Whilst in a consistent calorie deficit, our body produces higher amounts of the hormone “ghrelin” which tells the brain it needs more food, hence, signaling you to be hungrier.

Your body doesn’t WANT to drop body fat, so this is a mechanism put in place to literally try and sabotage your diet 🤪Your appetite increases, making you WANT more food, even if you’re doing all the “right” things such as hitting your ideal protein and fibre intakes, as well as opting for high volume foods and water intake at >3L. You’re ticking all the little “boxes” to try and hack hunger, but appetite is still high.

Ghrelin is a natural hormone - it is SUPPOSED to rise in order to tell you that you need to eat to avoid starvation (eg. Before a meal) and then decrease once eaten to tell you that you’re full. When in a calorie deficit, you’re intentionally trying to eat less calories than your body is burning in order to create fat loss.  During your diet, this appetite increase affects your ability to adhere, along with your leptin hormone (which signifies that you’re FULL), hence why we often see chronic yoyo dieters go down a path of over-eating, due to their lack of control with foods and not being able to eat to “fullness” which is where the need for a consistent calorie intake comes into play, spending time at maintenance calories to help get these levels back to “normality.”

After my bodybuilding comps, where I attained a very low, unmaintainable level of bodyfat, my hunger and satiety hormones were extremely skewed. It has taken almost 8 months for these levels to return to normal. Ghrelin escalates yo HIGH levels, the lower your bodyfat gets. Reaching comp-level bodyfat puts extreme pressure on the body and takes a long period at maintenance for this to return.

So HOW do we help maintain “proper” levels of ghrelin?

▪️avoid EXTREME dieting (e.g. long periods of time at a very low calorie intake, e.g. <1200 cals)

▪️avoid yoyo dieting (going from 800 calories one day to 3000 on the weekends) or having weeks at 1200 calories followed by weeks of 3000 (e.g. typical challenge diets)

▪️prioritise your sleep hygiene (>8 hours, quality sleep)

▪️consistent intake of protein at between 1.8-2.2kg of bodyweight per day

▪️muscle mass - ideal levels of ghrelin are associated with higher muscle mass

▪️consistent weight loss as opposed to yoyo progress. Don’t aim to lose a whole bunch of weight and then pack it all back on 8 weeks later. This chronic yoyo affect with weight skews your hormones

▪️spend time at maintenance calories. Not “over-eating” but ACTUAL, controlled maintenance with calorie intake for a long period of time (we're talking months here, not just days/weeks).

But - all in all, hunger is a NECESSARY component of the fat loss process, so instead of trying to “hack it” and find ways to not be hungry, it’s best to just succumb to the fact that YES, there will be days of higher hunger, but it’s normal! When I am in a fat loss phase, hunger doesn’t phase me as I have a goal in sight and KNOW that it isn’t “forever.” If you deal with that hunger and focus on the daily ticks, you’ll be closer to achieving your goal physique, to which you’ll then be able to return to maintenance calories and alleviate that hunger for good 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻