On Hunger

On Hunger

It’s kind of amazing how afraid we are of being hungry. It’s true, though: we are. Everyone is. We have this conditioned fear that if we miss a meal somewhere, it’s just a matter of hours between that and our feeble skeletons twitching at the side of the road somewhere. There are a few things that we need to understand when it comes to hunger, which will help you recognize what’s really going on and how to respond to it.

Hunger starts in your brain, not your stomach. Again, weight and eating have more to do with hormones than with actual caloric intake/burning. Our brains are big and powerful and hormones are their servants. The hormone ghrelin has exactly one job: to prompt us to go in search of sustenance. Here’s the thing, though: it’s not always because we need sustenance. We program ourselves to get used to eating at certain times of the day, or around particular events: while watching TV/at the movies, during coffee breaks at work, watching sports (other people do this, right?), etc. It’s habitual, not based on real need.

Think about it: if hunger only came about because our stomachs were empty, then hunger would increase and increase and increase until it became unbearable or we died. But that’s not how it works: we all know that if we wait, it will ebb away. And then come back, true, but that one will ebb away, too! Nobody who is online and reading a blog about hunger is probably anywhere near starvation, and our bodies are designed more for infrequent eating than for regularly-scheduled eating. We just prefer to have routines. You can hack your own brain and body to get around these conditioned prompts to eat, though!

Other reasons why we get hungry:

• We’re tired. This is the main reason. Most of us don’t get enough sleep, and one of the main culprits behind weight problems is lack of sleep.
• We’re dehydrated. Most people are, and we often confuse thirst for hunger. Next time you feel hungry, try having a cup of tea or coffee or water first and then see how hungry you still feel after.
• We’re bored.
• We’re emotional.
• We’re premenstrual.
• We’re not actually hungry; we just enjoy that food. 

One thing I noticed when I cut back severely on eating carbs was that my sensation of hunger changed noticeably. I still get hungry, but it’s rarely that almost-painful, gnawing, desperate sensation of roaring need that we think of when we think of hunger. Instead, I like to describe this to my friends as being sort of a “dry, ascetic type of emptiness”. A lot of people fear fasting because they’re worried it will make them (“make” them!) overeat after, and usually when people are newer to fasting, this is true. But what most people find is that the more often they fast, the less hungry they get overall.

True story: I just spent 4 days in New York, where I had told myself that I would actively relax the self-imposed rules of my new lifestyle and eat & drink more or less what I wanted. I did, for the most

part: I had a delicious, customized cocktail at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel’s 35^th-storey bar overlooking Columbus Circle. I ate pasta (for the first time since December!) in Little Italy. I ate a lamb & chicken gyros from a Halal street vendor. I ordered sesame chicken and rice from a late-night delivery service when it was pouring rain and I didn’t feel like going outside. I ate cookies from Whole Foods while sitting by the fountain at Columbus Circle. I ate mashed green plantains up in my old, rather Dominican neighbourhood of Inwood/Washington Heights, and I didn’t regret any of it for a second. Allowing yourself some flexibility is important, and for someone like me, it helps keep me from getting too obsessive or rigid about following my own rules. Plus, learning moderation is important – if we’re too severe, we’ll definitely fail. If we give ourselves some wiggle room, everything becomes more possible. Anyway, the odd thing I found was that I still just felt remarkably un-hungry a lot of the time. I was walking and walking and walking, yet still never getting more than “yeah, I guess I could eat something soon-ish” in terms of feeling hunger. That’s the added win of intermittent fasting, as well as cutting sugars and limiting carbs, whereas when we’re eating too many of those, it just increases our hunger exponentially over time.

The bottom line is, you may feel hunger and it may genuinely be because you’re in need of sustenance. But don’t forget the story in my last post about the man who fasted for over a year and remained in increasingly good health throughout. Even though your ghrelin may be telling you that you’re on the brink of starvation, you’re almost certainly not! It’s a brief feeling and it will pass. Again, go and have another cup of tea!

And remember that it’s 99% just in your head.