WHY SHOULD I EAT IF I’M NOT HUNGRY? PART III

You have to fuel your metabolism and break out of starvation mode. For most, this means focusing on nutrient density – meaning eating foods with a high nutritional value and not counting calories, macronutrients or calories burned from working out.

If your body doesn’t perceive that it is well-fed and out of danger, you will never get out of starvation mode, and you will never have enough energy to support basic bodily functions – like your heart beat, temperature regulations, and breathing or brain function. They require energy in the form of food, or we can trigger a series of biological events that set us up for overeating, binging and, overall, just not feeling well.

Remember to look at your new lifestyle as a journey. It’s not about perfection, it’s about progress. Many of us are trying to undo decades of damage, and it will take time. There is a lot of physiological and psychological damage that takes place from past periods of starvation over the years.

Severely restricting certain foods can create a preoccupation with forbidden foods, just like we just learned in the study. And while it is important to eat real, whole foods and avoid processed foods as much as possible, we are only human and no one is perfect. We need reasonable goals that are attainable and that can look different with each person.

Here is a great analogy on the concept of low-calorie dieting from Dr. Ben Bikman, a Ph.D. in bioenergetics and postdoctoral fellow with the Duke-National University of Singapore in metabolic disorders. He is currently a scientist and professor at BYU, where it is his role to better understand the role of elevated insulin and nutrient metabolism in regulating obesity, diabetes and dementia.

What he states, is that, “If we look at nutrients as calorie sources, then we immediately develop a weight loss paradigm based on hunger. Imagine if I am having a wonderful buffet at my home and have asked the world’s best chefs to come and prepare the best foods you could ever imagine. Come hungry.”

His question is then, “What would you do to come as hungry as possible?” He says his students always have a consensus on two things… they would eat less the days before and they would exercise more. That’s when he says, “You are exactly right. That would help you come to this glorious buffet as hungry as possible.

Can you see the problem? They just gave him this perfect two-step recipe to make hunger as strong as possible, which is exactly what people have been told to do for over 50 years in order to lose weight.

Eating less and exercising more is a great way to drive hunger. So, while you might lose a little weight initially eating this way, hunger will always win; then you will gain it all back and then some.

Educating yourself will help you understand so much more about why you are doing what you are doing, instead of causing you to look at your journey as a bunch of restrictions that ultimately set you up for failure, guilt or even shame.

Enjoy your journey. Give yourself permission to be an individual on this trip, and remember… you don’t have to be perfect, but you don’t want to use that as an excuse for jumping off plan all the time, either. Show yourself some love by feeding your body with good nutrition and feeding your mind with motivating information to keep you headed in the right direction.