I can start to feel hypoglycemic sometimes...shakey, so I eat a few soy puffs or chips and that helps. I drink hot tea or coffee all day long. I love sugar-free jello, but find that I really need to watch how often I have it, as it makes me crave more of it. Good filler, though...

Andie,
I buy a pound of ground turkey breast each week and make 5 burgers out of it (typically cook all at once and heat as needed). When I am ravenous mid day, I heat a half one w/ a tablespoon or two of Walden Farms BBQ sauce, it works like a charm. I don't do this daily but when I need to, I do. I also work out 5X/week plus walk the dog, bicycle a little each so have some calorie burn going on in different ways.

I drink a gallon of water/day typically using Mio water flavorings, so tasty! This probably helps the most - often I think I'm hungry and I'm just really thirsty.

Stay with it! You'll look fabulous by summer!

Karen,
Did you move to phase 2 at the prescribed time (after 90% of your weight loss), or did you move to it sooner than that? Thanks!
Andie

A little extra protein may be the way to go rather than more lettuce or veggies. I'll give it a try. Thank you!

I was starving the first few day’s OP but now I seem to have to force the food down. Some tips that helped me were as followed;
-Split your veggies up throughout the day
- Pickles are wonderful to help fill you up
- Herbal tea after a meal fills me up
- Roasted veggies blended with the soups make them bigger and more filling
- Blend ice and lots of water to the shakes
The feeling of being hungry will go away. Drink lots of water and if you still feel hungry do something, keep your hands busy!

My coach is new, but by the book. She is doing the diet herself (6 weeks) and is starting to phase off. She said she was hungry, too. She put in a call to the IP Doctors about me and they said to make sure I was getting 8 oz of protein and increase the salad and veggies some. They also said to make sure I got my salt in since if you get too LITTLE it will cause you to hold water and gain weight. I guess there is a fine line with the salt. My situation may be different as I had uncontrolled blood sugars running into the 400's.

Another thing I thought of is the fact that your body will respond to sucralose the same way it does to sugar...by releasing insulin. Since you haven't really eaten sugar, it drops your blood sugar and you have a low and that causes hunger. If you are eating a lot of things with Splenda, that may be the reason. I know most of the packets and WF things have it in them and I think I am sensitive to it because when I eat the eggs, I can go for a lot longer before I get hungry. Stevia doesn't cause the same response, so I use that whenever I can and keep the WF stuff to a minimum. HTH

JoesHotWife

"Another thing I thought of is the fact that your body will respond to sucralose the same way it does to sugar...by releasing insulin. Since you haven't really eaten sugar, it drops your blood sugar and you have a low and that causes hunger. "

Hi - I thought that splenda and other artificial sweeteners do not raise blood sugar, so why would the pancreas release insulin in response to it? At least that's what I'm seeing on a search for info. I do recall a study recently that said the brain reacts to anything sweet, natural or artificial, by setting us up to crave more, but I don't know if that means that the pancreas is involved or not.

Have you found info on this? Thanks...

PS: there has been data to show that stevia actually lower or stabilizes blood sugar, beyond what the other ones do. I just wish more things used it.

I use Stevia in a lot of the IP products and they help however I use MIO in my water. I don't think stevia would work well in water. Stevia does not trigger cravings in me but the MIO does. I also believe my cravings are stronger with some of the Walden Farms products. I use a lot of the Thousand Island dressing with my Big Mac in a Bowl. And then I want more MIO water and then I want restricteds immediately.

I think you guys brought up some good points. My hunger was worst when I was consuming a lot of MIO. Not as bad this week.

[Hi - I thought that splenda and other artificial sweeteners do not raise blood sugar, so why would the pancreas release insulin in response to it? At least that's what I'm seeing on a search for info. I do recall a study recently that said the brain reacts to anything sweet, natural or artificial, by setting us up to crave more, but I don't know if that means that the pancreas is involved or not.]

After looking, I was not able to find anything that mentioned insulin. More that disrupted the body biochemestry and increased hunger. Mercola.com has a ton of articles on Splenda. I am not a fan of sucralose and questioned my clinic before I started since I know they think it is bad as well. Turns out the FDA would not approve the diet with stevia so they had to use Splenda. The Dr. said that since the diet was for a short time and the risks of being overweight were higher than using Splenda for the time you were on the diet, they felt they could support it.

On a personal note, I was at my highest weight while drinking diet drinks with Splenda. I can't drink the others since they give me migraines. I switched to the stevia sweetened soda and lost over 50 lbs.

Thanks...I brought it up because many of us, including myself, are or were pre-diabetic, so blood sugar is always a concern. New data may well come out showing that splenda is not as safe as we hope. I don't like to use any of the artificial sweeteners, but I've got to use something besides sugar. I had also heard the bit about stevia not being FDA approved yet.

I have read that sweeteners can stall weight loss. I can't remember if it was the brain craving more sweets thing or something more specific. Also, when you buy the packets of splenda or truvia or most sweetners, they have dextrose added, which is just sugar. Better to find the loose form that does not include the dextrose, or maltodextrin, an anti-caking agent that is perceived as sugar in the body.

Zevia?? How do you like it? I have been thinking of trying it but since I don't have a craving for soda I am waiting. I also would have felt much better if they used stevia as a sweetener in the IP products and if there were less soy. The bars make me break out.

I know Xylitol (sp?) can be used in baking sometimes but I never tried it and I don't know what it tastes like as a sweetener other than it being in gum.

I was buying Zevia by the case before I started this diet. I really like it...or at least I did before I went cold turkey. Not sure now since my tastes have changed. It still is a diet soda and doesn't taste exactly like regular. I really like the citrus flavor and the black cherry and cola are good, too. Sometimes Whole Foods will sell it in the cold case as a single.

I drink green tea and it helps to stop my cravings.

Andie,
I was hungry a good chunk of the time in the beginning of P1. I found there was no "magic bullet" but several little things that seems to lessen the hunger. These were what helped me.
Be sure to have at least 24 oz of H2o before noon. Take my vitamins before noon. If I was hungry during the day and in my office (with refrigerator) I kept grilled chicken breasts and would cut off about 2 oz and eat it. If out, I would drink a pre-made chocolate drink. My lunch veggies were usually a salad with veggies or just lettuce and I would be generous with the lettuce and the dressing. On hungry days I would eat a snack (IP) around 4PM and after dinner before bed. Once my body settled down ( 2-3 months into it!) I was on 3 packets a day with an occasional chunk of chicken or smoked salmon and satisfied. HANG IN THERE!! you will find the right combination for you, just keep trying. Oh and when I didn't drink enough water I was hungry too.

I use fresh squeezed lime juice and liquid "Lemon Drop" stevia in water, it's awesome! I freeze lime juice in ice trays for convenience to use in cooking, water, etc. Some times I'm hungry in my mind but, when my body is truly hungry, I usually drop weight soon afterwards. Hunger levels fluctuate just like the speed of the weight loss fluctuates. The body doesn't necessarily do things evenly just because we eat the same amount each day.