Constant Hunger Finally Going Away?

[CGally81]

Ever since I went gluten-free in August 2009, I'd been having constant hunger that was just plain horrible. It slowly got better over time, but spiked up again when I removed casein (which I am also intolerant to). And I'd been having gluten and casein withdrawal symptoms.

Over the past months, I'd also been feeling frequent headaches, and I'd feel very knocked out after I eat food, ANY food whatsoever.

Well, over the past week, my hunger seems to have plummeted. I'd been eating between 1900-2500 calories a day for the past week, and feeling generally much better than I had before. Headaches are less frequent and less powerful, I feel fatigue less often, the "knocked out" feeling when I eat food doesn't last as long, and I'd been feeling better. I'm pretty impressed.

I'm hoping that maybe in a month's time, even the headaches and fatigue and "knocked out" feeling will be either gone, or so reduced that I don't really notice them.

Here's my list of calories the past few weeks (estimates might be off by 100 or so):

1/26/10 - 3600

1/27/10 - 2900

1/28/10 - 3000

1/29/10 - 3000

1/30/10 - 3200

1/31/10 - 3000

2/1/10 - 3700

2/2/10 - 3300

2/3/10 - 3300

2/4/10 - 3700

2/5/10 - 3900

2/6/10 - 3100

2/7/10 - 1900

2/8/10 - 3350

2/9/10 - 1950

2/10/10 - 2500

2/11/10 - 2200

2/12/10 - 2000

2/13/10 - 2250

2/14/10 - 2000

Bear in mind, I *only* eat when I feel I have to. I don't eat for pleasure. Celiac has killed pleasure eating for me. (Though going gluten-free may have contributed to weight loss and hunger reduction? I hear gluten-free diets also benefit non-Celiacs, so that may be the case) So, bearing in mind that I only eat when I'm hungry or feel that my body is giving signals that it needs food, this is quite an improvement.

I am being as vigilant as I can about avoiding gluten and eating only totally natural foods (peanuts with "peanuts" as their only ingredient, brown rice, hamburger, chicken, bananas) and a brand of vitamins that this site sells that's said to contain nutrients normally found only in food. I hope I'm getting all my nutrients this way. But I am feeling better than I have for a while. I have enough energy to go for walks and bike rides almost every day, and believe me, I do go for them. I'm starting to get back to feeling like my old non-Celiac self, almost.

Still, for those who say they'd never take a cure for Celiac if one is invented, I have to disagree. I don't want to have to live like this. I'll take any cure I can get.

Now, here's hoping that this isn't some "honeymoon" period before my health suddenly gets worse again, or I'm not somehow ingesting gluten from some source without realizing it.

[grainfree]

Continued success to you, CGally! I too was hungry but diminished when I went grain-free. The headaches (from dairy products) abated, and the hunger and the cravings are much much less, now. I do not want to suggest a grain-free diet, only want to state the effect it has had for me. Energy is much better, sleep is better, and digestion is normal. I wish you much to celebrate!

[CeliacMom2008]

Sounds like you're on the road to recovery! Many people experience heavy eating and hunger right after going gluten-free. I've seen it explained as the "catch up" phase where your body is finally getting what it needs and recovering. For my son it lasted a couple months and was accompanied by a huge growth spurt. Then he leveled off and took on a more "normal" amount of eating. But wow! during those couple of months. I crammed his lunch box full every day and he ate it all!

As for your casein intolerance...many have a lactose intolerance in addition to Celiac that is actually caused by the disease itself. Once their gut heals they are able to reintroduce dairy products. You do need to introduce them slowly to allow your body time to readjust to them. Your body won't be making the necessary enzymes to digest the dairy until the dairy is present so you have to go slow.

As for enjoying food...have hope. I find that we actually enjoy food MORE now than before. My husband and I eat gluten-free at home, which means pretty much the only gluten we eat is my husband's lunch and our occasional eating out. I truly love the foods we eat. And just a couple days ago when I annouced we were having a very simple supper of fried rice and egg drop soup my son exclaimed, "All right! That's awesome!" Sounds to me like he was looking forward to eating! You'll get there...Now that you're getting your energy back and the headaches are getting better you may find you are more adventerous with new recipes and more willing to find fun in food again!

Good luck!

[CGally81]

I hope I'm getting better. Not long ago just now, actually, I ate peanut butter (out of my personal jar that no-one else uses) and a banana, and I used a spoon that I washed thoroughly under hot water. No risk of cross-contamination, right? Well, shortly after, I had to use the bathroom, but in a "liquid" kind of way, which was one of my celiac symptoms before. My head also felt warm later too. Did I get CC'd somehow? My body has been acting somewhat random after any food I eat, so it could be a coincidence. I don't know. I really want all this nonsense out of my life.

[CGally81]

Continued success to you, CGally! I too was hungry but diminished when I went grain-free. The headaches (from dairy products) abated, and the hunger and the cravings are much much less, now. I do not want to suggest a grain-free diet, only want to state the effect it has had for me. Energy is much better, sleep is better, and digestion is normal. I wish you much to celebrate!

Popcorn and brown rice are in my diet, so at least I didn't have to give up grains.

My diet is really limited right now though. I want to gradually introduce new, non-gluten, non-casein foods.

[CGally81]

Sounds like you're on the road to recovery! Many people experience heavy eating and hunger right after going gluten-free. I've seen it explained as the "catch up" phase where your body is finally getting what it needs and recovering. For my son it lasted a couple months and was accompanied by a huge growth spurt. Then he leveled off and took on a more "normal" amount of eating. But wow! during those couple of months. I crammed his lunch box full every day and he ate it all!

As for your casein intolerance...many have a lactose intolerance in addition to Celiac that is actually caused by the disease itself. Once their gut heals they are able to reintroduce dairy products. You do need to introduce them slowly to allow your body time to readjust to them. Your body won't be making the necessary enzymes to digest the dairy until the dairy is present so you have to go slow.

As for enjoying food...have hope. I find that we actually enjoy food MORE now than before. My husband and I eat gluten-free at home, which means pretty much the only gluten we eat is my husband's lunch and our occasional eating out. I truly love the foods we eat. And just a couple days ago when I annouced we were having a very simple supper of fried rice and egg drop soup my son exclaimed, "All right! That's awesome!" Sounds to me like he was looking forward to eating! You'll get there...Now that you're getting your energy back and the headaches are getting better you may find you are more adventerous with new recipes and more willing to find fun in food again!

Good luck!

It's definitely casein intolerance, not lactose. I can't have yogurt. The symptoms are the same as gluten, and removing casein caused the same withdrawal symptoms as removing gluten. I'm not lucky enough to have lactose intolerance.

I noticed that I have periods of feeling better, followed by feeling worse, so I don't know what to expect. My current luck could run out, but it might get this good again later.

In fact, nearly a month ago, I had a few days in a row of having less than 2500 calories, only for my hunger to shoot way back up again. This might turn out to be simply a longer period of that, to be followed by another hunger spike.

So I think it still may be too early to celebrate. And I'll never truly feel safe until there's a known cure or treatment or symptom prevention to deal with CC issues.

[AKcollegestudent]

I hope I'm getting better. Not long ago just now, actually, I ate peanut butter (out of my personal jar that no-one else uses) and a banana, and I used a spoon that I washed thoroughly under hot water. No risk of cross-contamination, right? Well, shortly after, I had to use the bathroom, but in a "liquid" kind of way, which was one of my celiac symptoms before. My head also felt warm later too. Did I get CC'd somehow? My body has been acting somewhat random after any food I eat, so it could be a coincidence. I don't know. I really want all this nonsense out of my life.

I have a question: What brand is it? What are the ingredients? Because I have really severe reactions to peanut butter that has soy in it (admittedly, I'm soy intolerant, but it's something that we figured out only after I went gluten free)--to the point that I buy completely organic peanut butter or specialty peanut butters.

[CGally81]

I have a question: What brand is it? What are the ingredients? Because I have really severe reactions to peanut butter that has soy in it (admittedly, I'm soy intolerant, but it's something that we figured out only after I went gluten free)--to the point that I buy completely organic peanut butter or specialty peanut butters.

Skippy. I know it uses something made from soybean as an ingredient, but I have this peanut butter very frequently and haven't had problems. I've had gluten-free cookies that use soy as an ingredient and not had problems with them, so I don't think it was soy. But I have to wonder how a spoon with seemingly no gluten on it (I looked for specks of anything), washed again and again in hot water, could possibly be what cross-contaminated me, if that was the case.

Or was I going to have the liquid D anyway? My diet wasn't any different than it was before, though I noticed when I use the bathroom, my stools aren't the same every time anyway. So it might be a possibility that there was no cross-contamination. On the other hand, my head started to feel warm, though that happens randomly anyways (and, as my overall hunger has been decreasing, has been happening less often). Just a flare-up?

Last time I had gluten by accident, and knew I had my symptoms were instead brain fog, head hurting and feeling very warm, and blood sugar drop. I took L-glutamine that time, and the symptoms eventually went away. (I also briefly experienced depression, another symptom, after having taken the L-glutamine, but it went away in a few minutes)

[solarglobe]

Skippy. I know it uses something made from soybean as an ingredient, but I have this peanut butter very frequently and haven't had problems. I've had gluten-free cookies that use soy as an ingredient and not had problems with them, so I don't think it was soy. But I have to wonder how a spoon with seemingly no gluten on it (I looked for specks of anything), washed again and again in hot water, could possibly be what cross-contaminated me, if that was the case.

Or was I going to have the liquid D anyway? My diet wasn't any different than it was before, though I noticed when I use the bathroom, my stools aren't the same every time anyway. So it might be a possibility that there was no cross-contamination. On the other hand, my head started to feel warm, though that happens randomly anyways (and, as my overall hunger has been decreasing, has been happening less often). Just a flare-up?

Last time I had gluten by accident, and knew I had my symptoms were instead brain fog, head hurting and feeling very warm, and blood sugar drop. I took L-glutamine that time, and the symptoms eventually went away. (I also briefly experienced depression, another symptom, after having taken the L-glutamine, but it went away in a few minutes)

[solarglobe]

Hi -- I feel your pain! I went through phases of being soooo hungry and sometimes at a loss for what I could eat that would not make me sick. Skippy p-nut butter (I think) has additives in it of hydrogenated oils, etc. I actually stopped eating p-nut butter and went to other nut butters -- sesame or almond. I go to the natural foods section and get the kind that has only the nuts in it -- nothing else added, except maybe salt. I seem to do so much better when I do foods that are in, or very close to, their natural, whole state. And reading labels helps...Ive had reactions to things now that never seemed to bother me before. Good luck.

[JNBunnie1]

Gally, if it helps at all, it took me about six months to figure out that peanuts give me SEVERE diarrhea. It never occurred to me at the time that peanuts could be my problem because you always hear about anaphylaxis, not diarrhea. Once I stopped eating peanuts I stopped having those unexplained 'emergencies' all the time. Yay! Fortunately, Sunbutter tastes EXACTLY like peanut butter, albeit much more expensive. Just thought I'd mention it!