Hungry
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bubaluboo
Posts: 2,098 Member
I've done low cal (high carb low fat) dieting before and lost a lot of weight. I followed this for about a year and then started maintenance. The weight slowly crept back on and a few years later and I found myself having to diet again. It seemed hard to go back to counting so I decided to try the atkins plans, starting with the meal plans and now sticking to 20g carbs (usually less) and keeping my total calorie count 500 below TDEE. Due to age that's about 1200 -1300 calories consumed. If I eat more I seem to plateau. I eat pretty close to the Atkins plan but have less for breakfast otherwise the total count is too high. I have 3 artificially sweetened items - a can of diet coke, an electrolyte balancing effervescent tablet and an Atkins bar. My problem is that I'm feeling very hungry all the time. I can't concentrate on work because I want cake or something carby. Shouldn't I be adjusted after 7 weeks? Everything is strictly weighed as I was used to doing that on calorie controlled diet. I would like to lose another stone (14lb) but I'm worried that even if I do get there, I'll start to binge as soon as I do because of the craving.
Any thoughts?
Any thoughts?
0
Replies
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Assuming your food diary is accurate, your protein intake is really low. You have your goal protein set to 125g, but most days you are only eating closer to 70g. Protein is slower to digest and will help you feel more satisfied, so I think the best tweak is to eat all the protein up to your goal.2
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Thank you so much for taking the time to look at my diary and for your advice. I had heard that too much protein can be converted to carb and so I was being cautious but perhaps too much so. My diary is accurate...there are some odd days due to travel and illness where I've not eaten so much but the last couple of days are typical.0
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I agree with the more protein. I started out following Atkins, but had to drop their bars/shakes, since the sugar alcohols did me no favors. Once I did that the weight starting coming off better and I was never "hungry". I could eat something but never felt the old hunger cravings. The only time I feel hunger is after an extended fast, it is my signal to start eating again.
Wishing you all the best in reaching your current goals.2 -
Thank you @retirehappy . I did wonder about the sugar alcohols too. My husband is doing the same diet and it's working really well for him but perhaps I'm more sensitive to the sugar alcohols? Do you have a sweet tooth and if so how do you manage without artificial sweeteners?0
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Thank you @retirehappy . I did wonder about the sugar alcohols too. My husband is doing the same diet and it's working really well for him but perhaps I'm more sensitive to the sugar alcohols? Do you have a sweet tooth and if so how do you manage without artificial sweeteners?
If I want to get knocked out and feel carb-hungry all day, I grab a low-carb/keto bar of some sort. So many of the sweeteners, especially things with Glycerin and Sugar Alcohols make me carby like crazy. Some knock me out or sedate me.
I found that when I keep my carbs to natural sources, such as veggies or the like, I stay in ketosis even when getting past 20-30 net.
Also, I think I've read here that increased meals increases blood sugar spikes. I think Dr. Eric Berg's videos on the "long term goals of keto" talk about how getting down to 1-2 meals a day is ideal, since you limit the spikes throughout the day. I know I do really well hunger wise when I do 1-2 normal or large/larger meals and restrict my snacking. Snacking keeps me feeding and hungry all day and just starts a bad cycle.
Filling up on stuff like spinach with a really good sized portion of meat with fat in various forms works so well for me. But I could certainly be wrong about what should work for others. Plenty of more well-versed folks here.
Re: Sweet Tooth.. it goes away. Just being a bit persistant and keeps the carbs low enough to avoid carby cravings, the sweet tooth just falls off. It's a bad cycle to get out of, since it you get carby, you get snacky/hungry/sugar cravings, at least if you're like me. A good and long 18-20 hour fast usually clears that up and gets back to the keto "I'm not hungry, I'll eat at the times I set, oh wow I was hungry, I'm not hungry, it's dinner time, wow I was hungry, I'm not hungry, start next day".
Good luck!3 -
We all have opinions and they often stink. Many will think mine stinks. My opinion is you're likely hungry because you need to eat more. No one needs to be eating a thousand calories or less day in and day out unless perhaps they're female, confined to an electric wheelchair or the bed, 70 years old and 4'8".
Are you really weighing and measuring every bite, lick and taste? High fat food is packed with calories so licking the pimento cheese spoon and over serving can be highly problematic for weight loss.
On a lighter note have you looked into info regarding the hunger hormones leptin and ghrelin? They really get "out of whack" with weight loss and you indicated you have lost a lot. Dr. Stephan Guyenet PhD has a book "The Hungry Brain". Reading that and listening to some of his youtube videos might be helpful in understanding your hunger and why weight regain occurs.
Did you determine your TDEE via an on line calculator? Since you are using TDEE versus MFP's N.E A.T. methods, maybe the TDEE calculator you selected is off. Choose 5 or 6 and average them. I've found some to be +/- 200 my average. I realize MFP can be off too but it results correct numbers for me.
In the end, I can relate to the hunger
after weight loss. Eating more fat helped me. Currently I'm around 25c-25p-50 fat. And honestly, while I'm still low carb, I'll often opt for the volume of low carb vegetables over meat. Volume helps. Love me a big fresh salad. 
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Thank you @retirehappy . I did wonder about the sugar alcohols too. My husband is doing the same diet and it's working really well for him but perhaps I'm more sensitive to the sugar alcohols? Do you have a sweet tooth and if so how do you manage without artificial sweeteners?
No real sweet tooth, I was using the bars for when I was out and about and didn't have a good eating alternative. I do eat Coconut Chocolate fat bomb, coconut oil, 100% raw cacao powder and a few drops of stevia & pure vanilla extract in those. My husband bakes some keto goodies from time to time, Swerve seems best for baking. He always halves the amount called for in the recipes as he isn't into terribly sweet things either. Best to make "treats' yourself to control what goes into them.
Different people react differently to all the sweeteners, artifical or stevia ones. You just have to try them and see how they work for your body. Which might be very different from your husbands. I know my husband and I react very differently to many of the foods we eat.
Good luck sorting it out.
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I check BG and have not found the higher protein to have any impact on levels. I know people say that it will, but my meter says otherwise. I have been doing the very low carb since 2016, and have gone through phases. I have landed on a lower fat, higher protein version that works very well for me. Satiation is very good. I don't really have problems with cravings.2
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protein has helped fill me up. Chicken tenders, probably not so healthy but filling and also peanut butter fills me up, hard boiled eggs with pepperonis and cheese also. Lost 30 lbs in 4 months, gained 4 back, watched my carbs again and have lost it, so pretty good after 2 beach trips.4
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Thanks all for your replies. The last couple of days I've increased protein and it does seem to be making an impact on my hunger. The test will be on Monday when I'm sat at my computer all day!5
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The body will convert protein to glucose, but it's an 'on demand' process which means that the body will only convert what it needs to satisfy the immediate demand. Biologically speaking, it's an expensive process (takes a lot of energy to do it) so the body will not just convert protein to glucose all willy-nilly.
Just as an n=1 example, I usually eat between 150 and 200 grams of protein a day and have normal BG (blood glucose) readings in the 70's (so I know that not a lot of protein is being converted to glucose).3 -
I had to give up sweeteners. They just made me feel hungry and crave more sweet all day.
Protein is definitely your most valuable nutrient. If you don’t get enough you will not feel satisfied.
Eating things like Atkins bars may be convenient but you are essentially trading off a nutrient rich meal for a low carb candy bar. You would achieve satiety with real food because it’s much more nutrient dense.2 -
Steak and beef liver are very satiating foods.1
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Are you willing to drop the Atkins bars? They are really just junk food disguised as "keto friendly". I think that you can get a lot more bang for your buck with those 200+ calories.
Also, if you are at all insulin sensitive, the artificially sweetened items you consume may be affecting you negatively as well. You could also be Ghrelin sensitive. I personally can handle them, but my husband ends up craving all kinds of sweets when he has things like aspartame. Would you consider eliminating all artificial sweeteners, even if just for a closed period of time like 30 days to see how it affects your appetite?2 -
I've done low cal (high carb low fat) dieting before and lost a lot of weight. I followed this for about a year and then started maintenance. The weight slowly crept back on and a few years later and I found myself having to diet again. It seemed hard to go back to counting so I decided to try the atkins plans, starting with the meal plans and now sticking to 20g carbs (usually less) and keeping my total calorie count 500 below TDEE. Due to age that's about 1200 -1300 calories consumed. If I eat more I seem to plateau. I eat pretty close to the Atkins plan but have less for breakfast otherwise the total count is too high. I have 3 artificially sweetened items - a can of diet coke, an electrolyte balancing effervescent tablet and an Atkins bar. My problem is that I'm feeling very hungry all the time. I can't concentrate on work because I cake or something carby. Shouldn't I be adjusted after 7 weeks? Everything is strictly weighed as I was used to doing that on calorie controlled diet. I would like to lose another stone (14lb) but I'm worried that even if I do get there, I'll start to binge as soon as I do because of the craving.
Any thoughts?
@bubaluboo understanding the why of our cravings is not easy but this article seems to make sense in my case of 5 years on Keto. Just read the bold headings and the conclusion if some of the new science behind our craving is of interest. The term Gut Microbiome is a relative new term (to me) that has caught my attention in trying to understand why Keto works so well in my case.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/bies.201400071
Is eating behavior manipulated by the
gastrointestinal microbiota? Evolutionary
pressures and potential mechanisms
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Well it's been a little while now and I've found my best approach. I've decided to do 16:8 intermittent fasting. It seems counter intuitive but since I've never been big on breakfast I thought it would be worth a try. I have done it for a week and I don't get hungry in the morning anymore. Then I can eat more when I am more for my evening meal and get that full feeling that I seem to need.5
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I think that's very intuitive...I generally don't eat before lunch either...some days I don't eat until almost dinner, just depends on how busy and distracted I am.
I'm so glad you found something that is working well!!!1 -
Well it's been a little while now and I've found my best approach. I've decided to do 16:8 intermittent fasting. It seems counter intuitive but since I've never been big on breakfast I thought it would be worth a try. I have done it for a week and I don't get hungry in the morning anymore. Then I can eat more when I am more for my evening meal and get that full feeling that I seem to need.
I've discovered the same. Breakfast always seemed to put me way over on calories; and I'd frankly rather eat to satiation at two meals than have more meals and never feel like I've gotten quite enough.2
