“I’m just never really hungry”
“This is so much food”
“I’ve never had a big appetite”

Sometimes it can be hard to eat ENOUGH- and I know. Some of you are sitting here saying “What?! It’s hard to eat ENOUGH?! I feel like I’m always eating too much!” We get it. Check out this post HERE to find out if you’re actually under-eating, because a lot of us women are.

But when we have our clients start eating enough, or at least stabilizing their intake so they’re not bingeing on the weekends, we often run into having too little of an appetite. And honestly we run into this just as much (if not more) than having “too big” of an appetite, which is an entirely different conversation.

What do we mean by this?

Your hunger cues are an incredibly important part of your nutrition & overall health- but you’re not a machine, which means they’re not always going to be perfect. 

In short,

Your appetite is not always going to match your energy needs…

because our appetite can be influenced by a whole lot of stuff beyond energy expenditure.

Let’s say you have pretty high calorie/ energy need of around 2,200 calories…

but your appetite is tanked.

Maybe you’re sick, your’e anxious…or you just tend to have a lack of/low appetite-

so you struggle to eat more than 1,200 calories. 

We know your body needs more than that, but your appetite isn’t signaling that need to you. 

So we need to figure out how you can comfortably get in more food. 

This way, we’re able to fuel our bodies adequately & reach our goals 

(Because #StrongGirlsEat, remember?!)

So what do we do to get enough fuel in us without feeling like we’re stuffing ourselves every day? Here’s 3 tips & some meal, beverage, & snack ideas.

Tip #1: Focus on eating more calories at the time of day you are most hungry.

Sounds pretty common sense, right? Well, it is. But it’s one of those common sense things that we don’t usually pay enough attention to or don’t take the time to execute on.

If your appetite is especially low, try focusing on when you are most hungry. PLAN to have more calories then. Maybe you’re starving when you wake up but you’re never really hungry around lunchtime. If so, plan on a bigger breakfast & a regular or smaller lunch. Work WITH your appetite as much as you can!

Tip #2: Make the easy swaps with fats & carbs.

Some of us, especially if we’ve dieted before, are aware or hyper-aware of the lower calorie options that are available to us & default towards buying & consuming those options. While there can most certainly be a time & place for those, if you’re struggling getting in enough food, they’re not doing you any favors.

For Fats:

• Choose higher fat meat options, like beef, steak, or salmon, rather than leaner meats like chicken or lean ground turkey.
• Opt for whole milk, regular cheese, or full fat yogurt rather than the low-fat versions.
• An easy way to get in more calories/fats is to add more oil while cooking- like a bit of extra olive oil while preparing your veggies or a tad more butter on your steak.

For Carbs:

• Go for lower-fiber, easy carbs. The lower fiber will help you not feel as “full” if that’s something you’re struggling with!
• White rice, pasta, cereal, & chips are all more energy-dense, lower-volume foods (more on this in tip #3) and typically have a bit less fiber than breads or other carb sources
• Opt out of the low-carb/keto options like zoodles, low carb wraps, or low cal ice cream.

Tip #3: Aim for dense, low volume foods.

MORE CALORIES ≠ MORE FOOD.

What do we mean by this? Foods have different calorie densities. For example, a cup of broccoli and a cup of steak have different calorie amounts despite the fact that it’s the “same” amount of food, right?

The cup of broccoli will have less calories than a cup of steak.

So when our appetite is low, we can opt for lower VOLUME food while still getting in adequate calories. So we’d opt for the steak instead of the broccoli.

For a more realistic example, let’s say you need more carbs in your diet because you have a run later that day, but you really don’t feel that hungry. You have strawberries & bananas in the house. Maybe reach for the banana. Why? It’s a big more calorie dense than the strawberries.

To get about 30g of carbs, you’d need one banana- probably about a cup of sliced banana, right? But to get 30g carbs from strawberries, you’d need to eat about 30 strawberries- which is probably about 3 cups of those guys.

Make sense?

Let’s think of some more lower-density/higher calorie meals & snack options!

These are just SOME options – the possibilities are seriously endless.

Have questions about low appetite? Follow us over on instagram @kmlmovement (click the pictures below) & shoot us a message! Happy fueling!

• Coach Navi