An experiment in tweaking....

[April]

I didn't know where to post this thread, really, but I've decided on this forum since it was me, many moons ago, who sugessted to Andrea that we needed a forum for those of us who have lost or needed to lose in excess of 100 pounds. This forum feels like home to me. Since I feel comfortable here, I'll post here.

I've decided to tweak, yet again. I'm going to try something I've never tried before. Everyone, including doctors and family members and forum members, has always told me that I need to eat regular meals on a regular schedule at regular intervals. Well, that regimen has served me well, up until now. It's time to tweak things again to get my body to respond and I'm going to eat just when I'm hungry. I'm not talking about appetite. I'm talking about hunger.

I noticed this past three-day weekend that I don't need a full-blown meal to be satiated, nor do I need to eat on a schedule. I conducted an experiment and it went like this: Saturday morning, I ate brunch around 11:30am of 4 sausage patties and 3 scrambled eggs with cream, cheese, and green pepper. As always, just after eating, my blood sugar spikes and I'm absolutely salivating for something sweet to eat. The feeling sometimes passes within 15 minutes. Sometimes it takes hours. Saturday morning, it took hours. I ate dinner around 4:30pm and it comprised two grilled chicken breasts over nearly half a head of iceberg lettuce, with a few radishes and green pepper pieces thrown in. I used two tablespoons of the Carb Countdown french dressing. Again, immediately after eating, I was looking for something sweet to eat. I ate popcorn just before going to bed.

Sunday was a repeat of Saturday. Then, I decided to try the new thing Monday since I didn't have to work. Monday I woke up and, as usual, I wasn't hungry. I never eat breakfast, so not eating breakfast was nothing unusual. At noon, I looked at the clock and realized that on most Monday at that time I would be eating lunch at my desk. I wasn't hungry, so I didn't eat. I continued to drink liquids, however, because I was thirsty. Around 2:30pm, I became hungry so I ate two ounces of Swiss cheese and cooked a can of spinach and ate it slowly. When I was nearly full, I stopped eating. I didn't finish the spinach. I wasn't completely full or even "comfortably" full. I wasn't hungry anymore, however, so I stopped eating. Amazingly, I didn't crave anything sweet. That was a huge accomplishment, to say the least. I wasn't hungry again until after my walk, so at 7:15pm, I prepared a huge salad like the one I had had the day before and started to slowly eat. I ate only until I wasn't hungry anymore, and I put the rest of the salad away for another "meal". Again, I didn't crave anything sweet after eating.

Today I woke up and made my high octane coffee with heavy cream and Sweet-n-Low. I drank a 16-ounce cup of that before I left for work. I got here to work and drank one more cup of coffee, and then started drinking my water. At noon, I'm usually ravenous. But now it's 12:46pm and I'm still not hungry, so I haven't eaten anything. My appetite hasn't even reared its ugly head. When real hunger strikes, I have a grilled chicken breast and some greenbeans at hand to eat. I'm assuming that will happen around 2:30pm. I'll be interested to see if I'll crave something sweet after I eat today.

Anyway.....sorry for the long post. I just wanted to share this information with anyone else who might have trouble with sweet cravings immediately after eating something. I'm not advocating starvation mode, so don't think that I am. I'm looking forward to eating several (about 6, probably) "mini meals" each day because I think this will be the answer for me to regulate my insulin levels and ward off cravings. I know I haven't given this test enough time yet, but I think I may have found a solution for the problem thus far.

I'll post updates in my journal...

[huskersfan869]

April,

I have been toying with this very thing the last couple of weeks and with school out I need a way to keep myself in check because I tend to eat whether I am hungry or not becasue the clock says it is time. I have also been dealing with stomach issues that have not been normal--but I have eaten a good deal of fresh fruit in the last week and attribute it to that alone. I have been eating just enough to be satisfied with extra snacks to compensate--snacks like almonds, cheese, sunflower seeds and dill spears ( a passion of mine). Here it is 1:00 and I am eating a salad I don't want anymore but because there are only two bites left I will finish it. . .it was 2C of lettuce with 2 TBS of ranch dressing and 1T of almonds slivered, 1T of bacon bits and 2T of shredded cheese. No protein except the bacon--will do that with my snack later! I have also switched my workout to morning from late evening this week to see if tweaking there will help. I know when I get "too" full I crave crazy things--even if it is too full on LC items! I too am thinking the less full feeling I get the better off I am going to be. . .Am back on induction foods this week with Poohbear--I am trying to get a handle on things before I go on vacation--not a place to ahve cravings--a place where the "no-no" foods are actually in the house not a 20 minute trip to the store away!

[Rob]

I think when we start out with a lot of weight to lose our bodies get wise to us and we need to change things. Often that means trying several different approaches until we hit on something that works. Good Luck with this tweak!

[celest24209]

Good luck on your endeavor, April. You also Huskers.

[Maggie]

I think this is a very important concept. For me, I think your "not hungry" point, when eating a meal or snack, is what I think of as my "satisfied" point (as in Dr. A's "satisfied but not stuffed.")

I've also observed that the less a meal or snack raises my blood sugar, the less likely I am to start craving - or worse - get a little spacy or sleepy for a while. Not as bad as in the olden days, but just enough to make me pay attention.

I was just mulling things like this over when I had posted to someone that "paying attention" was one of the most important things I'd learned from this way of eating. I didn't mean just paying attention to the food (amounts, composition, etc.), but paying attention to how various things, in various amounts, make me feel. That turned out to be my best way of evaluating what was happening.

Interestingly, it was Barry Sears (the Zone) guy who first got me thinking about the whole concept. Although Atkins turned out to be a better fit for me, the advice to pay a lot of attention to how I felt turned out to be very good advice, indeed. Turns out that how I feel has a direct correlation to my BGL's.

[jooneezgrl]

April:
Thanks for sharing your tweak with us. It is interesting, and you said something I'd like to know if you can expound on. Can you explain the difference between "hunger" and "appetite". Do you mean physical hunger (what we need to exist) versus what we think we want? This may be a stupid question but not understanding the difference on a deep level may be one reason I've been overweight for so many years.

Thanks!

[April]

Explication of hunger versus appetite:

Webster defines appetite as:
"...the desire to eat...an inherent craving..."

And he defines hunger as:
"...an urgent need for food or a specific nutrient..."

That's the difference. Want versus need. Appetite is a want, hunger is a need.

Reminds me of a plaque my Mom had hanging on the wall when I was growing up:

"It's only when my wants surpass my needs that I become unhappy."

How appropos.

To put a finer point on it in my terms:

APPETITE
The overwhelming and not-so-overwhelming URGE to eat something. To me, appetite is an URGE, not involving a growling, snarling, stomach. A craving or a want.

HUNGER
The actual precise instant when my stomach experiences a hunger pang; i.e.: growling, grumbling, snarling, stomach feels like it's turning inside-out because it needs food. Oddly enough, when I'm hungry, I'm really not WANTING to eat. I only WANT to eat when my appetite kicks in and I crave things. Go figure.

[jooneezgrl]

Thanks April! As I suspected, it's my wants, not my needs that have gotten me in trouble over the years. For the first time with LC, my wants are pretty quiet and i am focusing on my needs. And 29 pounds later, I think it's working!!

[April]

Today marks 10 days since I began this experiment of mine, so I thought I'd give an update.

For the most part, my cravings for sugar (carbs) have subsided. I only eat when hunger sets in, and then only until I'm not hungry any longer. Sometimes that means 3 slices of cucumber, or a slice of cheese, or a full blown meal.

I still find it interesting that when I eat the greater portin of protein that I then crave something sweet.

Yet those cravings are not as strong as they were 10 days ago.

I'm down 10 pounds since May 31st. I haven't eaten carby foods in 10 days. My next goal is 205 by July 1. Today I weigh 214.

[MaryKay]

April. I'm so glad this is working!!!! and you are losing again!!!
Its wonderful. You are so on your way to getting below that nasty 200 marker.

[heykim]

thanks for the update april... glad it is working for you... i have taken to just bouncing around my amount of food.. or carbs.. or both... everytime i do.. i notice things suddenly are fitting looser... going to have a physical probably next week... see where i am weight wise... i have no clue...