I've been logging what I eat for almost two months now. I'm eating a lot towards hunger - not for points or set calorie points. When I look back at the beginning of January, I see I consumed about 1800 calories a day. Sometimes as many as 2000 calories a day. Then, towards the end of that month, no more high days. Actually high days were around 1800 and daily was usually between 1700-1750. And the trend continued with it slowly going down. I now eat about 1600 calories a day with some days of 1500 sprinkled in. So, I am wondering, is my hunger going down? Or did my stomach and gut get used to eating less food overall? My husband says that hunger is primarly based on habit. So, if you are used to eating a lot of calories and big meals, your body gets used to that and adjusts it's hunger needs to your eating lifestyle. As it adjusts to less food, it adjusts it's hunger signals to the new eating lifestyle.
While on some level this makes sense, but don't we get hunger pangs when we are truly hungry and need food, not just when our body is used to being fed? I don't know. I know some people who do intermittent fasting and they don't eat at all until 3 or 4 pm. They wake up in the morning, go to work, exercise, everything a normal person would do, but they don't eat a bite until the get home and they report that after a week, their stomach stops acting hungry until it knows it will start to get food - around the 3 or 4 pm. Also, I've heard anorexics say that they stop feeling hungry. So, maybe hunger pangs are mostly habit.
I guess that's good because as I go lower in weight, the lower my caloric needs will be. I plan to keep exercise in my daily life, so I don't know where my caloric needs will fall, but my body will adapt it's hunger levels it seems.
Stats for 3/12/11:
Beginning Weight: 255.6 Now 234.6
Exercise total hours in 2011: 63 hours
Walking totals in 2011: 206.2/1000
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