Hungry all the time!
 

Second week of BFL, and I'm working really, really hard. Seeing some results, too. Only problem is, I now have a voracious appetite. Yes, I'm eating the six meals a day, and I think I have a good balance of carbs, protein, and fats (although more carbs than I would have allowed myself pre-BFL, even though I'm on Atkins maintenance). So what to do about the hunger? I'm trying to limit portion size as BFL suggests, but it doesn't seem to be working, lol. Last night, for example, I ate THREE turkey burgers (cooked in olive oil), two helpings of salad with olive oil, and some low-carb ice cream with peanuts. And that was only ONE of my six meals. :lol:

MMMMmmmmmmm Turkey burgers, your making me hungry....:)

When I upped my carb intake I found myself more hungry too. Here is how I dealt with it. The nice thing is that I can have something to eat every 2.5 hours. So when I eat I just eat the serving size suggested in the book and even though I'm still hungry I quit eating and I've found that 10 or 15 minutes later the hunger has gone. Then about 1.5 hours later I start feeling hungry again. But I tell myself, "Hey, it's only 1 more hour untill meal time. I can wait one hour." I would just get through the day doing that.

After a while my body seems to have adjusted and most of the time I find myself getting hungry when I'm supposed to be eating.

Arnie

Rose,


The body doesn’t like it when you try to make changes to it. I don’t know what your BMR is, but your body doesn’t want one more calorie or one less than your BMR Plus what ever energy you expend in a day. When you start working out or increase your training, your body may think it needs more calories. If you give it more, then your body will use it for energy. Maintain a baseline calorie intake, have a caloric deficit, then your body will burn fat for energy. The BFL book doesn’t go into detail on the science of the program, but the following link will take you to an article that does.

http://www.hussman.org/fitness (Nat may have this one on the sticky?)

Dr. Hussman explains caloric deficit, and you might want to check out the one entitled “Why the Body for Life Program Works”.

Congrats on starting BFL, stay the course and you’ll get hooked….

-Dave

BTW, Arnie, I agree with you. I prefer turkey burgers over beef...

Thanks, guys. Problem is, I can't really figure out how many calories I need daily because I can't get a good take on my lean body mass. The measuring tape method gives me a far lower LBM than the electrical impedance (sp??) method. Could I get a reasonably close idea of how many calories I need just from my weight and basal and exercise outputs?

Another question--I'm no longer trying to lose weight in itself, just lower percentage of body fat. Would I still need to be in caloric deficit to achieve this?

TIA!

Don't go calorie deficit at all. Doing BFL you want enough calories and protien to build lean mass. That would increase your metabolism and make the fat go away :) You may even gain weight a you build muscle, that isn't as important as the body fat.

I have one of those body fat scales that uses electronic impedence. It can vary as much as 8% body fat from one night to another, or 2% in just a few hours. I seriously doubt I gain and lose that much :P What effects it is how hydrated you are, how full you digestive system is, and other factors.

I like using the online calculator at www.zoneperfect.com not everyone likes that one, which is fine. The important thing is to find one method and basicaly stick to it.

If that sounds like alot of trouble, then just shoot for a good number you think is about correct. You don't have your weight posted (I seem to remember it was low, only around 110, right?) so as long as you keep protien around 80-100 you should be fine. Make sure to to eat enough calories to balance all the hard work your doing now. Don't even bother counting them is my vote, just eat when hungry and make sure to get protien in.

What really helped me when I had days where I was just starving, was a good dose of veggies. You did good with the salad (that's what I did today when I couldn't fill up). I had a salad with apple, blueberries, and teyrioki (sp) chicken. Back in induciton days I would have a huge bowel of broccoli cauliflower mix with cheese on top. Only thing that would satisfy me :)

Hi ya.. if you are tracking your daily stats: food intake and activity level.. you should try to have a deficit of only about 600 calories (so you should only burn about 600 cal more than you eat). If you are burning more, then, maybe bring up the calories of what you eat. Use protein and veggies to do this.

Do you use Fitday.com? Its pretty good for tracking!

cheers,
j

Thanks, guys. I don't iknow whether I need a deficit or not, since I'm not trying to lose more weight, only to convert body fat to muscle (or however that works--lose body fat, gain muscle).

This is very confusing as every exercise site I've been to has a different sort of recommendation.

I guess I"ll have to toy with it for awhile and see what works. :)

Hi - my twopenn'orth (trans-atlantic version of two cents worth!) is that if you're hungry, eat. I start getting hungry when I up my exercise, which to me is an indication that my metabolic rate is going up. It's doing this, at least in part, because you're adding the muscle you want.

Can't see the sense in knocking it back again by calorie deficit, especially if you're not trying to lose. Exercise and adequate calories seems exactly the way to swap fat for muscle to me. It's what I intend doing when I get to goal weight, just to finish off the toning up.

PS - you probably already know or do this, but apparently CLA helps with what you're trying to do. Loads of info. on this forum.

Take care, Jay

Thanks, jay! It's proceeding slowly, but it's proceeding. And I'll look into the CLA, thanks for the reminder. :)