Natural appetite regulation

(Allie) #1

Some of you may know that I’ve recently gone back to tracking food after stopping tracking everything back in July 2017. This time I’m doing it as a way of monitoring and seeing if I need to make changes, whereas before I was still on the misguided calorie limitation for weight loss train…

So I’ve been tracking again since the end of December but still eating instinctively. I will say, even though I’m not actually limiting calories, getting back to this habit does make it much easier to resist the Halo Top habit I was starting to slip into… :joy: but that wasn’t actual hunger I know.

What I’m noticing is that my body is naturally regulating my intake of food now. When I tracked before I think I had a limit of roughly 1700 daily calories, usual 20g carbs, about 70g protein then fats as whatever - but (like so many of us) I aimed at that calorie target regardless.

Now some days I’m at 1200 calories, other days I’m at 2100 calories - today it’s just 1000 but yesterday was a 2100 day so no surprise. It’s interesting watching my body dictate what it needs. I had two days of around 1300 cals, that was Weds and Thurs, then yesterday I was hungry so I ate more which made sense, and today I’m hardly hungry. Well I’m feeling it a bit now but it’s outside my IF eating window so food can wait now.

My average calories are actually coming in slightly lower than when I was limiting myself to a fixed amount each day -

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Just interesting… well I think it is :joy:

(Doug) #2

:sunglasses: Allie, you are into this stuff. :slightly_smiling_face:

#3

I notice the same thing. Some days I barely have an appetite and the next I am HUNGRY. Our bodies are amazing when we give them the fuel they need to run properly.

(Lazy, Dirty Keto 😝) #4

That is interesting! I started tracking again myself as lately I’ve been having some tummy troubles and want to get to the bottom of it. Also hit a plateau. But like you, some days I barely eat anything and I feel fine, while other days I feel like I can’t eat enough :joy:

#5

This is a prime example of why I tell people on FB to not worry about the calories, because if you can get fat adapted and eat nutrient-dense food, your body will (usually) regulate itself. We as people have forgotten that our body (usually) doesn’t want to work against us and overeat.

(Full Metal KETO AF) #6

Interestingly humans are the only species on the planet that overeats, except for the poor animals that belong to humans!

#7

I don’t know, man, I’ve seen some fat squirrels.

(Full Metal KETO AF) #8

They are likely healthy though, you could try eating them :cowboy_hat_face:

(Allie) #9

That’s likely deliberate though, fat stores for winter when food is scarce? Makes sense.

(Doug) #10

FatFrog
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(Allie) #11

Looks like my ex.

(Running from stupidity) #12

Heh, I was looking at the below chart yesterday :slight_smile:

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The last one - today - is just a little blip because I was RAVENOUSLY hungry on getting home from the market, and then I couldn’t go out again because I can’t find my tram card (pretty sure my wife has it, although she says not…) and as a result my body DEMANDED some food (and it’s an eating day, so I fed it a little :slight_smile:

But yeah, some crazy variances there.

(Carl Keller) #13

This is true for me too. I think the fact that I was always hungry on SAD makes this concept so foreign, interesting and even amazing. It took me almost 50 years to finally discover how ghrelin and leptin are supposed to work.

#14

Yeah, I have the same problem.

Trying to eat “to satiety”, but my signal accuracy seems to be +/- 1000 Cals.

I can eat 1300 one day and say “yeah I’m about full, it’s all good”, but on another day I could eat 2200 Cals and still think the same thing. Big variation.

(Due to this large variation I’m using my iPhone app to measure calories as a support mechanism, hopefully my “satiety-o-meter” gets sharper some time soon)

#15

At least your consistently inconsistent.

(Running from stupidity) #16

I am an adherent of Megan’s “Mix it up” philosophy :slight_smile:

(Running from stupidity) #17

Or maybe it is already, and that’s just the way you’re going currently.

(squirrel-kissing paper tamer) #18

Yes, and some subspecies get really fat in the winter or are from a stockier genetic line. I’m the nerd with squirrel science and history books on her shelf.

(Running from stupidity) #19

:heart::heart::heart::heart::heart:

(Carl Keller) #20

Umm, i guess I am right there with you sans the squirrel science. History is uplifting, disgusting, heartbreaking and fascinating all at the same time.

And besides, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.