Addicted to the feeling of fullness

This is something I've wanted to talk about for a while, but never wanted to admit really. WARNING IT IS LONG. My addiction to feeling full.

Now I started a very strict 801010 raw vegan routine about three years ago. Overnight I changed my newly vegan diet to that of only fruits and vegetables, no exceptions, no excuses, no whining. I did this for two years without a single slip-up. I was 100% invested into this way of eating and looked at any other dietary routine as a mistake, simple fact. The day to day eating was enjoyable but difficult. Most days I felt like I was stuffing food into my face when I didn't want too trying to keep my calorie intake at a minimum of 3000 calories. The feeling after stuffing myself with food was pretty nice though. It was something I didn't experience often before I went vegan because I was told like we are all told to not eat too much food or you'll get fat (although I binged anyway lol). At this time in my life I was the slimiest I've ever been at 145lbs (40lbs lower than when I started), felt amazing, and was quite disciplined in avoiding everything not raw fruits and veggies. 00

I slowly let my guard down after two years and wanted to expand my experience to a more broad vegan lifestyle to help myself promote more vegan foods to a wider audience so I started experimenting with whole low fat vegan cooked foods. This was pretty scary for me. I was going against everything I strictly adhered too up until this point, but I wanted to prove that going vegan and eating whole foods raw or cooked was the way to go.

Immediately, I noticed cooked foods gave me that feeling of fullness for longer periods of time but being used to eating the large volumes of fruit I was actually eating 1500 to 2000 calories per cooked meal because cooked food is denser in calories than fresh fruit.

I experimented for one year and gained almost all the 40lbs that I lost initially. So, I went back to only fruits and vegetables again. To my surprise I now had absolutely no trouble eating the volumes of fruit like I did a year ago. In fact stuffing my face with fruit didn't seem to fill me up for very long at all. Within 20 or 30min of a fruit meal (1000 or even 1500 calories) I was immediately hungry again. The world had turned upside down on me. I no longer could keep my feeling of being full very easily anymore with fruit.

I tried eating my usual 3000 calories of fruit for a few weeks and my goodness it was difficult. I would constantly feel hungry and have a dull sensation in the back of my throat every day. So I would return to my fruit stash and eat more fruit until I practically ate all my week's worth of fruit in four days. In this time I noticed I was losing weight everyday, but my food bill practically doubled because I needed more and more fruit. Losing weight everyday it became obvious that the cooked food was making me hold onto water. No way I was losing fat everyday doing my regular routine so it has to be water.

It's the weirdest feeling going from practically force feeding myself fruit everyday to becoming rather insatiable feeling like I'm depriving myself eating the same amount of fruit I was eating before when I was slimmer and full all the time.

Has anyone else struggled with this addiction to wanting to feel full all the time?

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Permalink Reply by Ardilla Loca on January 11, 2015 at 6:11am

I used to only eat about 3000 cals was eating mostly raw with cooked vegan dinner sometimes. Long story short, i got sick in the fall and stopped eating cooked. I found i was hungry all the time especially in the middle of the night so i upped my calories to about 4000. i feel more satisfied now and more stable and have no cravings. maybe your body needed to adjust to big volumes.

and now that it has its telling you it needs more food maybe its not an addiction?

Dull feeling in the throat, have you checked your b12 levels recently?

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Permalink Reply by Brian on January 11, 2015 at 6:56am

The dull feeling is a sign of real hunger. I would get the same sensation when I ate fruit and worked 10hours without eating anything. It just means I need to eat something.

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Permalink Reply by Tasha Maile on January 11, 2015 at 3:29pm

So I spoke to a fruitarian that eats only highly water density fruits such as mangos/ grapes/ oranges. No bananas no dates... They satisfy in a different way.... They are the juicy fruits. Mike Arnstein teaches this, and it has helped me with my cravings when I eat these juicy fruits

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Permalink Reply by Brian on January 12, 2015 at 4:21am

Sure. I definitely get full pretty quick eating watermelon for example.

Thing is I eat what is in season and what I have access too where I live. Some seasons have lots of juicy fruit, some don't.

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Permalink Reply by millie goldsmith on January 11, 2015 at 6:19am

yep i am currently in the same position but i am in a position where have to gain weight,i followed the vegan lifestyle for ages but never done it right i was always restricting and even counting calories in fruit ( i mean how mad is that!) i decided a few weeks ago i was going to do raw til 4 properly but i ended up dropping 2kg!! this week i have gained 5kg back because i wanted to prove to my family that this diet does work for people - i don't know how much of that was from water retention because i still feel pretty much the same as before unless my body dysmorphia is going away gradually and i am excepting myself more! the thing is i just never feel satisfied i get hunger cravings, headaches and fatigue alot so i assume i need food so i go and eat more. i am not sure whether this is because my body is trying to heal - i get plenty of water and sleep! last night i think i went to bed at 7. i am doing raw til 4 right now, i also find myself longing til four so i can have cooked starches, it almost feels like i have starved myself all day but yet eating 3000-4500 kcal for a 15 year old doing practically nothing

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Permalink Reply by Turbo Trixie on January 11, 2015 at 2:45pm

Feeling full is always what I desire. I just can't get full eating fruit. Potatoes more than anything else help me feel full. When I eat oatmeal for breakfast I stay full till lunch but if I eat bananas for breakfast I am hungry an hour later.

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Permalink Reply by Claudia Madison on January 14, 2015 at 6:27am

thats science haha. complex vs simple carbohydrate. your body takes more time and effort to digest the oatmeal, leaving you fuller for longer.

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Permalink Reply by sasa flasa on January 11, 2015 at 11:08pm

O gosh. I notices that lately I feel hungry all the time. I don't know how to satisfy myself. So I'm eating and eating. I'm rt4 so in morning I usually eat 10 banana and drink water. And then I eat again 15 banana in 15 or 16 o'clock (this is in my working days). And after around 18 o'clock I eat smth cooked.
However I don't know what to do...should I spend all money on food?

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Permalink Reply by Tasha Maile on January 12, 2015 at 1:51am

Eat higher water content fruits such as mangos/grapes/ oranges/ strawberries/berries

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Permalink Reply by Brian on January 12, 2015 at 4:24am

Yeah fruit can be expensive some times. The cooked foods like potatoes, rice, pasta, beans are all pretty cheap all year round. So at least that meal is sustainably cheap.

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Permalink Reply by Abigail on January 11, 2015 at 11:23pm

My trouble is this. I'm fine throughout the day, I eat banana nicecream for both breakfast and lunch but when it comes to dinner it all goes to pot! Don't get me wrong I'm not hungry like you say but I don't feel satisfied I feel I have to get something else? Am I eating enough at dinner? I ate 1lb of potatoes and loads of lettuce leaves last night but ended up eating afterwards 2 tins of chopped tomatatoes with sweetcorn HELP