Hello all,
I notice when I eat some proteins, especially leaner cuts of red meat, I get cravings really bad. Not cravings for carbohydrate or any particular food really, but more a craving for any food. My bodies sense of portion control goes haywire. It is really hard for me to know when I am truly full during after eating some types of meats, and as a consequence I feel an overwhelming compulsion to over eat. For example, I can eat a filling 6 ounce piece of pot roast with dinner (400+ cals alone), and up to an hour later I'll still not be satisfied. I have to consciously deny myself more, or else I'll eat the whole thing. It feels like the same kind of loss of control around food intake that I felt before starting atkins. Meats marbled with fat (or covered in fatty skin) I do not have this problem with. Lean and "dry" (as in little natural oils) juicy red meat is the worst offender for me.

No other atkins ok foods cause me to lose control like that, not even sugar alcohols or nuts. I am not sure if this is a real physical thing, or a psychological one (because I find the food very tasty I want to over eat). Either way, I would be very interested in hearing if anyone else has a similar problem with some meats.

Thanks

I have the same problem...I read somewhere that excess protein is converted to glucose...maybe our bodies are responding the same as if we were eating carbohydrates?

You might try portioning yourself more. STart with 2oz, then move up to 4. Make sure to that you ar ehaving a side dish, preferably one high in fiber. Having some low GI veggies with the meat can make you feel alot fuller and has the sycological effect of "rounding" out the meal fo ryou. I don't think I could ever jus thave a hunk of meat as a meal, I wouldn't be satisfied, regardless of the cals/fat. I can throw some protien into a salad, mix ground meat with a little tomato sauce and cheese for a pizza skillet, add spices, black soy beans and what not to make a fast chilli ect. You might try making yourself a bowl of frozen broccoli and cauliflowe rmix (heated of course) with some cheese on top. The fiber goes along way to filling you up.

You know what? That happens to me. I never thought of it as a trigger, I just thought that i loved red meat soooo much. But I do know haw to stop, now. Thank goodness I am not eating mashed potatoes too. I would never bring my head outta my plate. Maybe you just need to train yourself to stop eating it or cook smaller pieces. Oooor go ahead and eat till your heart is content in hopes of getting sick of it red together

JM $.02,
Black57

How 'bout this as an explanation. Your body hates using protein for fuel. If you feed it nothing but protein and it uses it for other purposes, have you actually eaten any fuel?

Try having that lean protein with a nice big helping of fat and see if that doesn't help.

Protein is converted to glucose, btw. Its happening right now. It happens all the time and there's nothing you can do about it. It's all part of your body's glucose homeostasis system - however, it happens in the absence of insulin when you LC (and in the presence of glucagon, cortisol and adrenaline). It's called gluconeogenesis and it does not lead to fat storage as insulin is not present.

Nat

Nat, what happens if you eat a lot of protein? Protein gets converted into glucose.. but in the absense of insulin, protein --> glucose --> fat storage.. is that how it works?

serrelind, protein is converted to glucose to support glucose homeostatsis as needed - if it's not needed it's not converted.

Excess protein, protein that doesn't go toward repairing or buiding new tissue would be use for energy or wasted. Fat storage cannot happen without insulin present. With no insulin present excess protein is literally unused.

What happens if you eat a lot of protein? Metabolic starvation - if you don't eat much of anything else with it.

Now, the real question is how much protein do you think it takes before you get to excess protein?

Nat

Nat, thanks for the explanation.

If you're seriously weightlifting, a whole heck of a lot -- like, more than you can eat without using protein supplements. I don't think it's physically possible to consume 200g of natural proteins in a day (and I've tried), but if you are really pushing yourself in the gym, that could be what you need. I know I eat anywhere from 100 to 125g without any problem at all, which is roughly 1 to 1.2g per lb of lean body mass, and it wouldn't hurt me to eat a little more when I'm really working out hard. So I'll bite -- what's the max number? I'm betting it's in the range of 2.5-3g x LBM...