I've successfully lost 57lbs, and now have to lower my daily calorie intake significantly to continue losing. My new deficit makes me RAVENOUSLY hungry, literally can't sleep because of hunger pain hungry.

Height: 5'4"

SW: 240

CW: 183

GW: 170

I started my weight loss journey in August 2021. Up until this month, I was eating 1500-1600 calories a day and working out 5-6 days a week. According to my fitness tracker, my workouts averaged between 450-600 calories burned on average (moderate to high intensity cardio for 60-90 mins). I've typically lost about 1-1.5lbs a week with a few 2lb/wk outliers, and some 0lb/wks (holiday dinners, bdays, etc.)

I noticed around the beginning of last month that I had really slowed down progress-wise--even disregarding holiday stuff, which I was tracking anyway. I was still losing weight, but at a very slow rate--like 1lb over the course of 3 weeks. I decided it was time to reassess my TDEE at my new weight. According to most calculators, my BMR is now 1540--so my old daily target of 1500/1600 a day is definitely not gonna cut it anymore, even with the exercise.

I decided to try and bump my daily intake down to 1200/1300 at the beginning of January, and I have really, really struggled. I feel like I am absolutely starving--like my hands are shaking, I can't focus, I have no energy, and sometimes feel physical pain due to the hunger. The hunger pain has woken me up at night and I couldn't go back to sleep until I ate something. Even on my non-exercise days, 1200 doesn't feel like enough, and it's basically impossible on my exercise days. I did feel hungry sometimes on my old deficit when I was bigger, but not to the extent I'm currently feeling it. Before it was something I was conscious of, but could ignore. Now it's something that directly interferes with my ability to get through my day to day life. I also haven't lost any weight on this new deficit yet, which it has only been two weeks so it could just be that, but that's just another smack in the face.

If I eat smaller meals more frequently throughout the day, I just get hungry quicker and never feel fully satisfied--constantly thinking about the next time I get to eat. If I do more of an IF approach and eat the majority of my calories for the day all at once, I feel like I'm able to stave off hunger for about 9 to 10 hours, and then at the end of the night I'm ravenous. I already drink a buttload of water and it doesn't make the hunger go away. I would say my diet is fairly average--I eat a lot of salads with chicken or bacon, Japanese style chicken curry w/ a vegetable base instead of rice, home-made burgers, that kind of stuff, with the occasional sweet treat. I weigh and pre-portion my food as well (mealprepping) so there shouldn't be many calories unaccounted for. I was doing a low-carb diet for a while in September - October, but it ended up not being realistic for my lifestyle (I would get violently sick any time I had any carbs at all, and I do enjoy going out with my friends, going to company parties, etc. in which I might have a single white claw or something, and I'd always be extremely sick to my stomach for a few days after the fact.)

I feel really frustrated, because it's not really THAT big of a decrease even though it feels like it, and even with this decrease, according to the numbers the calculators give me, I'll still only lose 1lb a week on a 1200/1300 deficit (I'm not counting my exercise calories because I can't track them as accurately as my food, and am viewing them as an additional boost rather than an allowance to eat more). If I can't hit this deficit reliably, then I have no idea how I'm going to hit my goal weight. It feels frustrating to be struggling like this when I am so close to the finish line. I do have PCOS, and I know that it can cause issues with weight loss and hunger and stuff, but I've been to the doctor recently and nothing was freakishly out of wack in my bloodwork. Maybe I just need to be more patient and let my body adjust to the new deficit more, but it's a very shocking feeling to feel this way after over a year of it being relatively easy to do. It makes it feel like I'm not gonna be able to reach the finish line because my body just can't take this deficit.

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