I’m 49, female, still having fairly regular cycles, and I’ve exercised consistently all my life. I genuinely enjoy it and currently do a mix of strength training, yoga and walking, with some cycling too.
In March 2025 I decided to lose weight properly. I used MyFitnessPal alongside my Garmin watch, set MFP to sedentary, turned negative calorie adjustments on, and did intermittent fasting — eating between 1pm and 8pm. I managed to lose nearly all the weight I wanted (around 27.5lbs in total, with only about 4lbs left to go), so initially it worked really well.
But since the start of spring my hunger has gone through the roof. I feel ravenous a lot of the time and it’s becoming really hard to manage. Looking back, I also noticed MyFitnessPal was sometimes taking quite a lot of calories away after workouts, and I wasn’t seeming to get many extra calories for steps either. I’m sure in the past, when I’d used MFP years ago, being set to sedentary meant everyday movement and steps gave you a bit more calorie allowance. Now I’m wondering if I accidentally ended up under-eating for quite a long time without realising.
I haven’t weighed myself for a while because I became so fed up and discouraged, but all my clothes are tight now and I’m convinced I’ve regained most, if not all, of the weight. I’m about 5ft 10 and I just feel really defeated because I put so much effort in.
I can’t work out whether:
this extreme hunger is mainly from hormones/perimenopause,
whether I’ve under-fuelled for too long,
whether IF is no longer suiting me,
or whether the Garmin/MyFitnessPal settings caused a much bigger calorie deficit than I thought.
Has anyone else around my age experienced this kind of rebound hunger after successful weight loss? Especially active women in perimenopause? I’d really appreciate hearing others’ experiences.