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Hello and welcome to another episode of the Leo Alves podcast and in today's podcast episode we are going to go back to the single topic QA's.
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I did like more of a personal update in the last episode, but I thought today let me get back
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um to those single topic w uh episodes just because I do quite enjoy them and I think they're really good for like discoverability on Spotify or Apple Podcasts where if
someone's, you know, really thinking about a specific subject
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then you know no better way to find out more about that subject more than like going all in on it.
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Why Am I Always Hungry While Dieting?
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So today's theme is going to be about why am I always hungry while dieting and then I've got ten questions related to that uh for today's podcast episode.
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So I guess with that I'm going to get stuck straight in.
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I haven't really got too much to share, like update-wise, um personal life-wise.
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It's the summer.
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here in Portugal.
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Every summer I'm quite busy.
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Family come to visit me, like not all at the same time, but like throughout the summer.
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Sometimes friends as well.
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I've got my mum joining me soon.
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My brother is here right now as well.
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He's not currently staying with me.
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Um, but I will be seeing him again maybe in like two weeks.
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He's here for a while.
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Mum's seeing me soon
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That's you know always nice.
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And then after that there'll probably be one or two more people.
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Uh I but I I don't
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remember right now but yeah anyway that's about it personal update life wise not the not the wildest thing in the world but anyway let's get stuck in so
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Is Hunger Normal During Weight Loss?
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Question number one Is it normal to feel hungry while dieting?
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Or does hunger mean something is wrong
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Uh while dieting, I would say it's normal to feel a certain level of hunger.
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What is not normal is if you are starving, if there is starvation going on and you are consistently thinking about food
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And you're like ravenous a lot of the day, that's not normal.
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Chances are, if that's what's happening, then your calorie deficit is way too aggressive.
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And you have no business being that low with your calorie deficit, like your calorie goal
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Um some slight hunger here and there though, yeah that's normal.
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That's completely normal.
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Um you know you uh that's not to say it's always going to happen there are going to be days where maybe you're satisfied and you could still be in a calorie deficit.
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That's true
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Other days there there's going to be a slight bit of hunger and that's okay.
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You're not going to you're not going to die.
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You're not going to pass away.
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A slight bit of hunger and a calorie deficit is completely fine if you've got body fat to lose.
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Um
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There's nothing there's the uh you people you know the thing is when I speak about this on Threads sometimes, um Threads handle is at Leo Alves PT, I'll link that in the show
notes of this podcast episode.
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Like some people like seem to get personally offended.
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They're like, oh, fuck dieting culture.
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Uh what you know, I uh what type of an obnoxious message is this telling people to be hungry
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It's like, no, it's you know, these people have a specific type of goal.
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They have some body fat that they either want to they want to probably lose for their health, to improve their their health, maybe the way they look
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And I'm not speaking in those scenarios where, you know, someone is already maybe quite skinny and you know it's like maybe some sort of more disordered dieting
approach.
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Like I'm speaking more so like someone genuinely wants to improve their healthier
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A little bit of hunger occasionally and a calorie deficit is normal, okay?
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It's fine.
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It doesn't mean anything is wrong.
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I've already explained uh the scenario where something is potentially going wrong.
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That's not what I'm referring to, okay?
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Uh some so yeah, some some hunger and a calorie deficit time to time is is going to be normal.
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I would most often find that when I'm in a calorie deficit, it's usually I usually feel it
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Like just before I'm going to sleep.
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Whenever I go to sleep slightly hungry, it's like okay, chances are I was probably in a calorie deficit today, Leo
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Question number two, how hungry should you realistically expect to feel during a fat loss phase?
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How Much Hunger Is Normal in a Calorie Deficit?
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Oof.
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You know what?
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I have these questions down and I don't like
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look at them just be like I've looked at them but in the past I don't look at them again like as soon as I hit record so sometimes I I forget what I have here
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I feel like I kind of answered this already in question one, like quite in a quite a bit of depth.
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How hungry should you realistically expect to feel during a phallos phase?
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What I will say to expand a little bit more on question one is, you know, just expect the occasional hunger here and there.
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Again, it's not the end of the world.
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Um
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If you've got a lot of body fat to lose, you might not feel that hungry as you progressively lose body fat.
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I do feel like, and that's not, again, this is just me generally speaking.
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I do feel like as it gets deeper into the fat loss, you know, cut.
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You are going to potentially feel it a bit more, but you could feel little bits here and there whenever.
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I feel like I quite answer this a lot in question one and if I keep speaking more about it, I might you know it's only going to start confusing people
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Question number three, how can you tell whether your calorie deficit is too aggressive?
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Signs Your Calorie Deficit Is Too Aggressive
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Quite uh a little bit like I said earlier, if you're always thinking about food.
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If you are literally always hungry, if you are ravenous, if you're starving, those are all signs that your calorie deficit is too aggressive.
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For sure, 100%.
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You need to eat more
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100%.
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If your body fat like if the if the scale if your scale weight is dropping like a boulder like it's dropping rapidly
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Do people say like a boulder?
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I don't think I've ever heard anyone use that term before.
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But basically what I wanted to say is if your scale weight is dropping really fast, I'm talking like one kg a week every week
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You know, that might be normal if you've got a lot, a lot of body fat to lose.
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But if you don't and you see you're losing a lot of body fat like really fast as well, that might mean that your your calorie deficit is probably too aggressive as well.
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I would say about half a pound a week is pretty normal.
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On average
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And I want to make that the clear the key word here because a lot of people hear half a pound a week on average and then when they don't lose half a pound a week they're like,
what am I doing wrong?
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Almost like they completely ignore the on average part
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I would say half a pound a week is very healthy.
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Um give or take a tiny bit.
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And uh and that's a very normal rate.
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Generally speaking, of course, it's going to depend on the person.
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How much body fat they have to lose, how consistent they are, their starting point, their experience with maybe calorie deficits, etc.
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But I would say generally speaking, that's probably maybe going to be the average.
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Question number four
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Why Some Foods Keep You Fuller for Longer
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Why do some foods keep you full for hours while others barely touch the sides?
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That is a brilliant question
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Calorie density is going to be a massive factor.
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Ice cream, very calorie dense.
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It's high in fat, very calorie dense.
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That's why it tastes so damn good.
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It's high in in sugar and salt as well.
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Usually like these very calorie-dense foods that are very palatable.
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Like ice cream, cake, chocolate, foods high in sugar, salt, fat.
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They're usually going to be the ones that barely touch the touch the sides, like you will have it, and then you feel like you ain't nothing.
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I love a good ice cream, by the way.
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I will say I'll I will tell you that now.
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But I can, you know, eat quite a bit of ice cream and then feel like I never ate much.
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Because again, these are like very easily digestible foods.
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So that's why, whereas you'll find the foods that keep you filler for longer, they're lower in calorie density.
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It's going to be like watermelon, strawberries, blueberries, many vegetables.
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Usually these are like
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Usually these have quite a bit of water in them.
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Maybe quite a bit of fiber as well.
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Typically higher in protein too.
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So like lean protein sources like chicken breast is going to keep you fuller.
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It's quite low fat as well
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So that's why typically it's going to come down to like calorie density or is the food high in protein or is it high in fiber?
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Those are food that those are factors that are going to impact whether or not a food is going to quote unquote keep you full for hours or barely touch the sides.
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Question number five.
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I feel like we're kind of flying through these questions right now.
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Again, follow me on Threads if you haven't already.
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I've been quite consistent with using that platform.
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It's probably my favorite platform at the moment.
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The engagement on there is just fun.
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Like people in there are fun.
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You get a lot of assholes.
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I feel like that's like all platforms though.
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I feel like Threads does have more assholes than the average platform.
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I mean, you know what?
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I would put X first.
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But on X you've got a different type of arsehole to Threads.
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Every platform, I guess, just has them.
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But yeah, Freds, you know, you get a lot of cool people on there as well, and it's helped me like I would say like
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Build some cool relationships with people that I otherwise would have never have met.
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And I feel like writing is more of a strength of mine rather than like, you know, video or
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creating carousels, etc.
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like Instagram.
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I like to write.
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I think it's fun.
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Um it helps me I think get across my humour quite a bit more because I I can be quite
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Dry, sarcastic sometimes, I think in like the typical British British sense of humor type way.
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And I feel like I am quite good at getting that across in writing just naturally.
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Um
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Whereas on video, I don't know.
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It's just something that I'm not as consistent with.
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Nowadays I am.
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I've been doing like a real challenge at the moment
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I'm just challenging myself and I've been like flying with the reels at the moment, at the time of recording this.
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And uh that's been good.
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But yeah, Threads is again, I enjoy it.
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Follow me on there if you're not already at Leo Alves Pt
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Um question number five.
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Protein, Fibre and High-Volume Foods for Hunger
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How much protein do how much do protein, fibre, and food volume actually matter for hunger?
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They matter a lot.
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If you're trying to do this calorie deficit thing and those aren't things you're really thinking about, chances are you're going to struggle more because again,
fibre is going to keep you filler for longer
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Protein is going to keep you filler for longer.
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Food volume is going to keep you filler for longer.
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And if you're in a calorie deficit, you really need to like use these tools because of course you know they're good for you.
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They're they help you poo, to put it bluntly, like fiber.
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That helps with your bowel movements.
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You want healthy bowel movements, they're very important.
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Um Protein, it's going to help you repair, recover the muscles
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Um so there's so many benefits to all of these things.
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Usually like lower calorie dense foods as well.
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Not always, but typically like they're you know high in vitamins, high in minerals as well.
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So they're all very important for our health.
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Um
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And like overall, like I said, they're going to typically keep you filler for longer and they're lower in calorie density, which means you can eat much more of them or
much less much more
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You can eat more of them and just not, you know, feel like you've and just not have eaten as many calories.
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Which is great when you're in a calorie deficit, because while you're in a calorie deficit, if you can minimize how much hunger you feel
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That's going to be amazing because it's going to make life much easier while you're losing body fat.
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Um qua question qual?
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I don't know what I was about to say there.
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Question number six.
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Does Meal Timing Help Control Hunger?
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Does meal timing matter?
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Or is hunger control mostly about total calories?
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So does mill timing matter?
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Or is it just total calories?
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Um I I would say meal timing matters to an extent.
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It i total calories is number one.
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Some people don't realize that.
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I've encountered that on threads, and I keep speaking about threads.
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I need to stop mentioning it now.
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Um
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Like meal timing, yeah, it does matter.
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Uh uh less than total calories though.
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I would pick total cal if I had to pick one of the two which is more important, definitely total calories, because ultimately you need to be, you know, within that
calorie goal to get to your fitness goal, right?
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Um but then real timing can help as well because like sometimes I think a lot of people struggle because they barely eat anything during the day.
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And then they barely eat anything during the day.
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It gets to night time and they're really hungry.
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And then all of a sudden like floodgates open and it's like all this built-up hunger throughout the day where it's just like, oh, you uncontrollably eat at night just
because
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Again, it's just like an entire day's worth of hunger has built up.
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Um so if you can like spread out the meals, maybe like I don't know, breakfast, lunch, and dinner somehow.
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Um
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somehow you know spread out protein and fiber where you can and you know I what I want to say is these things get easier the longer you do it.
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You might it might not click immediately, but it gets easier the longer you do it
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Um it helps as well.
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Like for example with me when I have breakfast I like to have a bit of a later breakfast now.
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I'm in a calorie deficit at the moment.
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I'm aiming for about 2,000-2100 calories daily at the moment.
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And I just find if I have breakfast too early, it kinda like just throws me out the loop.
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I don't wanna say for the r
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rest of my day because I don't really feel like that during the day, but in the evening I I feel quite hungrier than usual.
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So I like to have a later breakfast because I find it helps of that.
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Because then when I have a later breakfast I can have a later lunch.
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And when I have a later lunch, I don't feel as hungry in the evening.
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And then in the evening I can have something much lighter.
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And I just find that works much better for me in regards to staying consistent with my calorie goal.
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Why You Feel Hungrier at Night
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Question number seven.
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Why am I much hungrier in the evening than earlier in the day?
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I guess I just answered this.
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uh coincidentally so what is typically happening here this is quite common um and what typically tends to be happening is a lot of people just try to um
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mm bulldoze their way through a calorie deficit and they just think the less they eat the better not realizing that actually typically backfires.
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So what you often want to do is actually like you want to eat
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You want to be in a calorie you want to eat as many calories as possible while being in a calorie deficit.
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Like that is the sweet spot.
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Because ultimately you're still going to lose body fat because you're in a calorie deficit, right?
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Now what a lot of people do as a mistake is they try and just not eat.
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So they go through the day, they don't eat
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And then like I said earlier, when the end of the day arrives, it's like a whole day's a whole day's worth of hunger is now built up.
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You're ravenous, and then boom, it's like you just binge on it on everything
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And that's typically what happens as to why many people are hungrier in the evening than earlier in the day.
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There's definitely going to be other reasons for it, but that's uh that's one.
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Question number eight, can poor sleep stress and boredom make dieting hunger feel worse?
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How Sleep, Stress and Boredom Affect Appetite
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Yeah, definitely.
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Um all three of those can.
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Boredom, like just think about it.
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If you're bored, you're just going to have food more in your mind
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Um and that's obviously not going to help like because when you're busy you just don't have time to eat as much, right?
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If you're on a walk, you're not going to be thinking about food as much
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For example, um like I I've shared that story of me going on a walk when I was in secondary school.
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Like I did I had to I I was part of like at the end of the school year, basically when I was in like year eight
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Um it was like Activities Week and I missed the deadline for picking the activity what I wanted to do.
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I was just being a typical teenager, I was probably playing Xbox and that's why I missed the deadline.
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And then they just put me on the only one that wasn't full, which was um this activity called Best Foot Forward.
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And I was like kind of fuming when it I first found out, but I only had myself to blame, so I went along with it
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And it was just basically these long walks in the English countryside.
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I lost a lot of weight 'cause I was quite like I struggled with my weight a bit as a kid
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Um and I did lose a lot of weight and then one that's when I clicked that walking, oh wow, this thing really helps and two um
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I also found I was just like snacking a lot less because again I'm just walking all day.
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I don't have time to be thinking about crisps or chocolate.
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So yeah, okay, so um
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Yeah, boredom.
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Yeah, you are likely going to eat more if you're bored.
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There's there is literally a thing called boredom eating.
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Stress, if you're more stressed, a lot of people like many b people have different ways of coping with stress.
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Some people will seek dopamine hits.
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with like gambling or video games or you know, there's various ways this can
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uh you know just end up showing.
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One of those ways is food.
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A lot of people seek food when they're stressed and they stress eat.
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So that is definitely one as well.
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And in poor sleep, yeah, 100%.
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We've got hormones, uh like hunger hormones in us called uh leptin and ghrelin
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And those are basically I think leptin, I I don't think I'm getting them confused like the offer the other way around.
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I'm pretty sure leptin is the hunger hormone that keeps you fuller.
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So it basically tells you, oh okay Leo, we're pretty good now.
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Like we don't need to eat anymore.
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We're quite full.
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And then Ghrelin basically says, no, let's keep heating like I'm still a bit hungry.
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But when you're sleep deprived, like clo chronically, those hunger hormones go a bit out of whack.
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And then when they're out of whack
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Like your ghrelin isn't loud enough to be like, uh you've had enough now.
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Or your or your leptin uh to say you have you've had enough now and you know like ghrelin becomes a louder voice is to be like ah you know keep going we're still hungry.
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So
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Um and that was just a a very s very that was a way just to basically simplify the example as much as I could.
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So yeah, poor sleep, stress and boredom can definitely make dieting hunger feel worse, one hundred percent.
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Like sleep does massively help and it makes a difference.
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Why Hunger Increases After Several Weeks of Dieting
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Question number nine, what should you do when hunger suddenly increases after a few weeks of dieting?
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There's a few things like this.
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It's going to really depend on the person and the context
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I would say like so there's going to be various reasons for this, um, or like potential solutions I should I should say.
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One is just have a diet break.
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If you've been like dieting and you've been in calorie deficit for months now
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Oh okay, the question specifically says after a few weeks.
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Um
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I would say you know what?
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Maybe have one, two, three days where you you don't aim to be in a calorie deficit.
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And this doesn't mean eat anything and everything.
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In sight, I would say like just bump your calories to maintenance briefly.
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I think sometimes when we feel like this again, not always it does depend on the context, but sometimes a potential solution is
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We I think we just maybe need a a brief break from being in a calorie deficit.
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What I'll do with my one-to-one online fitness members, for example, when they're feeling like this is like
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So the thing is I don't typically need to program these I find for many people because life just has a way of naturally making these happen where you might go away for the
weekend.
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Or you're going on vacation for like five days, or you're going to, I don't know, the opposite side of the country for a weekend, a long weekend with your partner, um, or
your or one of your friends, you know
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And on those types of trips, you're not typically thinking about being in a calorie deficit, right?
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You're probably just having a break for a while while you're away.
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You're just going to quote unquote enjoy yourself.
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Um, not think about nutrition or exercise.
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So if life has a way of just like naturally scheduling these in so you don't have to think about it.
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But if you you know that's not typically happened, then you might just need a, you know, a a break from being in a calorie deficit for a few days.
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Again, I really want to emphasize
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That does not mean eat anything and everything in sight, but it just means maybe you just need a break.
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Bump those calories up to maintenance for a bit.
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Um, question number ten, when should you push through hunger and when should you actually increase calories or take a diet break?
19:07
When to Take a Diet Break or Maintenance Phase
19:17
Hmm.
19:18
Again, this is going to be like so contextual that I'm just trying to think of like a common scenario.
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I would say sometimes you sh you sh you're gonna have to push through hunger maybe if
19:34
Just push through hunger and when should you actually increase or take a diet break?
19:40
I feel like you should increase calories
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Or take a diet break if you've been losing weight really fast.
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And you feel like and you know what?
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Like
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Yeah, if you've been losing weight really fast and you're happy to take a break, like briefly
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You know, assuming someone is keeping you accountable because sometimes we take a break and we've got no one to keep us accountable and then we just end up staying in
that break.
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So assuming we've got someone to keep you accountable, it could be good.
20:14
Like, you know what
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For a few days, let's take a break because or bump those calories up a bit.
20:18
Increase those calories.
20:19
Maybe that initial calorie goal I gave you, it was too aggressive.
20:23
Turns out your calorie deficit is probably more like 2100 per day and it wasn't like the initial 1800 that we assumed.
20:31
Um and that's just like things that you find out the longer you're consistent with doing this.
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So that could be a potential scenario.
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Sometimes I would say maybe you just gotta push through a bit
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You know what, if you've just been quite inconsistent recently and you've had like a so a lot if you've got like a lot of social events coming up, then it it could be just
one of those cases where you you know what I've got to push through today because
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I know next week, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, I've got like three different birthdays coming up.
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It's a lot.
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But coincidentally, I'm celebrating three different birthdays next week.
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And every one of those people wants to eat out
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at a restaurant.
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Yeah, I'm going to have to be quite inconsistent next week.
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So today I'm just going to push through.
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Like that's an example.
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But otherwise
21:13
How to Control Hunger While Losing Weight: Conclusion
21:13
That is it for today's podcast episode.
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I really do hope you enjoyed these single topic uh episodes.
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They're usually about 20 to 25 minutes long.
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I hope that's a good length for you
21:25
I know I don't know if some people think I find that a bit short, but I do also feel like there's so many long podcasts as well.
21:32
My I would say when I listen to podcast episodes, I would say that they average about an hour long
21:38
Honestly, some of some of them others are probably like an hour and a half to be honest.
21:43
Or maybe two hours, but I think 20 to 25 minutes
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I think that can be alright as well.
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I do occasionally have episodes that are like 40 minutes to an hour, but they're usually features.
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Um, and it's much easier to keep them going for much longer.
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But otherwise, yeah, I hope you enjoyed today's episode.
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If you did, leave me your review.
22:02
And make sure on whichever podcast platform you listen to this on, make sure you subscribe as well.
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Again, follow me on Threads.
22:10
leoalvespt take care and uh I'll see you in the next podcast episode
