Not able to maintain Low Carb

Just reaching out to the Primal Community to see if anybody had similar experiences...

Eating low-carb clean Paleo, I'm able to maintain about 3 or 4 days max of eating low-carb. Things like eggs, all kinds of meats, butter, lard, and vegetables all to satiety. I'm always in tune with the "eating messages" of my body. I eat when I'm hungry and don't overeat. I feel good but then I run into a wall.

About the 3rd or 4th day, however, my body sends out these insatiable urges to eat some carbohydrates. No matter how much protein, fat, or veggies I eat, I don't feel satisfied. I'm on a single pointed hunt for carbs. It's only when I eat some Paleo carbs (fruit, tubers, honey, etc.) that I can finally feel full and stop having food on my mind.

Anybody with a similar experience? Suggestions?

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What if it's a nutritional deficiency? For a long time, I've been following Dr. Phinney's advice to increase sodium levels on a low carb diet to maintain energy levels.

Here's a link to a potassium recommendation for optimal health. They recommend 4,700 mg a day. I don't think that number is achievable without eating a ton of produce (fruits & vegetables). That's a lot but it's a number I will be aiming for.

[url]http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/mi...potassium/[/url]
[url]http://www.livestrong.com/article/32855-...um-levels/[/url]

Definitely, not getting enough from the foods I normally eat. Not eating enough vegetables and compounding that with consuming a lot of sodium.

Potassium in 100g of steak - 310 mg of Potassium.
1 Egg - 90mg
Chicken - 250mg

Hmmmmmmm...
No wonder I've been craving these foods. Potatoes, Bananas, Oranges, Spinach, Tomatoes, Mushrooms, even Milk. They are high in Ka.

On regular days, how many carbs are you taking in? Below 50g a day is incredibly difficult to maintain.

I have found that if that happens to me I have some fruit. Often having a whole avocado with my BAS will take care of the problem. Avocados have become my go to item when I am not feeling satisfied. It is orange season here in FL so I have been eating more fruit than usual. I just love fresh FL oranges. Nice and tangy not sweet and flowery like CA navels.

yes, below 50g on regular days.

[QUOTE=Eddoword;1106115]yes, below 50g on regular days.[/QUOTE]
Why? Any special reason for that? Normally PB suggests 100-150 g/day for maintenance and 50-100 g for weight loss. And it works.

[QUOTE=Eddoword;1106107]Just reaching out to the Primal Community to see if anybody had similar experiences...

Eating low-carb clean Paleo, I'm able to maintain about 3 or 4 days max of eating low-carb. Things like eggs, all kinds of meats, butter, lard, and vegetables all to satiety. I'm always in tune with the "eating messages" of my body. I eat when I'm hungry and don't overeat. I feel good but then I run into a wall.

About the 3rd or 4th day, however, my body sends out these insatiable urges to eat some carbohydrates. No matter how much protein, fat, or veggies I eat, I don't feel satisfied. I'm on a single pointed hunt for carbs. It's only when I eat some Paleo carbs ([B]fruit, tubers, honey, etc.[/B]) that I can finally feel full and stop having food on my mind.

Anybody with a similar experience? Suggestions?[/QUOTE]

Any particular reason why you going low carb? It's not magic, if you can't handle it then don't do it, and if those carbs are what you enjoy eating then have them.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll try the Avocado.

I totally understand it's not magic. Here's why I'm eating less than 50g carbs:
I started my Paleo journey at 210 and am trying to lose the last 20 lbs to get to my goal weight of 160 at 5'10". If I eat over 50g carbs daily, I find that it's a slippery slope and tend to overeat them. I might initially be eating 50g-100g, but it creeps up to 200g+ easily.

Eating the way I've described, I've been eating at maintenance and am at a steady weight for over a year now. Maybe I've nailed down the diet part but need to exercise more?

I understand where you are coming from. But honestly it seems as though you are doing exactly the right thing. From my point of view, VLC is not very logical. Somewhere along the line, because LC seemed good, VLC just had to be better. While there are those with medical conditions that benefit greatly from VLC, I think that the majority would do great just keeping it LC. I just don't see the logic of consuming less glucose than your body requires and forcing glucose to be manufactured to cover the deficit. Glucose is so important that in the ancient past, in times of carbohydrate scarcity the human body adapted to the lack of glucose by converting other food sources to glucose to save their lives. Seems like VLC could add unneeded stress for some.

I tried VLC for about 2 months and did just fine, but definitely feel better at 100-150 carbohydrate grams per day.

Yes! Its always 3-4 days for me. I'm a runner though so I'm wondering if it has something to do with that...I'm just eating "primal-approved"carbs more on days that I feel I need it, and I guess I'll see where I fall on a weekly basis on average. Right now since I'm still kinda new to this I'm trying to focus on just eating whole foods and eliminating sugars/processed grains. Baby steps. :)

You're not alone though!

[QUOTE=Eddoword;1106139]Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll try the Avocado.

I totally understand it's not magic. Here's why I'm eating less than 50g carbs:
I started my Paleo journey at 210 and am trying to lose the last 20 lbs to get to my goal weight of 160 at 5'10". If I eat over 50g carbs daily, I find that it's a slippery slope and tend to overeat them. I might initially be eating 50g-100g, but it creeps up to 200g+ easily.

Eating the way I've described, I've been eating at maintenance and am at a steady weight for over a year now. Maybe I've nailed down the diet part but need to exercise more?[/QUOTE]

If your not doing resistance training then start there. 2x/week is plenty as long as your doing progressive workouts hitting complex movements and working all muscles in both workouts. At some point you do have to ramp up the activity I feel. Not that you need to do so to lose weight.... you need to do so because your body was built to move and you'll never achieve higher levels of health without that piece of the puzzle.

About the carbs....takes about 3-4 days to run through your stores of glycogen then switch over to ketones/fat metabolism. Your obviously crashing as soon as you run out of stored carbs and not reaching the adaptation phase. Just an observation of what is happening. I have no opinion as to if you should try to be VLC or not. That is something for you to play with and decide. If you pursue VLC there are some "eat moar fat" threads on here you might check out.