Hungry all the time

Raj2512 said:

Been diagnosed as a T1 6 months back and on Novorapid 7 units (+/-) before each meal and Lantus 21 units. Prior to the diagnoses I lost weight from 76kgs to 66 kgs over a period of 5 months. Now I weigh 72 kgs and trying to keep it that way.

My last Hba1c was 7.2% and my BG is (thankfully) more or less moving in a stable range. BUT, what is troubling me is that I am hungry all the time. I just finished off a huge lamb burger (weekend treat) about an hour back and I am hungry again. If I dont eat I start getting a headache and when I eat I feel bloated.

What am I doing wrong!!

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I've started drinking decaff coffee with double cream in the morning and before I go to bed. I don't feel hungry when I wake so don't eat til lunchtime and sometimes I only have a bit of cheese. You might give that a go

Hi @Raj2512 Your body has just undergone a huge amount of stress and with the weight lost the cells need replenishing, also you've probably been running high BG levels for some time, so it's natural to feel hungry once the insulin starts working and your body is less stressed, most of this is simply replacing what was lost. Keep a close eye on your meter and your readings as sometimes when you start to run lower your body is telling you to eat to avoid going low. Food wise just make good food choices, but if you're hungry you should listen to your body and eat,.

I'm also often hungry. My usual hunger troubleshooting procedure is something like

1) am I low or is my blood sugar dropping? Even if you are at a normal level, you can experience hunger if your blood glucose is on its way down

2) if I don't want to have a proper meal yet, I will have a low carb snack such as salad.

3) am I thirsty? People often confuse hunger and thirst. If water/mineral water doesn't help, then sometimes I have diet soft drink. The flavour makes you feel like you're having something more substantial than water, and so helps with hunger sometimes.

4) have I had enough protein? Having protein at breakfast usually satisfies me for the rest of the morning, but if I don't I'll be hungry again earlier. Planning to eat more protein foods at mealtimes can fix this issue. Having a snack with protein is more filling than a snack with fat or carbs.

You are not alone. At first I felt hungry constantly but I don't think it was for any reason other than the fact that eating is now a big hassle and because the sort of stuff you can/should/whatever eat is not available or really expensive or just not what you feel like. So you just don't bother. After a while I just got out of the habit of feeling hungry, or at least just started ignoring it, which I guess can also be bad as I have been told not to lose any more weight but I suspect I will. If I sit down and think hmm, am I hungry, yes I usually am but often it is not really practical to do anything about it so you don't. So you may find this goes away after a bit but make sure you don't end up losing loads of weight.

Short version, we are always hungry, well we're on a medical program that makes it really hard to eat and really restricts what we can eat, what would you expect.

What do you do through the day? What do you do for a living? I find being active and busy has stopped my post diagnosis hunger. I too lost a lot of weight and have now replenished some of that. Do you have a garden?