Having a little trouble grasping all this

[krisbee911]

Hello everyone, my name's Kristen,

I just started the Whole30 yesterday (10/1) and am already a bit worried about the amount of food I'm eating. It seems like a TON! I'm using the book Practical Paleo and her Squeaky Clean 30 day Paleo meal plan so far and the amount of fat and protein are insane! Yet, I was still hungry all yesterday afternoon, with a similar feeling today. I know it says here to try to only eat 3 hefty meals but I definitely need to snack in between. Is this normal? Any advice? I ate about 85% paleo before beginning this adventure and didn't think it'd be so tough, think again!

thanks

[Snappy Shark]

Hi Kristen!

Oh man, I felt the same way when I started! When I figured out how much I needed to eat at one sitting to eliminate snacking, I felt like a beast! If you were used to eating light, frequent meals beforehand, the sheer volume of food can be jarring. I'll give you an example of what a pretty normal dinner looks like for me. Today, my lunch was a little bit light and I'm still experimenting with how large of a dinner I should eat before CrossFit in the morning, so I had a big bowl of ghee-sauteed cabbage with pulled pork shoulder, a bowl of raw spinach topped with a bit of beef chili and raw peppers/carrots, a dab of homemade mayo, 1/4 avocado and a nice big bowl of sliced cukes with a few cashews. I'm full, but not at all stuffed. For reference, I'm a 5'7" female, CrossFit 3x/week and live in a city so I walk a good 2 miles per day.

At some point toward the end of my Whole30, I checked my caloric intake, just out of curiosity. I was restricting my calories to ~1300 per day before the program, and I found that I was eating about 1.5-2x that during my Whole30. Two months in, I still haven't weighed myself, but my clothes fit - probably even better than they did pre-Whole30.

I'm still not entirely sure of what the "magic" of being able to eat such amazingly delicious food and maintain a lean body is, but I can tell you that it works! I eat large meals of outrageously delicious, healthy food 3x/day and don't ever feel stuffed afterwards or ravenous beforehand.

So, you're doing just fine - eat up! (By the way, the lack of snacking thing is a work in progress - I wasn't able to go without snacks until the last 4 days of my Whole30. Just make it a goal, and you'll eventually get there!)

[Tom Denham]

Snappy Shark is right!

I took more than a year to work down from 5 to 6 meals per day to 3 meals per day.

[Susan W]

I did my first Whole 30 August 1 of last year. I did it on the after losing 84 lbs on a very strict weight loss plan that had me eating 6 meals a day. SO much work. I really had a hard time switching over to Paleo (at least what that means to me) in June and then a bunch of us discovered Whole 30. We even had a thread of Paleo people on that weight loss forum....heee. We all did Whole 30 and thank goodness we had each other to assure each other we wouldn't gain 50 lbs over night. I never looked back. It was difficult for some time. I didn't always stick to the 3 meals during the year after my Whole 30, but on my 30th day this time (started Sept 1), for some reason I under ate my breakfast in a big way. OMG...I felt horrible all day. I kept getting hungry every 2 hours and tried to have mini meals, but got hungry again before it was time for a meal. I was never so glad to go to bed and end my misery. I am, without a doubt, not someone who does well on snacking and small meals. I am shocked at how it affected my mood. It's like I was looking and needing something all day.

Once you get the hang of it, you will feel the 3 meals a day euphoria.

[krisbee911]

thanks everyone for the advice! I know it'll take a little while to get used to the portion sizes after years of following the low fat/low calorie mantra. I'm gonna focus on a huge breakfast and hope my day will fall in line from there.

[Emily]

You've gotten good advice.

Eat good food and enjoy it!