i've been trying really hard to stick to the paleo diet, the only thing i've been eating thats not paleo is salad dressing and chocolate....and gluten free pancakes when im starving. but the thing is....lean meat and fish are not filling!! no matter how much i eat, im still soooo hungry. i tried eating walnuts/almonds/etc but it doesnt help....fruits and vegs dont make me full, ever


ughh i really wanted this whole paleo diet thing to work because i have high blood sugar and high cholesterol (at the young age of 17, im worried i only have 10 years left)...i also have celiac disease so i cant eat gluten so i thought this diet would be convenient cause it replaces grains with meat/fish

helppppp i dont know if i can stick to this diet because im always STARVING!

lean meat and fish are not filling!!

eat fatty meat and some eggs too and you'll be fine

If I were starving on the Paleo diet, I'd get a jar of coconut oil and a spoon.

Hi -

Start a journal and post what you eat each day (even if it's just for a short time). We can give you feedback, tips and all round good ideas.

Nature doesn't make low fat animals (although kangaroo is pretty lean). Eat real food and cut grains. If you are hungry eat more.

I think if you're hungry your body is telling you it needs something, whether that is bigger meals, more frequent meals, more snacks/grazing between meals, different foods, or maybe there's a specific nutrient you aren't getting enough of. Also, are you getting a big enough breakfast with plenty of protein? I find that has a big influence on how I feel later in the day.

When you're cutting out bread, pasta, sugar, processed foods, junk food snacks, etc, it's easy to forget just how many extra calories you need from other sources. I found the first few weeks I was often running out of paleo foods because I hadn't really thought about how much of my diet revolved around wheat!

If you're feeling healthier overall, I guess it's possible that your metabolism has sped up because of the added healthy fats, in which case your energy needs would be higher than they were before too.

The other thing to consider is your carb level. If you've gone low-carb paleo, you could try upping the carbs a bit to see if that helps. Every body is different - maybe that's what your body is asking for.

Hello shaeyna - you should also start a journal and tell us what you are eating. You should not be hungry eating this way.

I'm wondering about your perception of what is fatty meat and how much meat and fat you are eating. I'd also be interested to see how much and what kinds of foods you are having.

If you are hungry, eat. Don't sit there being hungry. That is silly. You can't beat your hunger response. It will win every damn time. If you are hungry, eat....just eat paleo. I am down 20 lbs (while adding lean muscle) in just over a months time. I don't stop a meal until I am sated. Some days I am below 2,000 calories...some days I am above 3,000 calories; it just depends on what my body asks for. When I feel hungry, I eat as much as I want until I don't feel that way. Which is probably why I am hungry only about twice a day because each meal keeps me sated a long time.

What appealed to me about paleo was the premise that you didn't need to restrict calories (and be hungry) to eat this way. That my blood pressure is now optimal, I crushed the stress test I had at the doctors office on Wednesday and I am down 20 lbs WHILE always feeling sated and benefiting from energy levels I haven't had in a decade is a pretty nice bonus.

Hello shaeyna - you should also start a journal and tell us what you are eating. You should not be hungry eating this way.

I'm wondering about your perception of what is fatty meat and how much meat and fat you are eating. I'd also be interested to see how much and what kinds of foods you are having.

Hi avelin -

Thanks for your response. I'll work on starting up the journal. As for fatty meat, guess I think that, for example, ground beef is fatty (even with the fat poured off). Bacon of course - and that is starting to disgust me as the level of fat just seems so over the top. Up until now (that is, pre-paleo), I've been in the habit of baking chicken breasts with skin preferably, and putting little bits of butter on it to bake/broil. If I had my choice, I'd eat the skin and throw away the chicken. Fish I cook the same way. I've read that using butter is not a good idea with paleo, but I've spent 35 years being dairy and gluten intolerant - and now I believe ALL GRAIN INTOLERANT, so I feel "what the heck - a little butter can't hurt that much." I made a chicken recipe from the book "Everyday Paleo," heavy on the almond meal and coconut flour coating. But yecch, that was about the worst thing I ever ate,  had to scrub it all off and stir fry it up with vegetables. As for how much:  maybe 1/4 pound of whatever meal I'm consuming at any given time. Occasionally could be 1/3 pound, but not much more than that.  Beyond those kinds of things, I eat fruits and vegetables, coconut milk, coconut flakes, some raisins, and such.  Make salads with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and lettuce and canned tuna and assorted safe veggies and throw in an apple - which fills me up, but leaves me not feeling all that great. When I started paleo, ate a couple of eggs for breakfast in the morning because I couldn't think what else to have - and I like eggs even less than I like chicken. Don't eat any grain at all now - not even rice. Two days ago, made the big mistake of eating a yam .... paid for that! As for the hunger, a couple of days after I posted that I was so hungry, I stopped being as hungry. Oddly coincided with stopping the eating of eggs. And that returned me to my former condition of hardly being hungry at all. Very strange. Unlike some people I've read on this forum, I don't see weight magically falling off of me - but that was not the reason I started eating paleo anyway, though it would be nice. On the positive side, my energy has gone way up, which is a pretty startling change. And there you have it, the short version