Just a question which might seem dumb to some of you but a lot of people are cutting this time of year and im just curious that when you get hungry inbetween meals do you just shun it off or do you eat something?

During a bulking phase or maintaining phase i can see how you never let yourself get hungry to gain or at least maintain muscle mass but while cutting and you are in a calorie deficiency and it seems like it would be bad to eat more since the whole goal of cutting is to eat less calories than your body uses to lose weight (hopefully just fat not muscle). So what do you guys do? for those of you that are cutting? Increase calories or go ahead and ride it out?

Just asking because for the most part i make it through the day ok but sometimes i get hungry about a half hour to an hour from my scheduled time to eat (every 2.5 hours) and i usually just wait it out but in doing this im wondering if i have the potential to lose muscle. Btw im not big or nothing i mean im only 160lbs 15%BF but i would like to keep what muscle i do have :p

ps - im not starving myself or anything btw. My BMR is roughly 1800 cals and im taking in a little less than 2100 and on average i burn at least 500 cals a day through weightlifting and cardio

Even though I'm basically trying to lose weight and add some muscle at the same time (people say you really can't do that too well but I'm having great results), I wouldn't just "ignore" the hunger. Ignoring hunger often leads to heavy-duty binging. When I'm hungry I just stuff my face with those baby carrots or some fruit. If you are watching the # of calories I guess it'll depend on what you've eaten so far in the day. My suggestion is go ahead and eat...just make it healthy snacks! :eat:

Its funny even though when I cut I usually don't feel hungry. By spacing my meals into 5-6 meals I usually am actually forcing food in my mouth.

Although when I do get hungry I try a few different things. Drink black coffee, green tea, water, or protein shake. Also I have split up my snack and ate half earlier then I wanted and then the other half later(at my scheduled time).

The black coffee really works good!

I've gotten better with this, but I did used to go overboard in between meals. I'd plan to "snack" but I'd hold out until I was starving and I'd end up adding 200-400 extra calories/day.

Lately, I have come up with a new "strategy". Most of my meals are easily separated into 2 if necessary. So say my lunch was 1 tuna sandwich, I'd eat a small piece when I felt the hunger and let it hold me over the rest of the time. Or if I have 25 almonds set for 10:30pm and I'm hungry at 9:30pm, I'll eat 7-8 of them when I'm hungry and save the rest for later.

The same can be done with lots of other foods. I also add a mixed green salad w/balsamic vinegar every day to hold me over until dinner since that's usually the time I got the most hungry. I'd rather take in the extra cals from that than go nuts eating extra things that add up to a lot more calories.

When cutting, I use loads of healthy fats and fiber. I might go down to 1200 calories at times. This would normally have me STARVING. But if you look at 1200 calories from mainly vegetables, lean proteins, and a tablespoon of healthy fats, then hunger is less of an issue.

I also have a little rule that if I am hungry for more than a few days in a row, then I will have a day where I purposefully eat higher calories. Not a day that is a splurge or free-for-all, but just much higher calories to make sure I'm having a few days a week without hunger.

For example, I am cutting right now - going down low calories because of Easter weekend, etc. This will NOT go indefinitely - I will cut through Friday, then have higher calorie days over the weekend, then probably resume the cutting diet the next week, etc.

If I find I have gone several weeks in a row at extremely low calories, then I take a week and just maintain my weight which usually means getting to almost double the calories I take in. After that week, I start ramping down again.

Jeremy

Since this clean eating business is so new to me and such a radical departure from the crap I used to eat, the caloric intake, portion size, and "richness" of the food are all much lower. Hunger, especially at night, is always a factor. I've just come to accept it as part of the sacrifice. Sometimes I try to combat it with a bit of fruit, some nuts, PB, whatever, but I often just let it go.

Unfortunately, my schedule forces me to concentrate more of my eating earlier in the day, so maybe that's part of it. But I've always been a late snacker (which I recognise as part of the reason I'm heavy).

So when cutting should you consume as little fat as possible? Both healthy and nonhealthy? I eat a lot of lean protein when cutting and have not seen the results I would like in the time I have been cutting. Should I eliminate the chicken, fish, pork and nuts entirely? I eat about 1 serving of almonds a day, and 2 servings of protein (lean meats). Is there enough fat in even LEAN meats that I should cut them off for a couple weeks to get through this plateau? About 40 % of my diet is proteins listed above. Should you take on a vegan type diet while cutting? What are some good protein packed foods that are not meat? Any thoughts or suggestions? Dont mean to hijack the post, but as long as we are on the topic...thanks everyone!

No, no, definitely keep the good fats and meats. In fact, I've read of a couple cases here where people increased the fats to help break through a plateau.

i sometimes feel hungry, i find if i continually sip water throughout the day, im never hungry, although when i am, i just sit through it, i mean the most you have to wait is 3 hours for another meal, in alot of cases alot less

but if you have to, pick up some sugar-free stuff, i must admit i have got a bit sugar-free mad over the past week, i got choco topping, jelly and jam! (what you americans would call jello and jelly)

A Pint of water usaly stops my hunger till the next meal.

It's a task for me getting the right amount of fat, it's much easier getting protein and carbs from clean food.
In saying that I don't often get hungry anymore, I started drinking more water though, so thats probably why.