Holy carbs and hunger!

#1

I’ve been doing really well eating ketogenically, and feeling great. LOVE the lack of gut-wrenching hunger and the blood sugar rises and crashes. Last night I was craving clam sauce and had a can of Progresso in my cupboard. I cooked a spaghetti squash and poured some over that. Not great, but not bad, and quenched my craving for the clam sauce. But I was STARVING 30 minutes later and couldn’t kill it. Tried a few walnuts, tried a little cream cheese. Gave up and went to bed instead. This morning I woke up starving but am trying to not eat (except BPC) till lunch (which will be soon).

I just can’t believe how famished I am! Back to the “wanting to gnaw off my own arm” type of hunger and also have a very bloated belly. All this from some innocent spaghetti squash and clam sauce? Have I become more sensitive to carbs or are some foods just more hunger-inducing? I was going to eat the rest of my spaghetti squash tonight but am afraid to, but if I do it will be loaded with BUTTER!

Back to minimal carbs for me!
Sue

(VLC.MD) #2

Think of a food craving like a smoking craving.
Go for a 20 minute walk and it will be gone.

Maybe if you learn to mentally battle food cravings … they will lessen !

#3

Geez, that was kinda harsh… :confused: I didn’t think my craving for olive oil, clams and spaghetti squash was THAT naughty, but yes, obviously it was too many carbs for my system now that I’m accustomed to a lot less. I’ve done really well with fighting my chocolate addiction…haven’t had even a morsel in 2 weeks.

And yes, I gave up smoking (after several attempts) 20 years ago (and still miss it) but when people suggest that I could probably have the occasional cigarette now I tell them that just one would have me back to 2 packs a day.
Sue

(Bacon for the Win) #4

probably the clam sauce and not the spaghetti squash. Do you have the can/label handy? I bet it’s full of things we can’t pronounce and therefore shouldn’t eat :sunglasses:

#5

Just grabbed the can: clams, clam broth, soybean oil, modified corn starch, extra virgin olive oil, salt garlic, parsley, sugar, yeast extract. 4 grams of carbs per 1/2 cup… I had a cup. Eight measly carbs but I was famished afterwards!
Sue

(Bacon for the Win) #6

those are 4 crappy grams of carbs too. Not like you ate 4 grams of leafy green veggies. The soybean oil, corn starch, sugar, all no bueno.

(Donna ) #7

Huh. I was thinking maybe it had MSG in it, which for me can cause wicked hunger and cravings.

(VLC.MD) #8

Congrats !

You are wise !

Sorry I just use the smoking craving as that is the craving I have the most experience with.
There are lots of cravings. Try feeling the craving yet ignoring it. Mind over Hunger. Maybe if you feel the craving for a while … you’ll realize you actually are hungry. Maybe you’ll find out it’s “just a craving”. YMMV.

#9

How are your electrolytes? Some people with cravings have had success taking salt. Sometimes a 1/4 teaspoon direct in the mouth.

#10

Hi Guys.
It’s not the cravings or controlling of cravings I have a hard time with - I’m doing really well with that part. I was thinking about what I wanted for dinner and decided since I had spaghetti squash on hand and hadn’t had clam sauce in a while it would be a tasty, healthy dinner. The more I thought about it the more I wanted it so I went for it, knowing it was a little higher in carbs than most of my dinners, but not terrible because I had consumed very few carbs that day.

The reason for my post was to share my shock at what some carbs (apparently bad carbs) can do to your hunger signals. I wasn’t concerned about going over my carb count by a few, I was shocked at the response my body had to it.

Lesson learned. :blush:
Sue

(Tim W) #11

I’ve had this happen a few times. Once, in the middle of a 12 mile run I started to crave carbs and, since it was my birthday weekend, I thought to myself “what the hell” I’ll have a breakfast burrito at my favorite breakfast place. I’ll have that one bit of carbohydrate and it’ll be all good. The craving for the carbohydrate was a 10 out of 10 on the desire scale, very out of the norm for me.

Later that morning, I had the breakfast burrito (6 eggs, avocado, sour cream, bacon and a few other things) but no other carbs, no toast, no potatoes etc. Black coffee, water and one beer to drink.

The rest of the day was keto food. The following morning I woke up and had the most intense carb cravings, probably of my life, no kidding, just off the charts insane craving. I told my wife about it later that day and she asked why I thought that was and here’s what I came up with:

  1. We had Halo top a few nights before, it was my daughters birthday, I think it might have started the roller coaster.
  2. Maybe I depleted my glycogen stores to the point of the body essentially sending out a flare of “more glycogen stat!” (I think this one is the least likely, I do a lot of running/exercise and would experience this more often if this was the right hypothesis).
  3. I had a sugar free monster a few days earlier, we were out and about and we had one on a whim.

So, since that time I have not had any halo top or monsters and, I’ve had very low carb cravings. I don’t think it was the burrito shell, I’ve been able to handle a couple hundred carbs on a hard/long work out day, as long as they are whole food carbs vs sugar/junk.

I say all of that to say, maybe it wasn’t the clam sauce that caused the spike/roller coaster? Maybe it was something else you had in the previous couple of days? I’ve notice the “carb roller coaster” takes 2-4 days to run it’s course. If I have a monster on Friday (even the sugar free one, I’m ACE-K sensitive) then it’s crab cravings till Tuesday or so.

I hope you can nail down the culprit and avoid the cravings in the future.

Cheers,

Tim

#12

Thanks for the thought, Tim, and for sharing. I can’t think of anything I ate or any day that I went over 20 carbs in the two weeks before that clam sauce meal, but I guess anything is possible. Or maybe since I’m only 2 weeks into this it was just the normal course of things and one of those things that’s going to happen once in a while. Maybe it’s the weather suddenly getting so much colder that’s making me hungry! :coat: