Binge eater who isn't hungry? Impossible!

(Aimee Moisa) #1

I welcome insights and advice, words of wisdom from those more experienced with keto and not being hungry.

So, I decided to start my own thread even though there’s a thread up right now about someone who’s experiencing no hunger and there ARE things in there that I can learn from, but I have a few more factors that I have questions about.

Yesterday I didn’t get hungry after my 1pm lunch. As a life-long binge eater I’ve never NOT wanted to eat so I was really weirded out by that sensation of not being hungry and not wanting to eat. I’m about 330 pounds, I started keto about May 20th, and since then my urges to binge have been miraculously almost non-existent, but up until yesterday afternoons I was still feeling hunger pangs every three or four hours and eating keto to satiety.

I didn’t know how to deal with the lack of hunger last night and my instinct is to eat so about 9pm I decided to have an avocado and go to bed. (Avocados are my keto version of a bowl of ice cream which I can eat whether I’m hungry or not. :smile:) I didn’t want to go to bed without eating because “not being hungry” is so new and I don’t want to mess up the progress I’ve made.

(Consensus is Politics) #2

Welcome to the club! The club of keto side effects. I haven’t been hungry in several months now. This one thing makes keto so easy. I have tried other diet schemes to lose weight. They all had the same draw back. I was always so flipping hungry. I could never last more than a month before binging in the grocery store parking lot on little Debbie’s.

Enjoy it. Embrace it. It’s your new friend. Some of us here call it out ketogenic bestowed super power. The power to just skip meals. And if the need arises, skip the next, and the next. My wife sometimes gives me a little grief if I don’t eat often enough. I tell her I’m not hungry. I could eat if I wanted to. But why? I’m burning fat off this way. So it’s win win. I eat less, less food to buy, I lose weight :cowboy_hat_face:.

So do be careful. The weight loss isn’t a given, something as simple as eating two few calories or eating too often can halt weight loss. (the VA suggested I eat 5 meals a day as a diabetic. I think they just want higher attrition rates myself).

#3

Great work! Now that you have control of your hunger, know that cravings might be your body telling you it wants some type of electrolyte/mineral. The below has helped me figure out what it all means. It came from here https://www.ruled.me/ketogenic-diet-food-list/

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(Aimee Moisa) #4

Thanks, I’ll keep that list on hand. I understand now why I haven’t been craving chocolate like I usually do during this time of the month, I’ve been eating “a lot” of nuts. Not really a WHOLE lot, but at least one or two servings daily.

#5

Hi Aimee,
I don’t know that I have any specific insights, but I can relate in some ways. I’ve been keto since May 10 and have been doing intermittent fasts of 24-72 hrs at least once a week. I find during my fasting days, that I have a HUGE emotional need to eat in the evenings. It’s that period of time when everything is done for the day, and I am either watching a movie or doing some personal work on the computer, that sort of thing. The rest of the day I’m totally fine, but it’s that pre-bedtime period that’s really hard. And I can tell it’s emotional, if I take a moment to observe my body, I can tell it’s not hunger. I tried various herbal teas to see if that helped, but so far the only thing that really helps is taking a salted bone broth (maybe it’s the warmth plus the fact that it tastes like meat?) and also a melatonin to get me sleepy faster. Let me know if you find a good way to curb your emotional trigger in the evenings, it’s be nice to mix it up a little from the bone broth.

(Karen Parrott) #6

Over half of the foods on the right hand side of this chart are binge triggers for me- FYI. Be sure to isolate trigger foods and abstain, if food addiction is an issue, just my 2 cents. Your milage may vary.

And no, I’m not mineral or electrolyte deficient. It’s a biochemical, hormone ghrelin release sort of root cause.

(Karen Parrott) #7

Welcome! Enjoy this and continue to experiment with different foods. The signaling may continue to get better, but with me, I also had to abstain from certain foods and use Keto as a tool for getting stopped. Abstaining from my key triggers is another tool. I use both as a one, two punch in the face of binge eating.

Onward and I’m so happy for you.

(Doug) #8

Aimee, it does feel “funny,” doesn’t it? :smile:

A few times, I’ve been truly overcome with how satisfying things are, how alien that no-hunger-at-all feeling is.

Eggs and bacon, or sausages and sauerkraut - these are two combinations that had me zoned out, rather one-with-the-Universe. Oddly enough, my wife, still quite the carbohydrate-eater, felt the same way.

(icky) #9

The human brain and body are infinitely complex, aren’t they?

As someone who’s not struggled with this, it’s amazing to read that some people experience non-hunger for the first time in their lives.

I think most of society simply can’t even begin to imagine what that is like.

I’d like to apologise in the name of everyone who can’t begin to relate to what that particular struggle must be like. I dare say society makes light of it/ disrespects it/ is unhelpful in so many ways.

Just as you seem incredulous that non-hunger is possible, I guess society is incredulous that constant-hunger is possible.

We have so much to learn until we truly understand the complexity of all of human experience!

Big congratulations to everyone who’s experiencing non-hunger for the first time on Keto.

That must be amazing and liberating.

#10

The book ‘The little book of big change’ by Amy Johnson will help. Or look her up on YouTube :ok_hand:t2:

(karen) #11

I think on the top of that great chart, I’d put “Try a glass of water first”. So often when I think I’m craving something, I’m actually quite thirsty.