So I’m sitting here, working and my stomach is growling, but I’m too busy [or distracted] to stop until my brain starts to yell, “I’M HUNGRY!!!!” at which point I usually scramble to find something to eat quickly. Luckily I have plenty of fruit and nuts on hand for just such emergencies, but before this past week, this is when I’d dive into the snack drawer at work and eat chocolate… and keep eating chocolate because it was so tasty, but not satisfying. Kicked the habit, though, so… moving on…
I’ve read conflicting information on hunger and where you should be at before eating:
1] Wait until you’re at a 2 out of 10 on the hunger scale – 0 being passed out and 10 being… well I don’t want to think about that. It sounds like some kind of torture to be that full. And NOT to eat unless you are ‘TRULY’ hungry
2] Don’t wait until you’re hungry, eat every 2-3 hours, small meals or snacks to keep your energy levels and blood sugar even so that your metabolism is always cranked.
So what is the truth – or does it matter?
I know for me, hunger comes on pretty fast. I’ll have mild hunger and within a few minutes I’m ravenous. And being hungry is uncomfortable. I’m not good at it [part of the reason I need to lose weight]. I’ve also read that if you wait until you’re ‘truly’ hungry, food tastes better than if you eat when you’re not quite there, yet. When dieting you hear things like, “Hunger is your friend!” I have enough friends, thanks. But what they mean is, if you’re feeling hungry, you’re “burning fat for fuel because you’re all out.” I don’t know if that’s 100% accurate. Sure, hunger means your brain needs glucose, and it’s not easy to convert fat to glucose, so your brain kicks in the adrenalin, which causes an artificial flush of glucose into your blood stream from the liver, which then means more insulin is released to counter the barrage… and it’s a vicious cycle. And of course your brain decides it’s being starved and proceeds to shut down your metabolism, effectively halting any fat burning going on. Unless, of course, you’re actually starving – your body WILL burn off it’s fat supplies, but along with it, it’ll burn off your muscle tissue – including organ tissue as a last resort, which is why you hear of people suffering from Anorexia dying of heart failure.
So… don’t starve. Starving is bad. Hunger means what it says – get your brain some fuel so it DOESN’T shut the power plant down.
Okay… so, eat regularly, right? But if you’re eating when you’re NOT hungry, it means you’re taking in calories your brain doesn’t need, so what does your body do with those calories? Supposedly it stores it as fat right away. Or does it? No, really – I’m asking. I have no idea!!! lol…
Maybe it’s a matter of paying more attention and nipping hunger in the bud, but only when it’s still considered hunger? This is probably a very natural thing for most people. For me, it’s still ‘new’… after telling my body what it wants and WHEN for so many years according to whatever diet I happened to be on at the time, I think it’s as confused as I am [that makes me sound pretty detached, but I'm not - just relearning some things... me and my body are one in the same!]. =)
Anyway… I’ll have to see if there are any new answers to this issue. Until then, at the very least, I’ll try to eat healthy when I think I’m hungry – BEFORE I’m starving – and hope for the best. Until I find something else, here’s Oprah’s ‘Best Life’ Hunger Scale to guide us to peace, love and happiness… All hail Oprah. ;)
