Okay, someone PLEASE tell me that it gets easier!
I am so hungry. It's obscene. I feel like it might last forever hahaha. How did you guys make it through the first week? And did your hunger lessen a significant amount after that? Thanks!

Try splitting your protein up. Half at lunch, half at dinner. Split your snack and veggies too so you're eating more often. I am still hungry after 3+ months. My stomach starts growling at about 10 am and then again at 2pm. Doesn't matter how much hot tea and water I drink. Ketosis unfortunately hasn't remedied that for me!

Drink tons of water and herbal tea. Get as much sleep as possible. Find things to keep you busy and out of the house. If you are starving, have a couple of dill pickles or lettuce. Good luck!

Splitting the protein really helped me. Also eating more frequently. Sometimes I'll have a cup of veggies As a snack before lunch. Then lunch and another cup of veggies in the afternoon. Dinner may just be the rest of protein on lettuce and a drink

Tree_fishes:
I don't see your height/weight in your profile but my coach said I could have 3-5 packets daily the first week. It seems most coaches allow at least 1 extra the first week. Only 1 restricted/day, though.
Cooked veggies help me more than raw. And make sure you're adding a salad to both lunch and dinner. The extra bulk helps.

Some of my tips for week 1 and beyond.

1. Drink GOOD water and a lot of it and put some herb tea bags in it for flavor. I love Evian water (in most grocery stores for $2.49 for a 1.5 L bottle). For herb tea bags try Celestial Seasonings Cinnamon Apple Spice. If you put 3 of those in a 1.5. liter bottle, it will "brew" right in the bottle and get sweeter and sweeter tasting over time. In 12 hours, it's so sweet tasting, that it tastes like it's sugared (even though there is no sugar or carbs in there). Just keep sipping on that all day. Note that 1.5 liters is 50 fluid ounces, so most of you should drink up to two 1.5 liter bottles of water a day.

2. Cut your meals up into smaller portions that are eaten more frequently. I lost nearly 80 pounds by eating 6 "meals" 3 hours apart from 6am to 9pm. Doing it that way after you finish eating, you only have about 2.5 hours before your next feeding. This makes it MUCH EASIER to get from feeding to feeding and reduced cravings and feelings of starvation.

This was my regimen on Phase 1:
6am Decaf Coffee with a 1/4 c of skim milk and a heaping tsp of IP Chocolate Drink and Cinnamon and Stevia
9am IP Chocolate Drink
12 noon 4 oz ground turkey and 4oz broccoli and 3 oz rainbow peppers
3pm IP Chocolate Drink
6pm 4 oz ground turkey and 4oz broccoli and 3 oz rainbow peppers
9pm IP Chocolate Drink

If you feel REALLY HUNGRY in the evenings, which is a high craving time, GO TO BED EARLY! If you are sleeping you can't get into trouble, even if you wake up at 3am, you will find your cravings have passed by wakeup time.

KEEP DRINKING your "cinnamon herb water" all day!

Finally I SWEAR BY Frozen Organic Vegetables (like Broccoli and Rainbow Peppers) these taste SO MUCH BETTER than supposedly fresh vegies of the same type, it's like night and day. Plus they never go bad and are infinitely easier to store and prepare.

Yes it does get easier ... along about day 4 or so, you CARB CRAVINGS are mostly gone ... you just have to get though those first four days. I felt like cr@p on days 2 and 3 (headache, lethargic, hungry). The good news is you might lose 8 to 10 or more pounds that first week (slower losses after week 1) but the big weight loss on week 1 is motivating.

Good Luck!

Don't have any good advice to add to the info you already got but hang in there - it really does get easier!

I ate so much lettuce and drank so much water and hot tea the first week! But it tapered off after the first 5-6 days and became much easier. I distracted myself reading on here - got tons of information and helped keep me motivated.

Congrats on getting started and welcome!

Yes, don't be afraid to eat an extra packet the first week if the hunger is excessive! The days I'm hungry seem to be the days I haven't drank my water. I drink it hot in the winter and it seems to fill me up more. Once in awhile I allow myself a Perrier and it seems to help.

I also add an egg white or two to the veggies for an extra protien. If you hard boil your eggs and just have the whites on hand it makes it really easy to add without much effort.

I have made spinach shakes in the morning for extra bulk. Put a cup of spinach in the blender with a cup or so of water. process until really smooth, and then add a pudding or shake packet with some splenda or trivia. process it until really smooth. You could add ice too. Chocolate works best, I think. It looks funny (green) but it is tasty and satisfying. Just make sure to count that as 1 cup of the veggies.

Starting this for my second time, I have to say that I truly feel miserable for the first 10 days. Not completely out of it but I can tell it takes my body that long to figure out why I'm not 'feeding' it cr*p or filling it with empty calories (wine especially). I've been drinking some wonderful decaf hot tea like crazy this go around (cold weather has helped with that) and I'm reading on this site daily. Each morning I wake up and make a commitment to stay on plan, try to plan my packets, meals and never have an empty glass of water or tea. I'm feeling so much better and I'm at about 2-1/2 weeks now. Splitting my protein has helped too. Waiting all day for 8 oz of meat for dinner is too long for me. I also seem to have the salads go straight through me (sorry, TMI, I know), so I am working on making my veggie choices more varied and not having salad every day, maybe just once daily. If that part doesn't stop, I'm going to wonder if I have some unknown stomach issue (Celiac's? something else?) but I do fine with the other veggies. I still have a lot to learn but I love the structure and the simplicity of P1. Too many choices is not good for me now. Good luck!

This is such a good point. Maybe later on the choices will be okay, but right at first (or maybe for a long time) a routine is nice and easy. I don't want to have to think to much about it.

So Tree Fishes, how are you feeling today? Are things better or the same?

It usually takes me about 4 days to get to Ketosis, and then I feel better.

Thanks for all of the replies! Wow My starting weight was 167 and I'm already down to 158. THAT in itself is enough motivation to keep me going! The hunger remains... but lettuce is my best friend as of late. thank you all for the advice! ill make sure to drink lots of tea and start splitting my protein yay us!

Hey Tree_fishes, I was wondering when you started. Your loss is amazing! I was starting to wonder if everything was ok because after two days my scale was 4 lbs less.

Today marks my 8th day but my first official weigh in is tomorrow! Im pretty sure that most of it was water but man, it sure feels great to have that excess off of me!