How do you cope when you feel really hungry ? After week one the hunger pangs eased and I have coped well. Last night I went to bed feeling very hungry and have felt so all day. I caved in tonight and had some extra cheese and cooked meat taking me way over my 800 calories. I feel really bad about eating the extra food but finally feel satisfied. Anyone else dealt with this in a better way ?

I’d say one day every now and then when you go over your 800 calories is ok, as I’m sure there are other days when you might be under. You did great tho just sticking to some cheese and meat, not blowing it on carbs etc. So well done you!

When I’m hungry and at risk of making a bad decision, I will usually go for one of these two options:
– Bone broth is great for good gut health and less than 20 calories. I find this stops hunger pangs for me pretty quickly. You can make it yourself or there are now very good quality commercial options available (like this one http://www.osiusbonebroth.co.uk/).
– Virgin bloody mary can be made for under 50 calories (http://lowcarbslowcarb.com/recipes/virgin-bloody-mary/).

When I am super hungry and just feel like I need to be more satiated (doesn’t happen very open, but when one of ‘those’ days happen), I resort to making a batch of protein fluff for dessert (see example recipe here http://thedk.co.uk/protein-fluff-recipe/). This is pretty popular in the fitness/bodybuilding community as its very low carb, high protein (they use it to “cut” aka lose weight rapidly) but most of all you are full and completely satiated afterwards. I made some a week ago for 100 calories and was stuffed but not over my calories for the day. I like making it with frozen raspberries and vanilla protein powder (like this http://www.theproteinworks.com/shop-by-goal/fat-loss/naked-whey-protein-90).

Hope some of these tips might work for you! Good luck!

Hi Peapod, it’s quite normal to feel like this in the early weeks. My tactic in the first few days was water and fruit tea. Lots of it.

Then I settled on the strategy of making each mealtime bigger than the previous, so that dinnertime was the most satisfying meal of the day. I would eat the following amounts for each meal:

Breakfast 150-200 cal
Lunch 250-300 cal
Dinner 400-500 cal

You’ve done well to stay on the log, don’t feel so bad about the odd day over calories. I’ve had some of my most successful daily losses after going OTT on snacking on things like almonds or beef biltong. I firmly believe that when the body settles into a pattern, an occasional ‘shock’ meal suddenly spurs it into fat loss mode. Obviously I’m not talking about sinking 10 beers or 5 chocolate bars – when you crack, find something good to fall onto and lose the guilt immediately. Don’t hold 1 slip up against yourself.

Peapod
That’s exactly what I would have done – and have done when faced with the same situation since I started on 1st May. Sometimes it has been because I haven’t had enough water, but other times I have absolutely no idea why I am more hungry. Sometimes soup is all I need to fill the gap other times only protein or fat will do.

You may have eaten more calories than you meant to but you avoided the trap of turning to starchy carbs, sugar or rubbish processed food to satisfy your hunger. Which of course it doesn’t and just leads to a massive carb fest. This way tomorrow you can effortlessly go back to 800 calories.

You have done so well and in my view you couldn’t have dealt with it in a better way. You ate good nutritious food and did not resurrect the carb monster that you had defeated in week one. That has to be a huge win.

Thanks Krysia D and cmawp. I feel better after reading your replies. I am hoping the extra calories will give my body a shock and help to lose more weight and as you say they weren’t bad calories, I just had too many. No longer feeling hungry so back on track tomorrow .
Your supportive comments are appreciated.

Hi Peapod! I’m with KrysiaD and Cmawp — if you are just starving, eat something!! Only make it good like you did (brilliant) — you are training yourself to do two really good things 1.) respond to real hunger (very important for us) and 2.) to fill your hunger with real, whole food that is low in carb. You did perfectly!

Good Morning everyone, i started my 800 diet on Sunday 27 Nov at a starting weight of 110.7kg, blood sugar of around 15mmol/L it is now Saturday 3 Dec at 5:53am and my weight is 104.1kg and blood sugar of 7.2mmol/L and i have not taken my insulin and metformin for 2 days im concerned with the amount of weight i lost. Is this a safe weight to have lost in such a sort period or has anyone else experienced this?

Hi Luke, that sounds perfectly normal for a first week on BSD, some of the weight loss will be fat, but the larger proportion of it will be water that was previously being retained, either because of carbs in your previous diet, or because you are drinking more on the diet. Many people have had weight losses of a similar size in the first week. It won’t continue at that level, indeed some of us went straight into a second week plateau, not losing any more until week 3, but it is perfectly safe and normal so don’t worry.

Hi Peapod, I experienced exactly the same thing last night, and I am on higher calories now as I try to transition back to a maintenance level. I wasn’t quite so good as you either, with a good chunk of brie, a couple of handfuls of dry roasted cashews and a small chunk of dark chocolate finally making the munchies give up. I am accepting it as just part of the adjustment my body is currently making.

Hi Luke, that’s normal weight loss for week 1.

I weighed 2kg more than you and dropped 8.2Kg in week 1, although I wasn’t on meds

Thanks so much Mixnmatch and Californiagirl. I feel better now knowing it’s not just me. I think feeding the hunger with BSD friendly food is probably the best thing to do then start again the next day. Just as well I didnt have any Brie in the house, I would have eaten the lot ! Today we had a 6 hour car journey. Normally we would have coffee and croissant on the way. I am feeling quite virtuous as I bought cashew nuts instead and had some of those. Going to be hard being away from home this week but will stick to the principles of the diet.
Great weight loss Luke, keep up the good work.

Yep, I have caved in a couple of times. Home made low cal soup is great and fills you up. I have the veg for a slaw ready grated in a bowl and had a couple of big fork fulls last night, mixed with quark which is very low calorie, add a bit of mustard or caraway seeds. I had grated onion,celeriac and carrot.
I also had my birthday at the end of week one but know it’s illegal NOT to have birthday cake so had Some! I have just started week 4 and am down 12lbs. Doing Davina McColl exercises most days (20 mins intense exercise) and feeling Great! Best thing I have done for myself for Years! I am 62 and have been brought up on the low calorie diet foods, low fat etc, it’s hard to change my thinking about it all. My daughters are amazed to see full fat yogurt, milk, butter and cheese in my Fridge! It’s really educating them Too!

Hi all ,I am on day two and that is a challenge with hunger, yesterday I did 500 breakfast and 300 cals for lunch and today i did 800 breakfast and a gym workout. so hungry tonight. Any tips on how whether your better having you 800 all at once or spread over the day? and how do you manage on exercise days please

Once you get yourself in fat burning mode (ketosis) then your body has plenty of fat to use as fuel. So at that point your hunger is all in your head rather than physical. – So first of all ensure that your carb intake is low enough to enable you to be in ketosis. Think of your fat stores as meals you have previously eaten that you now want to use.

You could have a glass of water to make you feel like you have had something. Often we confuse thirst with hunger.

But there is also a whole new ball game when it comes to understanding the emotional triggers, and patterns of behavior that make you feel that you need to eat even when your body has plenty of fuel to work on. There isn’t one single answer because each person is different. We have different patterns, different habits that mix up eating with caring for ourselves and treats. The best way to deal with those is to find an alternative activity to eating that gives you the same feelings.

JGwen we really do learn something everyday! I have never ever thought of my fat as meals stored to be used later. Lovely idea. Must change my thought patterns!

I just want to add that it is not necessarily true for everyone that hunger stops with ketosis- hunger between meals is pretty normal when in a calorie deficit no matter how well hydrated one is, or how perfect the quality of the food is. (I monitor with ketone strips.) For me, it has not improved. It’s been a year of slow steady weight loss for me, and I’m sorry to report I’m just as physically hungry between meals and before bed as I was on day one of dieting. I’ve gotten more *used* to it mentally but it’s still there on all caloric deficit days. If anyone else is experiencing this, I encourage you to check out the studies published on leptin resistance, it was a huge eye opener, and while depressing, it was helpful to know. Eating healthy low carb Mediterranean is satisfying, and intermittent fasting makes it all more tolerable, but it does not actually fix leptin resistance (so far! Still hoping.) Until the scientists find something to help us out, keep eating quality meals, and keep sipping the tea and broth when the hunger gets overwhelming, and just know that as long as you *know* you had enough nutrition that week, and you still have excess fat on you, the hunger is not an emergency. And know that I’m right there with you! Sometimes, especially in the evening, I just say out loud to my body, “Just shut up you liar! We had a perfectly good dinner! Use that fat on your belly!” 🙂

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Thanks Ravennagirl!
That was such a helpful post – so good to know that my hunger pangs aren’t an “emergency”, but my body sending out false alerts. I am curious about that issue you mentioned and will research it!
I’m currently finishing day 2 and I find my hunger hits from about 3pm until dinner and then back again about 9.30pm. the rest of the day is fine! I’m really hoping it all settles down as it’s horrible!