I got curious why I wasn't hungry this evening

#1

I’ve been eating low carb high fat diet for the past 12 days – coming from an extended hiatus eating a carb rich unhealthy diet. For the past 12 days, I’ve pretty much I had an appetite most times of the day especially in the evening.

However, this evening was different, I feel really satiated and I have only eaten about 75% of my daily allowance of net carbs and protein. I decided not to eat a dinner. I just feel so darn full for some weird reason.

Was so curious I decided to do a ketone blood test of BHB… well I just measured and it was 1.3 mmol/L !! :slight_smile:

So that must explain why I am not hungry… I am a fat burning machine right now feeding off of adipose tissue! :slight_smile:

In the past 12 days, my highest blood test for BHB blood ketones was only 0.6 and that was yesterday morning.

Lost 11 pounds the past 2 weeks so far.

(Full Metal KETO AF) #2

That’s great Jennifer, 11 lbs in 2 weeks is stellar progress. As you discovered your body is adding energy to what you’ve eaten in food and you aren’t being driven to re feed on carbs like you did before. It’s brilliant that this happened for you so quickly. I was still eating large out of habit for a while transitioning from carbs to fat. I didn’t want to feel like I was dieting. The decreased appetite and slow down on food took about 5-6 weeks for me. We all have unique change over experiences.

One suggestion I would give is not to think of carbs as an allowance but as an upper limit. Don’t try to hit your carb macro, if you have zero it wouldn’t make a difference as we don’t require them. And we don’t eat enough of then to be a significant source of energy on KETO. That’s what keeps us in ketosis. We eat foods with carbs not for the carbs, but for the nutrients we want from those foods. The carbs are baggage that comes with those nutrients. :cowboy_hat_face:

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #3
#4

I guess I chose the wrong word “allowance”… I meant upper limit / threshold. Actually the amounts I chose work perfectly as they have in the past. about 30g net carbs and 70g protein are my limits. Just saying I don’t feel I even want to eat that today… It was hard the past 12 dyas not to go over those upper limits. One day I ate like 50g carbs and 170g of protein… was the 7th day of these past 12 days. I binged … was starvin… not keto adapted. Most other days I stayed real close or barely over the upper limits. But today it’ll probaby just be the 25g carbs and the 50g protein Ive consumed.

I’ve learned from the past eating keto that I really have to moderate my protein intake since I am so insulin resistant, if I don’t it raises my blood glucose a lot to where I am hungry all the time and not really in ketosis at all. Since I recorded all the macronutrients each day for many montsh over the past couple years, I’ve learned what it takes with respect to threshholds to get back into nutritional ketosis.

I only overate , along with high carbs, the past 6 months or so because my mother was recently diagnosed with cancer then subsequently died back Aug 19th. I’m over the depression/stress and looking forward to getting back into shape. Still down 75lbs from my highest weight. Will be back down to my previous weight within a few weeks. I’ll keep going… long ways to go as I am still morbidly obese with BMI of 50. (Lowest weigh the past years is 345 lbs… I’m at 368 now… was at 380 couple weeks back. My highest was 455 lbs.)

#5

You guys make a good point though. I’ve been for the past 12 days trying to keep my intake around my thresholds I’ve always been looking to see how much I had left that I could eat, because I’d always be slightly over the thresholds by end of day.

I was actually thinking about what I would eat to fill in the gap then decided I was satiated. I’ve actually never been in this situation before I don’t think… always struggled to not go over. Maybe I should just eat two meals per day from now on and eat to satiety without looking at the macronutrients. (Breakfast and lunch… skipping dinner until breakfast.). I mean I’ll still record the macronutrients but won’t look at them until the next day when entering into my spreadsheet. This way I can practice the eating to satiety thing. It doesn’t always work though because I have a lot of stress factors and very high insulin resistance of HOMA 3.65. So my insulin levels can be up without any consideration to food… which could make me hungrier… so this is why I can’t seem to eat to satiety… and have to track the macronutrients so I don’t go over. (The dawn phenomenon alone can raise my blood glucose 15-30 mg/dL – that’s like the equivalient eating a slice of bread for breakfast.)

(Susan) #6

Congratulations Jennifer, you are doing fabulous. Keep up the good work =).

(Jane) #7

Welcome to the “magic” of keto!

Besdies the health benefits and ability to effortlessly maintain my weight loss… the loss of appetite is a big factor keeping me on keto for life. I love not being a slave to my hunger or cravings. I eat to fuel my body and when I do eat, I eat yummy rich foods full of flavor because of the fat.

At my age I also feel I need to fast regularly to repair all the damage I’ve done to it in 60 years and the diminished appetite makes that much easier also.

Congrats on your weight loss!

(Bob M) #8

If you could do this, there’s some evidence this is the “best” way to eat in terms of timing. Personally, I don’t get concerned about macronutrients.

#9

Bob, yeah I’ve read in The Complete Guide to Fasting, if you are going to skip a meal, dinner is the best meal to skip (because insulin levels are higher at night due to circadian rhythms).

I have to be concerned about macronutrients because of my extreme insulin resistance (HOMA 3.61 last I checked), just a little bit of stress or anything can spike my blood glucose / insulin. I’m type 2 diabetic as well. After dawn phenomenon my blood glucose rises 20-30 mg/dL and it takes all the way until evening for it to come back down to normal level. I could easily overeat without knowing I am without tracking because of the level of insulin resistance / inflammation /stress.

#10

Try whatever you think will work :slight_smile:
I skip a meal when I realize I’m never hungry at that time (except when it’s my last meal left. I’m almost never hungry at lunch but I need to eat. sometimes I just have dinner but I’m not often hungry even then).
Eating to satiety might work just fine. It depends. If 2 meals are just right and your food choices are right, that’s good. I can control my calories to some extent using different food or different ratios (or different numbers of meals). Not everything satiates us the same, usually. You keep tracking so you will see if something isn’t quite right so I think your idea has merit :slight_smile:

#11

Well it’s the next evening and same thing… wow I feel so satiated/full. It’s amazing. I’ve only eaten 12g net carbs along with 60g of protein. I can’t imagine eating anything more except for a bowl of broth for the salt which would be only another 1.5g net carbs.

I figure I have more than enough protein floating around to not worry about not getting enough protein. I am 368 lbs (having lost 12 lbs past 13 days). e.g. All my excess skin, and even excess muscle on my legs.

Regarding muscles… I’ve read super obese people like myself have much stronger legs than say someone that is half my weight and its normal to lose muscle mass there as one loses adipose tissue… so I imagine between my skin and excess muscle I have more than enough protein to fast for 6 months if I had to… And i’m not even doing that now… I’ve consumed 60g of protein today.

I know Phinney warns about getting adequate protein but does this really apply to a morbidly obese person?

#12

I just checked my blood ketones at 5:46 PM and it is 1.3 mmol/L. This is after 12g net carbs and 60g protein for the day, last ate at NOON.

This morning my BHB blood ketones was only 0.6. I am guessing dawn phenomenon started happening to me before I woke… insulin levels up would explain it… I didn’t eat anything for 13 hours when I tested this morning.

So perhaps the best time for me to check is in the evening or say just before bed if I haven’t eaten anything since lunch?

(Full Metal KETO AF) #13

I follow this TMAD style almost everyday. Eat breakfast about 9-10am and Supper around 2-3pm. Only black coffee, tea or water outside the window. I find this works really well for me. You’re correct about the insulin spike during the night from late evening. It’s quite a lot higher than it is after a mid afternoon meal. I don’t do any tracking or testing right now outside my regularly scheduled blood work. I take steroids so my diabetic condition was really slow to wind down. It took almost s year to get my A1c in the healthy range and I wasn’t even that bad. I think I’m was highly insulin resistant starting out. My fasting BG after 18 hours is typically 110-115 still after almost a year and a half. There’s notions around the KETO community that if your insulin is high and BG is over the “normal” range that you can’t get into ketosis. I used to worry a little early on about it a bit, that KETO might not work for me well because of the steroids and the high BG and heavy insulin resistance from a high processed starch, low fat skimpy protein diet (renal). But I am down 60 lbs, have healthy A1c, and still high BG compared to most here. The early eating has been remarkably effective for me since I incorporated it into my average day routine. And I sleep way better with an empty stomach. :cowboy_hat_face:

(Full Metal KETO AF) #14

It’s completely normal to have high BG and low Ketones in the morning. As the day goes on the BG drops and the Ketones rise. :cowboy_hat_face:

#15

David, when do you typically check your ketones? What time of day?

Glad things are going well for you and congrats with the weight loss and good A1C! My A1C used to be over 10% before low carb a few years back… now averages around 6.1. If I eat perfectly keto diet with moderate protein I can get A1C of about 5.2. (that was my lowest recently).

(Full Metal KETO AF) #16

Jennifer I have to confess that in 14 months I have never tested anything. But testing and stats are a big topic around here and everyone except one person reported this. I still wonder about that post. There’s the “Dawn Effect” which is more pronounced with diabetics. Morning spike of glucose and cortisol to get you moving. As the BG drops Ketones generally rise probably peaking in the afternoon for most but it seems to me the time you eat would influence that too.

My A1c dropped a couple of decimal points at a time. I kept reading about diabetics here that turned theirs around in a few months. But they weren’t taking steroids like me so my original expectations were unrealistic. Weight loss was fine, medical changes take longer for me. :cowboy_hat_face:

(back and doublin' down) #17

@Jennifer72 Wow! Ain’t it great? There is so much freedom in not being a slave to food. Enjoy this new keto situation :slight_smile:

Hmmm. This made me wonder, sadly, if those younger than you or me aren’t maybe in even worse shape. At least a bit of who we are genetically has been affected by the nutrition of our grandmothers. (Our eggs were forming in our mother when she was yet unborn, in our grandmother’s body.) Most of all,thought, I am so grateful for finding this way of eating and have that opportunity to heal!