Appetite is weird
 

Normally, I work out in the morning, then come to work and have 6 Oz of plain fat free yogurt, and some fruit, I feel satisfied until about 11 when I have 5 almonds, and that gets me to lunch (at around noon) just fine.

Today I went for a smaller run than ususal. I came home and had two spoonfuls of Greek Yogurt to tide me over until breakfast would be served at a meeting. Plates were set in front of us containing a strip of bacon, a sausage, some scrambled eggs, home fried potatoes, and toast. On the table were baskets of muffins, plates of fruit. I took some fruit on my plate, then ate half my eggs, all my bacon, my sausage and my potatoes (for those of you keeping track, the toast stayed on the plate). After the meeting was over, I picked up a muffin while chatting with one of the people. I come to about 750 calories for this.

So, my normal breakfast is under 200, this one is four times that, and I was starving by lunch. Does eating stimulate your appetite?

Any thoughts? I know, the best thing is to not eat a meal like that, I'm more curious about why I was so hungry when lunch rolled around?

Abby

I think the potatoes and muffin got you. They would both be high on the glycemic index, and these types of carbs are more easily metabolized, so they tend to make you hungry again sooner.

So even though you ate more calories, your body demanded more calories as soon as the breakfast wore off. I'm not sure why it works that way with high GI foods but this seems to be the case.

I don't have a scientific explanation for this. In my experience, the big meal like that will destroy my diet. I have to be very strong will to get back on otherwise I will fall off for a while like now. Maybe the carbs, high GI food make your blood sugar raised so high then crash when the sugar gone you need more sugar to keep up with it.
Hope you are back on track tomorrow.
mai

also, were you mindful when you were eating it? Were you paying attention to your fullness, the taste, the flavor?

Thanks Vito, Mai and Frenchhen,

good ideas all, you know, I could absolutely skip the potato and muffin, and have had a nice high protein approach - I'll do that next time (these happen every few months, it's an occupational hazard - maybe I'll be asked to be the presenter at the next one, so that I can't eat!)

Frenchhen, you are very right about being mindful, I was busy being a networker, and listening to a presentation, the food was just happening.

Abby

Sometimes food and eating "just happen". You are right. Social settings are the hardest for me still. Now people who have known me a long time really scrutinize what I order, what I am eating... it's weird. Before they just let me eat!

You learned... today is a new day. Like Mother Theresa says "Yesterday is gone, Tomorrow has not yet come. We only have today, let us begin!"

So you ate 'emotional' food and derived nothing from it... sounds like a lose-lose. ;)

Last week I did a lunch that I knew I'd later regret. I ate a super sized hoagie, one that I hadn't tried before from Wally, and it really sucked but I ate it anyway (it was basically just a big loaf of bread with sub par cold cuts). I should have thrown it in the trash. Instead the salt killed me as I 'gained' 3 pounds in one day, all because of water retention from the salt. Moral of the story: from now on when eating emotionally, if I don't derive any pleasure from it I'm STOPPING. It's just not worth it.

Note: the three pound 'gain' was more like .25 pound gain but it took 4-5 days to get my weight back down to normal from just this one high sodium day.

Carbs make you hungry...those potatoes and the muffin spiked your blood sugar (giving you energy), but then it crashed--making you hungry. Were you tired, too?

Now that I have colon problems (not just watching my weight), my friends and family actually call me out when I have something on my plate that shouldn't be there. No wheat, no corn, no potato, no rice, no seeds (beans or nuts), etc. Oh, and no raw veggies. If I order a salad at a restaurant, someone at the table says, "Please put that salad in the microwave for 30 seconds before you bring it to her." You'd think that I'd be as thin as a rail...not yet, we are still trying to stabilize the blood sugar/insulin problems that caused me to gain 17 lbs in two months last year.