I'm Hungry

#1

Hi All: So glad to have found you.

My title says it all! I am hungry. I am entering my 14th day of keto. So far I have found it relatively easy with the exception I am hungry on the days I work out - which is very cardio intensive.

I play tennis and often burn about 500-800 calories when I play 4-5 days a week. I have found that I must eat breakfast high in fat in order to give me sustained energy throughout my match - week one I had difficultly catching my breath, week two upped my fat which I found gave me energy to sustain my workouts but I did need to rest in the afternoon as I was tired - I figure due to the fact I am new to keto.

My calorie count for breakfast today was 681 calories which consisted of 7 grams of carbs, 61 grams of fat and 22 grams of protein. I took my blood ketone reading before breakfast this morning it was 1.5, after tennis is was 3.0.

I ate lunch 5 grams of carbs, 32 grams of fat and 35 grams of protein. 2 hours after lunch I am very hungry.

When I look at my macros for the day I am at 12/25 grams net carbs, 93/114 grams of fat and 58/81 grams of protein.

I am a 52 year old woman that has been pre-diabetic from the age 5, have dawn phenomenon, insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome. Fortunately due to my activity level I am only about 20-30 pounds overweight.

From what I understand I should not be hungry. I find the days I do not work out I am satiated and not thinking about eating, but the days I play tennis, I am famished mid afternoon and this coincides with a drop in energy. I try to keep my calorie count at 1400-1500 per day. Over the past week I have been keeping my macros at 5% net carbs, 75% fat and 20% protein give or take a percentage or 2.

Am I eating enough? What am I doing wrong to be hungry?

The positives so far, lost 7 pounds, sleeping soundly through the night and waking up an hour earlier than normal, feeling fully rested, brain super focused. I feel I am on my way to being fat adapted! Just need help to tweak what I am doing to prevent hunger.

#2

Donā€™t focus on calories, eat fat to satiety. You need more fat!

(Sheri Knauer) #3

Yes! More fat! Eat when you are hungry, stop when you are no longer hungry. You sound very active so its no doubt you are hungrier on the days you play tennis. You are on your way to becoming fat adapted. It typically takes 4-6 weeks, sometimes 8.

(mary6aros) #4

Exactly! Eat more if youā€™re hungry.
One of the dudes made this haiku a couple if years ago:
When hungry, you eat
Mostly fat with some protein
Stop when you are full.
I think this makes it simple,:blush:

(Candy Lind) #5

:arrow_up: :arrow_up: :arrow_up: :arrow_up: WHAT THEY SAID! Eat more fat. You sound like youā€™re already burning ketones, maybe not fully fat adapted but on your way. If youā€™re not sure where to add fat, make yourself some fat bombs and use them when you have continuing hunger. You are eating plenty of protein; donā€™t worry about increasing it. Youā€™re doing great! Keep it up. :+1:t2::grin:

(Troy) #6

Yup. Eat more Fat

Helps me
Start of w eating veggies 1st (I mixed in fat foods )
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
ā€¦this prevents me from eating or wanting to much proteinšŸ˜„
I then Eat my protein

Then I finish off w fat
Then more fat if needed

It works for me :+1:t2:

Good Luck!

(Vincent Hall) #7

Iā€™ll add water and electrolytes to the suggestions.
Particularly if youā€™re losing a lot through exercise.
\v/

(Miss E) #8

Is it possible to exchange some of your cardio for weights? Thatā€™s a lot of cardio.

Will keep an eye out as Iā€™m very new here and look forward to seeing how you go. Kudos!

#9

Thank you all for the responses and encouragement.

I will look into fat bombs. Perhaps on my tennis days, I need an afternoon bomb. It is ok if my fat grams are in excess of what I am supposed to eat? I am trying to stay exactly on target at 114 grams but then again I do not think my tracker takes into account my workout by adding back in food for calories burned during workout.

What I am trying to do is keep the ratio of fat and protein the same which is a 33 gram spread.

Please correct me if I am wrongā€¦ I thought I needed to watch my overall caloric intake or I will be gaining weight. Isnā€™t the overall premise of the keto life style replacing carb calories with fat calories? Hence the need to be careful? Or is it during induction/adaption not to worry about caloric intake?

Thank again.

(Allie) #10

Fat doesnā€™t make you fat. If youā€™re hungry, eat more.
Carbs are a limit, protein is a goal, fat is however much you need to not be hungry. Your body cannot perform and heal the way you want it to if you deprive it of the nutrition it needs.

#11

No! Your body is screaming at you to feed it more fat. If you ignore it, your metabolism is likely to down regulate and thatā€™s not what you want. Throw that 114g out the window and feed your body. Fat to satiety, not to a predesignated gram or calorie amount. Carbs <20, moderate protein, and fat to satiety. Keep it simple. One of the joys of keto is ā€˜learningā€™ to eat intuitively. I donā€™t track my daily intake because it launches me into disordered food thinking and orthorexia. I know this is not true for everyone, some people benefit greatly from tracking their daily intake, Iā€™m just not one of them. However I will occasionally do a spot check. I find that when I eat intuitively my macros fall right into place. It still surprises me every time but itā€™s true and I love it. I would encourage you to try intuitive eating within a keto framework, even just for one day, perhaps on your workout day. Then track after the fact and see how your macros lineup with how youā€™re feeling. It can be scary to let go of the reins, but I would suggest that it is a worthwhile experiment, if even for a day.

(Allie) #12

This is me too, I stopped tracking in July 2017ā€¦ well not the spot check, it does occasionally come into my head to do it, but then I change my mind and wonder how the heck I managed to monitor so closely for so longā€¦ :joy: Weight was 118.6lbs the last day I tracked food, currently 117lbs - the reduced stress just cannot be measuredā€¦ :smiley:

#13

Most recent episode!

(Candy Lind) #14

This is what Iā€™ve decided to call ā€œCICO-babbleā€. Calories-In,Calories-Out is not what we concentrate on; we concentrate on fixing our deranged hormones (especially, but not just insulin) so our bodies can access our stored fat for energy.

At some point near goal, you may have to be more careful with caloric intake, but that assumes that you are Insulin Sensitive (IS). When you are Insulin Resistent (IR) you have to eat enough fat to ā€œclimbā€ over the ā€œinsulin wallā€ that blocks your body from taking fat from your cells for energy.

What she said. It happens on any kind of restricted calorie diet, not just keto.

I started out trying to do keto on 1100 calories a day and it wasnā€™t working because my metabolism is so deranged. Iā€™m IR but have never been ā€œdiagnosedā€ T2D. I started trusting the ā€œeat more fatā€ folks and raised my caloric intake 3 different times (all in fat), and 3 times saw precipitous drops on the scale. I can eat 14-1500 calories a day now (and Iā€™m a complete slug, unlike you!) and not gain, in fact Iā€™m still losing at this point (63F, 5ā€™-5" 238 lb).

You NEED more than you are ingesting in order to fix your metabolism so you can enjoy food without hunger for the rest of your life. Let THAT be your goal instead of a scale number.

#15

I like your method!

#16

Listening now. This episode and its timing could not be more perfect.

#17

Thank you. I am watching the video.

By the way, if I need to eat more fat, what is a good way to eat it? I have been taking MCT oil 1-2 tbsp. per day. I eat at least 1/2 avocado a day. I use olive oil (and vinegar) as a dressing. I cook liberally with olive oil. I use grass fed butter liberally. How else can I consume fat?

I am looking into fat bombs, like coconut ones. I do not have a sweet tooth (years of being pre-diabetic, donā€™t like the feeling sugar gives me), so wondering what I can do to increase my fat intake. I prefer not to eat a lot of bacon either. But I recognize I need some type of fat snacks.

In addition does anyone get hot about an hour after eating? I notice that I get hot, not a hot flash but feels like my body temperature rises for 30 min or so. Especially after having MCT oil.

#18

macademia nuts, olives, butter, cheese. I would peruse the forums and see what people are eating.

(Karen Ogilvie) #19

Sometimes itā€™s not enough fat. With me hunger can come from not enough fat, not enough protein, or not enough leafy greens (bulk). Play around with adding a smidge of each and see what helps trigger your satiety signals best! For myself - Some days I need 120g of protein, some days only 60g or none at all when I fast.
Also consider that hunger might not be a food issue. Sometimes itā€™s salt and hydration or even not enough sleep disguised as hunger. Iā€™m suspecting those issues might be at okay because of your admirable commitment to a regular workout regime. Play around until you find what works best for you. :slight_smile:

#20

Hi Again:

I listened to the 2 Keto Dudes podcast - thank you for sharing.

I realize I wasnā€™t clear. I am not hungry immediately after I eat lunch, I am eating until I am full, but rather hungry 1-2 hours after I eat lunch. This hunger coincides with the days I get a lot of cardio exercise in the morning.

So I am super hungry in the afternoon a few hours after lunch on the mornings that I play tennis.

My lunch usually consists of a cobb or some type of salad with a generous serving of fat.

Since I am eating to satiety at lunch, does this mean I need a fat bomb when I am hungry? Or eat more fat at lunch?