Pip wrote: I've read that hunger is a sign of bat burning. When our bodies start to dip into fat stores for fuel, blood glucose levels dip and the hunger hormone is released. Can any nerds clarify the science please?
This theory really helps me get through hunger pangs. Hoping it's more than just a theory.
Actually, NOT being hungry is a sign of effective fat burning. Hunger is an indicator of the body recognizing the reduction of an energy source.
Hunger is also the necessary and primary trigger for the body to initiate changes in its internal chemistry to that of being able to (once again) burn stored fat.
Done properly, hunger pangs will lessen and eventually disappear completely so that you will easily be able to skip one or even two meals and not notice or care.
Hunger for the majority of people, most especially cyclical hunger that occurs between meals or snacks, is caused by an overdependence on carbohydrate foods. After a meal, insulin controls the flood of blood sugars into the body by storing them as fat. At the same time, as a further attempt to quickly rid the blood stream of too much sugar, insulin also prevents fat from being burned! In healthy people, insulin is so effective that it reduces blood sugar levels to the point of causing a deficit, which is why we get hungry again so soon. As we all know, this cycle repeats.
Because of habit, culture and relative cost we've supplied our bodies with so many different carbohydrate based foods that it has become extremely efficient at utilizing them. Unfortunately at the same time we've become incapable of burning our stored fat which continues to accumulate.
The types of foods you eat control the level of hunger. Carbohydrates are the most reactive. Proteins far less. And fats least of all.
By controlling carbs, you effectively control insulin, allowing the bodies processes to re-learn how to burn that stored fat. Do this long enough and all that excess fat will go. And your body will be far happier for it. Mental attitudes and energy levels improve as well.
Does this mean that you will never be able to eat your favorite foods again? No, definitely not for the majority of people losing weight. You will however learn to moderate the quantity and, surprisingly as it might seem now, discover that you can be completely satisfied with far less.
Realize that cheating effectively shuts down the bodies relearning process for as much as two weeks. It is all too easy to reactivate old detrimental ways.
Don't look at fasting as a short term process to be endured; that you'll lose the weight and go back to how you ate before. That's how people fail. Consider it instead as a way to provide a better life for yourself in which your body approves. If weight comes back, you know how to adjust to make your body happy again.
BTW, hunger pangs are transient even though they don't feel like it at the time. Distraction can be as effective as sipping water or a bouillon cube (stock) drink.