Disordered Dinners

[Nathan_Toben]

Hey all,

I am new to keto. Day 9. I have come to it as an endurance athlete with an ED. What I am experiencing so far is a decrease in the mental noise surrounding food, however at night, I am still burdened by those squirrely thoughts of - even though I am sufficiently full - going back for more.

In some places I have heard recommendations to just let my body eat until it is satiated but I think my disordered thinking is using this rationale to justify bad behaviors. Its only been about a week for me so I know that all these uncomfortable things are to be expected and to be patient, but I was hoping to hear from folks who could relate.

I might just need a kick in the pants that tells me, hey, be mindful, think about the improvements you will garner if you stop eating when you are full. Or maybe I am off-base and I do actually need to let my sometimes out-of-control hunger just loosen up and do its thing and eventually keto will self-regulate down the road, months from now.

A little confused as to which advice to take. Don’t count calories or count them? Don’t restrict or restrict to a reasonable degree? When I overeat, inevitably I take in more protein than is idea for ketosis so I think I may be missing out on a fluid transitional phase somewhat, however I am highly highly active, working out aerobically for hours each day.

Hope you all are having a good Tuesday, cheers

[Anniegirl9]

In the beginning, it’s difficult to understand satiety and what it feels like, especially if you’ve either done a lot of calorie restrictive diets or been a binge eater. It takes some time and practice to understand what satiety feels like.

After 16 weeks, I’ve gotten much better at determining this, but I was completely lost in the beginning.

[M_Graham_S]

I’m only 2 months in, so I remember having the feelings you are having. “Eat fat to satiety” made no sense to me because in my mind I would eat fat for days. Surprisingly enough, once you are fat adapted, the feeling of satiety comes. Count your carbs. Keep them under 20. Watch your protein because that can raise insulin levels which will mess with your hunger feeling. Be prepared with fat foods that you can eat when you are hungry. It sounds counterintuitive, but you want to let your body know that it isn’t going to go hungry. Measured-out baggies of macadamia nuts (write the number of carbs on the bag or it can get out of hand), a jar of coconut oil you can eat by the spoonful, same for MCT oil, olives, avocados, all the fat until you aren’t hungry. After two months I no longer feel the craving for snacks and I often finish my dinner before my plate is empty because I am satiated. When I have the random snack craving, I feel my body fuel (spoon of oil, olives if I feel the need for salt), not a reward food (pork rinds, peanut butter).

[Nathan_Toben]

ThANK YOU @M_Graham_S, that is really really helpful. I am going to bring a little thing of olive oil with me to work today and instead of falling gradually into a caloric deficit and bringing that deficit plus the stress of work home with me tonight, I am going to keep a steady drip of fat throughout the day and maybe i’ll have an easier time of it tonight. but im new to all of this and life is hard ;). i’ll let you know how it goes tonight.

[M_Graham_S]

steady drip of fat

I look forward to hearing how it goes. Also bring some salt to work. Just put a pinch in your mouth and let it melt. And drink plenty of water.

[PaulL]

My experience was that I ate large quantities of food for the first few weeks, basically continuing my practice of heaping up the plate from my carb-burning days. And it did take a lot of food to satisfy me. Then one day, in the middle of lunch, I was suddenly done. For me, it was a very weird experience: with food still on my plate, I was no longer hungry. And I wasn’t hungry again for hours.

If you give your body what it appears to want right now, I suspect that in a few weeks, your satiety signaling will kick in, and you will find yourself satisfied with a lot less. The key is to keep your insulin low by eating as little carbohydrate as possible—carbohydrate stimulates insulin secretion, and insulin blocks the leptin signaling from the fat tissue to the brain. It can take some time for leptin resistance to heal and for the leptin signaling to be re-established.

Keep protein moderate, because it does stimulate insulin as well (though only at half the rate of carbohydrate), so you don’t want to overdo it. That leaves fat, which hardly stimulates insulin at all, as your main source of calories. Fatty acids are energy-dense, and eating fat to satiety is a good way to give your body the calories it needs without getting as full.