Eating to satiety versus eating enough

(The amazing autoimmune 🦄) #1

I am only on my third week of Keto and I am still finding my balance. I have been reading a lot here and have started reading the obesity code(I am only about 25% of the way through). I am simply not that hungry these days and so I have been following the suggestions here to just eat until I feel full. The problem is that I have actually start logging my food to keep a better tally on my carbs and suddenly realized I am only eating 12-1500 calories a day. Here is the conflict I do know that if I don’t eat enough my body will start to burn less, but I do feel full. FYI by all calculations I should be eating around 3000 calories. I started this journey at 406 and am down to 370 and I am female if that makes any difference.

So which should I do? Eat to satiety or should I eat more to fill the calorie gap. So far I have been vacillating and seem to be doing the opposite every other night.

#2

I will not claim to be an expert on this, so if anyone comes along with better advice, I’ll gladly defer to their wisdom, but I would say if you eating when hungry, and stop when full, then you’re doing fine.

Some intentionally restrict calories, because they can’t get away from the old CICO dogma, and we try to warn them not to. But if you’re eating the right foods, and stop when your full, then what else can you do? I personally don’t want you to force feed yourself, just so you can get a certain calorie count in. I would think that would be as miserable as restricting you calories.

Your right, you don’t want to restrict your calories and slow down you metabolism, but if you’re full, then no need to make yourself miserable.

There may be some foods you can eat, higher in calories, that you can eat more of, before you get full, but I’ll have to let the experts on the forum suggest what those may be. :grin:

#3

3000 daily calorie requirement sounds like a lot - can I ask what you’re basing that on?

FWIW, I personally think that chronic calorie restriction is a bad idea but if you throw in some higher calorie days - say twice a week - then that should help to avoid a serious slow down. If you really aren’t hungry of course then you could try the fasting/feasting method - as I understand it fasting doesn’t slow the metabolism in the same way that chronic calorie restriction does.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #4

Sounds to me as though you are doing fine. As long as you are keeping your carbohydrate low (under 20 g/day is what we recommend on these forums), you can let your hunger be your guide. You have been eating a ketogenic diet long enough that your satiety signals should be giving you enough food.

Fifteen hundred calories is what Dr. Phinney’s research subjects generally restricted themselves to, when they ate fat to satiety. The whole point of the exercise is to let our bodies tell us how much is enough, not to try and second-guess two million years of evolution. As Dr. Westman says, “calories are important, but we shouldn’t count them,” the idea being not to restrict calories intentionally. When the body tells us to stop eating, however, we should listen.

(Running from stupidity) #5

Eat more often[1].

I keep finding that I can’t get enough calories in 2MAD and so have to have 3MAD.

[1] Note that I’m clearly not talking about constant grazing and the like.

(The amazing autoimmune 🦄) #6

It is a lot. But chronometer, my fitness pal and other sites on line have all given me 2700 to 3000 calories to supposedly lose two pounds a week. I know that CICO is not what it seems, I have gotten that far in the Obesity Code. So I have tried to ignore it but I have also read enough to know that I don’t want to not eat enough either as that causes its own problems.

(Alf Bergman) #7

Thanks for posting about this issue, I’m about 2 weeks into keto and was wrestling with the same concern.
For me, after listening to a few different podcasts and reading, I came to the conclusion that if I’m still seeing results and feeling good, then I’m not under eating calories to where it’s negatively affecting my metabolisms.
I’m also keeping in mind that I’m retraining my body to drawn energy (calories) from my fat stores, not just from calories consumed…
If/when the plateau happens, then I will make adjustments!

(The amazing autoimmune 🦄) #8

I can’t seem to decide either way and I flip flop everyday :yum:. Not sure which way to go. Maybe flip flopping is the way to go.

(Alf Bergman) #9

Lol, perhaps that’s right for you!
Are you using a Keto Diet app to track your macro foods? I think it’s better than using MyFitnessPal etc…
Seems like you are getting good results and feeling good, right? So I wouldn’t be too concerned about calories, maybe make sure you have right proportions of macros?
But hey, whatever works for you!

#10

@OhioAlf I use MyFitnessPal - can you give me the names of some diet Keto apps to try? Thanks.

(The amazing autoimmune 🦄) #11

I use the chronometer app lose it. I previously used my fitness pal before keto. But I put one breakfast in my second day on keto and about fell over at the amount of fat calories into the MyFitnessPal. So I decided to do the beginning of my journey just counting carbs and not anything else. But I had been reading advice for the newbies and everyone suggested to log the food for a little while so that you understand your macros better. So this week I thought I would start and I found that I was using way under the supposed calorie limit, having only read a portion of the Obesity Code, I have a very limited understanding of it all and thought. Would ask some more experienced folks

(The amazing autoimmune 🦄) #12

I am feeling amazing and my macros are the right percentages. :innocent:

#13

Unless you are exceedingly tall & move boulders for a living I can’t imagine that eating fewer than 2700 - 3000 calories is going to cause you any problems. Appetites can ebb & flow so if you’re not forcing the lower calories thing then ride it out & see where it takes you. Keep the carbs low, the protein sufficient & monitor your progress is all I can advise.

(Raj Seth) #14

What is your history? Decades of yo-yo dieting calorie restriction etc could have lowered your metabolism such that your body is signaling satiety too early.
What I did was eat to satiety, and then munch a smidge more - like couple strips of bacon, handful of macadamias, couple spoons of peanut butter, etc. I assumed this would help gradually raise my metabolism. I was also doing the feasting/fasting cycle in 2:1 ratio. All in, I lost lots of inches and feel super energetic. I believe I have raised my metabolism- though I don’t really track calories or measure anything- so it’s a total guess based on how I feel

YMMV - but it worked for me!

(The amazing autoimmune 🦄) #15

Yes to the yo yo dieting. I am sure that my metabolism is completely screwed up at this point. I am hoping that I will be able to change that.

(Robert C) #16

If I were you, I would use the calculators (I would use a few and do some averaging) to see what my caloric intake should be at my final goal weight. I would then see how far that is from what I am doing with keto and maybe make it a goal to stick to that.

After all, that would probably be about where I would want my body on maintenance so, even if it seemed low compared to 3000 - it still should be high enough to not destroy my metabolism.

#17

370lbs, takes a lot to fuel that machine! 3000 seems pretty low in that case.

#18

It can be tricky, at 370 you’re still heavy enough that you have a pretty high caloric requirement to keep everything going… on the OTHER hand you feel full. I’d split the difference myself. I was 300 at my worst and came way down in cals and stalled for a long time, started eating more and started loosing again. It’s one of those things you gotta feel out, we’re all different that way. Be conscious of your energy levels and how you feel. Let that be your guide.

#19

But at that weight you could tap a fair bit from your storage I’m guessing

#20

agreed, and you loose it quick when you’re heavy but you also don’t want to spook a metabolism that’s used to tons of calories. I think a lot of people forget about the insane amount of muscle people in the heavier weight ranges have, which also means real fast metabolism’s. It’s a tricky balance to find.