exercise and hunger

Southernlawyer · May 19, 2010

okay i got an issue that is freaking me out....any of you vets deal with this?

I am 7months out and have started to pick up the exercise to combat these last 25 pounds that are pissing me off. well, the more i exercise the hungrier i get. i know that sounds obvious...but its making me insane! The other day i was fine, calorie count for the day...below 500. Then i hit the gym some more and the next thing i know im STARVING! AND..what REALLY makes it worse is, i feel like I can eat more too...which is an AWEFUL combination.

does this happen to yall? my family is annoying and says "you didnt eat that much" ...but they dont really get it...yes, youre right..i didnt eat as much as you did...but i was surgically altered and i feel as though i ate a lot....or, how about this, i ate more than i can usually eat...

any thoughts? am i crazy? help!

ouroborous · May 19, 2010

I'm not a doc or a nutritionist, but... 500 calories for a day sounds VERY low to me. Maybe you're feeling hungry because... you're hungry? Starving, literally.

From what I understand of weight loss, sleeve or no sleeve, extreme caloric restriction tends to backfire. Some of the most successful people I've seen on here have said that sometimes they can actually lose more if they INCREASE their calories a little (or change up what the calories are composed of).

Again, this is just my uninformed opinion, but still... 500 cals a day seems EXTREMELY low, especially at 7 mos. out! I suspect that you're feeling hungry because your body really needs nutrients, especially with lots of physical activity.

Jachut · May 20, 2010

I'm thinking you cant possibly expect to live your life on 500 calories a day?

I dont have a sleeve, I have a band, and i get that restriction is more constant and less adjustable, my band is such that I can now eat about 1800 a day. But I have been a dedicated exerciser, I run for an hour four or five times a week and do two bootcamp sessions and I lost absolutely fine on 1200 to 1500 a day. It was slower than what you've experienced - took me 2 years to lose 100 lb but I definitely didnt find problematic hunger with exercising, probably because I was taking in enough nutrients and I did eat wholegrain carbs too to fuel my running.

I understand that if your sleeve is going to serve you well, it needs to be made of a size that probably will restrict you to under 1000 calories for a good while, but do you really need to be as low as 500? its no wonder you are hungry, you cant sustain even your resting metabolism on that, let alone fuel activity.

OMG123 · May 21, 2010

I found that once I got past the 500-600 calorie range and started eating in the 800 cal range that weight loss actually started moving again. The body is probably in starvation mode so your metabolism is way down. I watch EVERYTHING I eat and track it all at LIVESTRONG.COM - Health, Fitness, Lifestyle | LIVESTRONG.COM so I know when I am eating a little to much or not enough. (It is soooo funny to have to know that I am not eating enough some days...LOL)