Some Advice Please.

[phoenix]

I haven't touched a carb (or that I know of) or anything processed or sweet (no sugar) for 2 weeks.
I am eating protein with every meal and having a whey shake as a snack in between the meals.
And I'm still finding myself really hungry?
The meals are really probably "too big" as I don't have scales to weigh anything, and I am guesstimating. But still hungry!
Heaps of salad stuff, eggs eggs and more eggs.
Trying to drink water when I am feeling hungry.
But am So hungry.
What am I doing wrong? :(
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

[Sherrie]

Phoenix are you trying to do a low fat, low carb diet?

[phoenix]

No am trying to do low/no carb and no sugar or processed foods.
Eat lots of fats, ie. cream instead of milk, taken up eating meat again
eating dairy, cream cheese.
I should be full?
i have lost weight since I started, just so hungry?

[Sherrie]

You shouldn't be hungry at all especially if you're eating fat.

Mind listing some menus? (you might want to start a diary in the diary section and put them in there)

Are you having big protein serves? I find protein can make me hungry, one common one is just simple fried eggs, If I have say 3 eggs fried in butter and that's it I am more hungrier afterwards then I was before!

Another thing you might find helps you feel full is fibrous veggies, I find fibrous veggies very filling and would often have large serves at dinner.

[phoenix]

I do tend to have large protein meals
brekky today - vege frittata.
coffee with cream (eww, still trying to get used to that) water
mid morning - whey/protein shake
water and another coffee
lunch - poached chicken, poached eggs, spinach leaves and mozzarella cheese.
water and another coffee
I am still hungry?
3weeks ago i would of had no brekky,just 1-2 coffees.
then coffee and maybe a couple of bikkies for mid morning
salad sandwich for lunch and not thought about food till I got home?

[Sherrie]

poached chicken and eggs, how much chicken and egg was there?

Another thought is thirst, are you drinking enough? Thirst is often mistaken for hunger and we often become extra thirsty for a little when starting LC due to the initial fluid loss and ketones.

There's some menu ideas here: low carb menu ideas (http://www.apinchofhealth.com/forum/vbb/showthread.php?t=4672)

[phoenix]

Sherrie
I had a small breast and 2 eggs.
I thought I drink enough but after reading some of the posts,
I don't really think I do.
Sorry for so many questions.
But I really appreciate your replies,
I really want / need to be successful in this.

Thank you again,
off to have a look at the menu ideas.

Cheers

[Sherrie]

Maybe try just a breast and replace the eggs with something non protein like broccoli or something. The thing is your body only handles so much in a sitting I think its somewhere between 30-50g of protein and a typical chicken breast is usually 50g or so. This is the main reason why body builders have so many meals, it is because their sport requires lots of protein but to be able to utilise it properly they need to break it up in lots of meals.

[janal]

Hi phoenix,
1. I was having this problem at the start of Low carbing, Sherrie mentioned somewhere that I read, that she was fuller with veges than with salad and I have found the same. Salad makes me hungry after a short time.

2. The other thing that springs to mind is - insulin resistant, before I was diagnosed with diabetes I was so very hungry all the time. The nurse told me it was the diabetes (sugars floating around my system) that made me feel hungry.

3. I confuse thirst with hunger so maybe when in doubt go for a glass of water and see if that helps.

It has improved for me over time on the Low carb and hopefully it will for you to.
Cheers

[jojoamethyst]

i am always hungry on low carb- the only way i am not is by eating mega tons of fat/calories and not losing anything because of calorie excess :(

[wenever]

Just curious phoenix, are you drinking diet soft drinks or eating no sugar chewing gum, because that can make you hungry too.

[phoenix]

Thanks janal
I have to admit I do seem to go for the salad over the veges, so am really going to start increasing them. I also think it might be worth having my sugar levels checked, I am trying to this on my own and have been avoiding the Drs!
Im sort of sick of them at the moment. :mad:

Hi jojoamethyst,
I know what you mean, I am so scared of eating too much fat
( yes-good fats only) but they as you say are all adding up. :(

Hey wenever,
I was drinking enormous amounts of diet fizzies, but after reading some of the threads here and not liking the sounds of some of the additives I am only having 1 can or 1-2 glasses a day. Do you think this could still be adding to the hunger? :confused:

cheers

[Sherrie]

Hi jojoamethyst,
I know what you mean, I am so scared of eating too much fat
( yes-good fats only) but they as you say are all adding up. :(


Your meals below also looked low fat but I decided to take your word for it. Are you sure your not doing low fat, low carb???


I do tend to have large protein meals
brekky today - vege frittata.
coffee with cream (eww, still trying to get used to that) water
mid morning - whey/protein shake
water and another coffee
lunch - poached chicken, poached eggs, spinach leaves and mozzarella cheese.
water and another coffee

[wenever]

Hey wenever,
I was drinking enormous amounts of diet fizzies, but after reading some of the threads here and not liking the sounds of some of the additives I am only having 1 can or 1-2 glasses a day. Do you think this could still be adding to the hunger?

I know from my own experience as soon as I would have diet drinks I would get ravenously hungry, and the chewies, maybe cut them out for a few days and see if it fixes the problem.

[phoenix]

Hi sherrie,

What i said i was honestly what i was having :confused:

I presumed as I was having cream in my coffee now, my frittata was made up of cheeses and cream and having mozzarella with my lunch was the fats???
I also bought some flax seed oil which i drizzled over the spinach leaves.

These are foods I would never normally have, I didnt even eat meat or hardly any dairy. I never touched butter, olive oil spray only and I only ever purchased things that said "99% fat free" "light" etc.
i thought i was doing the right thing by changing these and now including them?

Sorry if you thought I was misleading you in some way :confused:

[janal]

Hi Phoenix,
Do you have or can you get a blood sugar monitor? If you test yourself, test before you eat, and then 2 hours after. Your BS reading should be back around what you started at, and hopefully you should be under 6.
Cheers

[Sherrie]

Nono what I mean by that is you are definitely not going over board on the fats so please don't worry about them. Most people have more then that!

[phoenix]

Thanks janal,

Dont have one, but I think some chemists you can have it tested at,
will certainly look into it.
does it matter, do you know . what you should eat in between?

Sorry to all, if i seem to be a bit abrupt this morning. :o
No excuse I know - but not a good night.

Cheers.

[Sherrie]

You seem pretty normal to me :)

[janal]

Thanks janal,

Don't have one, but I think some chemists you can have it tested at,
will certainly look into it.
does it matter, do you know . what you should eat in between?

Phoenix, I am able to go the 2 hours before needing anything more, so say I have lunch at 12 - I test before, eat lunch, might start feeling like a snack about 2 - 2.30 so I test again and then snack. I might have something like cheese or a slice of cheesecake. Then I'm ready to test again before dinner.
In the early part of the diet I found a packet of pork crackle helped me get through the munchies as I use to eat a lot of potato chips before I started my diet and for me the crackle is OK and my body is not sensitive to the additives but their are others who will not touch them. It's an individual thing.

I think the important thing here is to be satisfied. If you're not you will be more likely to break the diet or give up. You need the fats in your diet to help you feel satisfied, maybe you need more at the moment and you can cut back on them later as your weight loss slows.
Just my 2 cents worth. :D Cheers

[LilRascal]

What difference would it have on your body doing low fat / low carb vs low carb and fats? is it that the fat makes you feel fuller?

[Sherrie]

Its also about calories, you take fats out then you're only let with calories from protein and you can only eat so much of that!!!

As a result your calories end up very low and can cause harm or at the very least your body will adapt to a very low calorie level slowing itself down to meet your calorie intake making maintenance very hard later on and that's if you make it to maintenance!

[LilRascal]

thanks for that Sherrie!