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STARVING!!


MommyMarko

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I hope ladyshanny sees this - for background, I have one other post: calorie counting, 21 DSD, and scale. I was told to stop all of it, trust my hunger, stop snacking, and step up my meal size. I was on day 24 when I changed my WHOLE 30 methods, and I'm starving. When I was calorie counting, I allowed myself about 1800 cal/day. And snacks. I also had no fruit or carby vegetables like sweet potato. Because I'm pretty good at estimating calories, I know that I'm eating closer to 2400 a day now. And I'm allowing myself some carbier veggies. And making meals larger, so as not to snack. I am following the meal template. And I'm STARVING!!!!! 2 hours after a meal, my stomach screams at me! My sugar dragon is also more restless. Very restless.

And, please someone explain - if Whole 30 is supposed to train my body to burn fat, and I have over 100lbs of fat to lose, how on this green earth, am I not losing weight?? If I followed my body's hunger cues, I'd be eating 3000cal a day, and GAINING FAST! I just want this to work, so bad, and it really isn't, I'm starting to think of Whole 30 as JUST an elimination diet, not a supportable, healthy weightloss and lifestyle maintenance program.

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B: 3 eggs, 3 cups veg(broc/mush/gr.pep/red.on/spinach), drizzled in ghee, 1 sausage

L: 2 hamburger patties, 1 med. sweet potato, 3 cup salad(cabbage/broc/carrot/tomato/red pepp/red onion) drizzled in olive oil/vinegar

D: large chicken breast, 3 cups spinach, roasted whole red pepper/drizzled in olive oil/vinegar

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Hello Mommy Marko! I'm sorry you are struggling, and I'm going to let the mods comment on the particulars of what you're eating, but a few things jump out at me. So, here's my two cents, from my post-Whole30 perspective, and also speaking as someone who intends to lose a "lot" of weight.

 

  • If you are having cravings two hours later, that's usually a signal that you aren't eating enough at meals. If you are really hungry (broiled fish and broccoli hungry) you can eat a mini-meal: protein + veggies + fat. Heck, even eating a hard boiled egg would be good.
  • In general, the enemy of hunger and cravings is FAT! And I can see you probably aren't eating enough fat with your meals. "Drizzling" olive oil on your salad is NOT the same, for most of us, as the 1-2 thumbs of fat the template specifies. Find fats you love and add them to meals! For me, that includes olives, avocado, and homemade or otherwise compliant mayo. You will derail your Whole30 experiment if you restrict fats!
  • Be wary of raw greens as they shrink down to very little. So, your three cups spinach if raw may be only 1/2 cup, for example. If you're hungry after Meal 3, try adding sweet potato to that meal as well.
  • Now here's the important part: Get rid of you calorie counting/scale weight mindset! That was part of the advice given to you earlier and it still stands. How on earth do you know you're NOT losing weight when you are not weighing? And stop counting calories and focus on nourishing yourself and eating enough at meals that you're satiated and fueled for 4 to 5 hours.
  • I don't know what day you're on now, but if our eating habits were poor, it may take longer than 30 days to reset ourselves, both physically and psychologically. Nourishing ourselves is a process. Losing weight is a process. Processes take time. And losing weight occurs on our body's timetable, not ours. 

In the past, you've said you've lost huge amounts of weight. And gained it back! And done this more than once. If you want to keep doing what DOESN'T work, just keep doing what you've always done: treating Whole30 like a weight loss diet and worrying over calories and portion sizes and stressing that you're not losing weight "fast enough." Your body will release the weight when it is nourished and doesn't feel stressed!

 

And yes, Whole30 IS an elimination diet! It's designed to give you the essential information you need in order to know how YOUR body reacts to food that have less-than-optimal nutrition so that YOU can design an eating plan for YOU going forward that meets YOUR needs. The bad new is, you can't completely transform your health and your nutrition in 30 days. But the good news is, you can gain the foundation to transform your health and your nutrition in 30 days. If--and this is a big if--you are willing to give the Whole30 a chance, without being convinced it won't work.

 

The "supportable, healthy weightloss and lifestyle maintenance program" you're looking for comes after your Whole30 and after your reintroduction and it will be tailored exactly to your needs because you will know what and how to eat in a sustainable way.

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Hey bud, take a breath. Remember I told you in your previous thread, sometimes people who have restricted chronically will temporarily gain some weight when they start nourishing themselves again. I also remind you that in general, restriction leads to lack of appetite leads to restrictions leads to lack of appetite. If you can look at the hunger as your body starting to trust that it can say something and you will listen, then that's a step forward.

If you have a significant amount of weight to lose, I completely understand the desire to have it gone immediately (I lost 90# about 8 years ago, I get it). But you are not going to gain appreciable weight over a long term period by eating meat, protein and some good fat. It's what we are designed to eat. As Artfossil says, you can't change your whole system in 30 days. But you can make huge inroads into hormonal balance, blood sugar regulation and self trust.

Consider what you are doing now with your meals above (include artfossil's comments about raw greens bulk and adding a bit of fat) and then consider what you could do if you wanted to "diet" the weight off quickly. You would not get micronutrients or delicious food and you would get further out of balance. You cannot starve yourself. If you are eating as you state above and you are stil legitimately hungry, add a mini meal (hard boiled egg, can of sardines, handful of olives) and keep tweaking. Keep eating healthy whole foods. Keep honoring yourself. Whether you have 10 or 100 pounds to lose, you still deserve to be a nourished, healthful person. Don't let the diet industry and your own self doubt win out. Eat real food. Listen to your body. Be respectful of yourself. It won't change overnight but each meal is an opportunity to set your relationship with yourself right.

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MommyMarko,

Do not shy away from eating good fats!! I understand you are frustrated about feeling like you aren't losing anything right now. I was wondering how long it would take to start seeing results when I started whole30. It took my body 2 weeks to learn how to start burning fat, and it's not an overnight difference it's a slow progression of results. Slowly I've noticed bloating going down & clothes fitting a little more comfortably. And the best part is I eat a ton of food everyday!! I don't starve myself, I eat lots of good fats with meals, avocados, coconut milk which I will even drink with a meal sometimes, salmon, black olives. I have at least one serving with EVERY meal and it gets me through comfortably to the next. And my body has learned how to burn it. Please give your body time to adjust to burning fat. It sounds like since you were on day 24 when you realized you had to change how you were eating that you should now give yourself at least 2 more weeks of eating this way til you start seeing results. I gained a few # before my body "switched" over. Please let me know how it goes!

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Also to add to what I said above, I noticed my appetite went back to normal portions when my body started learning how to burn fat. The feeling of "starving" all the time went away & so my portion sizes went down naturally. Don't worry that you will always have to eat so much food, it should balance out. Hope this helps. Be patient with yourself & know that what is important is if you are properly nourishing your body, the results you want will inevitably come. Patience :)

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One other thing I was wondering after reading your post - how close are you to your period?  Please note that our appetite will increase tremendously just prior to our period. My meals will usually almost double in size in the week leading up to my period.

 

And just to reiterate what everyone states above - do not be afraid of adding fats to meals.  Really.  Truly.  Don't.

 

For example - yesterday I was a walking stomach (and I have been eating *like this* for a while) I ran out of mayo for my meal 1.  and I didn't bother with finding and alternative fat source figuring I would be OK.  Boy oh boy was I wrong.  I was hungry all day yesterday - it was crazy.

 

So I made sure not to repeat the same mistake today.

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