Everyday Systems

I'm feeling a little disheartened because when I start eating this way, which I firmly believe is the "right" way, I feel like my body starts needing less food, which is probably true. However, then I feel like I gain weight more easily? I'm guessing that I feel that way because I feel more full when I overeat now (i.e., have snacks or seconds). (I don't weigh myself regularly.) I think I associate that full feeling with feeling like I'm gaining weight.

So I'd like to hear opinions on whether anybody has a similar feeling to me. i don't like feeling like this great way of eating will make me gain weight more easily. So, I'm hoping it is simply illusory!!!

Well, at the beginning I felt overfull after a meal, and now I usually feel much slimmer because I am 'empty' for many hours between meals.

I still sometimes eat too much at a meal, and suffer afterwards with being a little bit too full. But come to think of it, it's still not the ultra gross feeling of having food in my belly of one sort of another all day.

The "not overfull" feeling is exactly the positive reward that keeps me loving NoS. So hopefully this is a passing phase for you.

Good luck!

When I was doing No S close to vanilla, I noticed my weight went back and forth, back and forth. It wasn't until I put a portion control system on it, (counting bites) that I was able to get a more even weight and going downward more.

I have definitely noticed I get full, and many others have experienced this too. Once you quit eating between meals, you notice that full/empty difference more, and also you might eat more at meals because you want to be full till the next.

I seriously doubt that it can make you gain more easily though. I just think the body adjusts to the timing. I think the reason we are here is that we "sneak" extra calories into our bodies by eating between meals so we never have to feel over full. But with No S, you can't escape the fact that it's too much because it's all at one meal.

I am coming up on one year and I am grateful that I am in tune with how much is too much. Finally.

I doubt you gain weight any more easily. I'd bet you always gained in the same way when you overate, but you're more sensitive to overeating now. And eating too much is likely to feel as if you're heavier, even if you may not be.

Can you predict at all when you're going to feel overfull? I believe if you make your goal not to get that way, and to eat much lighter at the next meal if you do, you'll be fine. But don't start trading overeating for eating lightly later. That can swing too far and mess up the whole system.

Or just eat reasonable meals and try to divert yourself when you get too caught up in thinking about losing and gaining.

It is illusory. You are using a stand in to measure weight (feeling overfull) which has absolutely no evidence that it is accurate. The only way to know if you are gaining weight is to weigh yourself daily, at the same time, under the same conditions.

And to be absolutely sure, even that won't be enough to tell if you are gaining weight since women especially have daily and often monthly fluctuations. You will also have to plot a trend line when you get a robust enough data set to see what is actually going on. And, you probably should have at least 3 if not 6 months worth of data to be able to determine the signal from the noise.

Feeling overfull is a function of your stomach "getting smaller" (I don't know if it actually shrinks. I can't imagine if it does it's that much. But for whatever reason, eating less usually results us in feeling full more quickly.) This is a good thing as you are content with less food and eventually - under most conditions - that results in weight loss.

Uncoupling the overfull filling from your feeling of having gained weight may be hard, particularly if you are or were a binger or even a frequent overeater. This is deep emotional housekeeping that will eventually resolve itself once your experience is of sufficient depth and breadth and strength to change your inner beliefs. It can happen. But it takes a while of staying on habit to learn to trust the habit rather than what your inner self is telling you. Sometimes, our inner perceptions are right. Sometimes, they aren't.

The standard advice about eating meals slowly applies here until you can learn how to gauge your food intake to match it with your fullness levels.