Eating too little?

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Eating too little?

Postby mdsimpso » Sat May 08, 2021 1:10 pm

Hello all,
I have been doing the MWL for the last month. Mostly going well. Though for the last couple days I have been extremely tired in the afternoon. I am eating low sodium non- starchy vegetable soups over red potatoes or brown rice, with around 4 fruits a day. Should I try eating more servings of soup/starch?

Sorry if this has already been addressed elsewhere, but my search terms brought up nothing useful.
mdsimpso
 
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Re: Eating too little?

Postby Mark Cooper » Sun May 09, 2021 4:24 am

Do you find yourself feeling hungry in the afternoon? The MWL 10-Point Checklist advises us to eat whenever we are hungry, until comfortably full; if you are feeling hungry, definitely eat. It is also recommended to include starch each time you eat, so an equal visual volume of fruit and starch (50/50) might work better than fruit alone.
JeffN wrote:Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don’t starve yourself and don’t stuff yourself.
JeffN wrote:If you are hungry, eat. We do not recommend skipping meals, fasting, going hungry or eating only vegetables (or fruit) at a meal. We do not recommend intermittent fasting but eating when hungry.

When you eat, make sure your choices always include a minimally processed starch. This is 100% true for MWL too. The starch should be about 50% of the volume of the food you eat. Do not wait an hour to eat the starch after the vegetables.

Just reaching for vegetables, salads or fruit is not going to do it in the long run and you will most likely end up overeating later in the day, or week. This is because the satiety from vegetables, salad and fruit is not the same or as long lasting as the satiety from starch and can set you up to overeat/binge later. This may happen within the day or it may happen after several days. Then you end up wondering why you are eating salads and vegetables and not losing weight and often think, I just need to eat “more” salad, veggies or fruit. To break the cycle, always eat starch with your veggies and/or fruits.

JeffN wrote:A meal of 50% starch and 50% vegetables by volume would have a very low calorie density. So, a bowl of 50% oatmeal and 50% berries by volume or a bowl of 50% rice and 50% veggies by volume may be the better choice. You get the starch to help satisfy you and the fruit and/or veggies to help lower the calorie density.
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Re: Eating too little?

Postby mdsimpso » Sun May 09, 2021 7:25 am

Thank you Mark! I hadn't seen the starches should be 50% of what you eat always! That may very well be it. I wasn't super hungry, just tired, but I will try adding a starch to fruit times. Like brown rice with cut up fruit, and we will see how it goes!

Now, I am getting ready for Mother's Day brunch, and the fun conversation of "why aren't you eating what we're eating" with my family of origin. Peace and good tidings to all of you who have similar experiences to look forward to today.
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Joined: Mon Nov 04, 2019 9:56 am


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