Can't eat enough to prevent snacking

[Breezy123]

Hi, 

 

I'm on day 6 but I'm finding that I can't eat enough in my three meals to stop me being hungry in between. I'm making sure to add in fat because I'm used to trying to avoid fat. I'm drinking loads of water because I get hungry, some days so much that my pee is clear. I try to make sure I'm full at every meal without being uncomfortably stuffed. 

 

I'm also bloated and constipated. I was like this for about 3 weeks before starting Whole30, that's the reason I started, to ease the bloating and make me more regular. I'm taking lactulose laxative as I was advised by my doctor a week and a half ago and I go to the toilet about every other day but I still feel uncomfortably bloated before going to the toilet. I'm trying to eat loads of veg to help this. 

 

Here's what I ate yesterday (a typical day):

Meal 1: 2 egg potato omelette, avocado and half a salmon fish cake with homemade mayo. 2 prunes

Meal 2: soup with sweet potato, carrot, ground almond, potato skins, onion and coconut milk. A banana.

Meal 3: 1 and a half fish cakes with mayo, loads of veg fried in coconut oil (equates to 1 big courgette, half an aurbergine and an onion) with red wine vinaigrette. Half a nakd fruit bar. 

 

Cashews with pumpkin seed butter and satsuma for mid afternoon snack. 

 

I'm not trying to lose weight but on the other hand I don't want to put on weight. I see that some people have suggested having four smaller meals but this wouldn't work with my lifestyle and on day 2 I knew I wouldn't be eating meal 3 until 9pm so I ate a boiled egg and some nuts at 6.30pm and was too full to eat a meal later. 

 

Thanks. 

[missmary]

are you a pescatarian? It's hard to see how much veg you are eating at meals but I am certain you are not eating enough protein. Lunch, for example has none. Making sure you get at least a palm-size portion in each meal will really help with hunger. If you will eat meat, note that meat from grass-fed ruminants (beef, bison, lamb) is more satiating and nutrient dense. If you are hungry, it is an especially good choice.

 

In addition, you might want to try laying off the fruit and sweets (like the nakd bar, cashew butter, etc.) for a while and see if that helps at all. Ironically, eating too many simple carbs can actually cause more hunger, not less. Don't plan on a snack every afternoon, but if you are hungry try for one that looks like your meals (just smaller).

[Breezy123]

Yes I'm pescatarian. I was more vegetarian before this but I've added in a lot of fish to get the protein. I should have also said that earlier in the week I felt way more constipated and I put it down to eating eggs every day for breakfast, so I'm trying to go easy on eggs. I add nuts into the meals without fish or eggs to try for protein but maybe its not enough as you say. 

[onlyifchased]

Not a Whole30 expert, but as a vegetarian who experimented with eating fish for a little while, that alone messed up my digestion for weeks even though I changed nothing else in my diet. Salmon was particularly difficult, or any meal where I combined fish and fat. A couple bites of fish, especially fatty fish, left me too full to eat anything more, and then bloated for the rest of the day. Eventually it got better, I guess my stomach re-learned how to digest animal protein. Good luck!

[ladyshanny]

I'm an omnivore but I cannot eat salmon for the reasons that you both are stating; bloating, uncomfortably full, poor digestion.  Consider swapping out the salmon for a different type of fish.

 

I suspect your bloating and constipation is the cause of your inability to eat larger meals so I would probably work on this as well as rebalancing your plate to closer match our template (linked below).

 

Constipation would result from not eating enough vegetables as MissMary says.  1-3 cups per day of non-starchy veggie and cooked greens (great for digestion!) and about a fist sized serving of starchy veggie each day (more or less depending on your activity level etc).  Your veggies reported in Meal 3 should be duplicated in your other meals, that looked pretty much bang on.  

 

You can also consider taking a digestive enzyme or eating probiotic foods (sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha etc) to populate your gut with the correct bugs which will help with digestion and elimination overall.