How passively hungry are those of you in the ~12-18% BF range?

[EliKoehn]

Since this is generally the ideal healthy range to aim for, I'm curious how hungry those of you within it tend to be on a passive, day to day basis. Hunger while cutting down to it would make sense as a given, but to those of you who are maintaining this level, do you find that you are often still hungry after meals or at random intervals throughout the day?

If this is supposed to be a healthy target, I wonder how prevalent hunger is within it. Being constantly "full" may not be the intended design for our biology, anyway.

[desslok]

Since this is generally the ideal healthy range to aim for, I'm curious how hungry those of you within it tend to be on a passive, day to day basis. Hunger while cutting down to it would make sense as a given, but to those of you who are maintaining this level, do you find that you are often still hungry after meals or at random intervals throughout the day?

If this is supposed to be a healthy target, I wonder how prevalent hunger is within it. Being constantly "full" may not be the intended design for our biology, anyway.

I usually hover in the 10-14% range. I would rate my passive hunger as somewhere between meh to pretty hungry, depending on time of day.

[TolerantLactose]

I'm almost never hungry. I've gone 72 hours without eating or drinking (other than green tea) recently and didn't feel any hunger during that time. I would say that I'm probably not typical.

[air2fakie]

I instinctively eat every 3 hours or less since I'd start to feel hungry otherwise, so I'm never very hungry. I adjust the size of meals & snacks based on current mirror trends.

[Tommy W.]

It's food choice and not starting to eat till later on, say 11 or so. Then no liquid calories. plenty of protein, mostly chicken, flank steak and eggs on occasion. If i do it right and don't have any wine I can do 15-1,700 calories with no problem

[MrCarrot]

I'm never sure what my bf % is, but when bulking I would guess I'm around 18-20% and I'm never really hungry. In fact, it reaches a point where I have to eat so much to gain weight it becomes a chore to eat.

When cutting I think I got to down maybe 12% and at times I could (and would) go to the all you can eat chinese buffet and devour 10 plates of food.

So I would say when bulking I am not hungry at all (probably because I am constantly eating) but when deep into a cut I get ravenous.

[RapidFail]

I'm currently around 16% at 173lb and 6'1", my maintenance is around 2800 calories as I have an active job and usually take about 11k steps on weekdays. Maintaining this is pretty easy for me and I get hungry in time for mealtimes.

I'm actually lean bulking at the moment, on around 3100 calories. Which is also easy to hit, but the weight gain has been very inconsistent, sometimes nothing for 2 weeks then 2lb in one week.

I generally start cutting at around 2300 calories and eventually get down to 2000 calories. At those numbers I am more hungry, but it's still pretty manageable.

[Xpiro]

Like stomach growling and caving in? Usually only in the morning, also post-workout sometimes. When I get up to pee mid-sleep I drink a whey shake with milk, but 4 hours later I’m still starving. But I eat my last meal 4 hours or so before passing out. After a big meal, so 3 times per day, it takes about an hour for me not to feel full anymore. I would say that outside of that hour of digestion, I would never *want* to turn down food. If left unchecked I could eat many, many horses.

[Strawng]

Like stomach growling and caving in? Usually only in the morning. When I get up to pee mid-sleep I drink a whey shake with milk, but 4 hours later I’m still starving. But I eat my last meal 4 hours or so before passing out. After a big meal it takes about an hour for me not to feel full anymore. I would say that outside of that hour of digestion, I would never *want* to turn down food.

Wow. What's the longest stretch of "fasting" you do in a 24-hour period? This includes sleeping. 4 hours??

[Omni]

Honestly feel myself starting to get sluggish after 3-4 hours of eating. If I don't eat within a hour of feeling that, I'll feel fine as far as energy levels go. However, my mood usually takes a huge hit and I tend to get told I'm snappy or hangry lol.

[AdamWW]

Hungry after a meal? Never… if I’m hungry the meal isn’t over… I eat until I’m done… in fact I often eat a sweet snack afterward even if I have no real ‘hunger’

[air2fakie]

When I get up to pee mid-sleep I drink a whey shake with milk, but 4 hours later I’m still starving.

Sleeping with an IV drip solves this issue.

[Strawng]

Hungry after a meal? Never… if I’m hungry the meal isn’t over… I eat until I’m done… in fact I often eat a sweet snack afterward even if I have no real ‘hunger’

Same

[desslok]

Hungry after a meal? Never… if I’m hungry the meal isn’t over… I eat until I’m done… in fact I often eat a sweet snack afterward even if I have no real ‘hunger’

Growing up i was known to eat 2 Hungry Man dinners.

[Strawng]

Growing up i was known to eat 2 Hungry Man dinners.

Strong 5k mg of sodium in one meal

[desslok]

Strong 5k mg of sodium in one meal

I grew up when men were men. We ate meals with so much MSG it would have killed the average millenial or gen z-er. And we ate it in restaurants full of cigarette smoke. If you never got the MSG “shakes”, you don’t know what you are missing. And yet here i am to tell the tale.

[AdamWW]

Growing up i was known to eat 2 Hungry Man dinners.

I didn’t have the hungry man items when I was a teenager really but I would often eat well over half a box of hamburger helper when my parents made it…

So you remember those kids style microwave dinners with the penguin on it that had the weird fake brownie? I used to love that shyt.

Oh, and taquitos… we used to get these huge frozen packs from a Schwan’s delivery truck and I’d have like 15 at a time and melt cheese on them.

[Kewbrah]

How hungry you get has way more to do with what shape your metabolism is rather than how much you eat or what your body fat is

[AdamWW]

How hungry you get has way more to do with what shape your metabolism is rather than how much you eat or what your body fat is

Uh, no

What does that even mean?

[desslok]

I didn’t have the hungry man items when I was a teenager really but I would often eat well over half a box of hamburger helper when my parents made it…

So you remember those kids style microwave dinners with the penguin on it that had the weird fake brownie? I used to love that shyt.

Oh, and taquitos… we used to get these huge frozen packs from a Schwan’s delivery truck and I’d have like 15 at a time and melt cheese on them.

Cheeseburger hamburger helper is good stuff!

I think I remember the frozen dinners you mean…i am picturing a blue box with rainbow colored letters.

Schwans has some good stuff. I was only allowed to eat 6 taquitos because there were 5 of us kids. But we could get as much spanish rice and beans with it. Because my mom made those from scratch.
Schwans also had some good chicken cordon blue and some other items i liked but cant remember. Good ice cream too.

[Kewbrah]

Uh, no

What does that even mean?

Uh, yes.

The world is full of lean people who never feel hungry and could fast for a day without any big deal, and fatties who always feel hungry hungry and have blood sugar crashes if they go 90 minutes without carbs.

I spent most of my 40s at 10% or under. I ate 3 times a day and never felt hungry.

[AdamWW]

Uh, yes.

The world is full of lean people who never feel hungry and could fast for a day without any big deal, and fatties who always feel hungry hungry and have blood sugar crashes if they go 90 minutes without carbs.

I spent most of my 40s at 10% or under. I ate 3 times a day and never felt hungry.

Ok, that has nothing to do with metabolism effecting hunger… so what’s your point?

What you’re describing absolutely is impacted by fat storage… fat cells produce leptin, which drives satiety/hunger balance.

I also have no clue what you mean about obese people and carbs.. this doesn’t support your claim in any way at all.

[Kewbrah]

I also have no clue what you mean about obese people and carbs.. this doesn’t support your claim in any way at all.

Fat people getting hungry and thin people not getting hungry a lot doesn't support my claim that body fat doesn't affect how hungry you get?

[AdamWW]

Fat people getting hungry and thin people not getting hungry a lot doesn't support my claim that body fat doesn't affect how hungry you get?

Your claim was that hunger is dictated by the “shape” of your metabolism. That makes zero sense.

Your metabolism is simply the total collection of all energy-dependent processes in your body. A person whose metabolism is ‘faster’ simply means they utilize more energy… and actually a heavier person will burn more energy than their lighter counterparts. So the idea that it’s the ‘shape’ of your metabolism (whatever that even means) driving hunger is just silly.

Hunger is partly genetic, partly influenced by fat cells and leptin/ghrelin, stomach capacity and emptying time, activity levels, hell even the temperature around you influences it….

So no, it’s not the “shape” of metabolism… you’re just regurgitating something you read or intuited from a headline somewhere with no root in real science.

[faithbrah]

i've mastered the art of satiating foods, so i'm not really hungry @ ~13% even when i'm eating like 1800 calories per day. coffee, berries, protein quark, cottage cheese, eggs...

yesterday i had a bowl of diet noodles, salad and cucumber. threw in some oil to get more fat in my diet, only around 100 calories and it was so filling

[EiFit91]

It's food choice and not starting to eat till later on, say 11 or so. Then no liquid calories. plenty of protein, mostly chicken, flank steak and eggs on occasion. If i do it right and don't have any wine I can do 15-1,700 calories with no problem

This.

2200 with good food choices can feel like 3000 with worse food choices.

Unfortunately I am very bad at sticking with "good" food choices consistently as I find it too restrictive.

I am probably at around 20% now, I'd prefer to be in the teens somewhere but at the same time I like to eat, and I also like wine. And you're almost never shirtless in public, and you're going to be stronger carrying more fat. It's a tradeoff lol.

[air2fakie]

Growing up i was known to eat 2 Hungry Man dinners.

I found it annoying that you had to use your fork & try remove the brownie thing from its compartment halfway through cooking.

[Tommy W.]

Uh, yes.

The world is full of lean people who never feel hungry and could fast for a day without any big deal, and fatties who always feel hungry hungry and have blood sugar crashes if they go 90 minutes without carbs.

I spent most of my 40s at 10% or under. I ate 3 times a day and never felt hungry.

hunger is produced by way of the hypothalamus sending signals. Metabolism has nothing to do with it

[Tommy W.]

This.

2200 with good food choices can feel like 3000 with worse food choices.

Unfortunately I am very bad at sticking with "good" food choices consistently as I find it too restrictive.

lol, when my wife walks in from shopping and she bought a big bag of Doritos I just go, FUUUUUU*K……..

[desslok]

I found it annoying that you had to use your fork & try remove the brownie thing from its compartment halfway through cooking.

Us older guys remember the aluminum foil trays used for TV Dinners(pre microwave days, yes that was a thing). The peach cobbler would nuclear fuse to the aluminum, your fork would rip the aluminum trying to scrape the sides. If you wanted to eat all of your peach cobbler you had to eat some aluminum too. That was our minerals back then