This is very wise of you. If I had only known what you know when I was your age! Welcome to the forums!
Have you been restricting calories up till now? Your hunger may be your body’s way of trying to assure a steady supply of enough energy. Women are often trained to be so scale-focused that they cut calories to the point where the body has to sacrifice lean body mass. Then when they go keto, the scale doesn’t budge, because their bodies are finally able to put on muscle. It’s possible that you are actually losing fat, even if you’re gaining weight—remember that muscle is denser than fat, so that a gain in muscle weight can offset a loss of fat weight, but you can still lose inches.
However, you might want to take a look at what you’re eating and look for hidden carbohydrate. The way the dietary labeling laws work, a product can contain sugar, but they can say 0 grams because they’ve picked the right portion size. So look through the ingredient list for sugars of various kinds: evaporated cane juice (table sugar), dextrose (table sugar), maltodextrin (sugar)—you get the idea. The carbohydrate in these products can add up significantly without your realizing it. Also try to cut back on artificial sweeteners, because in many people they can spike insulin levels. Your whole goal here is to keep insulin low, so that your body can burn its stored fat.
Also take a look at how much protein you’re eating. You will see a debate on these forums about how much protein is too much, but Dr. Stephen Phinney, who coined the term “nutritional ketosis” and who has been researching it for decades. recommends around 0.8 to 1.25 g daily per kg of lean body mass, depending on your activity level. (If that amount seems low, remember that even meat is only roughly 25% protein.)
The rest of the ketogenic way of eating is to eat fat to satiety. Since fat is highly satisfying, most people find it very hard to overeat on a well-formulated ketogenic diet, unless there is something wrong with their hormonal signaling. It doesn’t mean that you won’t experience cravings for carbohydrate—I certainly still do—but the sensation of satiety is unmistakable once you learn to recognize it. But don’t count calories, and don’t try to restrict calories, either. The body reacts to a restricted-calorie diet by hoarding fat and lowering your metabolic rate. Better to not eat anything, than to restrict calories. But if you give your body enough energy, it relaxes and starts burning stored fat. There is even one documented case of a study participant who, by eating to satiety, consumed 3,000 to 3500 calories daily during the study—but he still lost weight at the same rate as the other participants.
So give ketosis a good three months or so, before making up your mind whether it’s working for you or not. It can take a while to become fat-adapted and to start seeing the real benefits of this way of eating. In the meantime, keep calm and keto on!