I'm glad you asked this question, because I'm not hungry, either -- which is great, but I *am* having trouble making myself eat all the food we are supposed to eat. I'm not skipping meals, but sometimes I really have to force myself to eat everything I'm supposed to. I'm on my 2nd week -- will that problem go away with time?

This is Ketosis.
It is what makes being on this diet easier.
Get some of the easier-to-consume foods like strawberry-banana RTD, pink lemonade, orange drink (smaller carbs/cals, too)

Split your meat protein into 2 meals if needed. Add veggies to breakfast if needed (or check the fun with veggie purée thread & add veggie purées to IP soups at lunch), use "lighter" IP foods for snack & get all your food in.

John-

I thank you for the info also -

a while back I had been loosing my mind because my coach insisted I needed to eat every 4 hours and that waiting over 5 would result in lean muscle loss.
This became an issue for me because reality for most of us is sometimes with the commitments of life we simply just cannot eat at exactly 4 hours from the last meal. All the clock watching, stress, and worry got to be ridiculous. Every time she would use the body scanner and it would show a loss in lean mass she would remind me about this and I would panic. Even though my logical mind KNOWS those things are basically useless.

It always left me feeling bad and questioning myself even though I am losing weight, my clothes are falling off and I feel great.

Since we all know that long term success with weight loss involves winning the mind game too - it is very helpful for me to see the posts showing that this is just not true.

Thank you for the solid info you share with us.

I am so glad to see this thread tonight!!!! I am having the same problem!! I am not hungry.......breakfast is fine. I enjoy the crispy cereal made into a pancake with WF syrup and apple butter or oatmeal. A shake mid-morning. Lunch and dinner? Just the thought of eating, especially vegetables, I start gagging. Week one and two was fine. Here I am in week three and really struggling.

I was actually looking for a thread of favorite / go-to P1 (alt) meals and this thread popped up!
I have been having this concern as once a week or so I will have a less-hungry day. Not trying to game or lose weight faster, just trying to listen to my body and it's signals - as usual, Lisa has some great advice :)

I can't imagine I am the only person experiencing this from time to time, so I am giving the thread a bump.

Happy Monday

If someone else didn't control my M-F schedule eating every 4 hours might be easier!! I get to work at 7, lunch time most days is driving back from walking the dog at about 12:30 or 1, dinner usually 6:30pm and snack at 9pm. I've taken to drinking coffee all morning :coffee::coffee: (not a sacrifice let me tell you!!) with my IP RTD cappuccino doled out in it. It gets me through the morning most days. Lunch is snarfed down. Dinner and late snack is relaxed. I do get hungry around 4:30-5 pm.

I look forward to having this problem sometime. I am almost always hungry, sometimes within half an hour of a packet, when I know my body doesn't need anything else. I know that if I were actually starving, I would stop losing weight, and I continue to lose weight.

I think it's probably messed up biochemistry (too much grehlin or insulin floating around, or too little leptin, or--more likely--the right amount of all of those things and my receptors are still numb). I'm reading a lot about fructose and about body fat set points; a lot of it is depressing, but it also rings true. The body doesn't WANT to lose weight, and I can feel mine fighting it, even with all the ingeniousness of the IP protocol.

I assume, though, that as I get closer to goal, the food will start to feel like enough, then like too much. Fingers crossed that that's how it works, anyway. :)

When I had less hungry days I used the drink packets for my IP proteins. I have never been a breakfast person - I was born at night and am at my best physically and mentally in the evening. My breakfast every day was one of the drink packets or if it was a cold day, a soup packet.

For veggies if you aren't hungry, pick the lighter ones that cook down like spinach & mushrooms instead of roasted cauliflower or stuffed peppers.
Use your snack at your hungry time. For me that was afternoons - since I need to get out of the habit of night snacking in maintenance.

If you are hungry - take advantage of the unlimited lettuces and raw veggies. If you really don't like the idea of that, time to realize that you aren't really 'body hungry' but rather 'mind hungry' - bored or in the habit of eating for eating's sake at a particular time.

And don't forget your water... ;)

Liana

Thanks Liana!
Great advice! My problem hasnt been getting on 3 meals...I know my body and my snacking time is generally 8 - 9 pm so I save my snack and there have been a handful of days I've just not been hungry but am realizing how detremenal that can be (to skip) so I will be ordering a couple easy drinks - only stipulation is no soy.

The human body is designed to go a long time on very little food. That is why we store fat in the first place. You should feel no repurcussions at all about skipping a meal. We are not fragile little glass figures who will break because we do not eat right. If anything, many people are eating way too much.

A note on the previous post: I don't think she realized she was posting on the Ideal Protein sub-forum, based on her other posts. The "don't skip meals" advice is good; her advice is bad, in our particular case. In general, her advice is fine.

One day last week after 6pm I checked my calories and I was just over 200. It happens.