Hunger and macros?!

(Hannah) #1

Hi there!

I’ve been doing keto and IF for about a month and now that I’ve got my electrolytes sorted I’m loving it :joy:

I noticed recently that once I have my first meal of the day at 12ish I’m not hungry and I stay full for the rest of the day. I’ve read a lot that if you’re not hungry you shouldn’t eat but I’m a little concerned. My first meal of the day (plus coffee) comes to about 600/700 calories which is really low! However, after I have my second and last meal (700/800 calories) of the day I get really hungry before bed.

Has anyone else also experienced this? Any advice would be greatly appreciated :blush:

#2

Hi Hannah,

For the first few weeks, I did get hungry a few times. It soon went away for the most part.
You could look at what you’re eating at night. Maybe there’s something in that which sparks your hunger pangs.

I would try lowering your intake for your first meal, and upping the fat content for your last. This should help.
Without knowing your stats, we can’t advise on how much you should be consuming. However, at your stage, you should never let yourself go hungry. If you’re hungry, eat. Then consider increasing your previous meals fat content a bit, until you can go longer without feeling hungry. Try it, it works!

I used to be a huge ‘grazer’ in the evenings, in front of the TV. So when I started keto, this was the time when my brain was telling me ‘you should be eating something nice’. Learning to tell the difference between hunger and habbit, was/is the most difficult job for me. I’m winning at the moment! Maybe this is happening to you also?

(Carl Keller) #3

This is so true for me too. What I thought was hunger was just my brain and body telling me, “Hey it’s snack time! Where’s the beef?” It was always in the evenings a few hours afer dinner and it’s not like my stomach was growling or anything. I was just so accustomed to having a snack a few hours before bed. It takes some time and willpower to break bad habits and to form new habits.

One thing that did help me with this is I have been eating dinner 1-2 hours later than I used to.

#4

If I get hungry at night, I just go to bed.

(Hannah) #5

Yeah before I would only really eat at night and would graze the whole time :thinking: I’ll definately try upping the fat! Thanks got your advice :blush:

(Hannah) #6

Yeah that does sound like me, I’ll try eating an hour later and see if that helps, thanks! :blush:

(Hannah) #7

Yeah that’s what I’ve been doing but it feels horrible!!

(Miss E) #8

Try adding a couple hundred more calories to lunch or dinner or having a small snack in between if the other suggestions don’t work? Also how much water are you drinking?

#9

When I have irretractable hunger and don’t want to consume a lot of extra calories, I turn to low carb veggies. Would you be hungry after eating 2 or 3 zucchini? A pound of zucchini has 75 calories. Or asparagus. Or eggplant. A huge green salad could have less than 100 calories.