How Do You Know When You're Hungry?

Before diagnosis and meds I could eat morning, noon and night. I'd feel full but not satisfied. Since starting on meds and changing diet, I've never felt hunger pangs, but I've noticed a change in my hunger signals.

If I go too long between meals, I start feeling nauseous and a bit panicky, yet my tummy doesn't register hunger as in hunger pangs.

My BS when I feel like that is usually around the 5.5-6.0 mark and I feel the need to eat fairly quickly to take the nausea away.

Has anyone else on meds like Metformin noticed this?

How do you know when you're hungry?

What body signals do you get when you're hungry?

Roughly how many hours can you go without food before you feel hungry?

:think:

Sarah69 said:

Your very lucky, I feel hungry most the time. I eat 3 meals a day I try not to snack but some days I'm so hungry. My stomach growls when I'm hungry!

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Are you on Metformin Sarah? And do you eat carbs with your meals?

I'm on Metformin and I eat low carb and I'm trying to work out if it's the meds that have curbed my appetite and changed my signals or if it's because I'm not eating carbs. I know Metformin is an appetite suppressant but equally some low carbers who aren't on it say that once they stop eating carbs and eating a bit more fat than usual, their carb cravings stop pretty quickly. I tried reducing carbs at first but found that my tum still grumbled until I cut the bu**a's out completely. It only took about 3 days for me to notice I just didn't feel hungry for them.

:think:

Nikkig said:

Hi Grace

I'm not on meds but I have come round to reading my body just like you, as follows:-

I eat breakfast as soon as I wake, with that first cup of coffee, I found that because of the DP, if I didn't eat on waking, the BG would continue to rise.

I will usually eat lunch by 1pm and if it is going to be late for some reason, I will snack on almonds, which fill me quite nicely.

The evening meal is usually by 6pm which means I have plenty of time to get the levels down before bed.

I eat more slowly than before and savour things more, and feel more satisfied afterwards. I find that this routine is working for me and helping me to keep my levels down.

Apart from the family history of type 2, I think my eating routine was much the cause of developing the disease. Before diagnosis, I would have coffee and a digestive first thing, and then on some days, I would not eat until my husband came home in the evening - I just didn't want it, although to look at me then you would have thought that I ate very well!

I feel, that for me, a routine of eating has worked....it can be a pain if I don't really feel the need to eat or the enthusiasm for making something....but I am used to it now!

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I wish I could eat to the clock, life would be simpler and I have managed it for short periods but it never lasts and here's why ... and don't laugh please ... :shh: ... every month at full moon, I miss either a partial night's sleep or a whole night's sleep because I am just wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide awake and I usually read the whole night or get up and get on the laptop. I've been like that for the past 20 years. It feels like my body's circadian rhythm is tuning itself into the cosmos or summat. I'm into astrology so I sort of keep an eye on various planetary alignments and moon phases etc.

What we know as

time

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ie 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, 52 weeks in a year, 365 days in a year isn't actually accurate time in terms of the cosmic clock and our own body clocks. It's time that's been tampered with by various people over the millenia, which I won't go into here. And when we mess with time,we mess with our body clock too. So called uncivilised people of the past woke when the sun shone, slept when it went down, their bodies reacted to light and lack of light. Then some

bright spark

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realised if they put lights in houses and streets, they could increase the waking hours of people -

and their working hours.

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So over the years, we're owed a massive sleep debt - because of the damned, man made light bulb!

I know it sounds crackpot, but I think all that messing around with time and light over the years has confused the human body clock, which is a

hormone driven clock

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and I also believe that diabetes is just one of the conditions that arises from that meddling, over millenia. But :shh: I don't want to be certified insane just yet. :wink:

angieG said:

Hi,
I think for me the hunger sensations maybe do come from the carbs. When I was first diagnosed (as a type 2) I was put on Metformin and I started cutting out the carbs. The less carbs I ate the less I felt hungry. Eventually as my glucose levels rose and rose I was eating virtually no carbs as even lettuce would spike me!! Still I didn't get hungry despite losing weight (keytones at fault there).
After an appointment with the Consultant and an GAD antibody test I am now re-diagnosed a type 1 and so am on insulin. I have been on insulin for 3 months now and no Metformin but still don't get very hungry. The only times I find I feel really hungry (and sometimes my tummy rumbles)is if I have eaten a few more carbs than usual. If I eat a low carb, highish fat meal and take only a little insulin I can last for ages.

Interesting discussion.
Angie

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I think you could be right about the carbs. I'm hoping it is down to not eating carbs because I see my GP today about my recent blood tests, some of which were high, but my HBA1C was excellent so I'm wondering if he wants to reduce the Metformin. I wouldn't mind taking less meds, I just don't want to start getting hungry again like I was before.

Your GP seems to be on the ball and made sure you were properly diagnosed after a GAD test. I hear that can be problematic for some people, probably because their GPs don't believe they're not cutting down on their carb intake.

I think half the reason I feel so well is that due to not being so hungry and not eating so much, my stomach, liver, pancreas and intestines are having a well earned rest and are not overworked like they were before. I feel more like a

normal person

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now where food, quantities and digestion are concerned. Before diagnosis, Metformin and low carbing I felt like an out of control eating machine! :roll:

catherinecherub said:

GraceK said:

Before diagnosis and meds I could eat morning, noon and night. I'd feel full but not satisfied. Since starting on meds and changing diet, I've never felt hunger pangs, but I've noticed a change in my hunger signals.

If I go too long between meals, I start feeling nauseous and a bit panicky, yet my tummy doesn't register hunger as in hunger pangs.

My BS when I feel like that is usually around the 5.5-6.0 mark and I feel the need to eat fairly quickly to take the nausea away.

Has anyone else on meds like Metformin noticed this?

How do you know when you're hungry?

What body signals do you get when you're hungry?

Roughly how many hours can you go without food before you feel hungry?

:think:

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I suppose a lot depends on what each of us think of the word hunger, I always equate it with something like the suffering of people in Concentration Camps. I would say that I have times when I feel a bit peckish.. I have never taken Metformin so do not know what affect it would have.

I have a timetable for regular meals and there is usually at least a five hour gap. I think eating regularly keeps your blood sugar levels in check. I also think that once you get to your normal body weight that it is easier to see food in a different light, you do not feel deprived but eat to live as opposed to live to eat. That maybe just me.

An interesting article here where Type2 diabetics were divided into groups, one group using nutritional information and the other one using Mindful Eating. The results were very similar with regard to weight loss and HBA1c.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/252612.php

This one explains Mindful Eating.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/min ... ful-eating
No distractions, savour every mouthful etc..........

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I like mindfulness in all things. In my younger days I used to meditate with Buddhists and we practised mindfulness in all things. Whatever we did, we put our whole attention into whether it was sweeping the floor or washing dishes or eating a meal and the actions were sort of an extension of our body, so we were mindful of what our body was doing, how it was moving as it swept the floor. It was all meditation. I practice the same thing when I'm swimming, I'm mindful of my breathing in and out, of my arms and feet moving. We also ate silently, which really helped with actually looking at, feeling and tasting our food and how it affected us. That's something that's become a problem with today's habit of half hour lunch breaks which don't give anyone the time to taste their food let alone digest it before they're back at their desk. :x

Now I notice that I tend to think about food long before I make a move to the kitchen to prepare it. I think about it first because I'm not always hungry. I enjoy preparing it, chopping it, handling it and cooking it. And even if it's just something I need to throw in a bowl, like last night's strawberries, blueberries and cream, I like to savour it first by leaving it standing on the table and looking at it's appearance before I actually feel ready for eating it.

So the whole dining process takes longer and involves more senses than we sometimes realise. I can still see that bowl of fruit and cream in my mind's eye today, so I'm actually still enjoying it, even though it's already been eaten.

I remember helping my Mum to get meals ready. I'd lay the table with a cloth, cutlery and condiments while she cooked and dished it out. We'd all sit at the table and eat and chat and then my sister and I would wash and dry the dishes. There was a combined involvement with the whole preparation, cooking, eating and clearing process which I really enjoyed.

My ex husband was Spanish and I really enjoyed eating Spanish style with his family. I loved the numerous dishes of a huge variety of foods that were put out on the table, the fact that everyone in the house joined in with preparing the table, there was a lot of banter and thrashing out of ideas and problems going on around the table, everyone ate only what they wanted and as much or as little as they felt they needed because there were several dishes on offer at a time so I think it was a much more balanced way of eating. If you wanted to avoid carbs you could do so quite easily. If you want to eat more veg you just helped yourself and the amazing thing was ... everyone got what they wanted ... there was always someone who wanted more meat to balance with another who wanted less meat etc.

When I got divorced and my kids left home ... I lost a whole culture of eating and the empty nest syndrome is definitely real. I was still buying enough for a family of four for years afterwards and would wonder why I was throwing so much food away. I just couldn't get used to buying so much less and I really didn't enjoy eating alone because to me it's also a social gathering.

catherinecherub said:

Another article about hunger and gives some insight as to why we may eat too much, conditioning from an early age.

What is real hunger?
http://psychcentral.com/library/eatdis_hunger.htm

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My Dad was a concentration camp survivor and was totally malnourished and emaciated at the end of WWII and he never forgot his years of starvation and it took him a long time to tolerate normal food and normal amounts of food after the war was over. He suffered from Post Traumatic Stress and would sit at the table with his arm circling his plate (in case it was stolen) and we'd have to remind him that we wouldn't touch his food. He found it very embarrassing but it was an automatic response to the memory of starvation.

The physical effects were a lifetime of illness which I won't go into here but also psychologically he was terrified of his children ever going hungry and was what I call a 'feeder'. I'm lucky I'm not 30stone! I had quite enough on my plate but he would always offer me more, over and over again and I had to refuse over and over again. I had the appetite of a bird and so did he but his mind would constantly tell him otherwise.

We had cupboards full of bags of sugar in the 50s and 60s, in fact he insisted on having at least 20 bags of sugar and the same number of tubs of salt in the house at any one time.

We none of us know as yet, what genetic damage our parents starvation during wartime, may have had on us and future generations. For all we know, diabetes could be a result of something like that.

fuangin said:

I get confused about the hunger signals. I feel hungry and if I check my blood sugar it is often high.

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I read on the forum a few days back that some people get similar symptoms when their blood sugar is high or low. I tend to get a bit manic and talk too much and gabble when it's high. When it's low and I need to eat I feel nauseous and grouchy. It is confusing though. :|

Indy51 said:

GraceK said:

catherinecherub said:

Another article about hunger and gives some insight as to why we may eat too much, conditioning from an early age.

What is real hunger?
http://psychcentral.com/library/eatdis_hunger.htm

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Oh lordy, Grace. Your poor father

I personally think nowadays we have a totally f*cked up relationship with food - it seems to be all about over-consumption of completely non-nutrient frankenfoods. I see these really skinny teens living on chocolates, crisps and soft drinks and wondering where it will end for them. I had a few months working in a service station and I couldn't believe the amount of junk food people would come in and buy - especially after a night on the tiles.

And I think you could be right about future generations - ever hear of Pottenger's cats?

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Yep, I think in the last 50 years food has changed so much, it's no wonder my age group are developing all sorts of illnesses. I much preferred it when food was food for the main part. We didn't have everything killed, cooked, processed and sliced up ready in polystyrene and plastic packaging. Food had a short shelf life because it wasn't filled with preservatives - and we didn't create so much food packaging waste either.

It's so sad that our young people are now forced into this 'fast paced, eat on the hoof' lifestyle created by the money moguls and it infuriates me when one Government department tells us how we should eat, work and play while other Government departments are telling us what they expect from us on the workfront. Half hour lunches taken at the desk, no opportunity to get up and walk around or get exercise - not conducive to healthy living at all. We're now tied to our desks by invisible chains.

Also, we don't walk to our local shops up the road any more, because they don't exist. Instead, we have to drive or bus it to the local supermarket which isn't actually local, it's usually a mile or so away unless you live next door to it. Too far for some of us to drag the shopping back home afterwards. So we don't even get that daily exercise of walking to the shops like we used to.

For me, that combination of changes in the foods we eat plus changes in the how we shop are contributing to our ill health. I could handle a trip to the local shopping parade, if it existed, every day. But the prospect of visiting a noisy and crowded supermarket every day fills me with dread.

I'm lucky in that my kids haven't fallen for the fast food, heavily packaged stuff, both of them are excellent cooks because I taught them the basics about how to choose a decent piece of meat, fish, poultry that still had it's bones attached. I also encouraged them to be with me in the kitchen when they were young so they knew what cooking a meal actually looked like. They've seen me gutting fish, squid, chicken etc and cooking from scratch. The also watched their father cooking on a regular basis so they had no issues with putting on an apron when the time came. I was amazed when they brought girlfriends home at the lack of culinary skills some young women have these days. They seem to equate feminism with staying out of the kitchen altogether. Not quite what I had in mind when I stood up for women's rights to a bit of help in the home! One of my daughters in law almost fainted at the sight of a piece of chicken on the bone, but will happily chomp away at the processed, sliced stuff that comes in sealed, oestrogen laden packaging. :roll:

Real food is still out there if we know where to get it and don't fall prey to fear tactics of food industries, and cooking does not have to be a long drawn out process it used to be because we have microwaves, pressure cookers, air cookers, deep fat fryers to help us to cook from scratch. I love all my gadgets, my favourite is the pressure cooker because I love soups and stews and it does tenderise meat brilliantly.

Putting my soapbox away now.