Hungry all the time

[Somtam]

Hi everybody,

I hate for my first post to be a complaint, but I could use your collective wisdom right now. I've been 100% raw (well, except for a couple tablespoons of commercial ranch dressing) for 15 days now. I feel light and full of energy. I can see improvement in my hair and skin already.

The problem, however, is that I never feel full! I don't try to limit the amount of food I eat or anything. In fact, I eat HUGE amounts of food. But it seems no matter how much I eat, I never get full. I don't feel sated. Sometimes, in just a matter of minutes after I eat a huge bowl of salad (with nut-based dressing - very caloric!), I feel like eating again. I know for a fact that it is not real physical hunger. It can't be. I know what true hunger is like. This is more like, my body is restless until I eat warm, meaty, hearty food. I could eat another huge bowl of salad, but I know I would feel like throwing up. (That's why I know it's not physical hunger.) Simply put, it seems what I put in my stomach goes into some sort of a bottomless pit!

For the past two days, just for experiment, I have been tracking my food intake. I have been eating anywhere between 4,200 to 4,500 calories per day! You see, in my pre-raw days, I would have been satisfied with 2,000 calories/day. I am aware of this is not about counting calories. I do know that. But I'm just trying to show you that I could eat close to 5,000 a day (twice the amount an average person would eat to maintain their weight -- but I NEED to lose weight!), and not feel "full."

Will this ever go away? Will my body get used to this eventually? Any advice is appreciated. I want this to work so badly. Thanks for listening.

[Veganforlife]

First - congrads on going raw baby!
Second - why are you even counting calories? oops - re-read that you were making a point - my bad.
Third - incorporate green smoothies - see if THEY don't fill that void.

[Veganforlife]

Yes, it will go away. Your body was used to eating SAD and empty calories (if you will). You will become filled on raw foods once you finish detoxing (however, is one EVER finished?) and then you will become fuller.
Eat. Eat good stuff.
Drink green smoothies!

[Amberly]

I understand. I would be full, but needed just some little something that wasn't raw. Even if I didn't like it as well as what I had raw, I still had to have somehting non-raw to shut my mind up. I just kept trying and trying and trying, and FINALLY one random day, it stopped and I was satisfied with my raw food. And I still am :)

I didn't see anything that I did different. It was just time I guess.

Keep at it. If you cave, well just brush off and try again. It took me months, but I am sooooo happy now.

[DavidZaneMason]

-If you are VERY uncomfortable....and hungry all the time.....then eat foods that DO make you feel full....but are always on an upward trend.....and healthier....and lower in fat and calories......and stretch your way towards YOUR raw food goals. Don't hold yourself to some one else's (or even your own brain's) standards if it's making you very uncomfortable. Your transition should be manageable and at YOUR pace. You should not be particularly hungry.

-As noted by Hypnocmt (love your posts girl)...and the other great posters......if you KNOW you are getting the nutrition and calories you need....then feelings of not being full enough are probably more of an emotional reaction - which has little to do with food. What do you think?

-David Z. Mason

[michigan roman]

green tea helped quell my appetite when i started . could make a sun tea or just warm water . ide feel full on less with it .

also to feel full ide say try soaking hard wheat berries about 30 hours , theyll probably start sprouting little tails , then straining and drying to use like you would rice . i put chopped vegis or raw sauce like spaghetti or salsa types on mine .

also soak raw hullless oat groats , say 15 hours to then eat like you would oatmeal with cinnamon berries fruit etc .

these 2 soaked grains are raw / heavy / filling fuel types .

[luvmangos]

How much water are you drinking? I still get like this sometimes. I try to drink a big glass of water and wait and see if that combats my hunger if not, i munch on something. I agree w/ the green smoothies def. and especially the raw oatmeal, they have helped me a great deal. Stay strong, it will get easier.

[Morn]

You don't get the same feeling of full on raw as you do when you eat lets say bread and meat. It is a different feeling. It will take awhile for your body to get used to this way of eating. I know exactly what you mean. All I can say is sometimes we keep eating hoping that we will get the feeling like we used to and we won't. I now don't miss that stuffed, heavy feeling like full used to feel like. You know the kind where you eat and then you have to take a nap afterward. When I eat raw it gives me energy and I don't feel tired like when I ate cooked food. I think many are right, eating comfort foods or foods familiar to us and how they make us feel is somewhat of an emotional thing.

Hope this helps.

[rawwannabe]

Here's what I discovered, and obviously it's subjective. When I first went raw, my appetite slowly diminished. Then when circumstances didn't allow for raw, and I allowed cooked to creep in (only for 1 week or so), I was ravenously hungry, and wanted to scarf down all of my kid's organic treats (and I did! :eek: ). When I had an occcasional cooked meal, that ravenous hunger was absent. Only when I continually ate cooked. Hang in there & your appetite may just diminish as well.

Good luck!

[Sharon in Colorado]

ITA w/DavidZ.

We (well I anyway) on a typical cooked diet can become so accustomed to eating until uncomfortably full that once we go raw we can't understand or fathom a light stomach.

Since you aren't taking in any cooked carbs or animal products which typically cause bloting and discomfort, you are feeling such a light feeling you could be misinterpreting it as hunger.

Make sure you get some water in between meals, it might help with that.