I believe we’ve been misled for the past few decades.  Most diet plans, even the “sensible” ones, promise that you can lose weight without ever feeling hungry.  In fact, they go so far as to say that if you’re hungry, you’re not doing it right.   There’s even a theory out there that if you’re hungry, you’ll stop losing weight.

I believe one huge barrier to losing weight is Fear of Hunger.  I know I’ve struggled with this for years.  When I feel hungry, the planet has to stop revolving until I get some FOOD.  I’m afraid I’m going to die!  And if I let myself go without food too long, I binge on everything within plain sight.  And then I go over to the neighbours to finish off whatever they have too.

What I’ve learned this time around is that there are actually 2 types of hunger – and no, I’m not talking about you’re bored and want a snack hunger.  I’m talking about 2 bona fide, no fooling, your body is ready for food hunger.

1.  Bad hunger – this is what you experience when your diet isn’t up to par.  If you’ve eaten a lot of sugar or carbs recently, you’ll experience this.  Bad hunger is accompanied by a feeling of weakness, a low-blood-sugar kind of feeling.  You become really cranky.  You can’t focus on whatever you’re doing.  You’re zapped of all energy.  The idea of preparing something healthy sounds like so much work – you need something to eat to give you strength to get yourself something to eat.  This is a lot of people’s normal hunger.  It was mine for years.  No wonder we avoid it at all costs!

2. Good hunger – this is what you experience when you’ve been eating mostly fresh or lightly cooked vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins.  The hunger feels like a gnawing or grabbing in your belly.  But it’s intermittent.  It gets your attention, and you notice that you’re hungry.  But you’re not going to pass out or hold anyone up on the street corner to get their food.  You can finish what you’re doing.  Periodically, the hunger will well up and ask you to notice it again.  Sometimes it’s very strong.  But unless you go on without eating for hours, your energy doesn’t dip and everything else is pretty stable aside from the occasional gnawing in your stomach.

I’ve been trying to lose weight for decades, and this is the first time it’s really working for me.  What am I doing differently?  I’m allowing myself to get to that feeling of good hunger before I eat.

Awhile back, when I first started playing around with this notion, it was close to supper time, but my daughter wanted something very specific for supper.  I was already hungry, and ready to start putting the meal together.  However, as an experiment, I agreed that we should run to the grocery store to get the ingredients for what she wanted.

I went to that grocery store on an empty stomach, and I did NOT buy the entire potato chip aisle.  I didn’t buy anything other than what was required for this meal.  I wasn’t dizzy or weak or trembly, the way I expected to be.  The only symptom I experienced was that occasional stomach gnaw.  And all I had to do was live through it for about 45 seconds, and it would pass.  And then I would feel fine for about 10 minutes.

I realize that this must be how “normal” people experience hunger.

In fact, a lot of people have told me over the years that they can work through hunger, especially when they know they’re going to get to eat soon.  It’s no big deal.  They never understood why I would get trembly and weak when I got hungry (especially when it was obvious I had a good store of fat reserves to draw from).

So now I’ve come to believe that we’re supposed to be hungry, then we’re supposed to eat, and then we’re supposed to go about our business until we get hungry again.  We don’t need to stuff our stomachs with snacks every couple of hours to make sure we never experience hunger.   We can have a snack when we feel truly hungry, and then go about our business until the next time we get hungry.