Decreased Appetite - Am I Undereating?

[TCrab]

This is my first Whole30 and I am currently on day 20.  I have found the program pretty easy to stick to, but I have been very surprised by my loss of appetite.  It seems like I see so many people on here talking about having more food than they were used to getting pre-Whole30.  In the past, I have done low-carb eating and felt like I could not be satisfied.  On Whole30, I have found the opposite to be true.  

 

I work from home, so I don't have the normal daily office lunchtime social cues to remind me that it is lunchtime.  Some days I forget to eat breakfast and there are many times when don't realize that I haven't had lunch until it's nearly time for dinner.  I can usually eat a normal-sized meal when it is put in front of me, but I just haven't been driven my hunger or cravings.  My relationship with food is definitely different than it was a few weeks ago.

 

I feel like I am getting an appropriate amount of fat from avocados, a few nuts here and there, homemade mayo and compliant cooking oils.  I think I am eating appropriate amounts of high quality protein at each meal.  My fruit portions are only occasional.  I am probably under-doing the vegetables.  But on some days, I find that I have only eaten two meals by the end of the day.

 

My main concern is as to whether or not I am undereating.  I am not going hungry.  I have just never had such a small appetite in my life.  I am aware that my previous version of being "done" with a meal was to stop once I got the blood sugar rush hit (and then start again when the blood sugar dropped), so I know that I am having to re-educate myself about true hunger and satiety.  I have lost an obvious amount of weight so far around my mid-section and I don't want to do anything to impede my health or weight loss progress.

 

Any thoughts?

[Physibeth]

I would suggest scheduling your breakfast and lunch and making it part of your regularly daily routine. Breaking fast is an important cue to your body that you are not starving and it does not need to hold on to as much fat as possible to keep you from doing so. Sometimes I don't think I'm hungry until I actually start eating which is a little weird but truthful. 

[Tom Denham]

My concern is that your hormonal rhythms are off a bit and it is suppressing hunger cues. Eating breakfast within an hour of waking even if you are not hungry is a good way to guide your hormones to where they need to be. Then, as Physibeth suggested, schedule your meals so you actually eat them.

[TCrab]

Thank you both.  I am curious as to your comment about my hormonal rhythms, Tom.  Hormones are a bit like the weather to me - I can see the effects, but I have little idea of how it all works.  I know enough to know that mine have been unbalanced for a while.  I will just have to make an effort to make sure I eat more regularly.  I think it's just an very interesting change for me to not be a slave to my cravings.

 

Thanks again.