> Your body cannot be lying to you. If you eat and are still hungry you
> did not get what you need.
> 
> Raw fat meat should be enough, theoretically, but I sometimes get
> craving for ice cream or a small can of wild pacific salmon drowned in
> fresh lemon juice, depending on time of day.
> I never deny myself.
> 

I don't know William, maybe my body is not getting what it needs but why? If
I am not absorbing nutrients then I would think that I would be losing
weight, but I gain easily and have to be very careful. The article I read on
Bell's palsy of the gut said the following:
"In cerebral hypothalamic and pituitary centers, usual sites of borrelial
disruptions of the brain's normal hormonal cascades, there are strong
influences on human attitudes, ideation, and behavior relating to
gastronomic issues. Newly discovered Lymeendangered cerebral hormones and
renegade cytokines regulate brain-gut interactions thus initiating
behavioral tendencies such as anorexia or a failure of satiety with
resultant obesity."

The full article is here: http://www.lymenet.de/literatur/vtsherr_gut.htm

I have too much brain fog and too much trouble concentrating to wrap my mind
around all of it, but I would think with gut dysbiosis there could be other
factors leading to excessive hunger?

> What are you using for fat?

I usually buy a half beef and a whole pig from a farmer who has grass-fed
cows and pastured pigs. I get all the muscle fat that comes with them and
sometimes buy additional bags of unrendered muscle fat from him. I then
render it in a cast iron skillet at the lowest setting on my stove. I place
the liquid fat in jars and use it on meat or eat it with a spoon and some
salt on it, and I eat the leftover cracklings with salt. Sometimes I buy
chicken gizzards and do the same thing with the chunks of yellow fat on
them, but mostly it's muscle fat from cows and pigs. I go through phases
where I eat coconut oil every day and then I go through phases when I eat
none.

> Food intolerance or allergy. I feel bloated when I eat the wrong
> things.

Yes, before all this started I had a flat stomach with a little six-pack and
some foods would make me look pregnant but then it would be gone the next
day. Now it's with anything I eat and it's never gone the next day, just
slightly reduced from the night before. I tried eating just pemmican but
what I have found is that eating for example beef one or two days is ok,
eating it 3 or more days in a row makes the distention worse. If I eat beef
or anything three days in a row I usually wake up already looking 6 months
pregnant (as opposed to 3 months pregnant) and that makes for an even more
miserable day after I eat. I was thinking this is due to a food intolerance
but I am not sure.

> AFAIK the only physician who ever did a scientific investigation of the
> cause of gas found it to be caused by incomplete digestion of
> carbohydrates.
>   Analyzed to be hydrogen.

The only carbs I am getting are those naturally occurring in meat. However,
I seem to have slow food transit time and I would think even meat or fat
sitting in the intestines for 2 or more days would ferment, cause gas, and
feed bacteria and fungi. No? 

I also heard a doctor say they found that some strains of candida not only
have become resistant to Nystatin, but have learned to thrive and live on
it. Assuming this is true, I would think some strains of candida could also
morph to live on meat and/or fat? And if that is true, maybe I am feeding
whatever is overgrowing in my gut no matter what I eat??

> 
> I've known a woman who had been trained not to fart. She was as bloated
> as you say, looked pregnant all the time.
> A very low carb diet worked for that, but she could not stay on it, and
> eventually managed to break her childhood training.
> She's still low carb, though, with cheats.

Before all this started in 2008 I had the flattest stomach. People used to
ask me if I do crunches every day and I never worked my abs because I think
abs are mostly diet. I could eat 2 lbs of meat and/or a whole head of
cauliflower (I was Paleo back then) in one sitting and still have a flat
stomach. Not anymore. A doctor I once went to see, after pushing on my
belly, said, "you must be farting all day long." When I told him I never do
he didn't believe me at first. However, even when I do release gas on an
occasional day, which rarely happens, it never lessens the abdominal
distention.

> Looks like you'll have to do more experimenting with food, and please
> keep in mind the very common deficiencies, such as iodine, magnesium,
> potassium; and calcium for us.
> I've recently discovered that for me, iodine (on skin!) is essential
> for
> proper digestion; Tennant writes for everyone who does not eat lots of
> seaweed. This might be the root of your problem.
> 
I am hesitant about adding iodine since I have hypothyroidism and supposedly
Hashimoto's. My potassium tends to run low normal and since the blood
donation in April, any time I add potassium, I get pain in my wrists and
knuckles and my heart rate is even higher - the opposite of what I expected.
I consume about 1.5 tsp of celtic sea salt a day in bone broth plus salt my
food heavily. Without salt my heart rate is so high I can't even stand up. I
would love to understand why the blood donation and resulting low blood
volume caused problems when taking potassium and why I can't seem to
tolerate probiotics - bottled or in form of fermented foods - since then.

Thanks,
Kristina