[k8yk]

Originally Posted by losermom

For me, I haven't noticed a connection between artificial sweeteners and hunger. But I will tell you that I do go through periods or phases of ravenous hunger. It usually only lasts 4-5 days at a time but I try to load up on veggies during those times.

When that happens to me, it's always tied to my menstrual cycle. It's actually a physiological thing. Women burn more calories in the days leading up to and during our periods and less the 2 weeks after. Once I read that, I tailored my eating accordingly and stopped feeling so frustrated by the sudden hunger.

[Lori Bell]

Originally Posted by ncuneo

Gosh Lori, I hope I never said that I was eating clean on the weekends cause that would have been a big fat lie!

I did a little clicking around earlier and found the post I was thinking of, sorry you didn't say you were eating clean on weekends, you said your were binging much less...so anyway, that must not be the cause of the weekday decrease in hunger. Wouldn't it be great if you experianced the non hunger on weekends too!

[ncuneo]

Ahhhh! That sounds more like it Lori. Yes it is true my binging has decresed from 2-3x per week to about 1 to sometimes 2xs per week.

So this morning I was planning on having one of my staple breakfasts, greek yogurt w/ oatmeal but my greek yogurt was bad :O So I lost 1/2 my breakfast cals and all my protein and I thought for sure I was going to die of hunger. I couldn't believe it, I looked at my watch and it was 11 AM and I wasn't hungry yet! By 11:30 it kicked in, but I was in complete shock that I wasn't ready to chew off my own arm with a carb loaded breakfast of much lower cals then I'm used to.

So I'm not sure what is going on. I'm in agreement that the decrease in artificial sugar is key, but it's pretty astounding, I really hope it's not a phase.

I still get hormonal hunger, but it's short lived a few days or whatever. But before it was hungry all day every day. This is different. So for now I think I'll stick to the keeping out the artificial sugar, maybe even see if I can remove it from other areas of my diet and I'm sticking to the 3-4 meals because even if that hasn't had anything to do with the hunger it's almost stopped my food obsession completely, and that's a whole different story.

[ChubbyCheeks]

Yeah, I am the same way as you. Like I could always eat something. But since I started my slow-Carb diet, I can't even eat a whole pancake.
I'm so relieved about it

[Karen925]

Howdy,
Could it be the carb consumption overall is less? Easy to decrease calories by decreasing carbs (whole or processed). I have not observed a connection between artificial sugar and hunger for me.

I have noticed if I eat oatmeal (even with protein added) or yogurt with fruit for breakfast I get ravenously hungry within a few hours. If I eat golden flax meal/whey hot cereal with berries, not hungry at all until lunch which can be 5-6 hours from breakfast. I still eat the yogurt with fruit but now as a parfait dessert and not as a stand alone meal. Same calorie count, different carb count. All "good" whole food. Had to track this for several months before I was sure of a connection. Same for other "good" foods which for me not so much.

There is a bit of chatter about decrease in hungern on Mark's Daily Apple. As always, YMMV.

[rubidoux]

I think it's eating fewer meals. I have never in my whole life felt really in control of my eating until I cut out carbs almost entirely (down to 2g/day). Then I discovered IF and now that I eat only once a day, I can tolerate a lot more carbs (up to around 35). I have never felt less hungry than during this period of only eating once/day. I don't even begin to think about eating until after 4 pm anymore, even though I haven't eaten since 6-7 pm the previous night.

I wouldn't add the artificial sweetener back, though, just in case.

I hope it keeps up for you!