My body cant keep up with my appetite!

Question
Hi! I hope my question finds you in good spirits.

So, I'm a pretty active person. I'm in college so I walk EVERYWHERE, I do about
30 mins of cardio at the gym 3-4 times a week and try to fit in a 1 hour
strength training class a couple times a week as well.

I eat a well-balanced vegetarian diet (I think?) but my issue is the sheer
amount of food I eat. My appetite is voracious and I can't seem to stop until
my stomach feels like it's going to explode, and then I have a "food baby" for
the entire day. I feel like food won't exit me as fast as I can eat it.. but I'm
always hungry!

I have a BMI of 19.5 so I'm nowhere near large. I'm 5' tall and 100 lbs.

A typical day of food consists of a plate of egg whites with veggies in the
morning along with cottage cheese and/or melon. I work during lunch
hours... in a restaurant.. and usually end up eating whatever random food I
can pick on. Unfortunately it's usually french fries, or slices of wheat bread
spread with hummus or egg salad. Dinner I usually have a big salad or soup
with some sort of vegetable dish. And then I usually eat frozen yogurt or a
cookie after... (damn those dining halls). Throughout the day I usually end up
eating a few apples too..

Of course, as soon as I stop working out for a few days, I go back to less-
stuffed eating habits.

I'm just unsure at this point of how to balance my activity level with portion
control. I feel like I have to either sacrifice physical fitness or food in order to
button my jeans! I'm a competitive sailor so I need my strength and stamina.
And restricting food really doesn't work because my hunger gets the better of
me anyway... It's mostly a mental hunger though. I haven't felt my stomach
grumble in a really long time. I feel like an oxymoronic compulsive over-
eater.. considering I wear size 0 jeans.

I'm so lost... any ideas?

Thanks!

Answer
I have worked with several veggies in your situation and omnivores that are the same way. It sounds to me like you are filling up on to many empty calories and are low in fat intake. One thing people forget is there are essential amino acids (protein) and essential fats but no such thing as an essential carb.

what I would have you do is drastically up your fat intake swap the whites out for whole eggs, swap the low fat yogurt and I am guessing cheeses for full fat. Add in plenty of nuts, olive or olive oil, avocados, coconut etc. much denser foods to give you the calories and satiation that fats can give as well as more protein. lower the amount of high fiber foods you are eating not eradicate them but lower it. You are needing faster easier digested dense in calorie and nutrient foods for your sports and body. Likely you will get more caloires but you wont have a belly bloated with tons of undigestable fiber waiting to exit the body and drastically slowing the digestive process so you wont have that bloated gut which will make your pants button-able.

You should quickly see your energy increase, performance, mind, skin etc from just a simple change like that.


Phil Stevens

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