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Comment by ng12 | Hacker News Reader

> Research now shows that the body may respond to a calorie-deficit diet by increasing hunger and reducing feelings of fullness

Dieting makes you hungry, truly revolutionary research.

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It seems obvious but the “just eat less” crowd needs to hear it.

Ever try working on a tricky coding project while starving? Take a math test when all you can think about is finding something, anything, to eat?

Losing significant amounts of weight the natural way isn’t so much a test of willpower as a test of how well you can function under a constant sense of hunger (or, how good you are at tricking your way out of it).

Bonus tip: when you are so hungry you can’t sleep and don’t want to drink a bunch of water right before bed, sugar-free jell-o has only 10 calories and can silence the feeling long enough to fall asleep.

To fight off hunger while dieting, you eat lower calorie density, fiber-rich vegetables and unsaturated fats. Potatoes, avocados, legumes, there are a lot of options. They just don't fulfill the same psychological need that less healthy food does.

If it's a psychological issue, then couldn't it also be a chemical imbalance?

There are quite a few veggies that are low calorie, filling, and are tasty enough to snack on without dip. The ones I eat when I just want to feel full without a bunch of calories are carrots (45 cal/100g), cucumbers (14 cal/100g), sugar snap peas ( 42 cal/100g), and yellow bell pepper (27 cal/100g).

The caveat being that taste is subjective.

If we're talking raw with no sauce I can't say there's any vegetable I'm keen to snack on, certainly none on your list.

Particularly if your body craves protein, then carrots won't really cut it.

I'm specifically talking about when you're hungry and want to eat, but your calorie budget is very small. Obviously you should still be eating an appropriate amount of protein over the course of a day.

Free school breakfasts are a thing because kids will go home on Friday and not eat anything til Monday. The second hunger is no longer an issue, the kids perform much better.

Eating at a ~500 calorie deficit is not starving.

Call it what you want but for some unlucky people when they run a deficit they completely shut down mentally. Their ability to lose weight is entirely dependent on how long they're able to avoid doing any mentally taxing activity.

I get major brain for on intermittent fasting. I have to spread out my protein and carbs over the day, so for me calorie restriction works best.

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