In the old days, I remember deciding to go on a diet and then thinking about food for the next hours by the end of the day I was so hungry that i wanted to eat everything in sight.
Maybe you are fit and active, but are you hungry all the time? And do you think it is because you are active? Of course, that makes sense! Or does it?
Perhaps you have had a time when you were so upset that you could not eat. Alternatively, you might have had a time when you were so upset that you soothed with your favorite comfort food. But were you hungry for it?
And one more scenario: do you make a big spread of snacks for watching the game with friends, or at a movie? How hungry are you then? How much do you eat?
And, of course, what about Thanksgiving, Hanukkah or Christmas? Your birthday? Were you hungry for all you ate?
Are you hungry?
Us older folks grew up with 3 square meals a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner. We were hungry for the next meal, unless we snacked.
In a society where food is so abundant and available, we have cues to eat a lot of the time. A lot of people graze all day, especially if they are on the go. They say they have to. Or they skip a meal, catch a coffee and muffin, then eat a huge meal at the end of the day.
The word “hangry” has been popularized to describe being so hungry that their mood changes to anger, and they had better get some food quick or you will have the devil to pay!
What happened to the hunger signals that our ancestors knew? If the hunter-gatherers did not find food or have any stored, they went without. I’m sure they were hungry for a while, then it passed. They were not too weak to go out and look for food. They did not become “hangry.”
And when they made a kill, or the blueberries were ripe, they all feasted. They satisfied their hunger, and then some, probably eating too much like us at a social celebration.
So what happened to our hunger signals and how can we return to allow them self-regulate like our ancestors did, listen to them, and respond appropriately?
Feeding Hunger
There are three types of hunger as described by Jason Fung in his book The Hunger Code:
- Homeostatic hunger — triggered by the body’s need for fuel
- Hedonistic hunger — triggered by emotions and pleasure
- Conditioned hunger – triggered by environmental cues
We feed all three types of hunger. I find there are lots of misconceptions about feeding hunger and what is appropriate for health.
Our ancestors could flex back and forth from the fat burning state when they had no food to the sugar burning state when they ate, and back again to fat burning when that was burned off. They alternated fuel sources, like a seesaw, sometimes burning more sugar for fuel when they had eaten, and then burning stored fuel more as ketones between. This is a picture of health.
Most of us today are not that metabolically healthy. In fact, during COVID, it came out that perhaps only 7% of Americans were metabolically healthy. The rest?
Insulin resistant. That describes the state when overfeeding happens for so long, as in snacking and grazing, that the cells do not respond properly when fuel is introduced. It is what perpetuates eating all the time because you are hungry, which in turn makes it worse.
It is also the reason people get hangry when their blood sugar drops. Taken further, it becomes pre-diabetes, diabetes, and eventually insulin-dependent diabetes. Note that we are not talking about type 1 insulin dependent diabetes where the insulin making cells in the body are destroyed.
Busting Misconceptions
One of the misconceptions is that you must eat frequently. It may seem that way when you are hungry all the time.
There are no scientific studies that show that eating frequently:
- Stabilizes blood sugar
- Increases satiety
- Prevents hunger
- Prevents overeating
In fact, If you miss a meal, the hormone (ghrelin) that peaked to make you physiologically hungry fades away, fading the hunger to nothing. And when fasting for several days, that hormone (ghrelin) drops overall, reducing hunger after the fast. In fact, the more you fast, the easier it gets to go for stretches of time not eating.
A second misconception is about snacking.
Snacking is a response to one of the three kinds of hunger, but this hunger can be reprogrammed.
There is no such thing as a healthy snack: if you eat when you are not physiologically hungry, appetite returns and you can eat more.
On top of that, snacks are also often ultra-processed foods, which create more hunger. Ultra-processed food is fake food full of chemicals that creates an addiction and increases insulin.
In this category is much of the food labeled:
- “Diet”
- “Sensible”
- “Healthy”
A third misconception is that eating quicky on the run will satisfy you. After all, it is food you are gulping down.
A busy life often seeks to maximize time. Energy bars for meals, microwavable meals, fast food, and packaged mixes are sold as the solution. However, eating quickly does not satisfy you, and in fact it increases hunger and creates more insulin resistance. Which in turn increases hunger again.
The Turn-Around
To reverse insulin resistance resulting in lasting weight loss, mental clarity, and even elevated mood, you need to change your default setting from eating all the time to not eating.
Inertia is powerful. We keeping doing what we always have done. When we don’t know or don’t want to think about what to do, we simply take the choice that has already been made for us. Established habits do not require thought or willpower.
James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, says: “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”
Your New Default System Setting
New habits can be established in 2–3 weeks. Following guidelines can help establish the new default setting and extinguish habits that are counterproductive.
By setting your default eating pattern to “Not Eat,” you don’t have to make a decision every time you encounter food.
Then when eating, you can switch the pattern for reversing insulin resistance to start with
- Natural, unprocessed foods
- 1 – 3 meals a day, no snacking between
- Fast while asleep and during the hours before and after sleep for 12–14 hours
This is not doing more, it is doing what you are already doing, but differently. In fact, you could think of it as subtracting for simplicity.
- Avoid eating ultra-processed foods — eat natural foods from a source that your great-grandmother would have.
- Avoid eating all the time — have fasting windows.
- Avoid doing what you have always done and expecting different results — change mindset and social habits.
Are you in?
To learn more about changing your default setting as applied to each type of hunger, see further blog posts of Mastering Hunger, part 2, and part 3.
