I just finished week 4 on IP. I have lost 15 lbs. and am thrilled, but I am hungry ALL the time. Has anyone else experienced this? Can anyone offer some suggestions? I do not want to interrupt my weight loss. I eat lettuce like a rabbit, but it really doesn't help. Thanks!

Great job Andie! I would keep snack bags of cucumbers around, or maybe some pickles? I get hungry too without snacks. It's harder in the evenings for me. I know a lot of that is mental.

Have a great day
Tina

Andie - I can't say I'm not ever hungry, my witching time is from lunch to dinner. I have found with me, if I just drink the shakes or drink mixes for breakfast, especially the very sweet ones, I am starving all day! I try to start my day with a food that I have to chew - omelette, crispy cereal pancakes, etc. My lunches are the soups or the potato puree with additions like mushrooms, broccoli, and cauliflower and extra water.

I think I must be especially sensitive to sweeteners and they make me hungry. That used to happen when I drank diet coke - in the old days - before IP

Not sure if that's your issue, but maybe that helps. The other thing my coach has told me and my husband which he has implemented - if he's starving at lunch or before dinner, he can break have a stand alone protein like a hard boiled egg or a couple of ounces of canned tuna, etc. But he's guy. I'm not saying you should do that but I'd rather have a hard boiled egg than a piece of bread! The tendency is to eat off protocol with more veggies, going over your two cups, or having a larger salad with veggies and not thinking that they will impact you. They do. Maybe you could have a couple of ounces of your dinner protein with lunch or as a snack. That may push away the hunger pains.

Good luck!

I have tried to learn to define hungry for myself while doing IP. I know in the past, i often thought I was hungry rather than being in an actual state of physical hunger. I now use stomach growling as my barometer of hungry!

Now, I have plenty of excess fat sroes for my body to use, the ketosis seems to help with hunger also. What I do find is that my cravings crop up at times when it was my habit to eat. also, if I get too tired or stressed I will want something to eat even though my stomach is not growly. Those are the times I have to work through. Having some readily available veggies helps, hot drinks help, and at first I had an extra pack of IP. It takes some getting used to. I imagine everyone is different as to how they space their meals and how they have hunger come up. Our "machinery" is individual!

i have times where i am more hungry then others, no idea what triggers it. I am in week 11 and still experiencing this. On these days i drink extra water, have a hard boiled egg, eat an extra packet, have some sugar free jello (made with koolaid and splenda). Not all of these of course but the water plus one of these. It often helps and on the days it doesn't, i just go to bed early or play video games. Both things keep non OP food out of my mouth.

When are you having your restricted packet? I was having mine at night, it helped to move it to lunchtime. Also, you can have herbal tea (no carbs), that might soothe your tummy more than water. And, are you using your olive oil allotment every day?

I, too, am in week 4 and have struggled with hunger this week. Got to my lowest weight last Thur., then jumped 3 lbs in one day. My weight stayed up all weekend and that was when I was really hungry. Since I was 100% OP, it made no sense to me why my weight was up. I decided the only thing could be my sodium intake. Counted up all the soaium and I was taking in WAYYYYY more than I should have. I watched it the next day and kept it to 2400mg (the RDA) and don't ya know, the scale moved down 4 lbs and I wasn't hungry.

I had been using pickles and pickle juice along with salt and shrimp, and, for me, that was too much sodium. Also, some packets have way more sodium than others. They can range from 0 to 920 per packet. Chicken soup has 870 . Hope this helps.

Andie,

I was hungry all the time in phase 1, even though I was doing everything "by the book". My coach had me move my restricted to breakfast, which helped some. What helped more was moving to phase 2, which I did at about week 4 or 5. My weight loss did not slow down in phase 2 surprisingly. I think it's because I just needed the extra calories. I also find that snacking on sour things like pickles and pickled okra help with cravings. Also make sure you are getting all your vitamins, oil, and water in. Are you sleeping okay? Sleep deprivation and high stress levels increase hunger, too. Hope this helps. Let us know how you do. Good luck!

Karen

I find my hunger is more of a craving that a hunger. I try to curb this by staying on plan getting all my veggies in and saving maybe 1/2 c. serving for the "munchie" times and eating a couple pickels! But for me if I chug a glass of water and wait 10 minutes I find I was just "wanting" food not needing it! Hope you can find the answeres you need and good luck! It's worse around TOM for me, I want to eat everything in sight! I just don't give in!

I eat the omelet or oatmeal for breakfast, have a drink or pudding for mid-morning snack, eat an IP soup with added veggies and lettuce and other veggies for lunch, and a lean protein meat/fish with veggies for dinner. My coach told me not to eat a hard boiled egg during the day. She said not to divide my meat/fish protein but to eat it at one meal. Thanks, though, for trying to help.

I drink decaf hot tea and lots and lots of water throughout the day. Doesn't help.

I do find that when I give in to the hunger and eat just a little bit more of something (1/2 a pudding, 2 T Pb2), I actually lose a bit more weight than usual the next day. I wonder if I'm getting enough to eat. I don't have cravings per se, I'm just hungry. I am having some trouble with sleeping due to some stressful family matters. I sleep well when I sleep, just not long enough. Thanks!

I go to bed right after dinner to keep from eating!

Hmmm. Salt. I had been totally off salt prior to starting IP, so I may be going overboard with it now, trying to make sure I eat enough of it. I'll keep a close eye on it from now on. Thanks for the tip!

I was having my restricted for breakfast. Then I got the omelets so moved the restricted to my mid-morning snack. No change; still hungry. I do drink herbal caffeine-free hot tea during the day, and I'm getting in the olive oil. When I first started I mentioned the hunger to my coach. She said it would pass very soon and that I would have trouble eating everything that I'm supposed to. I'm still waiting.