Hunger vs habit
There is nothing the gnawing feeling of hunger when you are on a diet. Personally I am really aware of what I am having for the next meal when I am consciously trying to lose weight.Hunger is a physiological signal from your body that you need to eat. A fall in blood sugar level and the release of the hunger hormone ghrelin to increase appetite. When you're hungry, your body is genuinely in need of nutrients and energy to function properly.
Interestingly I learnt recently that when a gastric sleeve is fitted, part of the stomach is removed which contains the hunger hormone ghrelin is also removed. So it is not just that a gastric band restricts the amount of food that can be eaten but also the body no longer signals that it needs food.
Dying of hunger
Humans are hardwired to be scared of hunger. Researchers believe you would have to go without food for 3 weeks yet how many of us proclaim “I’m starving” after not eating for a few hours? The reality is that if you tell yourself that you are starving, your brain will believe you and those signals may manifest in the body.
Often people who go without food for a long period may then overeat. The tummy takes around 20 minutes to signal to the brain that it is full and the satiety hormone leptin is released to decrease appetite. However, leptin is produced in fat cells and although there are higher levels of leptin in overweight people, there is some evidence that obese people develop resistance to leptin so do not respond to leptin’s signals.
When I stopped to consider this, I couldn’t honestly remember the last time that I felt really hungry.
Mindless munching
Being curious about what was fuelling my desire to eat, I realised that much of the time I eat out of habit. I have programmed my body to expect food at a certain time of the day and rather than waiting for the hunger pangs, the rumbling tummy or the aroma of cooking to ignite my gastric juices, I override my body’s signals before I can be aware of them.
In general, I notice that most of the time I eat out of habit rather than in response to cues from my body. So much of eating is about habits - good habits and bad habits that we get into. Cooking the same dishes as its easy to make without much thought and the eating autopilot that we switch to at certain times of the day. For example, when my kids come in from school I cut up an apple, make some drinks and we nibble on nuts and a biscuit as they tell me about their day. This is regardless of whether I’ve eaten lunch at 12 or 2pm so I don’t even ask myself if I am hungry.
Resetting the dial
So if we stop and take time to think about not just what we are eating but why we are doing so, can we break that cycle? Could it be that I don’t get hungry because I pre-empt it? Unlike my hubby, I am not a grazer so this would make sense if you are always topping on by nibbling throughout the day? But I realise that I so eat 3 meals a day regardless of whether I am actually hungry at those times, more our of habit then anything else. So is this causing overeating?
Of course there are a myriad of other reasons why we eat, boredom, distraction, comfort. But habit seems to be a primary driver for me so I am going to be more curious about why I am eating before I descend down the snack slope!
