Day 16 -- no hunger -- should I eat smaller meals?

[Roonster]

I am finishing day 16, and rarely if ever (once or twice per week) do I feel hungry. In the past few days I've felt hungry probably every other morning, which I count as a good thing, because I am breaking a no-breakfast habit. I think that means that my hormones are resetting?

My question is this: should I evaluate my meals and start cutting down meal sizes until I start to feel hungry around the next meal time? Right now I am eating in accordance with the template, but on the higher side (2 palms of protein, a LOT of veggies, a few servings of fruit per day). I sometimes feel stuffed after meals from all the veggies, because I hate wasting food, so I will eat past satiety to finish my cauliflower rice or pork.

I also don't have consistent meal times for meal 2 or meal 3 since I squeeze "lunch" in around my work schedule (anywhere from 10:30 AM to 2:00 PM) and dinner is after I come home and have a minute to get it together (5:30 PM to 9:00 PM). Regardless of when I eat, I don't get hungry, though, and I feel like I'm forcing myself to eat out of habit or time rather than to nourish myself.

I should add that I workout 5-7 times per week with a combo of running, weighted cardio, weight lifting and yoga/dynamic stretching for 45-90 min per session. I rarely manage to get a pre-workout snack in, but I have been packing Epic bars to eat immediately following workouts and that has seemed to help my recovery a bit, although my muscles do not seem to be recovering nearly as quickly as before I started.

Thanks for any help!

Sierra

[SugarcubeOD]

Sorry, can I clarify, you sometimes go from 1030am-9pm without eating?

As far as the template, you can cut it down to the lower end of the template if you feel you are eating too much.  Fruit is recommended to be 0-2 servings a day eaten with meals so if you're filling up on fruit throughout the day, you would benefit from not doing that and instead eating the three template meals.

You don't say in detail how much you're eating but if you're working out 5-7 days a week and not consistently eating three meals a day spaced around 4-5 hours apart plus at least the post workout of lean protein and starchy carbs (epic bar not so much recommended), then your body is probably prioritizing staying alive and alert as opposed to repairing your muscles from workout.

[Roonster]

@SugarcubeOD I have occasionally gone that long without eating, but it's more common that an early lunch lines up with an early dinner or a late lunch and late dinner. Some days I will eat at 6:30, 2:00 and 9:30.

I eat fruit with meals rather than as a snack. For example, my breakfast this morning was three egg muffins, bell peppers and strawberries with tea and coconut milk.

Is the epic bar not recommended because many of them have a higher fat content? I make sure I only eat the leanest options post workout (venison or chicken, less than 1g fat per serving). My understanding from reading these forums and the books is that starchy carbs aren't strictly necessary, especially if I have weight to lose, which I do. Do you think there would be recovery benefit from adding in starchy carbs post workout?

Most of my meals are fairly large-ish.  Here's today:

Breakfast: 3 egg "muffins" made with eggs, coconut oil, greens, onions, ground beef; bells peppers; sometimes berries or an apple; tea with coconut milk.

Post workout: Epic bar -- today it was venison.

Lunch: Pork meatballs (1/3 to 1/2 lb meat) with zoodles and sunshine sauce. Salad with olive oil. Iced tea.

Dinner: Repeat of lunch.

 

I do not want to decrease my food too much and get to a point where my body is prioritizing survival over recovery, like you mentioned may be happening. But it seems weird to me that I'm rarely or never hungry. I guess a good question is how long I should expect to wait until hunger hormones are netter regulated?

Thanks for all your help!

 

 

[ladyshanny]

It's perhaps possible that you are expecting the normal stomach growling, hangry, shakey MUST EAT NOW feelings that are quite common in a more common diet? This sort of hunger is generally attributed to the fact that the body is only used to using carbohydrates for fuel and that cannot be stored but must be replenished very regularly. On the other hand, when our participants become fat adapted (ie, the ability for the body to easily switch to stored fat for fuel), that sort of OMG MUST EAT hunger goes away. Hunger often becomes a feeling. More of an empty, something's missing, oh look it's meal time sort of thing rather than the very dramatic hunger we might be used to.

Is that possible? Your meals look fine to me. Meal timing isn't the greatest if there are days you're only eating two, but your meal outline above looks fine to me. 

[Roonster]

Prior to whole30 I *mostly* followed a low carbohydrate keto and/or paleo diet, and I was rarely if ever hungry then, either. I guess I expected to start feeling hunger pangs again since I identified with the "prowling around the cupboard at night looking for something" feeling. The biggest change I made for w30 was cutting out dairy and wine and reducing the amount of nuts I eat.

I guess I'll just keep sticking to it if everything looks decent. I'll focus on drinking enough water and see what happens. Thanks for the help!