I have read many posts from people who say they stopped being hungry after about a week. I'm 20 days in--about half was before I got my program and completely cut out carbs, coffee, etc and cut way back on quantity and the other half has been on my official program. I figure it's roughly 1000 kcals/day. I read one person who referred to it (quite accurately I thought) as "gentle starvation".

I'm curious, are there other people out there who are having as much trouble with hunger as I am? I have no tempatation to cheat with non-program food, and I weigh my food at meals religiously, but every few days it seems I have to have a few extra crackers and once, quite a bit more than a few.

Would some of you who are months in to their program or done with refeed comment on your experience? I'm not at all giving up or making any less of an effort but every single day is hard and I have probably 4 months to go. I drink 2 plus litres/day and am working on getting in 3 consistently which seems perfectly adequate for my weight. I'm also trimming back on exercise to see if that helps (I was only walking 30 minutes/day). I've lost about 4 kg in the 20 days--I'm good with that but for as hungry as I am all the time, I would think it would be more! I eat lots of greens to try to increase bulk and fiber for my veggie portion and try to choose the meals with the biggest amount of protein!

I only have email consultants and they are not all that helpful--very mechanical answers, no human at the other end. Those of you who have real live consultants I'm wondering what kind of advice and support you get for dealing with constant hunger?

I appreciate any input. Thanks.
Merci

Hi Merci
I agree that it is "gentle starvation"! I often feel hungry every day... but it is usually around the time I am due for my next meal or snack. I have been on the program for 14 weeks and found that once I increased my water the FULL ON Hunger dissipated. I totally know how hard it is to drink more water when you are not used to drinking it. Before starting the program I was drinking probably less than a litre of water a day. Now I have got it up to 4 litres a day and it helped BIG time. Now it is automatic for me to just reach for the water bottle rather than think of reaching for something to eat.

I can see that have alot more to lose than you (hence more water)... but perhaps try increasing your water right up to 3L (or even 3.5 for awhile and then drop it back later) every day no matter what! I try to get all my water drunk by about 4 or 5pm so that anything after that is a bonus and so that I am not rushing to the loo all night long. I wonder if it could also be the way you are spacing out you snacks too? I make sure that I have crackers and fruit at 10am and again at 3pm with dinner around 5/6pm and then whatever crackers I have left at or after dinner. Sometimes I can go without anything in the morning and I might have a piece of fruit with dinner too... I think it is just a matter of learning your hungry times.

I hope this helps... I think it just takes time for getting the right balance. It took me a while to understand what was happening to my body and find the right rythym.

Bless ya
Kath

I know where your coming from...I too suffered big time from hunger pains..they didnt disipate until about 1month into the program...even when I drank lots of water. But things are cruising along nicely now so hang in there and top up on water if your feeling hungry..
goodluck
Genie

what about some green tea or hoodia?

Thank you all for your responses. Just hearing that other people are having or had this experience is helpful. It was just frustrating to keep hearing people say it only lasted a week (or the program literature saying 3-4 days) when that certainly wasn't my experience.

Kath--I have upped my water today and will continue to try to do that and see what happens. It is an effort isn't it to remember to keep interuppting whatever you're doing to chug a lug.

Genie- I hope I have a similar expereince and that after a month my body is in a different mode. I can imagine that happening. Right now it' screaming "what are you doing???"!

All in all though feeling lighter and fitting into more (and smaller) clothes feels really good and keeps me going. And today was easier than the last few have been. Thanks for the support. :-)
Merci

Hi Merci

I know that execise and hunger has been an issue with other cohenites in past post's.
You mentioned doing 30 minutes of exercies a day - so this may be the reason for the hunger - Cohens does advise minimum or no exercise intially due to this happening.

Remember we are eating very few calories so that our body uses our stored fat supplies and exercising on top will burn more calories which then sets off a chain reaction of your body needing more food. (I hope I'm making sense).

If you read your programme it states all this anyway. Why don't you trial it out and see, omit the exercise for a month and see if changes those hunger pangs.


Goodluck.
Sam

Thanks Sam. I came to the same conclusion. I tried keeping in the waling since I had already been doing it before I started. And becasue my dogs need a walk everyday. But my SO has agreed to walk them so I can havea trial without walking. I hate not moving but I"m at least going to go this week and see how it affects my hunger. I didn't walk Sat and Sun and yesterday was not as bad with hunger (also drank more water), and I actually had more energy at the end of the day then I have been having. I got alot of organizing around the house done! It's so hard to get out of the mindset of exercising regularly. I've almost always done something for over 30 years! But I'm going to give it a try and see what happens.

Merci

Hi all,

I just wanted to report in that with all your suggestions implemented, I've had two days of realtively minor hunger. Yesterday was mild hunger pangs, and today barely any hunger and I'm now an hour until dinner. Hooray!! I haven't walked for several days and am drinking 3 plus litres of water. My weight loss seems really slow--under 2 kg for 10 days on my plan and 4.45 overall for 3 weeks but I have a feeling I'll drop some more in the next few days. I just feel so much better overall and I'm so happy not to be crazy hungry all the time. Thanks everybody!

Merci

Hi Merci

Glad to read the hunger has reduced. It sounds terrible advising someone to cut back let alone give up exercise,but as you have discovered it has done the trick and once you reach your goal weight you can start your walking plus other physical activities.

Sam

I'm glad that you've found a way to diminish the pangs, but I also wanted to add, don't be too scared of feeling hungry. I know we are not comfortable with feeling hunger because in our culture we have so much food available and we are used to eating so much that we rarely feel hungry, and when we do it distracts/ bothers/ scares us.

But the way I see it is that feeling true hunger (and not just a craving triggered by boredom or something emotional) is just a signal from your body requesting fuel. If you don't put something in your mouth, then your body starts looking for fuel elsewhere, IE burning fat!

So feeling hungry = fat burning. Not so bad is it?

Eve

Merci

My consultant told me if I deviate (eg eat one or three more crackers than allowed), the hunger will not stop, as the diet is based on sticking to it exactly and NOT deviating with even one cracker.

Are you taking chromium? Curbs sugar cravings. And also, I think, well, I'm not sure, but if my body knows what real hunger is. Usually I start getting 'hungry' when I'm bored, so maybe it's actually cravings? Try to stretch out your fruit. So breakfast 730, first cracker 900, fruit 10, next cracker 1130, lunch 1, next cracker 2, fruit 3, cracker 430, dinner 7, last cracker (or tow if you're allowed 6) 830.

Also a nice thing to do with your apple: de-core it, 1/8 it, cook on small sauce pan with lots of sprite zero for about 15 mins until real soft and moisture absorbed, it's so comforting cos nice and warm in tummy, and does not (like raw apple) stimulate hunger.

Cut out all caffeine, I'm on de-caf now.

Good luck

Katrin

Hi Merci,

I found tha the first time that I did this diet that within a few days the hunger had subsided. I have not felt hungry at all this time round. Maybe my body remembers?

One thing that I did find last time was that I had low blood sugar, this caused extreme dizziness, Dr Cohen instructed me to eat 1 extra piece of fruit and all of my crackers.

For me I found that this along with drinking plenty of water, chewing gum - I couldn't have survived without that I think and following the diet with the adjustments was good for about 14 weeks. Then I started with even lower blood sugar, and then also had low blood pressure.

I notice that you have not posted in a while, how has the hunger been treating you? You said that cutting out your exercise and increasing the water has made a big difference.. has it all settled down now?

I think if at all possible to be able to see your consultant face to face this may assist you further. But if your like me and can't find the time you may be better posting here as you have done and having a read of all the information on offer, keeping what you feel will work for you.