Subject: ~Chemist: What is Hunger?
Friend,
My 13 yo son, Blair, was born with a wrestler's diet. He only eats when he
has to. And even then it's bare bones basics like eggs, avocados, toast,
apples and steak.
My 17 year old daughter, Lily, is similar. But since she's around
teenagers and venturing out into the world by herself, she's learning that
hunger isn't just about wanting food...it's about needing it.
Under 5 years old, Aubrey and Skyler aren't ready to understand the
difference. But they'll learn it soon enough.
I sat both kids down to explain:
There are 4 types of hunger and you should only listen to one of them!
This is important.
Most people think that hunger has everything to do with your stomach.
When there’s food in your belly, you feel full. When your stomach is empty,
you feel hungry. This is physical hunger.
Physical hunger is the feeling you get several hours after a meal, after a
long day of work, or after an intense exercise session. Your stomach growls
and you might feel tired, irritable and have difficulty thinking. This is
caused by your body’s true physical need for nutrients and energy.
Listen to that one!
But your feelings of hunger are affected by many factors beyond whether
your stomach is full or empty. In fact, we often feel “hungry” again,
soon after a big meal. Or we experience strong cravings, especially
for sweets and carbs.
This is hormonal hunger. It has little to do with how much
you’ve eaten and everything to do with hormonal ignorance – your
satiating hormones are either not working or you’ve become insensitive to
them.
The cravings caused by hormonal hunger can overcome even the staunchest
willpower, and can lead to intense mood swings, fatigue, and a near
constant desire to eat, regardless of being “full.” This is the most
common cause of “eating too fucking much.” It’s gluttony at it’s
worst!
There is also “nutritional hunger.” Since most food today is nothing
more than a pile of food-like substances void of nutrients, your hunger is
truly never satisfied. Therefore, after a crap meal, you’ll be hungry in
hours due to your natural craving for nutrients. But rather than eat
nutrient rich food, 99% of obese will simply eat more crap – eating
themselves into the history books without knowing why…
When your diet consists largely of grain-based carbohydrates and other
processed, refined foods, your body is missing out on hundreds of critical
vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and enzymes. As a means of survival, it
will continue to send hormonal signals to your brain to “EAT, EAT,
EAT,” even when you have consumed far more calories than you need for
basic energy requirements. Therefore, despite eating too f@cking much,
your body will still be hungry for nutrients.
And finally, there is learned hunger.
Since eating elicits a flood of feel-good molecules, the brain will “learn” when and how the food was obtained as a survival method to obtain more in the future. In its most
benign form, learned hunger arises at meal time. And since 1pm –
lunchtime – comes around only once per day, its fine.
But, in its most malignant form, learned hunger can force someone into
overeating based simply on bad eating habits. For instance, if someone eats
multiple times per day (bodybuilders and athletes) or while watching
television (Kids), learned hunger can set in and force them to become
hungry each and every time the situation presents itself.
Athletes who eat every two hours, are simply training their body to become
hungry despite no need for nutrients. Same for children – or anyone else
– who eat in front of the television. Subconsciously, associations will
be made based on learned hunger and forced overeating.
You see, the hunger that most people feel has nothing to do with a real
need for food. Most of the time your hormones or brain are lying to you.
Understanding how the three types of hunger can fool us shows why it’s
not fair or prudent to tell overweight people to simply eat less – it’s
virtually impossible without teaching them about which hunger is real and
which one is fake.
If eating is driven by lying hunger signals, “eaters” are eventually
severed from their longevity hormones! Therefore, the only true way
get your body and life back is to get control of your hunger hormones
as taught at www.dietbookthatworks.com.
Fortunately, anyone can do it with 6 simple steps!
Once your hunger hormones are in check, a hormonal cascade is set into
motion that ramps up fat metabolism as well and longevity hormones!
Learn more at www.ampmfatloss.com
Dare to live young,
The People's Chemist
P.S. As a reminder, there is physical hunger, hormonal hunger, nutritional hunger
and learned hunger. Remember this with the simple mnemonic: PHNL.
And when you start getting hungry today, ask yourself, "which hunger am
I experiencing?" Then, only eat if it's true physical hunger! Learn more at www.ampmfatloss.com