Stopped feeling hunger, just weak - is this normal
 

Hi everyone,

I am on my 6th week of IP. So far, I've lost a little over 13 lbs (yay!). About the 3rd week of IP, I started noticing something strange. My usual hunger pangs disappeared; meaning I no longer get them. Instead, now when I'm hungry, I just start to feel weak. (Not dizzy or nauseous but just feel like my "gas tank" needs refueling)

I stay on strict protocol with all my PP IP food, veggies, lean meat and water.My BMs are normal now thanks to Novilax once a week. Heck, I even visit my GP once a month to make sure my numbers are good and they are. They even run blood tests.

Does anyone else feel this?

P.S. My ketosis must be in full swing because my loved ones now sit further away from me when I visit.

Hmmm - I'm at the same point in the diet as you (Week 6), but my experience is a little different. The first four weeks were much easier than I'd expected, but these last two weeks I have been insanely hungry - stomach-gnawing, irritable as he$&, nonstop hungry starting about an hour after each meal. Egg whites and lettuce do not help, nor does spacing out my veggies and packets throughout the day. I'm sticking to the plan through sheer force of will, hoping this will pass, but yesterday I nearly caved - and what I really want is more protein, like tuna or chicken.

If this keeps up, I may phase off a little early into a low-carb plan that involves more real food and less packets.

Hi GlacierGirl,

I'm sorry you are going through this!

The first two weeks were pure **** for me. I don't think I was mentally ready. My stomach was growling all the time, major headaches and irritable. Since starting, I've had two TOM's at weigh-in, which was discouraging.

Before IP, I single-handedly used to devour a whole large pizza for dinner and chase it with three cans of Coke; I can fairly estimate that I used to intake about 5-6,000 calories a day and I don't exercise (unless you count walking to fridge exercise)

At first I never thought the IP portions were enough to satisfy my huge appetite. In the beginning, I was like "that's all? It's so tineeeee!" but I've learned to use plating techniques to make my food look "larger." When I make my omelets, I use more water and make three omelets instead of a large one. I also use a blue plate for lunch and a white plate for dinner. Maybe I'm just fooling my brain. I also take a lot of time eating my food, taking sips of water in between eat bite. That seems to work for me.

I work from 6-4pm so I eat BF at 9am, lunch at noon, snack at 4 and dinner at 7 or 8pm. Whenever I start to feel weak, I drink a cold glass of water and stare at my college pictures (my goal weight).

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I also see that you don't have much to lose in proportion to your height. Do you think perhaps that is why your body is "fighting" back?

Are you adding your oil directly to your food or cooking with it?
If cooking, try adding it directly to your food to make sure you get all of the fat. Fat and carbs are satiating. If we don't have enough carbs, we might need just a tad more fat to feel "full". In addition, I drink a lot of warm drinks.

Do some reading about leptin. It might help you understand why you feel so hungry.

Curious to see the responsed to this. I just posted on the daily thread. I have extremely low energy ALL DAY, but I am also extremely hypoglycemic. I am thinking maybe I should switch to the Alternative diet for diabetics instead and see how it goes. It will take longer, I'm sure, but I can't seem to get through daily life very well on normal IP. I'm trying to find out more about the Alternative diet and also get feedback from folks here with similar experience and find out what worked for them.

Do you have a coach?

Yes, I see him weekly. He said check with my GP and if it's OK with my GP, then I am good.

In the beginning, I was extremely weak when I needed to eat something. Like you, I didn't feel sick or anything, just very "I need to sit down" weak. I try to eat something every 3 hours. I have part of my daily meat at lunch along with a salad or vegetables most days. for me, this helps a lot. On those days when I just can't eat when I need to, I still get a little weak. I've just come to identify that as how my body tells me I'm hungry. Believe me, before IP I had no clue what it was like to FEEL hunger.

Lisa - Yes, I'm drizzling my olive oil on veggies or salad, rather than cooking with it. I'll look into leptin, though . . . .

Alm2000 - You have some great strategies! And maybe the fact that I only have a little over 20 pounds left to lose is part of the problem. I expected the weight losses to be on the slow side, but I did not expect this degree of suffering! Makes me really miss my old Atkins days, when I could grab an extra hard-boiled egg or something.

ALM, you are so lucky that you could eat 5,000 calories and still be 166 lbs. Thanks for the tips. I am sure you will be at goal by Xmas.

I'm not phasing off the program but the hunger is constant with me. I wish it would go away! I would settle for just one part of the day without the hunger pains. I mean loud, growling, embarrassing noises! Yes I am now drinking tea and doing everything I can but still no relief. Maybe when I weigh less this will stop

Dakota, Thanks but I had such unhealthy eating habits. I felt sick from all the processed foods I was eating and wanted to get healthy (first goal) and lean down (a close first).

My whole family is thin but then I fell away from the herd, started eating (discovered) fast food and my waistline exploded.

Good luck your IP journey, if I wasn't on it, I would have never believed it would work so quickly!

If your hunger is that bad, you can :) Don't forget that you can also have 2 egg whites as a "freebie" every day - use them if you need them!!

I'm not doing IP, but I just thought I'd comment to say that basically my whole life I've generally experienced hunger symptoms like fatigue or weakness, irritability, and light headed-ness before or instead of regular stomach hunger feelings....and eating based on those hunger cues has always worked out just as well for me!