Just not hungry...OK to not eat?
 

Hello all! I don't post that much, because everytime I have a question, there's always someone else talking about it too.

Here's one though: been very on plan for 11 days now. Usually have breakfast once I get to work: eggs and some breakfast meat from the restuarant downstairs, sometimes small amount of veggies sometimes not. This is usually about 8:30am.

Today, when I got here, just didn't feel hungry so I decided not to get anything till I did feel hungry. Did have my coffee and my first bottle of water (25ozs), which I always have with breakfast.

I didn't get hungry till noon! That's when I ate. Now, I wonder how often this happens, and if it's OK to do that, or should I eat a little something so that my body doesn't "hold onto" the fat because nothing has come since Reward Meal the night before?

What do you all think?

theresa, aka 2moosmom

There are better experts than I, but her eis my insight into eating in the morning...
Some plans really encourage eating w/in an hour of waking, mainly b/c eating early in the morning gets your metabolism pumping for the day.
Myself, unless it is the weekend, I usually do not eat until about 2 hrs after I get up - but, I have found the eating breakfast really helps me get through the entire day. I no longer snack the way I used to and can even get home in the evening and fix dinner w/o shoving lots of extras in my mouth.

Personally, I would try to eat something in the morning, even if it is just a hard boiled egg. Your body cannot burn w/o the fuel. :)

Best of luck! :wave:

This is something that has always puzzled me. Some people say that you should eat so many calories or your body will go into starvation mode. But hunger is really the signal that our bodies need fuel. If we're providing that fuel when the signal comes, how can we be in starvation mode? Our body tells us it's hungry, so we eat, and it's no longer hungry. So why eat when you're not hungry? I have a very small appetite, and don't get hungry very often. When I do eat a meal, I eat maybe half of what a "normal" person does, and I'm full. At first I was trying to force myself to eat more, but it got tiring. So now I do what you did, I eat when I'm hungry, even if it means I end up with fewer calories in a day than most people! I think our bodies have the wisdom on how much it wants to eat, we just need to focus on WHAT to feed it. MHO of course. ;)

I believe metabolism is the key word here.

Many studies have shown that eating more frequently can increase the metabolic rate. And the corollary holds true: the longer you go without eating, the more your metabolism will slow down.

If you find you are just not hungry in the morning, try just a small snack such as a piece of cheese, or hard boiled egg. That will be enough to get your metabolism firing, and therefore start some fat burning for the day.

:rose:Rosebud:rose:

That works fine when your appetite isn't being suppressed through drugs, sickness or being in ketosis. Ketones naturally suppress your appetite. There have been times where I have literally gone from morning to dinnertime without eating and was still not hungry. That's not a good thing. Your body needs a steady supply of fuel or it starts conserving what it has when more fuel isn't coming in. The act of eating in and of itself is a metabolism stimulator which is why eating smaller more frequent meals can help keep your metabolism cranked up instead of shutting it down by skipping meals or only eating one meal a day.

Thanks Lisa, that makes sense! I've recently begun working out (weights/cardio) and I'm noticing that I get hungry more often than I used to, so I am eating a bit more. I'm also trying to eat more foods that my body will burn fast, like veggies/berries, etc. I think what someone said about metabolism is the key for me. I've led a very sedentary life for the past 10 years or so, and I know I've messed up my metabolism badly from all my bingeing/fad dieting in the past.

I'm also noticing that while in ketosis, my hunger signals themselves have changed. Before LC, I would get ravenous, shaky, nauseous and lightheaded and nearly pass out if I didn't eat something every two hours. Now I can go 5 or 6 hours without eating, like you said, and I don't get that hollow gut feeling. I do still get the shaky, lightheaded feeling though, so I try to eat something every few hours to prevent that from happening. By my statements above, I just meant that I'm not forcing myself to eat a certain number of calories every day because it's "the norm". If my experiences have taught me anything over the years, I'm as far from normal as one can get! :)

Barry Groves (Eat Fat Get Thin) has a whole chapter devoted to the benefits of eating a hearty breakfast. He cites studies which showed that if you eat a breakfast with a MINIMUM of 22g protein, your blood sugars will stay at a healthy level for the rest of the day . This is important for those of us that suffer with the symptoms quoted above (hypoglycemia), cravings and hunger. He also recommends using 1/3 of your daily calories for breakfast. I tried it yesterday and it worked like a charm....for the first time in years, I didn't need between-meal snacks to stabilize my blood sugar!! May have just been a fluke, but...........maybe not!

That's very interesting Teri! For breakfast I usually eat one or two hard boiled eggs, I wonder how much protein is in those. Probably not 22 gms. I'll have to give that more thought! The problem with breakfast for me is that I have to be at work at 6:00am, and I'm not hungry that early. So I usually bring something I can easily eat at my desk, like HB eggs or cream cheese. Ahhhh, I long for the days when I can wake up at my leisure and have a nice big breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon...... :D

I'm what you call a "newbie" at LCarbing. Question: if my body
is in ketosis, I'm burning my own fat stored, for fuel, right? So,
why would my body get "hungry" when I have lots of fuel
available for it to use?

I would think you still get hungry because your body needs other things- vitamins, nutrients, water- that it can't get from the fat.

I also used to get hypoglycemia symptoms if I didn't eat every few hours- shaky, weak. But, those have gone away completely on Atkins! Probably the best thing about this WOE for me.

I agree caligirl, thats exactly what I found. I always used to think I was hypoglycemic. Every morning at school around 10 o clock I would start shaking like crazy and become so dizzy and hungry that I would almost faint unless I got some sugar in my bloodstream. This NEVER happens to me now, thank god! I sure dont miss that.

I know when I skip meals, I lose at a slower pace. But that's me. I understand not being hungry, I am rarely hungry, but make myself eat something.