More hunger during the cold months

#1

I’m sure this is a daft question, but have any of you noticed any increase in hunger as we head on towards winter? I mean technically, we’re still in autumn, but winter is surely knocking on the door, skulking in the evening shadows, and I for one, am putting intermittent fasting on the shelf.

To me, feeling cold is just about the worst feeling, well actually feeling cold and wet stuck in a downpour beats that. And what I have discovered is a sharp increase in hunger. So more coffees with cream, humongous 4-egg cheesy omelettes with plenty of bacon and blocks of cheese as inbetween snacks, have been neccessary. I’m already planning my next meal, fried salmon, with cherry tomatoes and asparagus. And will probably snack om more cheese later, but not the prosciutto because I totally binged on it yesterday and am consequently out of the expensive ham. I was doing intermittent fasting when it was warmer, and that felt like a breeze. Now that the wind has grown a sneer and teeth, I am finding it neccessary to both eat fuller meals as well as include a couple more snacks. Have anyone else experienced their hunger increasing in the encroaching chill?

(Allie) #2

I think this is a natural thing seen in all mammals tbh.
All of the animals I care for, wild and domestic, need more food at this time of year.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #3

It’s a good question, and I agree with Allie’s answer.

#4

No, never. I want A LOT of fatty protein all year long, I had this all my life. No change between summer and winter - except I am surrounded with more vegs and fruits in summer and I can’t resist. But if I am without them, I don’t start to desire them.

I can’t handle super hot weather, I may lose appetite, mood and will to live then - but I still eat too much even to lose the fat I should… I still get hungry and my body need its high-fat high-protein, I can’t turn it off. My calorie intake is the same all year long, same for my SO, same for my whole life. It varies from day to day due to my food choices but the season has nothing to do with that.

I don’t know if it matters but I am not the type who gets cold easily… I enjoy it’s not too hot anymore but I actually dislike cold too. I mean, sitting in cold, walking in frost is perfect (for a while. once I did a 10 hour hiking in frost, it was nice even with almost no food, I kinda forgot but I always could fast for a little while).

I actually often eat a bit less in winter in the last years as that is the time when I can do carnivore… But it’s all about my food choices, again.

I don’t even think the weather matters. Sunshine or fog (I am solar powered, apparently or my mood is)? I want the same food. Zero appetite and zero hunger for days? I eat just as much (maybe the chance for overeating is a bit less). My body is stubborn and it WANTS its food, this way or another.

#5

How lucky you are not to feel the cold. My doctor diagnosed me with Reynolds disease, I feel the cold intensely. I’ve always seen the season winter as beautiful, but it’s a hard time to get through those harsh cold months. I forgot to wear my gloves for my morning walk today and my hands just ached, making me long for coffee with cream. During summer I thrive and while everyone complains about it being hot I absolutely love it, I have more energy and my appetite dwindles away to nothing. Every winter I turn into the bear and just want to hibernate. Since I can’t do that I eat like the bear lol. Cold is the one thing that will have both my hunger and all my old cravings soaring, so I have to use a little will power as well as tracking carbs. Honestly I can understand the temptation of going carnivore, if not for the health benefits though I’m sure they’re plenty, then for the simplicity. But I just won’t part with my vegetables, fruits and berries just yet.

#6

I can’t use gloves outside, my hands get too hot. I use my gloves for my workout (back exercise, my heaviest dumbbells, it hurts me without gloves) and in my room in winter… My feet and hands are ice cold in winter in my room. They are warm outside as I am moving!

Finally it’s November so it might be cold enough for me to run tiny distances!!! I can walk even in 20-25C (15C is better but still, fine) but running is just impossible, I get overheated like crazy.

If it’s 30-40C, I do my best to survive, I avoid going out. I stopped that in the last years but before my actitivity seriously dropped in summer.

So it’s not all perfect for me either but I like this stability with food.

And I do dislike cold but we heat the house and I move and generate heat if I go out so I am not cold…

By the way, it’s an unusual year, I walked in sleeveless tops outside in October and we still needn’t to start heating! (Okay, we have a nicely insulated house, too bad it gets too little sunlight :frowning: )

Yep, carnivore surely brings simplicity. I still complicate it a bit (I need variety) but it’s still NOTHING like my keto was.
Yes, one need to be ready for the jump, I went low-carb ages ago and slowly changed my ways (in a few big jump, more like).

#7

I think you’re right, it’s a survival instinct, whereas cravings for specific foods seem more emotional, perhaps tied to memories, hunger is something much more primal. I do entertain a small hope that once my body reaches fat-adaption I’ll also be generating more body-heat, feel the cold less, as my sensitivity to it is ridiculous. I will be tearing into approved keto foods with relish these coming winter months whilst still attempting to track the carbs. It’s a bit of a nuisance. Of course, if we had the heating on more than we do currently we wouldn’t be able to afford said keto foods. I don’t ask the rest of my family to eat the way I do, my partner prefers his carbs and our kids need them having a lot of growing to do. I used to be a sugar and carb addict, but I do find when I eat a piece of cheese, some omelette, a bit of meat, my cravings for something sweet thankfully disappear. And even if I have to put intermittent fasting on the shelf during the winter months, I am still majorly motivated to continue keto due to much less inflammation and pain on this WOE.

#8

I am curious if it happens to people and how often…
Now that you mention it, I definitely changed at some point, no idea if it had something to do with fat adaptation as I don’t remember when it happened. But my already serious heat generation when moving got even more intense some years ago I think. But I do remember needing to grab painted metal poles or snow when I walked in winter on high-carb… My naked hands got too hot even in the frost. But it was only my hand. But now I can’t handle 3 layers or a hat in winter. I own a winter coat but I never wear it as Hungary just doesn’t have cold enough winters for that (the temp is usually around 0C, sometimes -20C but that’s rare). Except if I stand outside but I almost never do that. If I leisurely walk (I rarely do but it happens), I generate enough heat to be fine with a decent pullover and a shirt underneath.
If I ever will be able to run a marathon or a half one, it must be done in winter, on the coldest day if possible… :upside_down_face:

This year things are even worse (well it’s fun), I wonder if it’s due to my cold showers… But I totally enjoy walking in summer clothes in 12C… It’s not warm but refreshing.

But I still need my warmest clothes in 19C in my room sometimes.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #9

Actually, kids need protein in order to grow, and energy to fuel the growth. They are healthier and thinner if the energy comes from fat, than if it comes from carbohydrate. The notion that a ketogenic diet is damaging to children comes from the original therapeutic ketogenic diet for epilepsy, which contained so little protein that some children’s growth was stunted. More recent experience has shown that a ketogenic diet with a better protein content still controls epileptic seizures; the protein deficiency is not a requirement for seizure control.

#10

In addition to carbs, because my children use so much energy, I do make sure they get protein, as well as calcium. But they are picky eaters. I did cut down on my youngest child’s fruit intake after learning fructose can only be metabolised in the liver, but still he gets plenty of berries as well as bananas, oranges and apples. But I was giving him smoothies and apple-juice and I’ve drastically cut down his intake of these. My oldest won’t eat most fruit. They both get plenty protein and calsium in their meat and dairy intake, as well as plenty carbs from vegetables such as carrots and sweet potatoes, potatoes, oats and bread. I wouldn’t cut out those foods while they’re so little, aged 4 and 6. They’re both very active boys and use a lot of energy, and also the carbs they eat provide plenty of fibre. So for me, it’s OK to experiment and see where I end up along the way, but I won’t include my children in that experimental WOE as they are both doing fantastic health wise.

#11

I’m exactly the same. Always said I was supposed to have been born somewhere hot.

As soon as the weather started to turn, I bought myself a sausage dog hot water bottle to cuddle, and fingerless gloves that I can wear when I’m working at the PC during the day. I already have ridiculous stockpiles of blankets and have just started crocheting a new one as my winter project, just like I did last year :joy:

My appetite does wax and wane a fair bit in general though; largely down to hormonal fluctuations, I’m sure. But winter definitely ramps it up more overall.

(Rebecca ) #12

Yes, I believe that to be true. Our Dog always increases his intake when Winter approaches.

#13

My SO isn’t the cold type either but he needs 6 blankets in the coldest times… I use one but I don’t sleep naked - but more importantly I have “sleep heat”. No way I feel cold in the first hours after waking… He doesn’t understand that.
But it needs to get built up, I do need my socks and other warm clothes in bed first sometimes… And I take some of them off or not later. But I need the warmest clothes in front of my computer at night. I already reached the full winter outfit level inside, I only wear summer clothes outside (only if I walk in nice weather).

But the unsolvable big problem is my nose. It freezes off in winter, at least I feel so :frowning:

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #14

Fibre is not necessary unless one is eating carbohydrate.

It is perfectly possible for human children to be healthy and grow to adulthood on what is basically an animal-only diet. There have been plenty of tribal societies that considered plant foods to be “starvation” or “famine” food, and who subsisted mostly on meat. Until their diets were changed to the standard Western diet after contact, at which point they developed all the same “diseases of civlisation” as the rest of us (there have been a couple of interesting studies comparing the health of Maasai on their traditional diet with their cousins who moved to the city and adopted the Western diet).

I’m not sure what you are referring to when you write “experimental WOE,” as it is the high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet recommended by the McGovern Committee (and now standard governmental dietary advice everywhere) that is actually the experimental diet. Senator McGovern was warned about the dangers of foisting an untested diet on the American people, but as his chief of staff, Mark Hegsted, remarked, “What could possibly go wrong?” Well, now we know.

(Allie) #15

I used to feel the cold really bad when I was fasting and otherwise restricting calories. Since I stopped limiting calories my metabolism has improved and I cope much better with the cold.

Not sure how you’ll fare with the Raynaud’s though, not something I have any experience of.

#16

I will be short I promise :smiley:

I never feel cold when fasting either :slight_smile: Okay, I never did very long fasts and always had plenty of fat but still. The same for eating at a decent deficit, not like I do that often.
(I didn’t feel cold when I was starving and I lived in 8 Celsius then but I am sure that was a mental thing and short term anyway.)

I just don’t feel cold easily. But I am curious what will happen if I slim down, maybe I get more sensitive then? (But sitting on hard surfaces already aren’t that very comfy and I can’t float so well anymore either… Oh well, I can pay that price.)

But I never experienced extra heat from extra energy intake either. I am the same then, cold in my room, warm after sleep and during movement. Good mood gives me extra warmth.

#17

By experimental I only meant that it’s experimental to me, I only began this WOE 12 Oct and so it’s all very new. It’s an experiment to see if I can cure my lipoedema as well as the chronic inflammation I have suffered from for years. I have no doubt both children and adults can thrive both on keto and on carnivore. But I wouldn’t at the moment make such drastic changes to my childrens’ diet as they are doing so well health-wise, and also, both being picky eaters, I am just really glad they are eating as well as they are now. I’m a bit confused about your statement regarding carbohydrate being the reason why we require fibre. So on a carnivore diet no fibre would be needed?

(Allie) #18

None at all, many people find they function much better without it too.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #19

That’s many people’s experience. There are some people who still need fibre, but many forum members, including quite a few with irritable bowel and Crohn’s disease, find that they are much better off without it. The main benefit of fibre is supposed to be that the butyrate produced by certain intestinal bacteria helps keep the intestinal wall healthy, but the same is also true of the β-hydroxybutyrate produced in ketosis.

Dr. Jason Fung, the fasting guru, likes to say, “Carbohydrate is poison, and fibre is the antidote. If you’re not eating the poison, why do you need the antidote?”

Of course, you need to do what works for you. There seems to be a lot of individual variation in the need for fibre.

#20

Carnivores don’t eat fiber (or super little in gray area things like spices) and they are okay without, yes. You can get everything you need from meat, typically - probably there is some individual factor, damaged bodies, maybe too little food intake and other things that causes problems, carnivore isn’t for everyone but it supposed to work for the human body and there is lots of experience that indeed, it’s true.

I personally experienced that my body is fine with any amount of fiber. I never did low fiber on high-carb, that probably would have been very bad (and impossible to do for me :D) but on low-carb I had a huge wriggle room. I had various fiber intake on keto (I started with high and drastically lowered later) and all were fine.