Not hungry and stomach issues since starting

(Bill Bates) #1

Hi all, fist post here. I’m a 54yo male and started the keto journey just over 3 weeks ago. In that time I’ve dropped 13lbs and lost weight nearly every day (though I’ve stalled the past 3 days)…I’ve also lost 3 inches off of my waistline. I was 207 when I started and want to get back down to about 177. I’ve also been doing intermittent fasting where I only eat from about 1pm to 6:30pm every day. I also work out every weekday doing 30 minutes of cardio or weights. I typically eat about 1500cal per day (which I know is low) and I’m almost always way below 25g of carbs. I try to keep my fats in the 60%+ range.

My issue is that come 1pm, after fasting since 6:30pm the day before and working out in the morning you would think I would be ravenous but I’m just not hungry. It’s like I have to force myself to eat. So I’ll have say, 2 eggs with cheese and 3 strips of bacon and half of an avocado for lunch (these have always been favorite foods of mine) and it just doesn’t agree with my stomach. I feel overly full and just generally “blah”. Nothing I eat agrees with me…I can hear my stomach making noises all afternoon long. I never had this issue before I started keto.

I know I have to keep my calories up and man, that is tough. This doesn’t seem normal but I would like to hear from others who have been in the same boat - does this get better with time?

#2

If this is a typical meal, I’d try eliminating the items one at a time. One day, just eat eggs. The next day, add the bacon. Next, cheese, then the avocado, and so forth.

All those items should be perfect. The only thing I’d wonder about is the cheese. Is it grated? Sometimes they’ll add ingredients to keep it from sticking together, so it’s not just cheese your eating.

I realize this is just one example of what you’re eating, so if other meals are causing you to feel this way, I’m not sure. But anytime I eat something that doesn’t agree with me, I try to figure out what it was by leaving something out the next time.

(Bill Bates) #3

Thanks Darren and that’s good advice but these are all things I’ve eaten for years and never had issues. Before this I had eggs/cheese/avocado every weekday morning and added in bacon on weekends. But honestly this was just an example, I have issues with pretty much everything I eat now. I think my problem is that I’m not hungry and I’m forcing myself to eat. I just don’t get why I’m not hungry, it seems not normal.

#4

You have to consider how deranged your metabolism was before eating keto. I lot of the hunger we had was because the food we ate wasn’t providing the nutrients our body really needed. Now that you are, your body is saying, “I’m fine, that’s enough for now.”

As for certain foods bothering you that used to not, I think that’s were you getting more in tune with your body. Before there were so many problems, you (at least in my case) didn’t know what was bothering you and what wasn’t.

I used to could eat a TON of ice cream and no problems. Now, I start getting heartburn if I just THINK about eating a pint of it. :grin: I know for me, it’s a lot easier to tell what agrees with me and what doesn’t, now that my metabolism is in better shape.

But the important thing about keto is figuring out what works for you. Everybody’s biochemistry is different. My wife and I are both keto, but we don’t always eat the same things. I think it’s pretty neat to figure out what you can and can’t eat, but it takes some time. I’ve been keto for 19 months, and still feel like I’m always experimenting.

#5

It’s not, as long as you follow the Standard American Diet. :wink:

(Bill Bates) #6

Well, I appreciate it. I guess I’ll just experiment with different foods and quantities and see if I can dial it in better. And hopefully it’s something that will just get better with time. I do think I’d be feeling better if I ate less but then I worry about not eating enough. Seems like 1500cal is already borderline not enough.

#7

LOL! :joy:

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #8

Don’t force yourself, then. Wait until you are hungry to eat. There’s no law—nor even any keto rule—that says you have to eat at any specific time. Try just listening to your body. Eat until you stop being hungry and don’t eat again until you feel hungry again. Don’t restrict your calories intentionally, just let your body tell you when to eat and when not to eat. Anyway, give it a try, and then tell us how it works out.

(Bill Bates) #9

Listening to your body and only eating when you’re hungry absolutely sounds like the most logical answer and maybe I’ll give that a shot for a while and see how I do. The other thing I thought of is trying to consume more oils like coconut and olive to get my calorie counts and fat ratio higher.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #10

Since you’ve got some stored fat to lose, you don’t need to be getting all your calories from your diet, at this point. If you eat fat to satiety, you will be giving your body enough calories to be in abundance, while still leaving room for your stored fat to be metabolized. The beauty of letting your body calculate your calories is that as your excess fat diminishes, eating fat to satiety will automatically cause your caloric intake to go up, with no need for you to think about it.

Fat is not a magical substance; the only reason we say to eat it to satiety is that, of the three macronutrients, it is the one that stimulates insulin secretion the least, which makes it the safest source of calories. (It not only adds flavor to food, but it also has twice as many calories per gram than the other two, so it is more satisfying and less bulky.) Carbohydrate stimulates insulin the most, which is why we restrict it the most; and protein is somewhere in between, but the body requires it, so we just keep the amount reasonable and moderate.

(Annalee Haley) #11

As your gut heals you may find you are, indeed, intolerant of many foods. I certainly did.