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Anyone Else Always Hungry?

bny06

By bny06
in Coping with Celiac Disease

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bny06 Apprentice
bny06
Posted

Hello All! I'm awaiting biopsy results to confirm celiac (though negative bloodwork) positive family history, a 16 wt loss in a couple of months, many bowel movements a day and other typical symptoms.. however I am always STARVING!!! Before I knew I had a family history of celiac I was eating everything in sight to gain weight (all those cookies may have been a bad idea I guess)! I continued to feel bad and loose weight however.. Now i have increased my calories with hopefully strictly gluten free foods and am slowly gaining weight.. but is it normal before and after a gluten-free diet to feel SOO hungry ALL the time! I eat four or five large meals a day and wake up at night sooo hungry i feel like my stomach will ingest itself! I am also drinking supplement enlive drinks too! I wouldn't be shocked if my studies came back for a parasite with all this hunger ha!, but all negative !

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Gfresh404 Enthusiast
Gfresh404
Posted

Yes - this is totally normal. But as always, it's good to rule out other things first. I don't know as much about parasites, but I think they could produce some very similar symptoms, depending on the type.

The reason most Celiacs feel this way all the time is because they're not optimally absorbing all the calories they intake. Their small intestine, which is where almost all nutrients are absorbed, has been damaged. I can tell you, that for me, it didn't really go away, yet. It's been almost 3 years gluten-free and that extreme feeling of hunger definitely has gone down a ton, but it occasionally rears its head every now and again.

Part of it also isn't just caloric hunger, it's your body asking for vitamins and minerals. Some things that can help curb this feeling are good fats and protein - try to stay away from refined grains and simple carbs. Nuts, peanut butter, and chicken (other protein will work too) helped me a ton. Basically just eat as much nutrient dense food as you can and take a food based vitamin if you can affored it (ie New Chapter).

New Community Member Explorer
New Community Member
Posted

Yes, I always feel hungry! The problem for me is finding foods that I want to eat, when I want to eat it! Gluten free snacks don't really appeal to me.

Flasaltwater Apprentice
Flasaltwater
Posted

I am always hungry I eat all day long and I still loose weight I just weighed myself and I went from 109 to 108 but this is over the 6 weeks of being Gluten free. I feel like I'm starving most the time.

Jenniferxgfx Contributor
Jenniferxgfx
Posted

I thought I was losing my mind with hunger at first when I went gluten-free. Healthy fats and proteins are the trick, I think! I started using more coconut oil and olive oil (after years of low fat cooking because I thought I just had a fatty food intolerance!), and eating lots of nuts, peanut butter, beans, and hummus, and it helped tremendously.

I also had to get over needing to "be in the mood" for certain foods, and learn to just give my body what it needs. If I'm starving and getting weak with hunger, it doesn't matter what I FEEL like. What I NEED is a spoonful of peanut butter or a lara bar.

Reba32 Rookie
Reba32
Posted

You might also want to ask your doctor to test your thyroid levels to check for Grave's Disease. Grave's is an auto-immune disease that kicks the thyroid into hyperdrive. Hyper thyroid will cause you to feel constantly hungry, no matter what or how much you eat.

If your thyroid is not the issue, or even if it is, I will second the suggestion above by Jenniferxgfx and say that healthy fats and proteins are the way to go. Stick with a whole, natural foods diet (rather than processed and manufactured foods) similar to the Paleo diet, and this should help you considerably.

bny06 Apprentice
bny06
Posted
  • Author

thanks so much! i'm glad to know i'm not the only one feeling this way! All my friends joke that I must have tape worm or something, i am eating SOO much, and was losing weight until going on the gluten free diet. Now i've gained 5lbs in 3 weeks whooo! I'm really excited about that!! As far as the thyroid goes, a few months ago (i'm currently 6 months post partum) i swore I had post partum hyperthyroid, i have had it checked 3 times, since all the dr's sware it sounds like hyperthyroid as well, but every single time all the thyroid labs are stone cold normal! That's what made me have to start thinking about other causes of these symptoms and we started narrowing it down to a GI issue. I am eating 4-5 meals of meat/veggies/rissoto/potatoes etc a day, we eat a lot of avacadoes as well, i'm still a little hesitant to eat nuts, since they can speed up my system (intestines) a little and since thats already a problem I don't want to exacerbate it!

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saintmaybe Collaborator
saintmaybe
Posted

Nothing new or earth shattering to add. I'm always hungry. Before I figured out the celiac thing, I always thought it was a side effect of the antidepressant I'm on. Now, it does make complete sense that it's a side effect of malabsorption.

The way I learned about it in biochemistry in graduate school was that if you continually lacked the nutrients you needed, your body would continue sending chemical signals to your brain that you're still hungry.

This is why celiac patients can eat massive amounts of food and still lose a ton of weight, because none of that nutrition is building up their body. At the same time, you still have constant hunger signals, driving you right up the wall.

Conversely, this is also why we have a massive obesity problem in this country. Because, first, people eat diets empty of nutrition but full of calories that pack on the pounds when sugars are converted to fats biochemically. The body is still *hungry* so the brain is still *hungry*. Furthermore, the more you overeat, the easier it is to override the little man in your gut that says I'm full entirely. Once you've decoupled the chemical signals of fullness from the food you're actually consuming, it's really difficult to maintain a healthy weight.

Jenniferxgfx Contributor
Jenniferxgfx
Posted

I know I'm probably in the minority here, and I support the science, but I just wanted to clarify that the biochemistry also explains why we have an overeating or junk food obsession in this country, not specifically an obesity "problem."

I'm an obese person who was never an overeater but I wa constantly being accused of such, and my sized caused doctors to say I couldn't possibly have celiac. (and I lost weight from eating 3x my previous diet but gluten-free: go figure!). I support and want to publicize the science of overeating and dietary illness, but please please please do so without demonizing people of a certain body size. Thanks.

Btw: the tapeworm thing made me laugh. I actually checked the cats obsessively for fleas for a week because I was SURE I'd somehow given myself a tapeworm ("just when I figured out this gluten thing, too!"), but I eventually stabilized and figured out I needed a lot more fat than I'd previously tolerated. No tapeworm. ;)

saintmaybe Collaborator
saintmaybe
Posted

I know I'm probably in the minority here, and I support the science, but I just wanted to clarify that the biochemistry also explains why we have an overeating or junk food obsession in this country, not specifically an obesity "problem."

I'm an obese person who was never an overeater but I wa constantly being accused of such, and my sized caused doctors to say I couldn't possibly have celiac. (and I lost weight from eating 3x my previous diet but gluten-free: go figure!). I support and want to publicize the science of overeating and dietary illness, but please please please do so without demonizing people of a certain body size. Thanks.

Certainly no offense was intended, but there was no demonizing. Your case, celiac cases, and indeed the full spectrum of digestive disorders simply show how far we have to go in understanding nutrition science.

BarbieGirl Newbie
BarbieGirl
Posted

I think it's less of hunger, it's probably just an appetite (psychological). I always feel hungry when I'm sick, like I have a stomach full of air. If you go long enough without eating a ton of simple carbs like bread and sugary things, you won't have that hungry craving anymore. I also feel hungry sometimes just knowing how much food in our house I can't eat.

Good luck !

Kelby Rookie
Kelby
Posted

I noticed this too actually! Unfortunately I smoked cigarettes which make me less hungry, but when I havent smoked for a few days, I find I am always hungry.

I think it may just be a way that your body is telling you that it is happy to finally be getting good food! It would make sense after years of damage to your digestive track, that once it starts getting healthy food, it just wants more. I definitely would not be concerned, and just be happy that are on the right track to recovery!

Good luck with everything, and hopefully the hunger pains dont bother you too much!

bny06 Apprentice
bny06
Posted
  • Author

Thanks so much yall!! I"ll take the hunger, though in reality I don't have the time to always be thinking about what to eat or eating, but WHATEVER it takes for me to feel "normal" again I"ll do!! I don't konw what i'd do without my enlive (ensure juice) drinks! My stomach is finally feeling better, hunger is about the same, its just this crazy nerve/muscle stuff I could really do without!!!! Thanks agian for all of yalls replies!!

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