19 days W30 and still hungry

[Beanette]

I am on day 19 of the W30 and I still feel hungry. Before doing the W30, I could go hours without eating as eating had never been important for me and I find cooking to be a lot of work. I could feel the hunger in my stomach but not as often as I do since I have been on W30. Of course, I never really had much energy or good sleep. I knew that to me the biggest challenge would be to eat 3 meals a day at regular hours which I follow quite strictly though. I don’t have any problem with the diet, eating all that good food and leaving the junk out. My biggest problem is to cook, so I always have something quick with good fat, ex. : eggs in the morning (usually 2 because less is not enough and more is too much – I tried it) with sweet potatoe, ½ avocado, cucumber, tomatoe, one fruit; lunch time : a good piece of meat or fish or shrimps, green veggies (2 adult portions), sweet potato or squash, salad and finally diner time is about the same with different meat and veggies. After I am done eating I feel very full because my plate is full. But about 2 hours later I feel hungry and it is like there is a hole in my stomach and I need to eat. I read that increasing the fat could help but it changed nothing. I think the protein part is high enough as it oversizes my hand easily. So, what I did a few days ago, I reduced my meal plates to have them a little more normal size and started to eat snacks : 1 fruit with nuts in the morning and in the afternoon. I started sleeping a little better since I eat snacks but I still feel hungry too often. I feel the same in my clothes as when I started, so I know I haven’t loss pounds which means that I eat a lot. Many years ago, I had done Montignac’s diet and lost weight on it as I didn’t eat sugar neither then and to me W30 reminds me of Montignac’s but takes out much more food. Also, I started drinking much water in-between meals but still feel that hole in my stomach. What can I do not to feel hungry so soon after the meals and at the same time reduce my portions as I think I eat too much and feel so full after the meals? I even feel bloated after the meals. As I am starting to sleep a little more, I have more energy to exercise but I do a little for now. I am 63 years old and do about 6 min. trampoline a day, working to increase it slowly. I am still active on the work market. Thanks to all for your replies and suggestions.

[jmcbn]

19 minutes ago, Beanette said:

What can I do not to feel hungry so soon after the meals and at the same time reduce my portions as I think I eat too much and feel so full after the meals? I even feel bloated after the meals.

It sounds to me like you are sensitive to something you are eating - quite possibly the sweet potatoes and/or avocado...

A common symptom is that of feeling full & bloated, but then soon after feeling hungry.

Can you give us a more detailed run down of what you have eaten over the past 3-4 days?

[Beanette]

12 minutes ago, jmcbn said:

It sounds to me like you are sensitive to something you are eating - quite possibly the sweet potatoes and/or avocado...

A common symptom is that of feeling full & bloated, but then soon after feeling hungry.

Can you give us a more detailed run down of what you have eaten over the past 3-4 days?

Correcting, thinking about it better, I only feel full in my stomach and full in my belly but not bloated. Sorry.

[Beanette]

Thanks for your help jmcbn and sorry I am taking so much space.

Here is my menu of 4 days. I am a realtor and I try to eat at regular hours but it is not always possible. I don’t eat fast as I like chewing my food and I can easily spend ½ hour eating a meal. Of course I eat in front of the computer, it is less boring than eating alone doing nothing else. Here is a picture of one of my breakfast before I started to snack and I felt so full after I finished eating. I have always enjoyed eating breakfast and big ones.

Before I started to snack, I would take bigger plates and still would feel hungry in the middle of the morning and in the middle of the afternoon and many times at night and wouldn’t sleep because of this. Since I started snacking, until now, I don’t feel hungry at night and I can sleep a little more. Since I started the W30, I was able to sleep well 3 nights without waking-up in the middle of the night and being unable to fall back to sleep. It is better than in the last so many months. I just hope it keeps improving.

March 7 : 7 :00 a.m. - 1 orange, cucumber, 1 tomato, 1/2 avocado, sweet potato puree, green oignon, red pepper, almond powder, canned tuna

Lunch 12 :00 – 1 ½ cup of butternut squash thick soup made with full fat coconut milk, chili (the book recipe), green mixed salad, dressing with sunflower oil and apple cider vinegar, 1 apple

Diner 6 :30 – Salmon filet, sweet potato fries, homemade mayonnaise with avocado oil and garlic (so delicious I would have eaten it at the spoonful if I didn’t stop myself)

March 8 : breakfast 6 :50 a.m. - 2 eggs, cucumber, 1 tomato, 1/2 avocado, sweet potato puree, green oignon, red pepper, almond powder, canned tuna with 2 tablespoonful of homemade mayonnaise (avocado oil and garlic), 1 apple and massala tea

Lunch 12 :00 - 1 ½ cup of butternut squash thick soup made with full fat coconut milk, salmon, green mixed salad with homemade mayonnaise, banana

Snack 5 :15 - apple and about 8 pecans

Diner 8 :00 p.m. – big chicken salad with green onion, celery, red pepper, homemade mayonnaise

March 13 : breakfast 6 :30 a.m. : 1 orange, 2 scrambled eggs mixed with coconut milk fat, cucumber, 1/2 avocado and mixed green salad with dressing made with sunflower seed oil (I think I used this oil only twice and both days are in here) and lemon juice, 1 big tsp almond butter

Snack at 9 :45 – 1 green apple and about 8 walnuts

Lunch at 13 :45 (could not eat before and by then I wasn’t hungry anymore but I knew I had to eat and not go back into my old habits) Confit duck leg, sweet potato, green beans, mixed green salad, aragula pesto

Snack at 4 :30 – green grapes and about 8 pecans

Diner at 8 :00 p.m. – salmon filet, ½ avocado, spaghetti squash, mixed green salad and brussel sprouts

March 14 : 6 :20 a.m. – breakfast : 1 orange, frittata with mushrooms, garlic, red pepper, green onion, jalapenos, squash (I don’t know the name of this one), 1/2 avocado, cucumber

Hungry before the snack at 9 :45 – 1 mango and 5 walnuts

Hungry by 11 :00-11 :30 – lunch at 12 :00 – Confit duck leg (1) , mixed green salad with lime juice and a lot of brocoli

Hungry before the snack at 3 :20 p.m. – 1 ripe banana (but not too ripe) and 4-5 pecans

Less hungry before diner at 7 :20 p.m. - 2 full teaspoon of almond butter, 1 pork chop (very big), green beans, spaghetti squash

March 15 : 6 :45 a.m. – breakfast : 1 apple, frittata with mushrooms, garlic, red pepper, green onion, jalapenos, squash (I don’t know the name of this one), 1/2 avocado, cucumber, mixed green salade with lime juice, 1 bowl of red fruits with 2 big spoonfull of coconut milk fat

Hungry before the snack at 10 :00 – 1 banana and 5 walnuts

Hungry at 11 :30 – 12 :00 but I had eaten just about 1,5 or 2 hours before

So many times I feel hungry during the day in a kind that I never felt hunger before, like a hole in my stomach. Fortunately, since I have been eating snacks, I don’t feel hungry anymore at night before going to sleep. However, sometimes, if I wake-up during the night and am unable to go back to sleep, I realize that I am hungry. I got up a couple of times to eat a banana hoping it would help me going back to sleep as it did before the W30 but now, it has been in vain. I am really wondering what is going on ????

 

 

[SugarcubeOD]

You might consider removing some of the fruit and adding fat in its place.  Your volume of food does look decent so I think it's the composition of the meals where the magic will be.  For fruit we recommend 0-2 fist sized servings a day... every day you've listed has 3 servings and in one meal you have two servings.  Fruit is not terrible and I'm not trying to demonize it but you might consider doing a little experiment and replace the volume from the fruit with the whole avocado or another fat source.  

Secondly I see at quite a few meals you use nuts or nut butters as your fat source.  Again, while totally okay, these often don't provide the satiety that something like avocado, olives, mayo, pesto etc... will provide.  Try switching out your fat sources and see if that helps (also to note that nuts are recommended to be a closed handful every other day at most due to their imbalanced omega fat ratio so not ideal to be eating them every day.  They also can cause bloating which can cause feelings of being full when you're actually not).

[Beanette]

Thanks for the insight. I will check that.

[Beanette]

I started adding fruits when I was looking for an answer to be able to sleep without waking-up in the middle of the night. I will see how it goes now in reducing the amount of fruits per day.

[SugarcubeOD]

39 minutes ago, Beanette said:

I started adding fruits when I was looking for an answer to be able to sleep without waking-up in the middle of the night. I will see how it goes now in reducing the amount of fruits per day.

If you're hungry between meals until you get this sorted, we recommend fat and protein - hardboiled egg and mayo, guac and a couple meatballs etc... fruit and nuts are not going to be your best choice to hold you and they can cause blood sugar spikes which won't be helping the situation.  Good luck!

[Beanette]

Great thanks for the info about fruits and nuts. It is something I never knew.

[Beanette]

In reading a topic about the quantity of eggs we can eat, I realized that I wasn't eating enough proteins at breakfast, because 2 eggs are enough for me and I get disgusted if I eat 3 or 4 in the same meal. So, I added more proteins at breakfast, and after doing this, I don't have to eat in between meals. I think it settled it.