How hungry?

[johnybinwv]

Hello all! I read through all of the other posts and didn't find this question addressed directly, and would like to hear people's reflections on this question from their personal experiences.

I am trying to lose about 7-9 pounds semi-permanently. In other words, I am trying to get my base weight lower. I think that this would have the benefit of helping me climb harder during all phases, be better on my joints during aerobic training like running, and help me feel/look better. I am 5'11" and currently weigh about 172-178 lbs, depending on time of day. In the morning, I am usually around 173. I would like to experiment with getting my base weight around 165-166, or when I get on the scale it rarely goes above 170. I think this would represent about 5-8 pounds of weight loss. 

I know I am not giving a lot of background info about diet. My diet is pretty 'good': I don't eat much junk food, I eat fresh vegetables, I eat meat. However, I eat a good bit of cheese, drink about 4 beers a week, I think I probably eat too many calories while exercising from energy bars. I eat a relatively high fat diet from 'good' fats (butter, avocados).

My general question: How hungry should I feel while dieting? I do not have much experience with dieting, and am unsure of what level of deprivation it requires.

My youth sporting background was in baseball and as the goalkeeper in soccer, which are both sports requiring more power, coordination, and skill than anything related to strength to weight ratio, so I never worried much about weight/diet, and I was usually trying to gain weight to build strength. In my twenties weight management seemed to take care of itself as I was a big aerobics enthusiast (running/cycling), but as I cross into my 30's weight management seems to require more diligence and skill.

Thanks everybody!

[scojo]

Your hunger level is probably something that's going to vary greatly among different individuals. One thing I would suggest is to only lower your calorie intake by a small amount at first (about 100-200 calories a day). When I did this, I noticed I started losing weight and didn't feel very hungry even with such a small reduction.

You will probably stop losing weight after your body adjusts to this new calorie level. Then make another small reduction in your calorie intake.

I started feeling hungrier after one or two of these additional reductions, but since I made small enough reductions in my calorie intake, it wasn't too hard to adjust to the feeling of being hungry some of the time.

Then, there are a lot of things people suggest to combat the hunger (eating lots of veggies, drinking lots of water, eat slowly/small portions), but I found losing weight slowly was the best way to control the hunger for me.

For reference, I'm the same height as you, and I went from 180 lb to 160 lb (post thanksgiving) since January.

[daustin]

I am in a very similar situation. I haven't stepped on a scale since Thanksgiving and am pretty sure that I'll have erased most of my weight loss progress over the past couple months, but that being said...

I've found that if I'm dieting "correctly", I never feel more hungry than usual. When I say correctly, I mean both in terms of calorie quotas as well as meal composition. It's the latter that's really important in preventing yourself from feeling hungry. I think this is discussed in the RCTM, but if you eat a lot of high protein and/or high fiber foods, you can make yourself feel pretty damn full without consuming very many calories at all. Tuna fish and green salads are your friend, along with all kinds of raw veggies for snacking (I'm a sucker for hummus as well). So I'm not eating less frequently on a diet than I would otherwise, but I'm being more conscious about having a snack of tortilla chips + salsa vs. celery sticks + hummus.

In the past, I have experimented with very low/no carb diets, and this definitely had me feeling hungrier (and more sluggish) for the first few weeks of the diet, but I haven't felt that same crappy fog by sticking with a modest-to-low carb diet (which it sounds like you're already on).

Agree with scojo that making small, gradual changes will help you feel normal throughout the diet, and IMO will also help you make the weight loss sustainable as opposed to a quick crash that comes right back after your first binge.

If you haven't already, I'd look into an app like MyFitnessPal. YMMV, but the #1 factor that determines my success with weight loss and dieting is tracking my caloric intake. As long as I adhere to logging meals in MFP, I have no problem adhering to a diet. For me, there's a whole positive feedback dynamic, where I'm not only more acutely aware of how close I am to reaching or going over my target daily calorie quota, but logging the meals also makes me more conscious of what I'm choosing to eat, which in turn makes it easier to stay within the quota, etc.

[MarkAnderson]

Besides personal variation, it also depends a lot on how fast you are trying to lose weight (or in other words, how many pounds per week you are trying to lose), and how lean you are. Obviously, the faster you try to lose it, the more you will need to restrict calories, the more hungry you will feel. The second one is maybe less obvious, but the leaner you get, the harder it is to lose weight (because your metabolism slows down), and so the more you will need to restrict calories to see the same results (and so the more hungry you will feel).

There are lots of things you can do to reduce hunger. The best way to minimize hunger is to take it slow and steady. If you do that, make good food choices/substitutions, and use a few of the aforementioned tricks, you can pretty much avoid feeling hungry for weeks. During this time you will likely still suffer from cravings (which is not exactly the same thing--you will find yourself desperately wanting pizza or something). Based on the parameters you mentioned, you may be able to reach your weight loss goal before you get to that point.

[joev9]

I highly second the use of MyFitnessPal. It really helped me find the high calorie foods that were killing my efforts to stay slim. I replaced those with lower calorie foods and am never really hungry, unless I have a big calorie burn day and don't eat enough. It also helps to pre-log when I know I'm going to eat some "bad" food. If I'm going to have a beer or two in the evening, I log it in the morning and keep the rest of my day within reason so those beer calories don't end up being extra calories...

[johnybinwv]

Gents, Thank you! I think I would like to get my body fat tested. I really don't think I have an accurate self-assessment of my %body fat. I think that would make a big difference in my approach to losing weight. If I am already around 8-10%, then there would probably be not that much long-term fat to lose, and I would need to focus on shedding some leg muscle. If I have some body fat, then I could go the dieting route. I was trying to find one of these: www.bodpod.com/en/products/body-composition/adult-children-bod-pod-gs/bod-pod.

Another issue is that maybe I don't need to worry too much about shedding weight. This is my first time through a complete training cycle, I've done some hangboarding 'seasons' before using the RCTM protocol and I saw real gains, but I'm really not that overweight and I'm not that advanced/thoroughly trained of a climber (yet, ). If I can keep my weight below 175 then I'm probably doing fine and I run less risk of being macronutrient deprived. Not sure about my logic here, but it seems solid. Just get stronger and when I'm sure my weight is holding me back then do something about it.

I do think a body fat test couldn't hurt and all I would lose is some time and money. 

[johnybinwv]

Hello! Here's an update.

In a way, it's not good news since it doesn't mean there are easy gains to be made by reducing weight.

I got a 'BodPod' test performed at the local university's human performance lab (West Virginia University). My body composition as measured by the machine consisted of 8.5% body fat. We also performed a skin fold test and that measured around 10.5%. 

So, I'm thinking that these are actually perfectly acceptable ranges for body fat during training. I could shed 4-8 pounds for a performance, but it seems like much lower %BF would not be sustainable in the long run. I'll just focus on maintaining and building my strength and fitness on the hangboard and next the campus board and go through a power endurance cycle and see where I'm at. Maybe I could build for a little short performance cycle in late January/early February and see about shedding weight then.