Hungry!

[Sero]

Hello all! I am four days in to my first W30 and have been hungry after every meal! I know, I know, you are going to say "eat more!" but after the first day I decided to track my food for a couple days and I was eating close to my previous amount (too much) but still hungry after the meals. 

 

Here is a sample menu (i.e. what I've eaten today!):

 

B: About 2-3oz of leftover steak with 2 eggs on top of salad greens with a dollop of homemade mayo. Eggs cooked in coconut oil.

Snack (because I was super hungry after teaching and it was too early for lunch): fruit salad with banana, handful of frozen blueberries and homemade dried cherries (no added sugar).

L: Leftover salmon curry soup made with coconut milk, butternut squash and snow peas (about 2-3cups). Eaten around 2pm.

 

 

Now it is 3:30pm and I am starting to get hungry again! What gives? 

 

FWIW - I am currently obese and not very active (trying to change this) - I don't know if I'm just hungry because I'm not filling up with bread and need more actual stuff in my stomach or if there is some magical W30 rule that I'm missing. 

[ShannonM816]

If you're hungry, definitely eat.

 

You could probably stand to eat more veggies at meal one -- try some cooked ones, they'll be more dense and satisfying than salad greens, but if you really want salad as your only vegetable, you'll have to eat tons and tons of it. Think how much leafy green stuff wilts down when you cook it -- that's what it does when you eat it too, so even if it looks like you're eating several cups of salad, it doesn't end up being that much really.

 

Ideally, you'll get to the point where your meals keep you satiated for 4-5 hours and won't need snacks, but if you do need something between meals, try to make it a mini meal of at least protein and fat, and preferably with some veggies. Having fruit on its own will cause your blood sugar to spike and then drop, which can make you hungrier, not to mention it can affect your mood.

 

Soup can be really hard to determine how much protein you're really getting, especially if you made a big batch to last several meals, and especially soups that are mostly liquid, as opposed to thick, chunky stews -- you may feel like you're eating a ton of soup, but if it's all liquid, you may not be getting that many vegetables or enough protein. Be sure you think about how much salmon went into the whole thing and how much you need to get at least one palm-sized piece of protein in your meal, and if you feel like you may not get enough protein in the soup, consider adding a little more on the side -- maybe a hard boiled egg with a bit of mayo or something.

[Tom Denham]

You are absolutely right that you should eat more. Stop tracking your food and start eating more food. You should never eat less than the recommendations outlined in the meal planning template - http://whole30.com/downloads/whole30-meal-planning.pdf- and you should eat more when you are hungry.

 

Eating more, however, should not lead to eating fruit salad, banana, blueberries, and dried cherries. Such a sugar bomb spikes your insulin and sets you up to become hungry quickly. 

 

You can't compare the volume of food you were eating before and the amount of Whole30-compliant food that you need to be eating now. You may be under-nourished now. Many obese people are. Your body needs the nutrients available in meat, veggies, and healthy fats. You may need to eat more food for these first few weeks than you will need later as your body gets what is needs. 

 

You don't lose weight because you restrict calories. You lose weight because your hormones get into their proper rhythm and start to support fat loss. It is almost impossible to get your hormones to where they need to be when you are hungry. So eat generously for now and trust that your body will begin to make changes when it is ready. 

 

By the way, the breakfast you reported was kind of light. It included a good amount of fat for its size, but you needed more protein and more volume of veggies. You have to eat a bucket of salad to achieve much food volume.

 

Your lunch was light on protein. All soups are light on protein. So you had a low protein lunch after a sugar bomb snack and a small breakfast. Of course you are hungry.

 

I know it is scary to eat the way we ask you to eat during a Whole30, but trust us that this approach really works.