Primal 1 month, but still constantly hungry, energy/mood levels varying page

[Seph]

Hi all!

As the title says, I have been primal for about 1 month. Since I have gone primal, I have noticed improvements in some aspects of my health, (used to get a headache every week or so, but I've been headache free for the whole month!) my appearance (not losing any weight, but definitely converting excess fat to muscle) and in general, all exterior signs would point to going primal as a huge success.

However, the main reasons why I went primal in the first place have disappointingly remained, without any noticeable change whatsoever.

1) I am CONSTANTLY hungry and CONSTANTLY in a bad mood. No, seriously, constantly. I have days where I will literally eat a full 1kg steak along with 4 hard boiled eggs, and be hungry enough to eat it all over again within 1-2 hours. This occurs every 1-2 hours, (3 if I am lucky) for every single hour I am awake. It's driving me, and my mood levels crazy! By 11:00, if I haven't consumed at least 2 full meals, I am hungry to the point where it takes all my effort just to pay attention to my professor. Even if I have a big lunch, by the middle of my afternoon classes, all I can think of is how hungry I am. This makes me feel lousy and irritable in general, so along with my grades taking a hit, my relationships with those around me do as well.

I should note, that these are not 'cravings' in the sense that I have to have sweets, carbs, or anything specific. I'm just plain old hungry for anything that will fill me up.

2) Even after eating, and during the rare moments when I am not hungry, my energy levels are in no way better (or worse) than they were before I went primal. I have never gotten a sense of "wow, I've never felt this great!" since I have started. At best I just feel normal, not good, not bad. And despite the fact that I have completely cut out sugars, I often get mild energy crashes during the day, both after eating, and when I haven't eaten for a few hours.

My diet primarily consists of A LOT of meat (beef, lamb, chicken, pork), nuts and eggs, (at least 10/day) green veggies a few days a week, (cabbage, lettuce, spinach) and a little bit of fruit most days (usually oranges).

If anybody has any suggestions or tips, I would be incredibly grateful! It's frustrating going through days like this, feeling like food and/or energy are legitimately preventing me from studying as hard as I want to, accomplishing what I want to, and just feeling good in general. Thanks in advance

[NurseMama5]

My only suggestion is fat. Cook meats and veg in (lots) bacon grease, lard, tallow, or coconut oil and eat the fat too, don't leave it in the pan! Lick it off the plate.

[jfreaksho]

Up your veggie and fat intakes. Veggies for the micronutrients, fats for the satiety.

[namelesswonder]

Up your veggie and fat intakes. Veggies for the micronutrients, fats for the satiety.

+1

[Chochobo]

grats on ur primal journey. first whats ur carb intake daily? are u tryin to lose weight? a lot of factors are involved to detemine what ur goals are. i totally understand where ur coming from as far mood. for me it was way to low carb, but then again i wasnt tryin to lose much weight if any. maybe throw in some safe starch, see how u feel. also depending how unprimal u were before its gonna take more than a month to get accustomed to living primal. i wish u the best of luck.

[Falconhand]

I find that fat has been helping me with hunger. Nuts, oils, lard, bacon grease, coconut oil, olive oil - all that jazz. Fattier cuts of meats make me feel better, too.

I like the idea of licking fat off of my plate. I should do that at work when all my colleagues are staring.

[touchdowntodd]

work on the fat, and stay 100% ... thats what i say

[duckmama]

If adding more fat doesn't help, maybe try some primal-friendly carbs like sweet potatoes, white rice, winter squash, limited amounts of red/yellow potatoes. See if that helps. You don't have to carbo-load, but maybe aim for 100 - 150 grams of carbs in a day and see if that helps. Some people do better with more carbs, some people do better with very low carb. Depends on your goals, your metabolism, etc.

[JitzGrrl]

I'd play around with 1) adding starch up to 100/g per day 2) adding fat from healthy sources and see if either of those fix the problem. If not, I'd head for the doctor - if you have a parasite or some other type of intestinal icky, it can make you ever-hungry as well as grumpy. Some people can fix such things with careful diet and supplementation, but if those aren't doing the job, getting a stool culture and appropriate medications might do the trick.

[SlimIcy]

+1 for squash and sweet potatoes in moderation.

I'd also say avoid fruits and nuts, they can muck things up for some people.