‘People often say that willpower doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing. That’s why we recommend it daily’ – Zig Ziglar
But when it comes to feeling hungry when we are trying to lose weight – does it really have to be all about willpower?
Absolutely not, I say!
Relying on sheer willpower alone is not the way to healthy, long-term, sustainable weight management. It is (at best) a short-term solution only. One that, sooner or later, will fizzle out in the face of an extra stressful day at work, sick kids, unexpected financial pressure, or just one of life’s ever-reliable curve balls that we can expect to come our way.
And that’s why I believe it’s far better off to fully understand just what hunger is. How your inner signals work, and what can actually mess up the whole system - driving cravings and making you feel hungry when your body doesn’t actually need food.
Meet Your Appetite Specialists
Keeping a healthy balance between true hunger and satiety (i.e. feeling full and satisfied after a meal) is quite a complex process that your body is continually monitoring and adjusting. From an evolutionary point of view, we have relied on our body to signal the need to find food (when we’ve needed nutrients and energy to sustain life), as well as ‘switching off’ the drive for food at the appropriate times so that attention could be diverted to other important aspects of life. Our hunger signalling mechanisms really have evolved with us, from a time where food was no-where near as easy to come by as it is today.
When our hunger signals are balanced and working well, here are some of the key players:
- The Hypothalamus, which is a part of our brain that is closely monitoring the quantity and composition of the food that we are eating, and balancing this with the energy demands of our day-to-day activities. In a nutshell, our hypothalamus essentially drives our eating behaviours.
- Ghrelin is our ‘hunger hormone’ and stimulates our appetite. In someone who is a healthy weight, ghrelin increases before a meal and decreases up to 30 minutes after eating.
- Leptin in a way is the opposite of ghrelin, as it is the ‘satiety’ hormone that tells your brain you are full. It is produced by cells in your gut (as these are keeping tabs on what you have been eating) as well as fat cells, with the purpose of providing information to your brain about how much stored energy you have available.
- Insulin & Glucagon are two hormones that help us to regulate our blood sugar levels. In a healthy person, these help keep a steady supply of energy to our organs, muscles and brain. Insulin and glucagon also play a central role in deciding whether we burn up the food that we eat for energy, or whether we store it as fat.
- Dopamine is a neurotransmitter (brain chemical) that is responsible for that ‘boost’ we feel when we eat a food we particularly enjoy. Dopamine can also drive binge eating and food addiction – something that food manufacturers are well aware of, and they have worked out how to manipulate our hunger signals to help make their product irresistible (more on this topic here).
A special mention also needs to be included for our microbiome (aka our unique collection of gut bacteria). As it turns out, our gut health also plays a role in appetite and cravings – in fact, having too much of certain types of bacteria in the gut can actually cause you to crave certain unhealthy foods!
When things go haywire…
When our body is in a healthy state, these signals will be kicking in at the right times. In other words, you’ll get hungry when your body needs food, feel full when you’ve had the right quantity, and not experience overwhelming cravings, energy slumps or an urge to go see what’s in the fridge at 2am.
The trouble is that our modern food supply, coupled with our present-day lifestyle habits, has made it very easy for our hunger signals to be thrown out of whack. The impact of stress, too many processed foods/sugar/alcohol, poor quality sleep, and generally sitting on our be-hinds for a good proportion of our day has meant that our hunger signals don’t necessarily switch on at the right time. Or (probably more importantly) they don’t actually switch off - leading to a tendency to overeat, and crave the kinds of foods that fill a hole in the stomach but don’t do much to nourish our body.
How to hack the system
The good news is that encouraging healthy, appropriate hunger signals (that provide our body with the insight about the right kinds and portions of food ideal for us) can actually be easier than you think. The key really is that when our body is properly nourished, it is a very powerful tool that can be used to bring hunger signals into line.
Here are some tips for re-setting your hunger signals, just with a few simple tweaks:
- Ensure that you are getting enough protein. Protein helps us feel fuller for longer, as well as helping to keep our blood sugar levels (and therefore, insulin & glucagon) steady. Aim to include foods like lean meats/poultry/seafood, eggs, whole milk yoghurt (sheep and goat’s products can be a gentle alternative if you struggle with cow’s dairy), legumes, or nuts and seeds with your main meals.
- Include healthy fats in your day. These not only help to provide a flavour and texture boost to your food, they also help you feel satisfied after a meal. Extra virgin olive oil, flaxseeds (or oil), avocadoes, oily fish and raw nuts are great sources of beneficial fats.
- Swap, don’t deprive. It’s all too easy to fall into the trap of ‘all or nothing’. Rather than taking the approach that you need to be super-strict with your food all the time, look at each meal as an opportunity to embellish! For instance, can you swap legume pasta for your usual white pasta? Add some grated veggies to a mince dish? Choose a hearty chicken salad instead of a burger? Add some nuts & seeds to your morning porridge? There really are plenty of ways you can boost your nutrient intake over the course of the day, to help you stay satisfied for longer.
- Be proactive about stress. Whilst we don’t have control over everything that happens to us on a daily basis, we do have a great deal of power over how we deal with the challenges that come our way. Schedule regular time-out – whether that’s an activity you enjoy, moving your body, playing with your kids or dog or simply putting your headphones on and listening to some music that makes you feel good. Here’s a sneak peek into my own self-care routine, if you need more ideas.
Want to make it even easier? Here’s how you can take the guesswork out
One of the great things about our highly successful Metabolic Balance personalised nutrition program is that our participants report that hunger and cravings disappear VERY quickly once they start eating from their list of ideal foods. The reason for this is quite simple. Our participants are:
- Eating foods that are rich in nutrients that keep blood sugar levels steady
- Getting enough protein and healthy fats are included in the right proportions for them
- Resetting hormones to switch into burning fat for energy rather than storing it
- Taking a break from highly processed foods that mess with their system
- Establishing a healthier relationship with food, to move out of that endless diet-binge-diet cycle.
If you’d like to know more about how our personalised nutrition program can help YOU – we’d love to have a chat!
Simply take that first step, and book your Initial Appointment here.