The hunger mood

Good article. I take it a step furter and tie the hunger system to the satiated feeling one gets from appreciating and savoring the food.

Much has been written about the French Paradox[1] but my belief is that it's not so much about the individual ingredients' metabolic properties as it is about the art of not only crafting but appreciating meals. Savor each bite. Chew and eat slowly. Think about the food you are eating instead of trying to ignore it.

An Italian friend had once remarqued to me about his traditional family dinners where, not only was there an amazing spread of food, people would spend almost all the meal talking about the food. I have to confess doing the same in many cases.

I believe this is the biggest problem with American diets: we try to abstract away the taste and focus on a feature list (anti oxydants, low-carb, high-this, low-that) and all the while rely on poor shortcuts for actual taste. Those poor shortcuts are of course sugar, salt and fat. My French background earns me a perception that I'm a food snob. Perhaps that's true. But things don't need to have fancy preparations to be appreciated, in fact less processing is usually more. I can appreciate the favor of unseasoned steamed rice at a Japanese restaurant, or fresh tomatoes from the garden with no seasoning.

And yes, over time, you will start craving higher-quality ingredients, for the simple reason you can taste the difference. But again, it's a matter of being appreciative, whether it's an elaborate preparation or a simple unseasoned ingredient.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_paradox

It also doesn't help that our culture treats hunger like it's a disease to be cured. Hungry? Quick - grab a snack before it gets worse and you start wasting away! We work hard to "stave off" hunger when in fact it's really no big deal and can be ignored for quite a while until it's convenient to eat.

> For six days, one group ate low-carb, the other low-fat. Both were strictly forced to eat the same number of calories. The result? The low-carb group did not lose more weight.

They can't be serious. Six days? A really 'representative' timeframe right there...

I must say this is one of the best articles I have seen on obesity. This clearly lays out how psychology plays more important roles in obesity than merely focusing on diet/exercise. I had come to the same conclusion after trying different diets but the author lays out a very scientific explanation of how it works. One thing very important pointed out by the author is this: more you try to lose weight by controlling diet and/or exercise, more it activates your hunger drive. Instead just have some middle of the road guidelines(not too much carb, not too little fat, no calorie counting) and use this guideline to eat till you feel satiated(more you control yourself thru willpower, more it activates your hunger drive). As more and more people get confused by the contradictory recommendations, flip-flops in results of different type of diets, eventually the psychological aspect, as laid out by the author, will get more attention. Hopefully.

For a start, cut the sugar. Especially from sugary drinks: a non-diet soda can has ~40g of sugar (10 teaspoons), which is really awful. There's a reason for why there's no sugar daily recommended value, and is because that value is 0.

Then, make sure to consume enough soluble and insoluble dietary fiber. To stay healthy you need not only to assimilate nutrients, but also your body needs to get rid of byproducts. Fiber facilitates that process.

Then, instead of eating less, you can also replace ingredients and eat more frequently. There's an energy cost to eating, and eating more frequently makes you spend more energy. By replacing ingredients I mean cutting butter and cheese and replace it with tofu, full eggs by egg whites, for instance.

Then, drink water with your meals. Filling yourself with water can help you trick your brain into believing you are full.

Then, there's the bacteria in your gut and that affects what is going on when you eat. I think it's a very important aspect that needs to be considered but I have no idea how to take action around this specific part. Probiotics might help.

Finally, starving yourself not necessarily works. Some people might end their diet and go back to overeating. Then, starving yourself might have negative side effects.

For me personally this worked quite well for reducing bodyfat:

Intermitted fasting[1] and lifting weights 3 times a week[2] and being on a cutting regime[3] (cutting on the rest days with low carb and loading on the workout days wiht more carbs).

In the beginning IF was quite difficult but after a while the body get used to it and also I tend to have less cravings during the day. On the loading days/workout days I often have a hard time to get enoug calories because I feel full. I am using MyFitnessPal to track what I eat but it's more about the macros and not so much about the exact calories (but it's also good to get a feeling how much calories different kinds of food has)

[1] http://www.leangains.com/2011/03/intermittent-fasting-for-we... [2] http://stronglifts.com/ [3] http://www.lgmacros.com/standard-leangains-macro-calculator/

This article is a deception. The author is clearly taking his psychologist background on, and that's why one very obvious scientific fact is being forgotten here: when losing weight rapidly, the body adapts and slows metabolism to burning less calories. The outcome is that in a few years, no doubt our great psychologist is going back to its 20 extra pounds, maybe with a little 2 pounds premium for attempting to mislead his body. No matter the psychology of every aspect of hunger, your body will win back its lost calories! The biggest loser might be the one losing weight, the biggest winner will be your metabolism.

Actually the "biggest loser" wonderfully proves that point, and was described in that well-written New York Times article that is worth a million times more reading than the "hunger mood": http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/health/biggest-loser-weigh...

When fasting, I noticed hunger struck hardest at my regular mealtimes. Half hour later it was mostly gone.

Yep, hunger is psychological and based on unconscious predictive analytics rather than current state.

Which is why eating slowly and preferring things that digest slowly is so immediately effective at reducing calorie intake (and thereby reducing weight). (As a bonus, it also reduces sugar high/crash minor mood swings.)

...wait, what?

.

I've noticed at least three kinds of being hungry. One is the "sugar crash" variety, one is the "oh, I forgot to eat this morning. That's what's wrong with me" kind, and one is the "not eating for a weekend actually kind of sucks and I am never doing this experiment again" type.

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(Also, I experimented with calorie counting for a while. Write everything down immediately in advance -- the same principle I discovered in order to avoid "wait, what did I do this week" for my timesheets at work -- and it works fine.)

"If you skip a meal, at first you feel acutely hungry, but then you actually begin to feel less hungry again as that accustomed mealtime passes by..."

I've experienced this quite a bit, especially if I happen to be too busy to feel the passage of time or have no clocks within sight.

This was a good read as the author approaches the problem from a unique direction, but the outcome is hardly surprising: a very obese man who eats large amounts of carbs starts eating a moderate amount instead, and loses a lot of weight. Nothing new there.

After dieting for about a week, I became accustomed to it and no longer feel hungry. I actually feel a little sick if I eat anywhere near as much as I used to. Lost 20 pounds in the last 2 months, which honestly might be a bit too fast, but it's hard to complain.

I like to cook and eat a pretty wide variety of food which helps. Dal Bhat (lentils with curry spice eaten by Tibetan mountainers) has become one of my staples. Strength training is also important, but I don't expect to get stronger; just maintain. I still drink a fair amount of beer 1-3 days a week and occasionally eat poorly with friends (maybe every other week), but it hasn't seemed to be a big problem.

I'm 34 and have been slowly getting fatter over the past couple of years despite regular attempts to "get back in shape". I tried a low carb diet a few months ago and it has worked for me.

https://postimg.org/image/5qx79cmtn/

I dont eat any sugar, bread, potatoes, rice, pasta etc. But I can still treat myself to fatty stuff like greek yogurt, hummus, sausages, cheeseburgers (with no bun) etc.

ps. Its great to see a psychologist talking about the brain! Psychology seems to be growing up.

The main thesis of this article, as stated directly by the subtitle, is that "hunger isn’t in your stomach or your blood-sugar levels. It’s in your mind – and that’s where we need to shape up". Interestingly enough, the author then proceeds to tell us that he changed his diet to something that looks a lot like a regular low-carb diet, and lost a lot of weight, without having much hunger or cravings.

That low-carb diets reduce hunger and thus often bring people to eat less has been known for quite a while. Gary Taubes' NYT article from 2002, "What if It's All Been a Big Fat Lie?" [1] describes this phenomenon in detail, and tells how it's been known to researchers for already quite some time. The explanation however, doesn't seem to be merely "psychological" but rather physiological: in Taubes' words "[Sugar, starches and floor] are known in the jargon as high-glycemic-index carbohydrates, which means they are absorbed quickly into the blood. As a result, they cause a spike of blood sugar and a surge of insulin within minutes. The resulting rush of insulin stores the blood sugar away and a few hours later, your blood sugar is lower than it was before you ate. As [David] Ludwig [a Harvard endocrinologist] explains, your body effectively thinks it has run out of fuel, but the insulin is still high enough to prevent you from burning your own fat. The result is hunger and a craving for more carbohydrates."

Personally, I moved to a low-carb style of nutrition about two years ago and, lost about 8kg over a period of several months and have managed to keep the low weight ever since, without suffering hunger or cravings. It may not sound like much, but I wasn't obese to start with but towards the high end of the normal BMI range, whereas now I'm right in the middle of the range with a weight I hadn't have since my early 20s (I'm 45 now). My nutrition style is like the one explained in this website [2] which, incidentally, looks pretty much like the diet described in the article.

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/07/magazine/what-if-it-s-all-... [2] http://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb

Never eat _any_ snacks, as it's no time (do not eat between lunch) for it. If you skip a meal, you WILL be hungry, and it's fine, you won't die, next time, do not skip meal. Drink water, drink wine at table, it's never time for sodas, so don't. Now, without tv in front of you (focus on cooking and eating) , eat meat, bread, butter, whatever, and you'll be just fine

I've lost weight and kept it off for years by using a similar method. Sometimes the weight just seemed to melt off, though I've had to tweak a few times to get to my current weight. I was nearly obese at one time, and am now no where near overweight. With each of these changes came some weight loss and habit changes. Basically, all I found was to learn what works with your body and build healthier food habits.

First, I started eating less meat. This was mostly due to having gall bladder surgery: Afterwards digestion of those fats was more difficult. Though this improved, the habit stuck.

I started eating more vegetables. I didn't cut fat or carbs or anything, just added in vegetables. A few formerly disliked vegetables are now in my pallet. I figured out I could like a lot of foods simply by repeated exposure.

I eventually went mostly vegetarian. I eat fish once or twice a week and meat substitutes. I don't suggest this unless it fits with you, but I feel better and enjoy foods more. I did similar things with other foods - eat fruit instead of drinking fruit juice, whole grain pasta and better breads. I still dislike milk.

I cut out soda. I didn't really plan to for weight loss, but after a while it tasted syrupy. I now only occasionally (every 1-2 months) drink it. I eventually cut out sugar from coffee, more for simplicity in ordering.

I started cooking daily, and if I want a certain food, I just plan to make it or buy it. I eat candy regularly, for example. I eat until I am very full every night. Most meals are simple, but I do make my own bread. This is more habit building than anything, but I found I enjoy food more and nearly always feel satisfied. It helped moving to a country with less ready-made foods.

I paid attention to when I am the most hungry. For me, no matter how much I eat during the day, I want a good deal of food in the evening meal, and generally want a nightly snack. I figured it was silly to eat lots during the day, and the my snacking habits just kept me going. Breakfast is usually black coffee. I might eat a piece of bread with a slice of cheese a few hours after waking, but otherwise I just eat a handful of chips, nuts, fruit, or something similar. The snacking habit really started from laziness and simplicity, but it works.

As far as exercise is concerned, I don't like it. But my main form of transportation is walking, and I gained slightly when I stopped having places to go, so I might have to actually make an effort to do this more often.

I found that this is a battle that is largely won/lost in the supermarket. I eat whatever is available at home...so if I can keep my sht together for those 30 mins of shopping then it'll be fine. And realistically 30 mins...you can force that via pure power of will.

Losing weight is not as impossible a mission as the author makes out. Plenty of people on /r/loseit who have lost significant weight. All reduced calories and almost all used myfitnesspal to track them.

My technique has been: eat only when you're hungry, instead of succumbing to imposed eating schedules (breakfast time, lunch time, dinner time). It has worked well for me.

Bulking for 5 months now. Hunger is only a faded memory.

Good article, but loosing 50 pounds over 2 months seems impossible. I always thought the optimal weight loss rate was max 2-3 pounds per week.

Although he seems desperate to deny it, the TL;DR is "went on a low carb diet, effortlessly lost weight".