Eating a lot and hungry

[Jaden]

Hello, I'm Jaden, I'm a 19 year old female and I started the Whole 30 diet a week ago to help with fatigue, joint pain, and bowel problems caused by my EDS. After starting I have noticed that I have been hungry all the time. I'll eat a big meal and be hungry 30 minutes afterwards which is really uncommon for me. The diet isn't much of a change for me. My family if gluten and dairy free and we tend to eat pretty healthy with not a lot of sugar making the hardest part of the diet eliminating grains for me. I'm used to eating salads for lunch before the diet and feeling full until dinner but now I'm eating larger salads and still feeling hungry. Even potatoes don't work to satisfy me.

I used to not eat a lot and feel like I'm eating so much more than before now. A typical day of meals for me is: Breakfast: 1-2 eggs scrabbled or sunny side up with 1/4 avocado. Lunch: Usually a large salad with cooked and uncooked veggies or 1 potato cooked and mashed with those veggies. Dinner: Hand sized portion of meet, usually chicken or beef with more veggies. Snacks: During the day I'm at college so I can't bring much, I bring a zip lock bag of nuts and raisins. When I'm hungry after dinner I'll usually have grapes or cantaloupe and sometimes I'll even make another meal.

I'm wondering if there's something missing from my diet that I should be adding in or a way to fix this without bringing a ton of food to school during the day because I can't fit that in my backpack. When I'm hungry I'm not even craving a specific thing, my stomach just wants to be full and feels like I've skipped several meals. I've also increased my water intake since being on the diet but that hasn't lessened the hunger. I drink 40-45oz of water a day. I'm 5'4" and 128lbs. 

[ShannonM816]

Have a look at the meal template, and try to make each of your meals accordingly:  https://whole30.com/pdf-downloads/

So at breakfast, you need vegetables. Eat 1/2 to a whole avocado as your fat source. And when eggs are your only protein, have as many whole eggs as you can hold in one hand, so probably 3-4. Or if you don't want that many eggs, you can have two eggs plus some other protein. 

Lunch doesn't mention protein, I'm assuming there's some fat from salad dressing, but it would be okay to have the dressing plus some other fat -- some olives or avocado or nuts.

Dinner again needs a serving or two of fat, in addition to whatever oil it was cooked in.

For snacks, either at school or after supper, if you need them, try to have a mini meal of protein, fat, and vegetables or at least two of the three. Things that might be easy to carry include packets of olives or guacamole, cans or pouches of tuna or salmon or you might be able to find chicken, jerky or meat bars like Epic bars, carrot or celery sticks. You could take soup in a thermos, or take some leftovers as well, it just might mean carrying a cooler or insulated lunch bag. There are some insulated bags that look like purses or bags that would be easier to carry than a traditional hard plastic cooler.

As for water, we recommend aiming for 1/2 oz per pound of body weight, so at 128 lbs, you need more like 64 oz, and obviously if you work out or live somewhere hot or humid you'll probably need more than that.