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Always Hungry? Here’s Why

nytimes.com

121–130 of 134 posts

Re: Always Hungry? Here’s Why

#121
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really did enjoy this article. I don't think there is anything new here, but it's presented in a very "mass media friendly" way, which is important for finally defeating the "just eat less" mentality. Of course, it is still calorie in, calorie out, but we need to understand what effects metabolic changes in our body if we want to understand what calories are going out. Furthermore, quality of life generally indicat…

[...] psychological programming of expecting food to provide instant fuel [...] Is this a real thing? Eating makes me less hungry but not more energetic no matter what I eat.

I think maybe I wasn't clear. Normally when you eat, you expect to not feel hungry any more. In particular, if you are targeting a calorie deficit or weight loss you look forward to that "joy of food" sensation, a big part of which is the glucose that absorbs almost instantly and raises your blood sugar, and more of which absorbs over time beginning immediately. If you are on a low carb meal you will miss that feeling entirely. You won't feel from fat (though you will if you have plenty of protein and fibe) and you won't have the blood pressure spike that most of us associate with "food good" (note I don't mean the extreme spike you would get from eating pure sugar necessarily, just any higher than baseline peaking).

So the psychological programming is getting used to not expecting that spike (and possibly that 'full' feeling), and still feeling you sated your self.

Re: Always Hungry? Here’s Why

#122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Informative: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-does-200-calories-look-like.htm http://www.mendosa.com/satiety.htm http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/foods-high-satiation-3799.ht... Imho the easiest way by far to lose weight is eat foods that combine low carb + high satiation index.

Thanks for the suggestion It's not about satiation for me. It's about quantity. My point was until I've eaten a plate of food where plate of food equals pretty much any "standard" picture of a plate of food ( https://www.google.com/search?q=plate+of+food&tbm=isch ) my brain thinks "Dang, you haven't really eaten yet" and yet pretty much every picture in that link is over >1000 calories. Note, I'm not saying satiating…

Silly as it sounds... have you tried using smaller plates?

I find having a small plate stacked high seems more like a "real meal" than the same amount of food spread thinly on a larger plate.

Then again, if you're in Japan, I guess you've been exposed to that trick a fair bit.

Re: Always Hungry? Here’s Why

#123
post #3

There seems to be a pervasive unwillingness to understand the nature of positive feedback cycles, and instead we're just continually hearing "fat because of intake" and "intake because of fat" arguments that try to fall on an extreme interpretation of simplified causality. This article belongs to the very few that actually do a job of describing a feedback cycle, but then it falls short and does the popular simplific…

Our bodies have what the engineer in me might call a "control system" for blood sugar. When you're talking about control systems in engineering you look at the step response and that's what tells you everything you need to know. You have a "plant" which is the thing you're controlling and you have the "control system" which is the thing that provides negative feedback and thus controls the "plant".

If the control system responds faster than the plant you've got a decent shot at keeping things under control and your system is said to be critically damped or overdamped. Both of these are pretty acceptable solutions for process control. If your system doesn't respond fast enough, it's said to be underdamped and shit is real bad. We're talking the kind of runaway shit that you see in the Tacoma Narrows bridge video. Here's a nice picture of various control systems: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Second_order_transfer_func...

Our bodies have a control system for hunger, I'm sure of that. But we don't get to choose how fast that control system reacts; that's fixed. For a lot of foods, our control system responds faster than our blood sugar and things are fine. But some foods can cause our blood sugar to go up faster than we can store it or otherwise react to it. Then eventually enough insulin gets dumped into the blood stream that blood sugar starts to crash. So then you get really hungry and start eating again. The more you eat large amounts of easily digestible sugars, the further you go from the critical damping of (zeta = 1) to horrifically underdamped (zeta = 0).

I wonder when the engineers and the scientists are going to get together and hammer this stuff out formally.

Re: Always Hungry? Here’s Why

#124

Lustig has his critics[1]. In fact, seems the mainstream almost thinks of him as a quack (almost). Myself, I can't discern who's right and wrong. I can see that a lot of people are overstating their level of certainty. [1] http://www.alanaragonblog.com/2010/01/29/the-bitter-truth-ab...

This article was by Ludwig, not Lustig.

Re: Always Hungry? Here’s Why

#125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the suggestion It's not about satiation for me. It's about quantity. My point was until I've eaten a plate of food where plate of food equals pretty much any "standard" picture of a plate of food ( https://www.google.com/search?q=plate+of+food&tbm=isch ) my brain thinks "Dang, you haven't really eaten yet" and yet pretty much every picture in that link is over >1000 calories. Note, I'm not saying satiating…

I recommend you read up on a bit and give it a try, in my experience once you get past the first few days it is MUCH easier than you would think. Also, I believe participating (or at least lurking) in a community, looking at progress pictures (and reading the stories behind them) provides a much needed psychological base to stand on for this task - as you've noted, you personally seem to have strong psychological hur…

Thanks. I'll give it try. And I'm not really having trouble. It just takes will power.

My point wasn't about my troubles. My point was, even if you came up with a pill that 100% satiated me, satiation is not the only thing I want from eating. I wouldn't be like "Yay! I had my meal in 1 second, I can get back to something else". Rather I'd be like "Whaaaaat? I wanted to stick delicious food in my mouth, taste it, chew it, lick it, swallow it. And I wanted to do that for 20-30 minutes."

There's enjoyment in the act of eating and for some, it requires quantity. I enjoy for example that Japanese desserts of often small. But I also missing being able to enjoy 40 bites of dessert rather than just 2 if that makes any sense. I enjoy eating a foot long sandwich over 10 minutes rather than a 1/4 foot long sandwich over 2.5 mins.

Sorry if I'm not making any sense. Like I said I'm not really having trouble sticking to my diet. Only noticing how I feel about it.

Re: Always Hungry? Here’s Why

#126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>brain needs glucose, can't fuel any other way Not so: the brain can be fueled by ketone bodies, which the liver can create from fat. P.S. I agree with your larger point that avoiding all carbs for many days at a time should only be done by people who have informed themselves of the risks (acidosis and kidney stones).

What did humans do before large numbers of carbs were widely available? Die of kidney stones? Or perhaps this is because modern people have become accustomed to them being available?

There is carbs in vegetables. Beans too. Just not as much in most of them as grains.

Re: Always Hungry? Here’s Why

#127

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTuJ6r1F2hA I've been helping my family and friends with this recipe, and it's changing lives. Literally. My father, who I taught how to eat vegetarian, has stopped needing insulin! (After heading steadily down the standard American road...sad...) If you add this smoothie to your daily life, and change nothing else, you will feel better. A lot better. You can still eat bacon and eggs f…

Is there a nut free version?

Re: Always Hungry? Here’s Why

#128

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTuJ6r1F2hA I've been helping my family and friends with this recipe, and it's changing lives. Literally. My father, who I taught how to eat vegetarian, has stopped needing insulin! (After heading steadily down the standard American road...sad...) If you add this smoothie to your daily life, and change nothing else, you will feel better. A lot better. You can still eat bacon and eggs f…

Is there a nut free version?

Yeah, just use soy instead of almond milk.

According to wikipedia, almonds aren't nuts, but I'm guessing that's what you mean? Hopefully you're ok with flax seeds...

I don't use soy because of the conflicting information out there, and plus I like almonds. =)

Re: Always Hungry? Here’s Why

#129
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you are getting downvotes because developers don't care about their health. It's because you are saying that ONE smoothie is changing lives... which is a ridicolous statement. And it honestly sounds like an attempt for self promotion.

Also, serious question: why is sharing something in a higher bandwidth format than just typing "promotion?" Do you not promote your own thoughts and agenda any time you enter a comment? When I have no product, nothing for sale, no ads on the video, nothing like that, how does one conclude that sharing something, which is just me, commenting, really, in a higher bandwidth format, how do you conclude "promotion?" As I…

Well you have no proof whatsoever of your claims. No question that it's a healthy thing to consume, but saying it will change lives from day one without changing anything else is just a very bold statement to make without backing it up with anything. Kudos for the recipe though.

Re: Always Hungry? Here’s Why

#130
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really did enjoy this article. I don't think there is anything new here, but it's presented in a very "mass media friendly" way, which is important for finally defeating the "just eat less" mentality. Of course, it is still calorie in, calorie out, but we need to understand what effects metabolic changes in our body if we want to understand what calories are going out. Furthermore, quality of life generally indicat…

[...] psychological programming of expecting food to provide instant fuel [...] Is this a real thing? Eating makes me less hungry but not more energetic no matter what I eat.

What if you eat a clean salad loaded with raw veggies? - that always does it for me. Or a fruit/greens smoothie.
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