I had an epiphany this afternoon. Grazing leads to physical hunger for me.

So today I went out to lunch, had my lean protein and was full. As we are sitting there chatting, I was nibbling on shredded carrots and tiny slices of cucumber. I was happy with myself for choosing a healthy meal. As I was driving home, I realized I was hungry, physically hungry.

I thought back to other times I had grazed, cocktail party with appetizers, Japanese Omakase dinners, Tapas style meals etc.. Every time after those I was ravenously hungry. They must trigger me in some way to make my stomach want to keep getting filled.

I won't be able to avoid these situations entirely, with work dining. But I'm glad I've become aware of it though, so I can try to minimize as much as possible.

Frustrating though. I'm sitting here hungry. My calories are low today (most days), so I should be able to eat. But if I continue to eat, it will just lead to more hunger.

all eating produces an insulin spike to handle the increased blood sugar

when this blood sugar starts back down it triggers a short period of hunger - the body wants easy energy it does not want to work at breaking down fat if it can avoid it. fat is the energy of survival (last resort)

if you graze you start a roller coaster effect in your blood sugar/insulin response and you will always be hungry.

as you become fat adaptive you will switch to fat burning with less of the hungry feeling.

i just like understand the why of something going on inside of me. not everyone does so just throwing this out there.

the only important part is that you noticed the effect on yourself and are now more mindful of it

46 minutes ago, sillykitty said:

I had an epiphany this afternoon. Grazing leads to physical hunger for me.

So today I went out to lunch, had my lean Protein and was full. As we are sitting there chatting, I was nibbling on shredded carrots and tiny slices of cucumber. I was happy with myself for choosing a healthy meal. As I was driving home, I realized I was hungry, physically hungry.

I thought back to other times I had grazed, cocktail party with appetizers, Japanese Omakase dinners, Tapas style meals etc.. Every time after those I was ravenously hungry. They must trigger me in some way to make my stomach want to keep getting filled.

I won't be able to avoid these situations entirely, with work dining. But I'm glad I've become aware of it though, so I can try to minimize as much as possible.

Frustrating though. I'm sitting here hungry. My calories are low today (most days), so I should be able to eat. But if I continue to eat, it will just lead to more hunger.

I admire your dedication in the face of business travel and meals. That looks like some pretty tempting stuff and I think it would add to my stress while changing a lifetime of bad habits. My husband and I are going on vacation with his boss and his wife (they're paying) and I'm trying to get a strategy now for how to eat then. They are very supportive and fully aware of my situation so that will help a lot. I need to retrain my brain to focus on the beauty of the city we're visiting (Charleston) and to try to make very good food choices. These are changes I knew were coming and I've really tried to be ready. Wish me luck!!

Thanks @allwet, it's just curious though that if I just eat till I'm full I feel completely sated. But if I keeping "topping up" my stomach, that leads to hunger. I wonder if my insulin response takes a little longer to kick in than some.

@Lisa K., I'm envious! Charleston is on my to do list. Since everyone knows about your surgery, that is a huge plus. I've had to lie, so business meals are a mine field unfortunately. I'm pretty relaxed about business dining. I don't try to be perfect. I have a lot of restriction, so even if I make poor choices, there is a limited amount of damage that can be done!

27 minutes ago, sillykitty said:

I wonder if my insulin response takes a little longer to kick in than some.

normal is 30-60 minutes for peak then 1-2 hours of slow decline

it varies greatly from person to person because we all have a different metabolism