Still hungry a lot after two months on low carb

[Mummysgogetter]

To clarify I do eat a lot of fat - have a large salad at lunch with cheese, avocado, nuts, seeds, olive oil, eggs and leafy greens
same with dinner which can be steak and veg or Greek meatballs and veg etc.

is this normal?

BTW, those aren’t the only meals I have all day - also eat Greek yogurt and nuts with berries for dessert. And an apple and nut butter as a snack.

Have you lost weight?

Guess so. I imagine restricting certain foods makes you feel like you're depriving yourself. I'd say eat everything - smaller portions + not late in the day. And move a lot. You've got this!

That's all fairly carby.

Big steak with butter? And some green buttery veg?

I feel like you're dieting rather than low carbing.

I'm never hungry on low carb., but get incredibly bored. Are you genuinely hungry or is it just cravings?

Could you eat more? I drink single cream as a handy snack😆

I guess I don’t really need to lose any more weight as my BMI is 20, so I’m not aiming to lose any more but maintain my weight and not be stupidly hungry. I read Marks Daily apple who recommends that a fairly active person can have an intake of 100g carbs a day (coming from fruits and veg not pasta bread etc.)

@MrsTerryPratchett interesting - those items are listed as low carb on info websites etc.

Oh and I definitely eat my veg and steak with melted butter as well as double cream coffees between meals lol

What do you eat in an average day @DoodlePug ?

But they're all borderline. Together they add up. Carb creep. Berries and apple are both fruit and therefore sugar. Greek yogurt isn't that high fat and dairy has carbs.

Pure fat has no carbs but pretty much everything else does to a greater or lesser extent.

High fat/medium protein/low carb.

Sugar just makes me starving so any amount is something I have to avoid.

Thanks for the information @MrsTerryPratchett i understand what you’re saying but I’m not practicing Keto but low carb, which is 100 g - 150 g carb a day. A standard western diet is 250 g - 300 g of carb.
I don’t think it’s a good long term health strategy to cut out fruit altogether. Plus I don’t want to lose any more weight just want this benefit of not being hungry all the time that everyone talks about with low carb diets plus the health benefits

Sugar = hunger to me so that's my issue. I mean if you're starving, eat more

Very true @MrsTerryPratchett maybe I just need to stuff my face more lol it’s hard though because it somehow feels unhealthy to be eating loads and loads!

@Mummysgogetter
Not much of a breakfast person, or a meal person really, cheese and 90% chocolate if I want to grab something

Lunch usually a homemade soup (which will contain some veg) then random plate of stuff like eggs, olives, more cheese, cold meats.

Dinner with family most often salmon or chicken/bacon/boursin with huge pile of green veg. If I need a dessert it's usually whipped cream with a teaspoon of frozen berries.

I try not to snack between meals anyway because I fast when I'm not low carbing, so I try to eat a lot at mealtimes. Dark chocolate, cheese, fat bombs or cream if I need to eat in between, which is nearly always emotional eating.

Calorie wise it's 3k-4k. My app has a fit 😂

BMI of 20?

Why are you not eating carbs?

I find I don't do well on low carb, as am fairly active and can't do sport very well if I eat little to no carbs

Are you fairly active too?

I always have a suspicion that those who do well on low carb and are not hungry on it don't do my level of exercise (day: 2hrs exercise of which about 30-60 mins aerobic, around 15k-20k steps. I could not do this on low carb)

Actually @SimonaRazowska although I'm pathetic now with exercising, my most successful run of low-carbing was when I was running a lot. Once you're fat adapted it's great for running. There's good evidence if you can be arsed to look for it.

Wow Doodlepug I like the sound of your daily diet 😊 sounds delicious 😋

Have you considered high satiety eating. I've switched my meals from keto/strict low carb to picking foods that are more about satiety. For example lower fat/fat free dairy, adding berries back in, more seafood, spinach, picking lower fat meat sometimes. Basically trying to figure out what foods satisfy that hunger for longer. Not sure I'm explaining it that well but there's a lot of information on the Diet Doctor website about it. It's really about protein, fibre plus how much the food creates cravings - e.g nuts are low carb but easy to overeat so not as satisfying. Sometimes adding fat is almost lowering the satiety of something like veg or meat.

It makes a lot of sense to me. I've certainly found I'm craving less and a lot less hungry. I do seem to be losing weight too. The one constant for me is staying away from sugar, grains and highly processes food.

Hope you figure it out.

Took the words out of my mouth - plus I read Jason Fungs obesity code and chronically elevated insulin levels (aka chronic inflammation caused by carb heavy diet) is not good for long term health and can cause issues such as arthritis etc.

And other autoimmune conditions

I'll echo @SimonaRazowska - sounds to me from what you've posted that you're a pretty active person - is that right?

First things first - if your diet is really low carb, but also high in fat and medium in protein, then by now you shouldn't be hungry between meals.

As @MrsTerryPratchett points out, it could be that you are consuming more carbs than you think. Nuts, seeds, nut butter, apple, yoghurt - they will all be adding up. And it doesn't sound like you're really eating that much fat based on what you've posted - steak is usually relatively lean! I appreciate you've only given a few examples though.

It also sounds like you aren't eating breakfast from what you've posted - if not, it might be a good idea to reintroduce this. Perhaps some form of protein here, e.g. eggs?

Second, you don't need to lose weight, so it's fine to have a slightly carbier day. However, it's all about the proportions. If your carbs are too high, relatively, then your blood sugar will be out of balance.

Plus I don’t want to lose any more weight just want this benefit of not being hungry all the time that everyone talks about with low carb diets plus the health benefits

The appetite suppression comes from keeping your blood sugar levels stable - hunger (at least for us in the Western world) is controlled by our key hormones, insulin, grehlin and leptin. A diet biased towards carbohydrate will create an imbalance.

Are you genuinely hungry though? Are you drinking plenty of water, as often thirst can manifest itself as hunger. And we can be emotionally hungry, or want to eat out of habit.

However - all that said - you don't need to lose more weight, so if you're genuinely hungry, I'd just say that you need to eat more - especially if you are a very active person! Just make sure that your food choices are high fat/medium protein and low carb.

Thanks @CuriouslyStardust very interesting! I will be looking into that.

I wouldn’t say I’m a really active person - 10-12 thousand steps Sunday, Monday, Thursday and Friday. Strength training Tuesday and Saturday. Rowing machine for 30 mins on a Wednesday. Which sounds a lot now I’ve typed it out but isn’t like I’m running miles or doing hours of exercise a day.

I think that is a lot! You're basically doing a fair amount every day!