When Listening to Your Body Doesn’t Work
Hunger largely comes down to perceived energy and/or nutrient insufficiency. Your body thinks that it needs more calories and more energy, and hunger sets in to get you to eat the food that contains those nutrients. Now, if perception matches up well with reality – if you truly do need more nutrients – things are good. You need some food, you eat some food, and you stop when you’ve had enough. In this situation, listening to your body is a good idea. That’s what all those Primal people (including me) are talking about when they tell you to “just listen to your body, maaaaaaan,” because for those people, it truly is that simple. Eliminating the excess carbs, the refined sugar, the grains, and the processed seed oils while adhering to the other Primal laws regarding exercise, sleep, stress, sun, and all the rest was enough to right the ship.
But that’s not everyone. Sometimes perception does not match up with reality. Sometimes your body thinks it needs more nutrients when it really doesn’t, for a variety of reasons. This isn’t actually an example of your body lying to you, since your body “believes” what it’s saying, but the end result is the same: you eat something that you really don’t need. It’s a bit like how your friends and family who worry about you eating all that fat and protein try to push bran muffins and whole wheat pasta on you. They’re operating under a fundamentally broken set of assumptions, but they mean well.
So, why does this happen? What’s going on when someone’s sense of hunger is broken? When doesn’t listening to your body work?
When you can’t access your stored body fat.
Body fat is stored energy; it’s long-term, slow-burning fuel that our bodies love to use, and should be able to use very well. But what happens when you can’t burn it very well?
You burn sugar instead. After all, you need energy from somewhere, and research shows that those who have the most problem with hunger – the obese and the formerly obese – burn more carbohydrate than fat, whereas those who generally don’t have much of an issue with hunger – the lean – burn more fat than carbohydrate. Problem is, our ability to store glucose as energy is inherently limited and dwarfed by our ability to store fat as energy. We can store pounds and pounds of the latter, while the former is perpetually scarce. We can keep only around 100 grams of glucose on hand in the liver and 400 grams in the muscles, depending on their size. That won’t last very long, and once it’s used up, you need more food – especially if your ability to burn body fat is impaired. When you need more food, you get hungry. If your body is used to burning sugar, you’re going to crave sugar. The resultant sugar craving is very real, because sugar is what you “need,” but it’s not what you need.
So, if you’ve had success losing weight with Primal eating, but still have trouble curbing your appetite, this could explain why – you may not be totally fat-adapted. You can, and likely will, but it will take time.
When you’re insulin resistant.
Remember how I said insulin is an indicator of nutrient availability in Monday’s post on carb feeds? Heck, some have even gone so far as to call insulin a “satiety hormone.” After all, it can cross the blood-brain barrier into the brain, where it interacts with various systems to tell the body that food has been ingested and is currently digesting, and that maybe you don’t have to eat for a bit. Of course, that’s only the case if you’re insulin sensitive. If you’re insulin resistant, your body/brain won’t get the message that insulin is trying hard to convey.
Thus, insulin resistance promotes hunger. You eat, and insulin is released, but your body tells you to eat some more despite the much-ballyhooed ability of insulin to act as a satiety hormone.
When you’re addicted to junk.
What if you weren’t actually even phsyiologically “hungry”? What if your body didn’t think it was missing nutrients or fat or carbs – but rather it just wanted another hit of that sweet, sweet junk food? Last week, I showed how our brains and bodies respond to pleasurable, tasty foods by secreting endogenous opioids – brain morphine, really – that, together with dopamine, cause you to want more of whatever food triggered those secretions. This wasn’t a problem back when we only had access to real, whole foods like meat, plants, fruits, nuts, and roots, because those foods didn’t act as hyperstimuli of our reward systems. They caused modest, appropriate opioid and dopamine responses in the brain, promoting repeated consumption but not compulsive overconsumption. Fast forward to today and it’s a very different world full of people doing odd food-related things that make absolutely no sense:
People eat cans of Pringles and become immediately disgusted with themselves for doing it. They’re repulsed by the Twinkie even as it makes its way into their gaping maw. They throw up in their mouth at the thought of McDonald’s “chicken” nuggets, yet find themselves in the drive-thru after work, ordering a value meal despite themselves.
It’s crazy on its face, but it actually makes perfect sense at the same time, because our natural reward systems have been hijacked by a constant barrage of delicious (but gross) food. You want the stuff even if you currently have no physiological need for calories.
When you are compelled to eat junk, don’t listen to your body. Eat something Primal, something nourishing, something that approximates what you’re craving only using real food. So, if you want some Sour Patch Kids, grab some raspberries. If you want a Big Mac, go for a grass-fed burger over salad.
When you’re experiencing reactive hypoglycemia.
Normally, you eat some food, your blood sugar goes up, insulin rises to take care of the nutrients, the nutrients are partitioned to their respective holding places, your blood sugar normalizes, and all is well. You’ll get hungry again, only when you need the food, when your body truly needs an input of energy. In some people, however, eating food (especially carbs) causes the pancreas to secrete an inordinately large amount of insulin, way more than you actually need. Your blood sugar drops from its postprandial high, but the insulin goes above and beyond, and your blood sugar continues to plummet past “normal.”
Your body implores you to “eat, eat,” even though there’s no real need for added energy; it’s just that your low blood sugar is indicating a need for caloric energy. In people with well-functioning metabolisms, lower blood sugar generally matches up with a need for calories and nutrients. In the reactive hypoglycemic state, the two do not match up. Hunger is constant, but you’re not really nourishing yourself. You’re just eating to push up that blood sugar.
In one sense, listening to your hypoglycemic body is working, because eating carbs raises your blood sugar and you feel better. But in the long run, it isn’t working, because you’re eating more than you need to eat, you’re gaining weight, and you’re not fixing the situation. Sticking with foods that don’t elevate your blood sugar to such dizzying heights (protein and fat) should give you better control over your blood sugar.
When your sleep is bad.
I harp on the importance of sleep all the time, and I’m going to do it again here. Lack of sleep isn’t just bad for alertness, circadian rhythm regulation, stress hormone secretion, bags under the eyes, exercise performance, etc., etc.; it’s also a potent appetite stimulator. Furthermore, not sleeping also worsens glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity, meaning when you do (inevitably) eat, it won’t sate you and you’ll be more likely to store it as fat. You’re also more likely to eat junk when you don’t sleep, because it increases the brain’s susceptibility to food stimuli.
When you’ve had a bad night’s sleep and your body is craving food, eat. Don’t fast, because that’s just heaping one stressor on top of another. Eat something you know is good – pastured bacon and eggs, a Big Ass salad, some sweet potato. And get some sleep, so it doesn’t happen again.
In all these situations, we are faced with a decision to make: do we listen to our bodies and feel “better,” or do we ignore them and do what’s “best” for us? There are no easy answers. If you’re not yet a fat-burning beast, you’re in for a rough time. If your blood sugar gets low enough, you might faint. Ignoring your body’s cries to eat something probably isn’t a good idea in that situation. If you haven’t slept, you should probably eat, but not junk. At some point, however, saying “no” to your body’s signals or figuring out how to fix the broken machinery that’s precipitating the messages is going to be necessary. That’s where something like the 21-Day Total Body Transformation, which removes the guesswork from all this so that you follow an established framework, or the 90-Day Journal, which provides a foundation for doing your own “formal guesswork,” comes into play.
Your body may appear to be working against you, but it’s doing it’s best. It’s responding to perceived physiological needs, even if those perceptions are misguided and confused. Whatever you do, don’t despair. Don’t give up. You’ve got a great community here, folks who’ve been there and back again, folks who can help you get things moving in the right direction.
In future posts, I’ll be discussing some other instances where the body’s messaging should be viewed with suspicion, so stay tuned.
Now let’s hear how you guys have dealt with confusing hunger messages in the comment section. Until next time, take care!
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Posted By: Mark Sisson
I just listened to this quack for 10 minutes. Ugh.
http://nutritionfacts.org/video/uprooting-the-leading-causes-of-death/#.UBlA_M9oeTs.facebook
I lasted 5 minutes.
I lasted when his head bobbled like a ragdoll at the 14 second mark.
Thanks for the link. I am listening to it, and I find all science-based information useful. For example, the part where he says the problem with meat, if there is one, is neither the fat content nor the protein, but the bacterial toxins. Interesting. I’m not going to be going vegetarian any time soon
but I’m willing to listen to any serious point of view. You can’t stop listening after a few seconds and then say it’s nonsense.
Dr. Joel Wallach used longevity as the benchmark. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIuAvFett0w Science based.
Dr Wallach explains that if you double your carbs you need to double your dose of vitamins and minerals to stay healthy.
Besides the 8 part video linked above. Check out Dead Doctors don’t lie. Doctors follow their own advice and live to an average of 56 years of age.
Dr Wallach eats 6 eggs a day. Dr Stephen Dr. Phinney eats less than 50 grams of carbs a day.
The science is behind Mark Sisson and his Primal blueprint. I am also a big fan of Mark and his excellent work.
Thanks Mark!
Vegans, not so much. Cholesterol is needed for brain function, it is needed to make estrogen and testosterone. Lowering cholesterol makes you dumber and steals you woody.
Can 60 minerals reprogram the genes for male pattern baldness. http://majesticearth-minerals.com/quackwatch.php
I lasted 2 minutes – he lost me with the egg…
I listened with interest up until he described the study looking at the damages from animal fat….and the study used sausage & egg mcmuffin??? Honestly, there is soooo little animal meat in there after processing and way too much trans fat and sugar that cause and effect (the suggestion that animal fat is the problem) cannot at all be demonstrated. It actually makes for poor science! It also totally destroys credibility.
……..not to mention all the GMO soy
I listened with interest up until he described the study looking at the damages from animal fat….and the study used sausage & egg mcmuffin??? Honestly, there is soooo little animal meat in there after processing and way too much trans fat and sugar that cause and effect (the suggestion that animal fat is the problem) cannot at all be demonstrated. It actually makes for poor science! It also totally destroys credibility. No wonder people are confused!
Yes, the doctor who is trying to help people and donates most of his earnings to charity is obviously a quack that reads 2000+ scientific articles a year. OBVIOUSLY. And the guys who run these websites begging you to buy crap and eat meat are in it for your health. Come on, I know you’re smarter than this.
Chelsea, I’ll take the guy with the visible agenda over the guy with the hidden agenda any day. Furthermore, I’ve done the standard US low fat/high carb diet, the strict vegan diet and the primal diet.
Primal diet works best for me.
Believe no one, research everything, come to YOUR OWN conclusions.
Matters not how much Paul Newman Foods gives away, I still won’t eat his ‘olive oil’ dressing that lists canola oil as the first ingedient.
Besides, you can do Sisson’s program without buying anything from him. All you need to know is posted on line. Yep, it’s the soft sell that got me fascinated enough to read The Primal Blueprint and share it with my friends and family. My next buy was The Primal Cookbook.
My overweight family was appalled with what Mark said about nutrition and claimed it couldn’t possibly work. Now that they’ve seen me go from 225 to 185 eating jalepeno’s stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped in bacon, they’re getting a little more curious. By Christmas I’ll be at 175 pounds with washboard abs, and the facts will be irrefutable.
Maybe we’re not “smarter than this”, but we are “healthier than you”.
Nobody is making you believe anything you don’t want to. Why are you so hellbent on throwing stones at our unassailable results? Results that destroy anything that doctor says, regardless of how much money he gives to charity? Results that by this doctor’s own system of measure embarrass the outcomes of his own prescribed nutritional course? What is that your measure of scientific proof? How much a doctor gives to charity? Are you sure he isn’t doing so to ease a guilty conscience?
Come on, I know you’re smarter than this.
The problem I think with this main stream thinking is that he is either a) getting a kickback from Monsanto, or b) doesn’t completely understand the science behind feedlot animals vs. grass fed animals. The two are not comparable, and therefore our bodies do not react the same to them. Most people eat your feed lot store bought processed meat. Part of the Paleo lifestyle is to promote grass fed, antibiotic/hormone free animals. Mark has posted on the VAST difference between the two as have other Paleo sites.
I like the details behind why/how different bodies work differently.
I’m in the easy fat-burning camp – lots of swim-bike-runs longer than an hour will do that to you! But this gave me a better understanding of just how hard it can be for someone who’s still in the sugar-burning phase, and what they’ll go through in their journey to being a fat-burner.
To fight hunger when I’ve needed to, I’ve used: drinking water (or heavily diluted juice-water), eating carrot chips (carrots sliced big enough to be shaped like potato chips), and allowing myself one-two bites of something better – literally putting a snack onto a plate and walking into a different room (or office) to eat it – then being done..
For me, there’s not much better than a few spoonfuls of my homemade guacamole when I get hungry at in inopportune time.
Of course, a high fat snack will keep you from getting hungry sooner and It’s super duper delicious.
The big challenge is to be able to switch back and forth from carb burning to fat burning at a moment’s notice merely with the power of your mind.
Can you do that? I mean, personally? If so, how?
Ha! I’m doing this RIGHT NOW.
smart arse
Great article, makes perfect sense!
Awesome info! I am a self-diagnosed hypoglycemic. However, when Atkins came out I ‘discovered’ that if I eat fat and protein for breakfast instead of a bagel and sugar-laden coffee, that my symptoms abated. Question: am I really hypoglycemic or is the body simply not conditioned to consume so many simple carbs? I notice that my husband who can eat bagesl, cookies, and donuts for breakfast, lunch, and dinner never suffers the low-blood sugar attacks that I experience when I eat a high-carb meal (which I never do anymore since learning of this condition). So, there must be something to this, right? Thanks!
There is such a thing as nutritional food types. Your husband may be more of a carbohydrate type and is therefore more able to cope with a junkfood diet without immediate ill effects.
I tried going vegetarian a few years ago, having mistakenly thought it would be a healthier way to eat. It didn’t work for me AT ALL. I felt weak, tired, and just plain crappy. I was hungry constantly and literally craved red meat. I subsequently found out that I’m a strong protein nutritional type. After incorporating more protein into every meal, as well as cutting out sweets and most grain products, I stopped craving carbs and started feeling much better. I have eaten this way ever since. It isn’t really a diet for me; it’s just the way I prefer to eat.
Shary,
I had the same experience when I went raw vegan back in 2007 for 9 months. I felt OK at first and quickly slipped into feeling weak, tired, horrible periods (heavy and painful), hair loss, etc.
I thought I was doing OK eating a lot of plant based proteins, but that wasn’t enough. Though I’m not a fan of red meat, I craved grass fed steak and oysters the entire time and I don’t even LIKE oysters!
Oysters(and other “shell” fish) are a very good source for zinc. It is also found in red meats. Zinc deficiency leads to fatigue, hair loss, slower healing etc. You were probably deficient in zinc.
Rare Earths Forbidden cures Drs. Joel Wallach and Ma Lan
Chromium deficiency associated with low blood sugar pg 307
Vanadium deficiency associated with hypoglycemia. pg 412
My graying hair and varicose veins are the idiot light for my copper deficiency.
There are 17 other minerals proven essential to live long and prosper. Our soils were declared deficient in 1936 and its gotten worse.
I hate how much low blood-sugar (40 – 70) makes me want to eat. I’m getting better at ignoring the mad cravings and adjusting my insulin dosages, but still, it’s more art than science. I keep fruit around the house now (apples, canned pears, strawberries) to help.
I am finding this too Rachel with type 1 diabetes. The trick is to slowly adjust the insulin. Having very minimal carbs during the day, makes me require drastically less long-acting insulin both night and day. It’s an accummulative effect that requires constant monitoring.
I find the longer I do without carbs though, the less and less insulin I require. I know as type 1 diabetes I will always require insulin injections, but it’s amazing how eliminating carbs has been the only thing to drastically reduce the amounts.
Following the recommended dietry guidelines for diabetes management was constantly putting up my insulin every year – even when I was madly exercising to try to bring it down.
The lynch pin was the carbs.
I 2nd that Chris. I’ve been type 1 for 23 years and do the following to figure our where my fasting blood sugar is.
I’m personally on a long acting (Lantus, 2 injections daily, 11am and 11pm ) and a short acting (Humalog). I find that to judge what amount of long acting I try to get my blood glucose down to ‘normal’ level before I take my morning lantus injection, making sure my short acting is near it’s peak it so shouldn’t interfere/reduce your blood glusoce after you start your fast. I then fast at least til 6pm and see what my blood glucose does in that time. I’m in the UK so I work on mmols, so if I start at 11am with a 5.0mmol glucose and my blood sugar rises to 11mmol I know that I need to raise my lantus by 2 units (1 unit for me drops the glucose by 3mmol ish). At night I’ll do the same and see where my BG is at in the morning.
I will usually do this 2 days in row to get a more accurate idea.
Periodically my body auto adjusts what amount of insulin is required so then your BG goes out of whack. I then use this method again and adjust or reduce insulin as required.
For me these small changes to long acting insulin take 2 -3 days to register with my body so you should be patient. That’s how my bosy works but others may react slower/faster. I’d also recommend intermittent fasting. For me i find an 8 hour eating window works. This then combined with a steady in range BG means your BG can stay level for 2 thirds of the day.
BG mmol to mgdl converster here: w w w .diabetes.co.uk/blood-sugar-converter.html
Very interesting indeed. I’m a skinny guy with a pot belly and my insulin is insanely powerful. As long as I eat strict primal everything is hunky dory, but if I fall of the wagon you have to tie me down and lock me in a padded room when my blood sugar/insulin craze starts.
Jonas, being skinny with a pot belly is often a sign of compromised liver function, as is poor blood sugar control. Supporting your liver health might be really helpful for you.
A lipotropic liver supporting formula along with good liver detoxifying herbs would be some things to consider.
There are 60 minerals needed to keep our systems in tune. We pee and sweat them out every day.
Our soils are depleted so we can’t get them from our foods. I buy mine and it helps control cravings.
This post needs to go in the “Get Started” section for people struggling in the early days. I have personal experience with this kind of ravenous, unstoppable hunger and it’s a bear to fight. Looking back, I think most of mine was firmly rooted in the “sugar burning only” mode my body was in. I would literally crave bags of candy, and sometimes gave in because it was “fat free”–thanks but no thanks CW!
I am part of an entire generation of women who are dying too young because of that whole low-fat, high-carb craze that made us hungry, fat, unhealthy, susceptible to inflammation and disease, and now at risk of early death. I am so grateful that my 18 year old daughter is learning better–she’s a primal crossfitter and won’t touch a low-fat pizza.
+1 on posting this in the “get started” page!
+2 on posting this on the Get Started Page. This was hugely helpful for me.
Your body giving a false message can also work the other way. I went on a one week, no carb, meat only diet (Dukan) and had absolutely no appetite during it, even though I was in serious calorie deficit. What’s the biochemistry behind that?
Mark,
Can you do another post on this? I too find that I have the same problem. Sometimes going low carb, I am just not hungry at all. And yes, the don’t eat method can work, but for how long? I could go literally days of not feeling hunger.
i have the same problem…eat a meal of eggs and sausage and i could go all day and not get a hunger response.
i know i need more calories but i don’t get hungry. i’m not over weight and don’t need to lose any…why don’t some of us have an appetite? are we getting anywhere near enough nutrients when we don’t get enough calories?
+1 to this comment. I work 12 hour shifts as an RN; I try to eat protein/fat/berries or sauerkraut or something vegetal before work. I often won’t get a break until very late-like 4/5 pm. I have noticed that I can go all day and not feel hungry. I have also done weight lifting sessions fasting, so I think (after about 10 weeks primal) that I am fat adapted. Yet I still have questions about whether it not I should eat. One, if I don’t get a break at all, I’m eating at like 8 pm and going to bed an hour later. So I have questions about eating right before bed vs IF-would the latter signal my body that we’re in famine mode and stop burning fat? I’m really confused about my choices at this stage in my paleo journey. To clarify, I’m about 10 weeks in, have lost about 30 lbs, have seen a significant drop in my triglycerides (127 down to 74) and am feeling a lot of the other benefits-better energy, better skin etc. does anyone have any insights as to what point you can start listening to your body for hunger cues? I would welcome any comments. (And yes, I am seriously looking for a different, less abusive job.) Thanks.
I am having the same issue. I am never hungry, eat only out of habit.only egg breakfast.?? still gettign fatter by the day?
I have the same issue. In fact, after breakfast (2 eggs, veggies, meat) I am sick for hours. Not eating junk – only eating primal. Seldom hungry, not losing weight. I am forcing myself to eat and tend to get about 1500 or so cal per day.
I did a weight training diet that was very low card, protein high supposed low fat but it did include a little animal fats. It was a weight & measure thing to build muscle & lose body fat. I also had to eat the set amounts 5-6 times a day and it nearly killed me to eat the volume of food required (and i hate salad so picked the cooked veggie options instead) I lost too much weight and did not build as well as I had hoped as I just could not train enough. Prior to that I ate not much junk anyway but enough that I added a few extra kilos over time. I dropped 6kg in 3 months ( I was 46, 57kg at start, 163cm). I am not or ever have been a ‘foodie’, and not motivated by food, have over the years gone days without eating, and I have found not eating can be as much bad habit as overheating. I have never had a food issue but don’t eat when I am stressed.
Anyway – sometimes we have to set a new food pattern to break an old one, and that’s not easy! CW verses PW (primal wisdom) still means be flexible, keep trying something different if something does not work. I would make myself eat 3 times a day to get away from not eating at all or eating once a day (did that for years and it was not healthy at all!).
I have the same concern. Actually this is the reason I don’t do primal anymore – it totally and completely shut down my hunger and I became concerned that I was malnourished because my food intake was so low. With no appetite, I just couldn’t bring myself to eat that much. This went on for months (I thought if I kept with it long enough it would stop). I ended up about 10lbs underweight. It caused me to experience insomnia for the first time in my life (the insomnia hasn’t stopped even though I gave up being strictly primal nearly a year ago).
Would love to hear your thoughts on this, Mark. It’s a topic I have never seen addressed. It prevents me from unequivocally recommending paleo/primal to my friends.
For the people who are experiencing no appetite from primal/paleo.. are you all working out regularly? Just curious.. I always work out in a fasted state (early morning) and am quite hungry afterwards.
I never have no appetite which is probaly why I’m skinny. I never get sick so never even lose it that way. I was even hungry giving birth. This is so whether I eat “clean”, whether I give up brown carb and eat primal or whatever. Even when I have very stressful days abroad giving 7 hour talks to stranges in obscure countries when you’d think nerves might play apart… I still want food. I look on with jealousy at the people who lose appetite but perhaps I just have an efficient body and should be grateful for it.
What is clear is if I’m careful I do lose weight and much more importantly feel happier and healthier when I eat good foods and my lapse for the last year led to weight going on and am a sugar addicit so no trouble over eating on that and even now sometimes on fruit.
It is not problem for me to eat 1000 calories of pecan nuts or 350 grams of blueberries. It all gets rammed in. Chicken? Great, let’s have a leg, then breast, let’s have some more.
Not snacking which is a key thing to avoid for sugar addicts always helps but is hard for me.
I do want more research into women and food, women who have PMT as I do, women who aer having babies, b reastfeeding. Women in menopause but not taking HRT or other drugs. Women post menopause.
I have a feeling our male ancestors were out hunting and often finding nothing and often not eating, whereas women were digging for roots and fruits and insects and eating a lot more often (and probably doing most of the work and providing most of the basic food as hunters often come back with nothing)
I never had a real issue with hunger, but I found that increasing my fruit intake increased my appetite. I could eat a lot more meat in one sitting when I had fruit in my diet, then when I took it out.
Food for thought.
What exactly have you been eating? Are you confusing primal with low carb? Because you can eat carbs and still be primal (sweet potato for example).
I just finished a Whole 30 and this was my experience throughout. No appetite or, worse, nausea but never real hunger.
I would also love a response to this. I have the opposite issue. I have never been a high-carb-er, have difficulty eating enough, not too much. I just started eating a potato in the evenings because I have been very-low-carb-ing for a long time but not deliberately.
If I don’t pay attention, I will eat between 15 and 35g of carbs a day. It takes effort to add in enough carbs to keep me from starvation-mode symptoms like hair-loss, low thyroid and adrenal exhaustion and the ridiculously long list of symptoms that go with that.
I breastfeed as well, and this doesn’t seem to increase me appetite or cause carb craving at all except for the first few months, but then, I’m back to not feeling like eating any.
My caloric intake is not low, to be clear. My body’s signalling has kept me on too-low carb-intake. After reading at Stefani’s blog ( http://www.paleoforwomen.com/shattering-the-myth-of-fasting-for-women-a-review-of-female-specific-responses-to-fasting-in-the-literature/ ) about fasting and low-carb-eating and their effects on the female body, I am overriding those signals with my intellect to ADD carbs. :/
After two days of scarcely getting 112g of carbs in, I am sleeping better and feeling better overall, regaining ground I lost in my adrenal/thyroid recovery from a week of extra stress and sleep-deprivation.
I wish there were more info for women specifically, because somehow I’ve been eating in a way that is ideal for most men, but really detrimental for most women, and apparently me.
imogen – thank you for linking and sharing. I’ve been avoiding the MDA for a few months because the seesaw of my experience was on one hand, great (lost weight, gained energy) but some other effects I was stumped by. Distressed by actually.
But Stefani’s blog looks fascinating. Thanks!
Hi there! Please come by our community if you think it would help! We’ve got lots of self-love and health and nourishment on our minds, and would be happy to welcome you.
As someone who’s struggled with hypoglycemia, I appreciate these points. And thanks so much for pointing out that sleep deprivation screws with your body’s signals. I have a hard time remembering that when my cravings get out-of-whack.
Wonderful article!! I read it a few times to let it all soak in…Can’t wait to share this information!!
Ok, the Sour Patch Kids reference made me laugh. Wasn’t I just thinking about eating something sweet like that?
I ended up making a Blue Mango green tea instead.
Not quite the same, but certainly loads better for me than candy.
For myself, whenever I feel an intense craving strike, the first thing I do is think about what I have eaten in the last couple of days. More often than not, I’ve left something vital out. I only stock my refrigerator and cupboards with Primal foods, so lucky, the worst I can do is go on a black berry or almond butter bender for a few minutes.
^ So true. If you think ahead even when the worst happens its not all that bad. I mean berries and almond butter are fairly self limiting in their own right.
Be careful with the almond butter. Like most nuts, almonds are high in inflammatory O-6 fats. Just 1 T of the almond butter has 1.9g of O-6 fats. No one knows exactly what a healthy amount of O-6 is to eat, but it’s a fact that in the 1930′s, Americans ate about 15g of O-6 fats daily, and there wasn’t yet an epidemic of inflammation-based diseases (arthritis, heart attacks, certain cancers).
The O6:O3 ratio in the 1930′s was already 8.4:1, while our Neolithic ancestors ate a 1:1 ratio, as far as we can tell. Given that we were probably born with damaged systems after 3-4 generations of poorly-advised eating, we probably don’t have the metabolic slack to indulge in a high O6:O3 ratio for very long.
Eat a tasty meal and sleep? Twist my arm why dontcha!
I think you need to copyright “Big Ass Salad”
I was thinking the same thing
It is amazingly powerful to know how to listen to your body! I’ve experienced the hypoglycemia and cravings since I have PCOS. Going primal has allowed me to listen to my body and begin healing myself. This has been one of the most important changes I have made in my life and cannot imagine gong back to a SAD diet or lifestyle.
Lots and lots of protein. Fat does not satiate me at all. Also, avoiding at all costs combining carb and fat. That’s a recipe for eating twice as much as lean protein and carb. I really, really tried with fat, but just like sugar, it is a caloric no return nutrient for me. I feel the best on meats without added fat, skim dairy and no sugars (no fruit as well), but eventually I get depressed.
I won’t go as far as what you say, but I found when I upped my protein intake, it seemed to get me to satiety more decisively. My protein intake actually was a bit below what PB recommends and I didn’t realize until I tracked for a while.
The other thing along with lack of sleep is too much stress. I got some bad news today and found myself reaching for chocolate and more chocolate…
So important…sometimes I slip up and my body DEFINITELY lets me know it isn’t ok…I get really grumpy with gluten, my gut nearly blew up after snacking on some quesedilla’s the other day and other lovely side effects…oh and my 3yo goes CRAZY with gluten.
My biggest challenge, is definitely the sleep…which is an issue that is caused at least in part by too much coffee in the morning … but my competing commitment is to be awake and present for my three kids and it just feels like a need so much of the time.
Working on making enough meatballs that I have a supply on hand for these moments for a healthy snack…hard to do the bacon with my wiggly 1yo in my arms.
Cook bacon in the oven (400 about 10-15 minutes) comes out perfect and no flipping required. Much easier when dealing with young wigglers.
Oh I love cooking bacon in the oven. We actually cook a whole pound or two that way (organic and no nitrates), store it in the fridge, and then heat it up as needed in a small convection oven (with a heater/fan in the lid). The Pyrex baking pan has to be soaked which is why I like to cook a big batch. We got rid of the microwave years ago.
Oh, I am so with you with having little ones and truly needing coffee. I’m drinking it right now, and it’s four in the afternoon here. I figure, I do what I can. I’ve got the food down, I’m getting there with the exercise and stress reduction. I’ll get there with the caffeine someday.
I sympathize on the sleep issue. I have the stress of long-term unemployment (10 mo.s and counting), and getting a full night of sleep has eluded me for months. My food is OK during the day, but come the evening, I’m prone to grazing. It’s been mostly paleo foods, and I’m grateful I haven’t packed on the pounds.
If I listened to my body I would lie in bed and eat bonbons all day.
Me too, except make that cheetos and chocolate frosting.
I know THAT feeling!!!!
Absolutely! Except for me I’d be in the contradictory situation of lying in bed, trying to sleep while guzzling yummy hot coffee!
Oh yeah.
+1 completely.
There are other hormones in play re: appetite, at least for us ladies.
I have at least one PMS day a month where I have to just ignore my body, because I get no satiety signals at ALL.
Yep!
I’m the same. Between one and four days each month, and it’s torture. Absolutely miserable unending hunger.
Me too!
My wife gets that day, too. We call it ‘steak day’. I use it as an excuse to go wild (paleo wild!) in the kitchen, making comfort foods, as well as trying out new creations. I basically don’t stop feeding her until she tells me to stop, or until I pass out.
You are a good man, Erok!
How sweet!
You are the man Erok!!
! Made me laugh out loud.
Erok, How do you feel about renting yourself out as a chef for paleo women, one or two days a month? Think we are all jealous of your wife!
Me, too!
Me too! For a solid week before the day, ALL I want to do is eat. And eat. All Primal stuff, because I am now happily creeping up on 4 months Primal, but STILL. I listen to the hunger to a point, but if I didn’t put on the brakes, I’d eat instead of sleep.
1 REALLY, you are so blessed. I have a week!
Wow! Great article there today .. I learned a lot and there is much about this that I need to get in my Primal Game. Thanks Mark!
I really appreciate how the last two MDA posts are about how paleo eating in itself is not always the perfect or final answer.
Health benefits ensue even if weight loss does not, but for many insulin resistant people (including me) paleo is not panacea for weight loss.
Understanding that carb cycling may be required, that estrogen loss along with fat loss can upset the hormonal balance for some time, and that cravings can still crop up even when a person is 100% compliant over a significant period of time (among other things), is necessary to get past the plateaus and perceived sense of failure. Mostly, that ‘faileo’ can still be physiologically driven, and thus an integral part of the process, and tweaking is required.
It is not a personal failure of the person to adhere strictly to the paleo way of eating and living. It is still the body’s way of speaking to us. We just have to figure out how to respond, and I think we’re still learning (with Mark’s help) about the various mechanisms at play and how to respond.
Anyway, it is the encouragement I need to keep at it.
Most of us didn’t start our life eating this way, otherwise things such as sugar or grain cravings may not be an issue at all. We all bring a varied history into this life change and sometimes this history comes back to haunt us, in the way of cravings and temptations. If you never ate chocolate in your life, why would you be tempted to eat it, or crave it? Paleo/Primal is not supposed to be the “answer” to or for everything. But I can’t help noticing in my life, and others who comment here, the more they follow it, the better the results.
Two generations here to speak to this, Anthony! I raised my daughters with no sugar (besides the stuff in foods, because we didn’t know better in the 80′s), and only when they got into school were they introduced to it. And not by me! I wasn’t aware of grain issues and the rest until about five years ago.
Point is: my girls never asked for cakes, donuts, etc. because they never had them. When I baked, I used honey, and it tended to be veggie breads and cookies with (shudder) unbleached, whole wheat flour. After they were exposed to the other kids’ treats, I had to be like a jailer to keep them out, so I just tried to limit them.
But me? I was raised during the height of changing from real, whole foods to processed non-foods. I remember the first TV dinners… etc. I have been a sugar-burner my whole life, without realizing it.
Fast forward to now: I’ve been Primal for three years. My daughters saw my health gains, but continued to chant the CW Mantra. My son-in-law is now a convert, and I have high hopes for my grandchildren being raised with healthy lifestyles!
I tend not to eat enough and have to constantly make sure I keep my intake up, especially greens so many of these points resonated with me.
I got so sick of hearing the ‘listen to your body’ mantra that so many people spout as justification for eating a brownie that once I told someone ‘yeah, like a addict’s body tells her to crave heroin. I don’t think so.’ We have to be informed and so conscious of what we eat if we are to remain healthy in this non-primal world.
‘yeah, like a addict’s body tells her to crave heroin. I don’t think so.’
perfect! I always want to say just because you want it, doesn’t mean your body is needing it!
Ok, I get what’s being said. I’m insulin resistant and I’ve been eating primal for 18 months and seeing a looooong, sloooowww improvement in my insulin and blood sugar levels. Cravings have gone way down. The problem I now have is craving fat. Just gave up dairy 3 days ago because I was abusing butter (grass-fed) and cream because I craved it all the time. What does this mean because I have no idea!
Love how you admit “abusing” butter and cream. I was there too. Finally cut it out a couple weeks ago. My skin had gotten better without it and worse with it. Now it’s better again. Can’t help you with your cravings but I do sympathize. I simply feel like eating most of the time. That’s how i got fat in the first place. Don’t know where I fit as far as insulin sensitivity goes, but I do know I have to count calories to not gain weight. Blasphemy, I know. Paleo 1 year. Good luck.
Counting calories is NOT blasphemy! I track EVERYTHING I eat on my phone with an app. Not only to keep calories in check, but also fat/protein/carb grams and fiber, sugars, sodium and vitamins. Just because we’re primal/paleo doesn’t mean we can’t overeat. I’m only 5’2″ so I don’t have a lot of “room” to overeat! Also, there is such a thing as too much fat and protein…
I track, as well! I like to make sure I am getting enough protein, and I’ve learned that my calorie count matters, too.
I abuse berries in heavy cream. Put on 3 lbs last week. I realized where my error was (sadly, but thanks to my app) and I have 2 down, and one to go.
I totally agree. Eating too much “good” food does not help a bit. Eating the right amount, having discipline, and giving yourself a break from food is good. My doctor had me stop eating processed sugar years ago because of adrenal fatigue and insulin resistance and I’ve felt great ever since. I’ve never been a fast food or snack eater so I’m not even tempted by that stuff. I LOVE simple home prepared food. I grew up on it and it’s stuck with me for 51 years
Agree -counting calories is not bad -unless that’s a real chore for you. I’m a total data hound… it makes me happy to enter what I ate, the exercise I’ve performed… my weight, in CRONoMETER (great web-based program)… and look at several weeks’ worth of data. You can extrapolate so much! What’s missing? Where did I go overboard? I was really crabby that day -what did I eat? What nutrient is missing? Fascinating. But my wife, for example, could’t be bothered, so I get it.
Maybe it is not fat, but dairy. I went through a period of serious cream and butter cravings. I could easily drink 2 cups of cream at a sitting and want more. I cut out dairy and switched to coconut oil and grass-fed tallow. Delicious, but I don’t CRAVE it like I do the dairy. There’s something special about dairy!
Sounds like a lactose or casein allergy-addiction.
Like you I just love double (heavy) cream. I can drink it from the carton and butter is delicious with lots of things. Unfortunately I have come to the conclusion that I will have to give them up.
While driving cross country I had time to observe what happens after I eat something. I ate only food I brought myself, and it was all low carbohydrate fare like pemmican or lettuce wraps. I kept the food in the back of my truck so I could only eat when I stopped for gas. Usually an hour or so after eating I would get really hungry for a while. Then it would subside. I wonder if that is reactive hypoglycemia? I’m finding that I’m fighting hunger right this minute and it’s about two hours after breakfast. Breakfast was meat and vegetables. So, if I can just not give in, I ought to feel okay in a half hour or so. Is there some way to cure this kind of hypoglycemia? It is really annoying to be so hungry so often. I’ve been on this diet for a year now and have lost plenty of weight, but hunger still dogs me.
I find that, if I am eating enough fat with every meal, drinking a glass of water afterward staves off hunger. I feel like my body is telling me it needs water to process everything. That’s just me though!
the same thing is happening to me where I get oddly hungry about 2 hours after a meal. At first I thought it was because my meal was too small but even with a BIG meal it still happened and I’d be spooning almond butter into my mouth. Not a good way to loose weight, perhaps I’ll try and tough it out, and then feel satisfied once I start to digest. I think this may be the case since the hunger wanes off later for me as well.
I second the extra water protocol. My foods have a lot of water naturally (except the meats), so it’s easy to not drink enough with a meal. I make sure to get 1C of water down in the hour after the meal, and it’s helped with the post-meal hunger, both immediate and at the 1-2-hour mark. But like Diane, I have reactive hypoglycemia, and sometimes, chewing on two sticks of SF gum is the only way to cope.
Another time I’ve noticed ‘fake’ hunger is when quitting smoking. I’ve heard many stories of withdrawal symptoms being mistaken for hunger.
Help – hey guys, does anyone ever have the feeling after they eat that they’re never truly full? I’ve been eating Paleo for a while but occasionally (weekends) binge to get that feeling of satisfaction. It’s usually high carb crap and sweets. I can’t seem to kick it…which just isn’t me. Anyone else go through anything similar? I’d love to get over the hump!
I understand to a point. I find that (family) BBQs are the place where my satiated button gets lost. I’ll eat until I think I look like a glutton getting up to get more. Sometimes that’s on my 4th trip to the grill. I am not proud, but I’ve accepted this flaw, and my only solace is that everything I eat is still Primal. It must be due to my years-long habit of being very good during the week and being an animal on the weekends.
Perhaps if you tried filling up (I cannot in good conscience suggest binging) on more Primal foods? Dark chocolate and fruit if you really need the sweets?
That’s totally me! If anyone has any ideas how to get over that, I’d love to hear’em.
I’ll be careful about listening to cravings when it comes to fast food/junk food.
But I have experienced good things after eating a pizza, or getting wings laden in HFCS hot sauce when I really felt I wanted it. The cravings to eat these things again are minimal for me fortunately. The bready parts didn’t do anything for me, and I had no desire to eat any more of it, which was cool.
Great read! I’ll be sharing this with everyone with whom I’ve been trying to explain the importance of understanding insulin.
I used to have really bad reactive hypoglycemia and now, even if I carb binge, I don’t get that problem and here’s why: Generally each day I stay in ketosis and I also do CrossFit. Breakfast is normally eggs/meat; post workout is normally a protein shake with almond milk; lunch is cold meats, cheese, olives, nuts/coconut; dinner is something meaty or very similar to lunch. When I stay in ketosis for more than three days, I see my satiety go WAY UP (as in I can’t make myself eat sometimes) and then if I have a high carb day, I don’t have any hypoglycemia problems which I think has to do with already having such easy access to my own fat. It’s like when the carbs are all burned through (which I think CrossFit helps with)my body is like, “alright, back to fat.” and that’s the end of the story. It took a while for me to get here but I’m so glad I did. Also… fun fact: In ketosis, I notice that my stomach gets very flat – LOVE!
After nearly two years of being primal and not really seeing much change in body fat (naturally skinny guy, slightly high body fat 18-19%) I have finally worked out that having a carb binge once or twice a week (after a big workout) makes all the difference. Hunger comes back, body fat goes down.
Your comment, “Alright, back to fat” is spot on. Low carb is great, but a carb refeed every now and then seems to reset the system.