by Dr. Rodriguez on February 12, 2010
Hunger is a normal body signal. The body uses hunger to signal when it needs fuel. It’s possible, however, to mess up this natural and adaptive function and many people do it by stringent, yo-yo dieting and subscribing to dieting myths.
If a person has never dieted they don’t give a second thought to hunger. They simply eat when they feel hungry and stop when they feel satisfied. When a person listens to their body’s hunger, they start eating before the hunger gets too uncomfortable for them. The more intense the hunger, the more the body pushes a person to eat. After all, it’s the body’s job to try to keep the body alive and food is essential to survival.
The problem comes in when people get in the way of this natural system by doing things like ignoring hunger to avoid eating and or confusing other things such as thirst or emotions for hunger.
Most people can remember a time when they had natural control of food and ate primarily when they were hungry instead of fighting hunger. Psychologically, the more we try to ignore hunger, the more preoccupied we get with food and the harder it becomes to keep from overeating.
Simple Steps to Control Hunger
There are simple ways to control hunger and they involve paying attention to hunger rather than fighting it. Just follow the simple steps below:
- Use a hunger rating scale from 0 to 5. Zero represents no hunger at all, while 5 represents a level of hunger when we feel “famished.” This is when we have trouble thinking of anything else but food, we might even feel lightheaded, shaky, and irritable.
- Several times per day, stop and rate your level of hunger at that moment.
- The goal is to eat whenever your hunger gets to a 3. You feel hunger but it’s not intense and you feel in control.
- Try to prevent hunger from going beyond a rating of 3.
- If you find your hunger level to be above a 3, eat as soon as possible but focus on eating nutritious combinations of carbohydrates (such as whole wheat crackers) and protein (such as peanut butter, cheese, of low fat meat). The combination of protein and carbs helps to get your blood sugar back up to a normal level and keeping it there longer rather than spiking up and then crashing again. Eating only carbs or sugary foods tends to leads to intense levels of hunger and compulsive overeating.
Hunger is nothing to be afraid of nor should it be ignored. Controlling hunger is simple. Feed your body when it’s telling you it needs fuel rather than when it’s screaming at you. Enjoy.
Tagged as:
compulsive eating,
control hunger,
lose weight
by Dr. Rodriguez on January 25, 2010
Recently, on the Dr. Oz Show, diet pills were discussed. Dr. Oz had several guests on the show who had used different types of diet pills and found the experience to be a disappointing one and, in some cases, a potentially dangerous one.
Appetite suppressants are a popular diet aid these days but it’s not the first time they have been popular. Appetite suppressants resurface every decade or so.
The diet pill industry is currently a two billion dollar per year business so it’s obvious many people are using them in their attempts to lose weight and many people are making money on their popularity. But are they safe and are they effective?
Dr. Oz points out that prescription appetite suppressants can be risky to use. Some of the common side effects of such medications are problems with sleep, heart palpitations and an increase in heart rate. These can result in an increased risk of heart attack and stroke.
The Psychology of Using Diet Pills
From a psychological perspective there are also problems with prescription appetite suppressants that make them a poor choice for lasting weight loss.
- Crutch Effect – People tend to use appetite suppressants as a crutch. The suppressant effect is real but it tends to make the individual have a false sense of security. It feels so easy to lose weight that the person wants to think that it’s natural when it’s not. The focus is on the weight being lost rapidly rather than the behavior changes that need to be made to make the weight loss permanent.
- Temporary Effect – Appetite suppressants are drugs that are not supposed to be taken for a long period of time and definitely not for a lifetime. Their suppressant effect is also temporary. As soon as the drug is discontinued, the appetite returns leaving the person back where they started and in a position to regain the lost weight.
- Denial Effect – The unnatural suppressant effect tends to make people want to deny that they are vulnerable to regaining their weight. Instead, they tend to believe that “this will really be the last time” they fail at a diet. In reality, the effect usually ends up being another cycle of weight lost and regained.
- Failure Effect – It’s a fact that 90% of dieting attempts fail. It’s no less true with prescription appetite suppressants. People on appetite suppressants tend to not work as hard on behavior change as those that don’t use appetite suppressants. Without behavior change, any weight loss is going to be temporary and disillusioning.
Natural Appetite Suppressants
If appetite suppression is what you’re looking for, there are some natural things that can be used in a healthy weight loss program that can help.
- Aerobic exercise – this type of exercise is known to have an appetite suppressant effect when used on a regular basis.
- Fiber – having a high fiber diet causes the sensation of more fullness and, therefore, faster satiation and less eating
- Nutrition – a highly nutritious diet supplies the body with everything it needs and reduces cravings from the body that is trying to get us to eat what it lacks.
- Water – water is filling and also eliminates cravings to eat that are mistaken for hunger rather than thirst.
- Active lifestyle – a lifestyle that is active and fun leads to emotional balance. This in turn prevents emotional cravings to eat.
Most people who are successful at managing their weight loss for a lifetime have done it by using the above five points rather than prescription appetite suppressants. It’s in the overweight person’s best interest to become knowledgeable about the truth about diet pills.
Tagged as:
appetite suppresants,
diet pills,
Dieting,
Weight Loss
by Dr. Rodriguez on January 3, 2010
Is it time to set a New Year resolution to lose the weight again? All the TV shows that give advice to people are having segments on starting your 2010 diet, how to lose those pounds from the holidays and so on. This could be the first year in a long time that you will decide that you will not buy into the gimmicks anymore. This time you will focus on gradually changing your lifestyle to one that will take you, not only in the direction of getting leaner and fitter, but more importantly, in the direction of making these changes last a lifetime. Remember the tortoise and hare? The hare is like the people who go on diet after diet only to lose weight and regain it time and time again. The tortoise knows exactly what he is doing and keeps his focus even when the hare seems to be passing him by. The tortoise will reach the goal before the hare even if at a slower pace. The tortoise wins. This year make the resolution to not make another New Year resolution to lose weight. Make it a lifetime resolution to be fit and healthy the right way.
Tagged as:
diets,
lose weight,
new year,
new year's resolutions and weight,
succeed at weight loss
