Thread: Sudden appetite increase?

hey, i'v been eating healthy for about a month now, and all of a sudden am expiriencing an extreme increase in appetite within the past week or so. Before, i was actualy having trouble stomaching 2000 cals a day, and now out of no where, i get hungry within an hour or two of eating a meal, which is making my fat loss plan difficult.

before i started this new diet, i was on a pretty stupid crash diet of about 1000 cals a day (took advice from a dumb friend and didnt research), for about 6 months, so my guesse is i put my metabolism into starvation mode, and its just now starting to awake, causing the increase in appetite. or could there be another cause for this?

i'm a 6'3'' 205lb male, 19 yrs old, i'v been eating 6 small meals a day, consisting of white meat (chicken), cereal (breakfast), veggies and fruits, with a calorie goal of 2000. Its kinda nice now that i don't have to force my food down, but its also a pain in the ass when i get hungery 6 times a day (am almost always starving before i eat a meal, and i'm pretty full after i finish the meal)

so what gives, do i just have a fast metabolism and never realised it before, or could somthing else be causing this? (before the 1000 cal crash diet, i pigged out on everything i could find, and was in the obese weight range, close to morbidly, so if i were to have a fast metabolism, i would have never known it)

Originally Posted by slothy

if youd saw me, youd know that i'm overweight, trust me...

I just started lifting a week ago, so not as much of that weight is muscle like your probaly thinking.

I don't agree with the others in automatically saying that you are 'starving yourself'....

You have to be sensible - being careful about adding too many calories to quickly is a good thing. See, if your metabolic rate is low, if your bodyfat % is high and if you are not overly active then immediately adding in lots of calories will only cause you to get fat - fast.

However, you are young and your total weight is actually pretty good - so although you may have a high BF% you do not want to drop your weight too low because you will just look 'skinny'. Also, you do not want your calories too low either - as your lean loss will be too substantial and you will just become 'skinny fat'.

At your age you have a huge hormonal advantage in that you can easily build muscle tissue - so I would take advantage of this and slowly increase calories slightly. Although this will slow your total weight lose down - it will decrease your lean mass loss (and you may actually gain some lean mass seeing you are new to lifting) which will give you a much better result.

but back to the question on hand, is there anything else that could be causing my hunger, or is there anything that i can do to train my body to adjust?

Could be the response to training - often training increases hunger substantially. It could also be your metabolism increasing...

Things you can do:
keep protein intake good (has the highest satiety effect)
include a good dose of fibre in each meal (except PWO shake)
include good fats in each meal (except immediate pre and post WO)
ensure adequate carb intake (high fibre, lower GI options are best)
eat LOTS of vegetables (the more the better)
drink at least 3-4L of water a day