“Intuitive Eating” Honor Your Hunger
The second principle of Intuitive Eating put forth by Tribole and Resch is “Honor your Hunger.” Here’s their introduction to the principle: ”Keep your body fed biologically with adequate energy and carbohydrates. Otherwise, you can trigger a primal drive to overeat. Once you reach the moment of excessive hunger, all intentions of moderate, conscious eating are fleeting and irrelevant. Learning to honor this first biological signal sets the stage for rebuilding trust with yourself and food.” (pg. 59)
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After World War II, a group of scientists wanted to figure out the best way to feed concentration camp survivors. They took a group of American men and decreased their food intake to what they guessed was daily intake for camp survivors. The men’s typical diet was about 3,500 calories and was reduced to 1,570 (We now know that’s a high estimate of what concentration camp survivors ate per day, but it is also a typical number of calories for a man on a diet today.)
Guess what happened to these men on a restricted diet? Among other results, the men became obsessed with food, their metabolic rates decreased by 40 percent, their personalities changed and they became irritable, depressed and moody. Sounds like being on a diet, huh? These men went on weekend eating binges of 8,000 to 10,000 calories and after the restricted eating period, it took the majority of men “an average of five months to normalize their eating.” (pg. 60)
Why talk about that study? Because it’s typical of what our bodies and minds do when we restrict food by being on a diet. Eating is primal. We need food to survive and it is frightening to have food taken away or withheld.
After a lifetime of dieting and forcing our bodies to adhere to a restricted calorie/carbohydrate/fat diet, many people find that they don’t know what their bodies need or want. I talk to some people who say that they “crave” carbohydrates and just can’t get enough at the end of the day. What these people don’t know is that our bodies need carbohydrate to function. Their bodies aren’t lying to them, their bodies are screaming for fuel!
Not only do our bodies want and need carbohydrates for fuel, but cravings for them will increase when they’re denied. Our brains produce a chemical called Neuropeptide Y (NPY). When we don’t get enough carbohydrate, this chemical will do what it can to make sure your body is craving carbs so that its need will be satisfied.
Let me get a little “science-y.” Our bodies’ primary fuel source is carbohydrate (bread, pasta, starchy vegetables, fruit, milk, yogurt, sugar). If our bodies are not getting carbohydrate from food, it will get it from our muscles. WHAT? Yes. We can use a little bit of our fat stores as fuel (and this is how real weight loss occurs), but our bodies are really good at turning muscle into the fuel our brains and bodies need to function. (In total starvation, our brains can function on ketosis, but right now I’m talking about a restricted diet, not a starvation diet.) When we use our muscles as fuel, the scale shows a really fast weight loss because as muscle is destroyed, water is released and that shows a huge change on the scale. And, no, eating a high protein diet won’t stop that muscle dismantling from occurring. The authors describe it like this, “…protein is used as an expensive source of fuel, rather than for its intended use in the body. It’s like having a building supplier provide lots of wood to rebuild your house. If you are constantly using that wood pile to make bonfires instead of to repair your home, you are still left with a weak structure.” (pg. 65)
When you’re hungry, starving, ravenous and craving carbohydrates at the end of the day (or at the beginning of the day), there’s a good chance it’s because you’re biologically hungry and your body needs carbohydrates. If you’ve been “dieting” or restricting food all day long, your body is going to do everything it can to get the fuel it needs to function. It’s common that people who think they’re emotional eaters because they’re bingeing at the end of the day are actually biologically hungry at the end of the day.
What do you do? HONOR YOUR HUNGER. Eat when your body says it needs food and don’t disregard its need for carbohydrates. I chuckle when people say they’re “addicted to carbs.” Yes, I too am addicted to carbs because it’s what allows me to do laundry, go for a walk, lift weights and live my life. I often suggest to people that when they’re having a craving for cookies or candy to take note and see if they’re just hungry for food. Sugar (as found in cookies, ice cream and candy) is an immediate fuel source for our bodies. A bowl of whole grain cereal will provide those carbs that your body is screaming for. See if that will take care of what you feel is a craving but may actually be biological hunger and need for carbohydrates.
Make an effort to learn your body’s natural hunger signals. Ideally you’ll notice your gentle hunger and be able to start looking for food so that it’s in front of you when you’re ready to eat. If you start looking for food when you’re really, really hungry, you’ll end up eating anything and everything.
Learning your body’s signals for hunger may be difficult, especially if you’ve been turning those signals off by drinking caffeine, smoking cigarettes, fasting or chewing gum. Also, if you are never gently hungry because you keep yourself in a constant “fed” state, learning to feel your body’s signals may be new too.
Be kind and patient with yourself. Make sure you have access to food and trust yourself. Don’t second guess by saying, “But I had such a big breakfast/lunch/dinner.” Your body knows what it’s doing, trust it.
May you be happy, healthy and well fed,
Regan
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