Hunger, Calorie Restriction, Fat loss, and Motivation

Inevitably, after writing some posts on weight loss and about what worked for me, I read something put out there by someone I trust and admire that seemingly disagrees.  I think if we sat down and talked about it, we'd find we come to some of the same conclusions.  We'd probably also come to some different ones, but I think we would come away respecting each other's opinions just fine.

Once you get used to a diet with the right amount of food in it (as opposed to the literally 11 pounds of food--not counting liquids-- I could eat in a day.  That day goes down in history as my most gluttonous I've had on record.  Maybe not the most gluttonous, but the most gluttonous on record!  One day when I was 16 years old, I weighed 120 pounds, and the next day after using the restroom, I weighed 131!  This was a family reunion day, where breakfast was from 8 to noon, lunch from noon to 4, and dinner from 4 on.  But I digress...) Once you get used to a diet with the right amount of food in it, you will not be hungry, provided that you're eating the right kinds of foods.  But if you're like me, and capable of eating 3 times as many calories as I need in healthy food, it's going to take some record keeping and some willpower, at least to start off.  If the tendencies to overeat and misuse food are entrenched, it's going to take willpower for a long time.

If all you do is count calories, and you continue to eat the same junky food, only less of it, you will remain hungry.  So what comes first?  Counting calories or eating healthy food?  I guess that depends on you and your strengths and weaknesses.

Because I'm capable of eating so much food, I knew that if I switched from unhealthy food to healthy food, I would see some weight loss -or at least not continued weight gain- because there would be some reduction in calories as well as a change in the way my body works based on the food consumed.  But I also know my tendency to eat until I feel like I'm going to pop and that if that's all I did, I could actually (to use an example from something I read) eat 10 chicken breasts and 20 cups of broccoli in a day, which while only twice as much as I needed in a day (remember I had to do this without exercise so my needs were lower) it's still twice as much as I needed.

If, however, you're the sort of person that truly doesn't eat a lot of food, just not healthy food, then you probably need to learn to like healthy food and go with that first.  That was not my problem.

I was a human garbage disposal and liked everything.  I didn't like being hungry, so counting calories forced me to choose foods that would fall within my calorie budget that would keep me feeling satisfied.  That turned out to be meat, healthy fats, veggies, and a limited amount of high fiber, high glycemic index carbs.

And there is a distinction between satisfied and popping full.  Once you eat so that you are satisfied long enough, you realize that it feels pretty good, and that you didn't really feel all that great when you used to eat until you were popping full. 

The "eat more, weigh less" pitches are really seductive to those of us who like to overeat.  We want to eat more.  But what they're saying is not "eat more than you do now."  What they're saying is that you can eat a greater volume of good food and it will be less calories than a smaller volume of garbage that passes for food, and if you eat less calories, you are going to weigh less.  Their focus is not on calories but on the quality of food. 

This works for some people.  Not me.  When I throw out the scale (on vacation) and eat what my husband would turn his nose up at (veggie omelets for breakfast, salads topped with chicken or salmon for lunch and dinner), I come home, step on the scale, and find that I've gained 12 pounds in a week.  I'm just capable of eating that much.  I think people who fall into the obese category, if not dealing with some health issues that complicate things further, are probably like that. 

Along with all of this, needs to be a discussion about what hunger is and what hunger isn't.  Hunger is not a lot of things that those of us who can be ginormous overeaters think it is.  It is not boredom.  It is not the need to celebrate something.  It is not looking at something and thinking that it looks pretty yummy and needs to get in my face right now.  It is not hurt feelings that need comforting.  And if you're like me and used food to satiate those sorts of hungers, then you are going to have to be hungry sometimes when you're not.  You're going to have to learn what hunger in your belly really is, and what a satisfied tummy feels like, and differentiate between that hunger and that satisfaction and all the myriad of ways that you're misusing food.  I sure did!

So, once you start eating the right amounts of the right kinds of food, and get a healthy understanding of what hunger is, no you shouldn't be hungry in order to lose weight.  But the first few days of adjusting to the right amount of food will be really hard.  If you've got a lot to lose, you'll have to adjust that right amount a few times (remember, if you weigh 200 pounds and want to weigh 130, you can't jump right into a 1300 calorie diet--start with 1800 calories and adjust as you get close to 180 pounds down to 1600 calories and so on.) 

Weight loss plans that promise that this will be easy and pain free (except in the gym) sound great.  I don't think they're honest when it comes to the heart and mind issues of someone that truly has a lot to lose.  They're honest in that when you get all of the thinking and behaviors out of the way that caused us to be obese in the first place, what they have to say is true, and they teach us how to rightly think about fitness.  But we didn't get to be an abnormal size by having normal thinking.  Common thinking in our society, yes.  Normal, healthy thinking, no.

Because it is also included in what I read, I'll quickly touch on fat loss vs. weight loss.  Obviously, we want to lose fat when we lose weight and not muscle.  In order to keep muscle, we're going to have to feed it properly, and use it.  The sorts of foods that keep muscle are also the sorts of foods that will keep you satisfied and not hungry.  We can make this really complex or we can make it simple.  Are body fat monitors (bioelectrical feedback) accurate?  Are they useful?  Sometimes, and sometimes. 

They can be accurate, but it sort of depends on the level of hydration you have.  Even if not accurate, but all other factors are constant, they can give you a measurement to monitor, and this is important.  Having something to measure and monitor and keep a record of is important to keep you motivated and on the right track.  Is it better to monitor fat and not overall weight?  This depends on you.  What is going to motivate you?  Not what should motivate you, but what actually will.  And how often do you need it?  Because the percentage of body fat lost compared to the number of pounds lost will always look small, it may not be the motivating factor that you need. 

For example, a person weighing 130 pounds and carrying 18% body fat, has roughly 23 pounds of fat in their body.   This same person, 50 pounds heavier and all the weight coming from fat would be 180 pounds and roughly 40% body fat.  Is it more motivating to watch the fat monitor go from 40 to 18 (a 22% decrease in body fat) or is it more motivating to watch the scale go from 180 to 130 (a 50 pound decrease in weight)  ??  You will see the scale move faster than the fat monitor, just due to sheer numbers.  And if that's what it takes to motivate you to choose the water over the soda, the chicken breast over the cheeseburger, the salad instead of the fries, one piece of chocolate rather than the entire box, to head to the gym when you'd rather watch TV, then that's what will be useful to you, whether it's the *best* monitor for overall fitness or not. 

Having used both bioelectrical feedback and a scale daily at one point in my life, I find that I can better connect what I eat to what I weigh and have a more consistent outcome than bioelectrical feedback.  It just works better for me.  But then, I was using the old sort that you had to hook wires up to various parts of your body and lay still and turn on a machine and wait 3 minutes, so the new bodyfat monitors might be better.  I don't know.

Another corellation to money.  If you're familiar with Dave Ramsey, you know that he talks about tackling your smallest debt first.  It might be the debt with the lowest interest rate and not be the wisest debt to tackle in the overall picture.  But there is a psychology behind that.  Tackle the easiest debt to wipe out first, and you feel success and success is motivating to continue on the path that you're on.  Whatever is going to show you some success and motivate you to keep going, is what you need to do.  Never let the desire to do something perfectly stand in the way of doing it at all.  As you get started, there will always be things you can do better.  So do them better.  There is a saying that anything worth doing is worth doing right.  There is also a saying that anything worth doing is worth doing poorly--and they're both true.