Always Hungry

Hi Everyone!

I'm new to the MDA forums so my apologies if I have put this in the wrong section... I'm hoping to get some advice/help with my current problem.

Firstly, I'll try and provide some background information. I am female, 31 yrs, primal for 1 year. I eat mostly plants, animals, nuts and sat fats and have about 2 serves of dairy per day (GF cream, GF butter, GF cheese) and after dinner I always have an organic decaf coffee with 2 teaspoons of heavy cream and 2 squares of 85% chocolate. Also, being in Australia we have easy access to grass fed butter and beef so I only eat grass fed products. For cooking, half the time I'll use GF butter or GF ghee and half the time I'll use extra virgin organic coconut oil. The only fruit I eat are berries and I don't eat potatoes or sweet potatoes/yams/any starchy vege. My day to day eating generally looks like this:

Breakfast (10am) - I will always have either 2 100% beef sausages or about 200gms of steak. With this I'll sometimes have almond butter, macadamia nuts, almonds, salad, veges or occasionally berries and yogurt, bacon or eggs.

Lunch - Steak, salmon or chicken with some sort of plant matter. Probably more nuts...

Dinner - Same as lunch. But no nuts!

After dinner - Decaf coffe w/heavy cream , 2 squares 85% chocolate (my 20% treat each day).


That used to do me, I was feeling satisfied, full, everything great, etc. But now I am hungry ALL the time. These days, add to the above lots of snacks in between, consisting of more meat, lot's of nuts and I have even started eating a lot of cheese and cream just to try and make myself feel not hungry. But it doesn't seem to be working.

I went to the doctor for a full check up and blood tests, everything was great (including thyroid, etc).

When I first went primal 1 year ago, I lost 12kg (26 pounds) and felt better than ever. For the last month or so though, I have been feeling very, very hungry all the time. After I eat, I might feel satisfied for half an hour or so, then I start feeling very hungry (almost all of a sudden) and I feel I need to eat.

I have tried some refeeds to reset leptin, etc, but they didn't seem to work. I tried various approaches at varying lengths of days but have experienced no change.

I really do feel as though I'm eating enough - I'm cramming nuts and cheese in my mouth all day, so I don't think it's that I'm not eating enough. My weight hasn't changed either.

Does anyone know of any reason why this might be happening? Has anyone else experienced this? What did you do to fix it?

Thank you to anyone who replies.

Are you exercising? That could make you hungrier and if you have built muscle maybe it needs more fuel. Maybe you are craving carbohydrate, which you could satisfy with some starchy veges. Are you at the right weight?

I am 5 and a half foot (168cm) and 136 pounds (62kg) so I think I am at the right weight. I have stopped my exercise routine since I started feeling this way because it was hard to work out whilst feeling hungry all the time. Also, it made the hunger worse. I think I have definitely lost some muscle mass since and have fairly bad tone at the moment.

I would like to start again but find it really hard to exercise whilst feeling so hungry. Maybe I should take up eating sweet potatoes/yams? But if I am not exercising, I am worried I will put on quite a lot of weight as a result. I guess it's worth a try though?

Since I started doing heavy weights I am always hungry.

I think it is my muscles requiring food. It is hard to adapt to but it is slowly getting better.

I am not sure I like eating so much though, it doesn't feel natural.

Until I started doing Stronglifts I was averaging around 1,800-2,000 cals a day. I know am averaging 2,500-3,000 and feeling heavy and hungry all the time.

will keep going for a few weeks as seeing decent gains but not enjoying the amount of food I am eating.

Yes, I agree, it doesn't feel natural to eat so much and I'm not enjoying it either. It makes it hard to get on with my day also 'cause I'm having to stop to snack all the time.

I started weight training 6 months ago (2 days a week for an hour) but have stopped for about a month and a half. I was having no problems for ages then stopped (I think I got busy with work or something) then started having this hunger problem so have not started up again.

Are you getting good variety in your plant matter? Or are you eating the same things over and over? Do you take any vitamins and mineral supplements?

And...

How much fat are you getting? Not in nuts and cheese, but just plain fat? Are you putting any on your vegetables? Or your protein, besides cooking in it(how much do you use)?

Your 26 pounds might be trying to come back. You can try for a while to limit yourself to the most satiating foods (boiled potatoes, high volume of vegetables, whichever meat you find the most satisfying), and kicking the least satiating foods (nuts, yogurt, bacon, butter etc) out. The most satiating and least satiating foods are different for everyone, as well as the macros (in other words, do you satiate on fat or proteins or plain starch?).

Try swapping the nuts and cheese for something more carb-laden, like sweet potatoes or rice. Or any plant starch. Have you entered your food into an online calculator to see how many calories you're getting? It's possible that you're under eating now that you aren't losing weight.

Add potatoes and liver. And if you are hungry, eat more.

Nutritional deficiency?

Like others said, maybe try mixing things up a bit. Eat some organ meats, try some different nuts, try some fermented foods, and add in some different veggies and a piece of fruit.

There's a gazillion micro-nutrients. If your body feels like it's running out of one of them it could be telling you to eat, eat, eat until you happen to eat something that contains whatever it is your body wants.

Just looking at your diet summary, maybe you're lacking in probiotics?