Not wanting to eat

(Erica Ramirez) #1

It’s 2 months, to the day, of Keto and IF (aprox 17/7). I am losing weight, energy is up, I feel fine but nothing sounds appealing to eat. I would rather not eat most of the time. But I love green olives and dry roasted salted macadamia nuts :joy: to the point where it’s all I want to eat pretty much.
I take a multivitamin at night and drink water and coffee, but do you think it would be more beneficial to just eat nothing (fast longer) or eat what i want, even if it’s only that, from 2-9pm

(Geoffrey) #2

I wonder if that could be because you have enough glycogen and fat stores that your body just doesn’t need as much outside fuel yet. Just a theory.
I noticed early on that I just didn’t get hungry very often so I started eating only when I felt really hungry. That might be once a day or even longer.
Now that I’m seven months into my WOE and have lost so much weight that I’m lighter than I’ve ever been as an adult, I noticing that my appetite is increasing.
I think my body has used up so much of my stored fat that it’s now needing me to eat more often the replenish the fuel.
I don’t know how accurate that may be but it sounds good in my head.

#3

I’d advise the total opposite of that. Years ago I also bought into the mindset that if I wasn’t hungry I didn’t “need” to eat, which from a point of not dying that was true, but how it ended was the scale constantly going down because I was also losing as much muscle mass as I was bodyfat. Which also means your RMR going down to match it, making it harder and harder to lose fat in the future and then even eating normal amount of food putting fat back on you. That’s what biggest loser syndrome literally is. Fasting (can) be a good tool, but IMO way overdone. Took me over a year to fix the damage that did.

I was also never hungry, had great energy etc, just didn’t feel the need to eat, even things I loved to eat. That should have tipped me off, but at the time it didn’t., I was just obsessed with the scale going down.

(Joey) #4

As both @lfod14 and @Geezy56 have noted above, there’s a time into the “keto thing” where many folks lose their previous sense of hunger. That’s not a bad thing in and of itself, but allowing that change to keep us from providing proper nutrition clearly is a bad thing … and rarely ends well if kept up for long.

There are likely some significant hormonal changes involved such that you may not sense hunger the way you used to and your palate is similarly affected. (And as a mother, you know far better than us guys do about how all that can play out!)

Consider this: There’s an essential difference between cravings and hunger. Your prior cravings (even gentle ones, like pangs for certain foods) have changed. But your body’s need for healthy sustenance has not. Pay close attention to the distinction.

Make yourself small portions of healthy protein and fat for meals during that narrow eating window you’ve settled into for yourself. This food is your medicine, so in reasonable doses, take it. It won’t likely be much compared to your old pre-keto meal routines, but enough to avoid letting your metabolism shut down by triggering a starvation response.

Keep us posted. Best wishes! :vulcan_salute:

(Robin) #5

I make myself eat even if I’m not hungry, My body needs to know I am reliable. Plus, once I start, I usually realize I was hungry.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #6

For carnivores who no longer have the sort of hunger pangs they were used to, Dr. Anthony Chaffee advises cooking some meat and tasting it. If it tastes good, we’re hungry and should eat till it stops tasting good. If it doesn’t taste good, we put the food away for later.

This principle can be generalised to low-carb. Try eating a meal. If you need the food, your appetite will wake up. If you don’t, put the meal away for later.

(BuckRimfire) #7

If you need to lose body fat, having a lack of hunger seems like a real boon.

However, remember that your body does NOT have a storehouse of protein like it does for lipids (and to a much lesser degree carbs). Some advocates of fasting claim that protein deficits will be made up first from autophagy of “junk” proteins (misfolded proteins, old crappy mitochondria, extra skin, etc) but I’m not sure this really has much experimental/mechanistic support. (Tell me how wrong I am!).

In any case, that junk autophagy supply is going to be pretty limited, and if you are really limiting carbs to the point of being in ketosis, you’re likely to be “burning” some additional amino acids to perform gluconeogenesis, on top of your normal requirement for protein. You REALLY don’t want the needed protein to start coming out of lean tissue (basically muscle), so you should be sure to eat at least 1 gram of high-quality protein per kilogram body weight per day, and a lot of fitness freaks think twice that much is ideal.

This advice is worth what you’re paying for it, of course…

(BuckRimfire) #8

Let’s say your minimum goal for protein was 50 grams per day (which is probably too low for most people). That’s about 7 large eggs or just over a third of a pound of meat, if I did the calculation in my head correctly. I would consider that an absolute minimum, and try to get twice that most days.

(B Creighton) #9

Nothing really wrong with that other than macadamia nuts can be a rather expensive habit(but imho healthy one). I should probably incorporate more olives into my diet, but seem to not really desire them but a few times a month at most. Even when I do keto, I traditionally only eat two meals per day so am always roughly 18/8 IF, although this year I have added a protein smoothie for lunch on my non-OMAD work out days, which is today. Last time I had one, I totally was disinterested in dinner, and just was not hungry… maybe like you.

This is basically why I chose Keto… I felt I could lose fat, and gain muscle all at the same time… while not feeling too hungry. If you are still eating 2 meals, and not really feeling hungry, I wouldn’t worry about it other than I agree you want good amounts of protein and nutrition. This will prevent you from losing muscle, etc. I feel the low calorie model is just setting yourself up for failure while potentially damaging your metabolism and health. If you are getting at least 80 gr of protein per day, and good natural fats, and other nutrients your body needs, I wouldn’t worry about the rest of it… just let your body take care of it. It will recompose your body to reflect your more healthy fat burning metabolism. Indeed, this is how I lost my last 20 pounds… I went OFF keto after 4.5 mo, and although I went back to most of my carbs, I cut out most potato, carrot, and starch foods, and because I had become fat burning, I lost 20 pounds over the next two months… it was odd to me how my weight kept falling even though I was not in ketosis… every couple days it was another pound or two gone. I was walking quite a bit, but that’s the only other difference… and I lost another two inches around the waist. This taught me that I can lose fat by changing my metabolism rather than my calorie intake.

#10

Fasting is fine to some extent but some people have low appetite and no hunger for longer term. They still need to eat, obviously. So if it’s very short term, fasting may be okay but you shouldn’t do it for too long or too regularly.
So you7 have no hunger either? I have times with negative appetite (=impossible to eat) but strong hunger (but the latter quickly changes the former. I still hate to wait so I usually eat some broth them as it’s a perfect gateway food for me, it always makes me want eating! at least if I need food to begin with. it’s quite individual as many says broth is good for their fast). So I have a tiny experience with eating when I really, really don’t want first. Some foods are easier. Liquids, creamy stuff… I always can eat some butter… And if I started to eat, it’s easier to eat some proper, substantial food as well. If your meal becomes tiny, you can eat later. Tiny meals rarely last long for me. You don’t need to wait until hunger or appetite. Just eat 1-2 bites some time later, maybe you will realize you want more food!

I lose appetite when I get bored of my normal food. It’s very rare nowadays but depending on the item and the frequency and amount of it in my near past, may happen. I use variety to be able to eat when I don’t want the same food again.

As others said, protein should be your priority. Your body needs it. Some of us don’t need to worry about it, I always get my protein. I had some 1000 kcal days here and there and I still automatically got 100g protein. I couldn’t get satiated with less!

Your habits changed enough I suppose :slight_smile: I never could lose fat on keto but could off keto under special circumstances (fresh fat adaptation)…

(B Creighton) #11

Well, I didn’t divulge quite all I changed. During Keto I learned about MCTs, and switched from my regular SAD yogurt to goat yogurt, which has at least twice the MCTs… So, I was getting an MCT boost every morning. This kept some ketones in my body so that my muscles were continuing to burn some ketones. I feel the very presence of the ketones encourages more fat burning in the mitochondria… at least the evidence seems to point to that… so that kept me in my fat-burning mode from keto, even though I was no longer in ketosis… To lose that much fat in two months while not trying to cut calories, or doing anything else outside of my usual routine screams to me my metabolism had changed during keto… I mean it was literally about 2.5 lbs/wk that just fell off me. Ask any calorie reducing dieter if that would make them happy… LOL. And I did essentially the OPPOSITE of that… I tried not to cut calories, and introduced a fat bomb during keto, etc. I did lose two inches of fat during keto, but don’t know exactly how many pounds, because I was trying to, and was gaining muscle. My guess was 18 lbs of fat replaced by about 12 pounds of muscle.

#12

We don’t need to try to catr calories, we nmeed to be in a deficit to lose fat… Many doesn’t try or even try the opposite but loses fat.
The interesting case is when one truly don’t eat less or have a higher activity or anything but of course, it doesn’t make the energy deficit impossible at all. Very impressive when it leads to pretty quick fat-loss like in your case! My quickest was 0.3 kg per week and I was very pleased with it :slight_smile: I ate so very little compared to before (I must eat little compared to THAT… I did some serious overeating, I know that without past tracking. I ate really high fat, something I definitely can’t afford, probably ever) but it was enough and easy and glorious. It was more enjoyable than my previous woe (or else I wouldn’t have done it…) and I always was a hedonist when it came to food (too). Those were the golden days, I did low-carb and avoided the worst things, I made almost everything from scratch… Sadly, it couldn’t take me far enough of my tiny deficit inevitably disappeared as I lost fat (maybe a tiny muscle too, I wasn’t active enough).

But this is the driving force behind my experiments and I can say I know a lot more about myself now and my woe just got better and better :wink: I just can’t lose fat, apparently. (I will one day, give me 1-2 more decades. Not my main concern. I would love energy much more. And muscles but not enough to give my best yet :frowning: )

You mean with added sugar? Because normal yogurt is quite fine (for the ones who doesn’t get bothered with the sugar in it. I don’t). A bit pointless and watery to me (never was into yogurt until I met the Greek one. it’s still a bit low-fat with only 10% fat - it’s almost always 10% in this country as I noticed - but still nice and I don’t consume it often. that would be way too much fat, IDK how to eat it in tiny amounts) but each to their own, we all have our tastes and other reasons to eat whatever we eat.

(B Creighton) #13

I actually want the whole fat yogurt, and that’s probably not really SAD yogurt. And no, I was buying plain whole milk yogurt, and adding fruit to it. I was sweetening it with a tbls of xylitol and erythritol/monk sweetener. I call it SAD because it is made from mutated Holstein cows fed grains to increase production. Sorry. I just think of Holstein dairy as SAD now. I can no longer have this yogurt at all. A significant portion of the population converts the A1 casein in SAD to caso-morphin, which seems very inflammatory to me now. When I switched to goat yogurt, I noticed a much happier prostate.

Not everyone has this issue, so you may be OK with it. The added whey in Greek yogurt is a plus, but is not what I am after. I remember the day when I bought the cheap SAD yogurt cups for the kids at about 0.33/pop, and it was thickened with whey. Yeah, it had some sugar, but they ate it. Then they replaced the whey with cornstarch, and the kids would no longer eat it…

#14

I get it now. My thoughts usually don’t go that deep for reasons. Thankfully my body isn’t very sensitive, I eat the okay type of food even if not the best quality and I feel fine. Quality wise I do what I can with ability and financial issues and my body should handle the rest.

Ouch.