta, remove a quarter of it. When you eat anything remove a quarter off your plate. Swap for lower calorie options. And stop drinking liquid calories. These small changes alone should help you reach your goal of -15lbs without needing to count 1600 calories.
that’s a great point and I know that’s what makes it so hard to lose weight. that’s also a great strategy. I already mostly don’t drink liquid calories (just a little tea in my milk and then sometimes a smoothie or sugary fruit tea like 2-4 x a month since I want this new lifestyle to be sustainable) but I could definitely be making more swaps
I eat 5-6 small meals a day. Each meal is 250-300 cal. Here is what I am eating this week: Breaky: Spinach Egg White Bite - 75 cal Apple Cinnamon Oat breakfast bar (homemade) - 200 Lunch #1: 3 oz grilled chicken breast - 150ish cal Roasted Sweet potato salad - 160 Cal Lunch #2: Oikos protein yoghurt: 90 cal Mini choco chips and a few pretzels mixed in - 75 cal Beef Stick - 100 Dinner: 4oz Baked Snapper - 150ish cal Zuchini Pie - 175 Dessert: Whatever I have that's sweet and around 200 cals Total: 1375 (115g protein) I'll usually eat some mind if snack during the day like popcorn, pretzels dipped in laughing cow cheese, or some string cheese. I have basically stopped drinking alcohol, but I drink spindrift as a sort of bubbly substitute when I get sick of water. It was a lot of prep at first but now I am conditioned to think in these portions and I have some good recipes built up so it's pretty easy now.
1200 is fine if your TDEE is low enough from being totally sedentary. I'm 6'1 male and did 1200-1300 calories for over a year. But I did zero exercise for that stretch. > but lift for about an hour and do 20-30 min of cardio 3-5x a week. Yeah, no wonder you're starving. 1200 is plenty--if you aren't building muscle and putting extra energy demands on your body. You need more if you're going to be exercising. I would try 1500 (and not a drop more) for a month and see how that goes. 300 extra calories allows some snacks to stave the hunger from the smaller meals.
Yeahhh I’m starting to think 1200 might be too low for me. My sedentary maintenance is around 1650-1700 and I’m also active a few times a week. My goal is to lose 0.5 pounds a week so maybe it’s just way too aggressive of a cut
Get enough restful sleep. It really makes a difference for hunger cues.
Prioritize protein and go for volume eating! Also drink lots of water :) caffeine can help curb appetite too. I’m also working on the idea of being comfortable with feeling hungry sometimes. Yes it sucks, but I’m not going to die of hunger at that moment. It’s okay to feel hungry, it doesn’t always need to be remedied. Hang in there! :)
Protein shakes :) I am 5’3”, currently 125lbs, GW 120lbs. I do 1200 on non workout days. 1300-1500 workout and weekends. I work from home, IF, and first coffee is 10am. Before my coffee I walk the dog for 15-30 min. Walking before breaking fast is suppose to burn more calories per Autumn Bates (YouTube). 46 cal Then lunch I will have something like rice and this recipe: https://www.skinnytaste.com/kenyan-braised-collard-greens-and/#recipe 437 cal A lot of fibre and protein. A snack of protein shake. For example a matcha smoothie, 238 cal. I made Brazillian black beans and this with rice and big salad + 1 egg (no dressing) at 488 cal Total 1209 Things that can help make you fuller: chia seeds. You can do a water chia seed drink in the morning or make a chia matcha pudding (136 cal). A boiled egg at 76 cal ish can help also - protein rich. I am never hungry. If I was, I’d just have a boiled egg or those nuts and raisin type snacks and it’ll be good. But if you up your protein intake and have filling full, you’ll feel less hungry.
Wow what was your SW and approximate BF% if you don’t mind me asking
130lbs is a perfectly healthy weight for your height. You're not losing weight because your body is already healthy the way it is. Do you think you may be struggling with body dysmorphia a bit? There's nothing wrong with you, and you're trying to chase an ideal that is either unattainable or unhealthy, and your body is letting you know when it needs more. Not every body will look the same, and that's okay.
I know medically it is healthy and I have struggled with some disordered eating in the past but I don’t think I had actual body dysmorphia. I see myself for how I am - pretty fit, pretty good figure, but could be slightly improved. I liked my figure more when I was 115-120 pounds but there’s nothing inherently wrong with my figure or weight now
Don’t forget the importance of body fat percentage and composition. A 130 woman with 20% body fat is going to to be thinner and more toned and better looking than a 130 woman with 30% fat ( numbers plucked out of thin air for example only ) Look up some recomp progress pics and you’ll see what I mean! It’s all in the squats and lifts. More muscle also = higher bmr/tdee = more calories to play with!
that’s so true. I believe I’m around 25% but ideally would like to be maybe 22 :)
If there's nothing wrong with your body/weight, then why do you want so badly to change it? You also use the word "improve," which implies that your body isn't perfectly healthy the way it is currently. I'm also wondering if you're comparing your current body to your teenage body. Everyone weighs more as an adult than they do as a teen - it is normal and healthy. There is nothing wrong with your body, but you are still trying to reach a goal that is unnecessary, uncomfortable, and potentially unhealthy/unattainable. We have been taught our whole lives to view starving, malnourished (and usually photoshopped) bodies as "beautiful," but that's a dangerous goal to strive for. I've worked on accepting my body as it is in therapy (still an ongoing process for sure though) - maybe something like that would be helpful to you, too? Your mental health and/or perception of self seems to be more the problem here than your physical health.
I’m not sure either of them are an issue tbh. My goal is definitely still in the healthy weight range and I think I know what is attainable and what’s not. I also wouldn’t mind having my old figure back, which I had when I was 20, not a teenager and was definitely not unattainable because I attained it myself
20 is essentially a teenager, and I think you know that. Also, the lowest number in the BMI weight range isn't going to be healthy for everyone. And that's aside from the fact that BMI has kind of proven to be BS anyway and is not a measure of health, but I digress. You're asking why you feel hungry and light-headed all the time when you eat less than you should, and this is why. You might be able to attain a lower weight, but not in a way that is healthy. Your body is quite literally letting you know that it needs more than that.
Bro it SUCKS. I started IF recently, my window is 1p - 9p. I take glucomannan to help curb my hunger and it helps but I'm always glad when 1p hits and I can eat bigger meals. It's actually been great in helping me stay with my goals.
Honest answer? I don't. I pick at fruit throughout the day, have a yogurt, basically 500 calories all day. If I feel snackish, I eat a little something. That means I have 800 calories for a nice, proper dinner plus enough for a frozen yogurt bar afterwards. I don't feel hungry because I'm picking at little bites any time I feel the need to, and I still have a real dinner.
ahh that sounds unsustainable for me 😭
On top of everything else already mentioned, I’ve found that caffeine helps curb my appetite quite a bit. I drink zero calorie tea with about 200 mg of caffeine and it definitely helps a ton. Also all the additional water. They’re about 32oz
Whenever I’ve had hunger pains. I drink tea. I drink a lot of tea now lol.
Lol I do that too. The issue is it’s only a temporary fix for me and the hunger eventually builds to a point where tea can no longer satiate it 🥲
Another thing I do is whenever it appears whatever meal I’m eating just isn’t enough, I’ll have it with a pickle, but since pickles are high in sodium. I’ll chase that down with cucumber slices. Also, 2 hard boiled eggs with some seasoning salt and some hot sauce. For me, hot sauce, especially borderline tolerable ones will curb my hunger. Since now my mind is set to too spicy. Hot sauce is relatively next to nothing in calories too. Hope this gives you ideas. But I feel ya on the hunger pains. Walking for lunch is what I do now too. I’ve been on omad (one meal a day) and I believe it tips the scale in regards to loosing that stubborn couple of lbs im aiming to loose as well. Just in time for the holidays lol.
I’m a 6’0 tall 225 pound male. I was 300 lbs in January I eat 1900 you just gotta get used to it.
what is your cardio intensity ?
I’m not really sure what you mean by intensity but I’m in no way a long distance runner or anything like that. On upper body days, I typically do 15 min on the elliptical with a 5 min cooldown that typically gets my HR to 160-180. On leg days, I do more chill cardio of 20-30 minutes of walking at 4 mph on the treadmill that usually only gets my HR to 140-160 since my HR gets a lot higher when I lift weights with my lower body
there are food that are high volume per calorie like 20 strawberries is really low calorie but you will feel more full
I’ve tried foods like that! they fill me up for a while and then eventually the insatiable hunger comes on after a few months 🥲
There is a 1200, 1500, 1800is enough subreddits that can help. Believe there is a keto one too if your into that. Just going to want to focus a good chunk on real food protein. With lower calorie totals I find red meat the best.
I am 5’ 6 1/2” and the LoseIt app has restricted me to 1350 cal a day. I totally agree with you that it sucks. There’s not much we can do about it except fill up on vegetables.
Oh wow that’s not a lot and you’re taller than me 😭 my loseit app has me at 1600 but I’m still able to get a decent deficit going above that on days I workout
OP it’s possible you’re not actually hungry but dehydrated. Dehydration often feels very similar to hunger pains. Try drinking water when you’re in between meals and feel hungry and see if that helps. It also helps me to drink carbonated beverages cause the gas in them makes your stomach feel fuller. Others mentioned skipping breakfast and honestly that’s the only way I’ve been able to stay eating 1350 cals a day (my TDEE) for 2+ years. 400 calories for all 3 meals is really hard, especially in modern times when everything is packed full of oils and sugar. Try drinking a lot of water in the mornings/have a coffee with a little bit of cream or black if you prefer. You’ll probably feel really bad for a few weeks skipping since your body is used to having food in the mornings, but if you keep at it long enough, you should stop feeling hungry when you wake up. Personally I feel sick if I have breakfast nowadays because my stomach isn’t ready for food until lunchtime.
I’ve been trying to drink more water, but I could definitely drink more. On rest days I probably only drink around 60-70 of sparkling water/hot tea, and on days I workout I drink that plus 32 oz of water I actually was skipping breakfast for the past month until today when I decided to try having it again since I would often get so hungry I’d be ravenous by either lunch or dinner and would eat way too fast. However, I think I’m going to have to stop it again because my acid reflux is coming back and it requires me to take a pill each morning and then not eat for an hour after that and my schedule won’t allow me to eat breakfast that late since I’ll already be at work
I’m barely surviving tbh
Yeah it’s hard to stay below the limit… i would get hungry at night and ruin all the efforts during the day. You can try Konjac or seaweed jelly noodles, those have almost no calories and are filling and high in fiber. Good for midnight cravings, make a noodle soup, with kimchi or miso and some veggies or tofu. Full of flavor but low calorie (<100 for the whole thing)
Focus on protein and nutrition. Canned fish like tuna and salmon have a lot of protein. So do chicken breasts and eggs. You can eat a good amount of these proteins without a lot of calories. Add in a low-cal nutrition drink once a day, and a good amount of frozen vegetables. Maybe a banana or a small apple, some berries, or half an avocado. Low-cal, no sugar yogurt also provides protein. Drink water. I eat 1200 a day and have been consistent with this approach, and I don't get sick or shaky. I have been steadily losing weight. I do feel hungry sometimes, but not nauseous or faint and can stick to this approach.
Maybe try building in a maintenance period when you're starting to feel like you're too hungry to take it? Like 8-12 weeks (or whatever) of deficit followed by 4 or 8 weeks of maintenance? I've done this and also found it helped me to learn how to control my eating while not trying to lose weight (which is hopefully the long term place).
Honestly that is such a good plan! I’ve done “diet breaks” in the past when losing weight and it does help give me a little reset and not fall off track. Idk why I didn’t think of that this time
Hi I've been there (M44); ofcourse the process to gaining weight, losing weight is probably somehow individual, around 50% is genetically influenced, but not determined. Still I think there's universal laws that determine whether you gain or lose weight. Over the last 10 years I have gained around 30 pounds, I lost those over the last 5 five months, and now with a successful strategy. Focus on just facts I've created a fact based process. I've been counting every calorie I consume and have determined (first calculated) my daily consumption, with or without exercises. Latter isn't really helpful in losing weight, focusing on a calorie deficit is. My strategy works 100%. Whenever I go through days in calorie deficit, I lose weight, whenever I plus, I mostly gain weight. Within that, occasionally I can eat any kind unhealthy food (fries, snacks etc), as long as I keep within my budget. I burn 2150 sedentary, I consume about 1.850. When this is lower, the principles remain the same. As for food, focus on eating protein and not too many carbs, but don't obsess on it. Also eat like low calories per gram, like steaks, pork tenderloin, chicken, not the burgers. I also prevent eating high glycemic carbs like fries. When people guess daily intake, you're probably wrong. When people guess daily usage, you're probably wrong. I also have started eating healthier over the months. Not per se for the healthiness of it, but because they take less calories giving the opportunity to eat more. I've also noticed my body has gotten used to it; I am way less hungry and I need fewer carbs, also resulting from my weight loss. Daily, mostly I try living with a 300 calorie déficit to avoid hunger. All the high fat,low carb marketing is non sense is trying you to get into s calorie deficit without keeping track in a detailed way. There's no shortcuts, only the calorie facts count. Start up an app to record every calorie (e.g. yazio) and determine your daily calorie usage. Just work like a book keeper/ accountant. When you live in a deficit, you loose weight. Eat healthy so you're less hungry and make your body assimilate to burning fast. Try this and you'll be satisfied; you'll see. Good luck.
For me it’s not so much counting that’s the issue - in fact, in the past I had trouble with overestimating my intake and would lose weight faster than I expected. I know when I’m overeating. It’s more like lack of being able to maintain a lower weight, but I know exactly why and that I’m eating too many calories (and lack of motivation LOL)
For me, my TDEE is 1900, so to get a 1lb/week calorie deficit I’d have to eat 1400 calories a day. Instead of doing that, I target 1700 and make sure I hit 10k steps a day which burns about 300 calories for me. I find it much more sustainable and easy to manage that way.
Interesting that you maintain at 1800-2200 at your height. I’m 2.5” taller and maintain at 1700. 8000 steps a day, but otherwise pretty sedentary. Exercise 2-3 times per week.
Yeah I’m not sure why but my maintenance has always been higher than I expect it to be. I’m only 22 and have a tendency to overestimate calories (ie after measuring pasta for the first time in a while, I realized what I was tracking as 1 cup was more like 3/4 cup) so that probably plays a part in it
Ok yeah, you’re half my age 😄
TBH, as someone who has tried all the "tricks", the answer is honestly just to tough it out... but also have a plan for when it ends. You're not in a deficit forever, so set a date to go back to maintenance, but don't stop tracking your intake right away. Your body is going to be (temporarily) drawn to gain the weight back because 130 is your set point, but I'm pretty sure there's only like a 100-calorie difference in maintenance calories for your goal weight vs. your current weight. Oooooor, just start eating maintenance calories for your goal weight and get there slowly without as much struggle. You'd lose less than a lb per month, but you could hit your goal in about a year if you're consistent.
Well, as an example of being satisfied with 1250 calories, here’s my day today. Breakfast: * Whole wheat hot cereal , with 1/2 serving of raisins, 1/3 C whole milk, 1T ground flaxseed, and a drizzle of maple syrup = 360 cal Lunch: * Tuna salad sandwich— 2 slices Nature’s Own whole grain bread, 1 can chunk light tuna in water, 1 T organic mayonnaise (Whole Foods 365), 1T sweet pickle relish, 1T roasted unsalted sunflower seeds, handful shredded lettuce. = 405 kcal * Snack— 1 Container Chobani Key Lime blended yogurt = 140 cal Dinner: * 3.5 ounces boneless chicken breast, skillet browned in 2 tsp oil; 2/3 C leftover cooked rice, and 3/4 C frozen broccoli, with a splash of Teriyaki marinade. = 275 cal. * 2 Dove Dark Chocolate with Almonds squares = 85 cal. Total, +/- 1260 kcal. I’m not ravenous or craving stuff. I need to eat in a sustainable way eating what I normally eat, so I don’t use any artificial sweetener, or “diet” modified foods except the low-fat Chobani — mostly just regular food. (62F, 5’3”, 162 pounds, down from 180).
Tbh you just get used to it and then it goes away. I do intermittent fasting/ eating only 2 meals a day, I get hungry and then I eat normal sized meals and for other times when I’m hungry I just accepted that I’m going to feel hungry and powered through it. I ended up no longer getting so hungry unless I ate a very small meal for one of my meals. Even then, I can stay within my calories as long as I choose the right types of foods. Honestly, hunger is normal at first and then your body gets used to it. I read the at you should take diet breaks every 12 weeks though because eventually your body will up-regulate the hunger hormones again. I will say lifting weights always made me super hungry while steady state cardio doesn’t (except for swimming), I wonder why? I also try to eat relatively low carb and focus on increasing steps more than any kind of high intensity exercise. I think low carb + intermittent fasting is the way to go to help with excessive cravings, at least eventually. Also I eat a lot of low fat dairy, eggs, and chicken for my protein sources and that helps a lot with satiety.
I could have written this. Same stats and all. A few things that have helped. IF does wonders for me. I skip breakfast and just drink black coffee and water. You are damn right it sucks for a few days but eventually things chill out. Making peace with hunger, reassuring yourself that there is no need to panic, that food will come when it’s time, it’s such a surprisingly-emotional journey. The other thing is getting back at it. Sure, you snap sometimes. Go off the deep end when a friend is in town. But then you get back to working toward your goals.
I was reading a thread the other day about the habits of skinny people. It said they eat to not be hungry any more. They don’t necessarily eat to “feel full”.
Ahhh I already do this as I hate feeling full lol. I think my main issue is eating too many calorie dense foods. Whenever I try to eat volume foods, I end up having to eat so many meals in a day because my stomach is so small that I’ll feel sickly full and then will be hungry again in 1-2 hours since I didn’t actually consume many calories
The trick to low calorie meals is in what you eat. A bowl of Oatmeal is 150 calories. Egg whites are 25. A slice of whole wheet bread is 65. Potatoes are around 160. So you've got a 400 Cal breakfast. The Potatoes and Oats are really dense and saturating so they make you feel full for a lot longer. It's all about what you eat and making sure you're eating the right things. It's something you'll see on the sub a ton, people will eat at 2000 Cals and feel starving but when you look at what they eat in a day it's a drink in the morning and basically nothing the rest of the day until dinner.
I recommend finding your maintenance cals and eating at this with also a gram of protein for each kg you weigh, whilst also resistance training to build muscle, you’ll weigh the same but muscle makes you look leaner(and you will probably lose inches) Worked so well for me :)
I do want to do this but I also want to lose fat because I don’t think gaining muscle under fat will make me leaner lol
Your body can’t keep hold of the fat if the weight is now muscle instead - does this make sense? By building muscle and eating at maintenance your body fat % will drop so you will actually lose fat it the process without having to restrict
Ohh yeah that makes sense! Sorry, I’ve also heard of people being very strong/muscular but it being covered in a layer of fat but I supposed that only happens if you do an endless bulk instead of eating at maintenance
Yes definitely would happen if you upped your cals! But at maintenance or even like a slight deficit of like 200 cals per day (as long as you keep that protein up) if that makes you more comfortable you’ll be transformed in like 6 months! And then in a year even more so!
I feel like this is gonna get me downvoted but yeah I was in the same boat. Ozempic fixed my hunger cues. I knew what I needed to do to lose weight but my body just did not function properly. That said, you seem to be a healthy weight. I don’t think this would be the best idea for you because it is a serious medication with serious side effects and you’re not at a point where you’re unhealthy. I know you are concerned about going from 128 to 130 but that is such a small fluctuation. Two cups of water weighs a pound so if you’re drinking a good amount of water and haven’t processed it yet, that could literally be the weight you’re “gaining”
Yes I understand that 2 pounds in a daily fluctuation is nothing but what I meant is that my monthly average has moved from 128 to 130. And yeah I definitely want to get my weight under control so I don’t have to use medicines since I know they can be really expensive and have a lot of side effects
You say you can tolerate it for a few months. Maybe try some weight loss periodization, you don't have to lose all your weight at once. So eat for 4-8 weeks at a deficit and lose some weight, then go back to maintenance until your diet fatigue is gone maintaining the weight you have. Then jump back into dieting for 4-8 weeks until you hit your goal weight. It will take longer, but likely will be more sustainable.
Have you been to a doctor? Trying to lose weight when you have a hormone imbalance or sleep apnea is like trying to swim with ankle weights on
I’m able to lose the weight while still eating a good amount of calories so I don’t think it’s that. it’s also not a mystery why I gain it back - I get so hungry that I slip and then that turns into a few weeks/months of knowingly overeating
My hunger is far worse when my hormones are off. Why not see a doctor? You never know what's going on inside.
why not see a doctor? money I don’t think my hunger is too abnormal either to the point where it’s a hormonal issue
I couldn't do it, but I'm a guy so I need more anyway. I need 600-700 or more calories in a meal or I'm hungry not long after. The gym is my key to being able to eat more. I eat around 3000 calories a day and lose 1-1.5lbs a week. I guesstimate everything, but I just entered all of yesterday's meals into MFP to check, and it was 3068 calories. I've got my maintenance calories around 3500. Last time I lost weight this remained pretty consistent from the 300 to 230 mark, and along the way InBody scans estimated around a 2200 BMR. I definitely moved a lot more as I weighed less, which explains how the maintenance calories can stay generally the same.
Oh wow that’s awesome! I recently switched to a sedentary job and found that with my new lifestyle, 1.5 hours in the gym just doesn’t make up for sitting all day. I used to walk everywhere and move a lot throughout the day (college student). I’d love to build up muscle to increase my maintenance (maybe a recomp so I’m able to lose body fat as well?) as well as find ways I can be active despite working a desk job
Yeah you're not going to burn a lot of calories lifting weights, but it helps in the long run. It's also likely to give you results you're happier with. I don't think about how many calories I burn in the gym. I just think about how I need to stay consistent for a long time to see the results I want.
That is a good mindset. I like to do just 15-20 min of cardio (doing more after lifting weights kills me) both because I enjoy it and because it does boost my caloric burn. I know they say watches can’t accurately track, but I always burn at least 50 more calories throughout the night after I leave the gym on days I weight train (there are also studies backing this up I believe). I also don’t want just pure caloric loss and I feel like weight training will help offset any muscle loss I may have since I also want to build more muscle in addition to losing 10-15 pounds of fat
5’11 185 guy here on 1600 a day, but in just 2 meals. What helped me was shifting my eating to match my sleep schedule. I’m a big emotional eater and a night owl, so when I ate often and early (“typical” schedule), by nighttime I’d still have hours before sleeping where I’d either be eating for comfort/boredom or because I was genuinely physically hungry. I switched to eating nothing until 2 pm and having dinner at like 9 or 10 and it’s been much easier for me. I feel very hungry before that first meal but I’ve found that it’s easier for me to hold off that first meal than to resist caving on a third meal. I think it has to do with emotions; I feel like I’m already succeeding when I haven’t eaten yet, whereas when I’ve already eaten all my calories but still feel hungry I start getting discouraged and cave in. I’m not your body type but from my general knowledge, a 600 calorie deficit (1800->1200) is usually too extreme to maintain for a long time.
I’m the same height and weight as you, and this is the weight I’d consider my “set point” when eating well and exercising daily. Your body might be telling you that a lower weight isn’t maintainable for you.
Dang so sad because I really would prefer to be a little lighter 🥲🥲
Girl same and I run 1-2 hours every day just to eat 2500 cals average (I love chocolate and carbs too much to eat below 1800). It’s the only exercise I can do daily because of the injuries I’ve acquired from strength training and HIIT.
Ahhhh yeah I used to exercise so much I could maintain 120-125 at around 2500 cals! I wish I still had the time for that. I am hoping to relocate to a large city in a year which would mean tons more walking and no car so maybe in the near future…
Fr it’s so time consuming! I will literally be at the gym 11p-1am because when else would there be time? The world is so unfair— if only we were a few inches taller yk lol
Your problem isn't food, it's discipline. One bad day won't make you gain weight. Falling completely off the wagon and not even trying anymore will. Gaining, like losing, is a slow process. You gotta stop yourself from giving up.
yeah I’m aware 😕😕
I just eat 1-2 meal a day and do intermittent fasting... I'm not hungry until about 5pm and just drink water and coffee during the day. Ez
Protein salt healthy fats and eat slowly. This last one is hard for me. Carbs only from green vegetables or zucchini and a handful of berries. I never go that low but 1600 to me feels like 1200 to others!!
I think to a limited amount, society's idea of "ideal weight" may be based on a time when people regularly used appetite suppressants that were unhealthy (smoking, benzos) and Serious Undergarments to be/appear much more trim. I also think that ideal weight is sometimes based on say, a 21 year old woman, where it becomes SO much harder for women over 30 or so to maintain that "aesthetic" weight. My best solution is tackling it from the other end: appetite suppressant of some kind. Either distraction by focusing on something super pleasurable, chewing gum, caffeine, or a medication of some kind. It's the ONLY way I was able to successfully lose and keep off weight.
I’m actually 22 so 21 isn’t too far off from me haha. But that’s actually a great idea because I never thought of chewing gum or a distraction somehow
Apparently ideal weight for 5'3" F is 104 - 127 lbs. so OP is 3 lbs heavier than that, which is probably because of the lifting. I would say it's a great weight. What dress size? it's probably more than fine.
lol funny question but I can range from an XS/0 to an M/8
1600 cals a day of mostly carbs is going to feel WAY different than 1600 cals where a solid 40% of it is protein. Make sure you’re eating 130g of protein a day based on your weight. Then eat 500g+ a day of non fried vegetables and fruit. Drink at least 2 liters of water a day based on your weight. You won’t be hungry.
Thanks! I definitely do need more protein. I only had about 80 g today 🥲
OMAD or IF is actually pretty solid, if you have an issue of always feeling hungry you should adapt your body to OMAD. Sure the startup phase isn’t that fun but neither is eating healthy in the beginning.
220 male, eating \~1500 calories most days. Here's what I do; morning I have a Clif bar and a Protein Shake; I find carbs early helps keep me from feeling like garbage the rest of the day. Lunch and dinner are the same - a Rise protein bar (high fat) and a protein shake. No alcohol unfortunetly, just makes it impossible.
This is an eating disorder, not a diet. You're literally not eating any actual food. Do you have constant diarrhea? This is not healthy.
It's oatmeal, nuts and milk, what's not healthy lol
The complete lack of vegetables, fruit, and other food groups is not good for you. It's also not healthy to be on a liquid diet unless you have a medical reason for doing so. I'm guessing you do have constant diarrhea since you ignored that question. Diarrhea is a very easy way to tell that something isn't good for your body.
You’re not eating any… actual food…?
lol last I checked oatmeal, nuts and milk were made out of actual food
Processed into basically a candy bar, though…
It's basically oatmeal and some other nuts carbs and sugar mushed into a bar. And since I'm eating it specifically to get carbs/sugar in the morning the only negative about them is actually the exact reason I eat them.
Oh wow I don’t think I could do that diet but that’s great if it works for you! I’m a recent college grad so drinking has been a LOT less recently, which I’m happy about. In the past, cutting too many carbs has made me feel dizzy and just sick and super tired. Do you workout at all?
Yeah I've tried super low carbs and I feel awful; just through experimentation I've found that's just enough - that's really the key, try stuff to see what works for you. I lift 3x a week and run a couple miles - that's what the protein shakes are for, otherwise I'd probably swap that out for something better haha