# To lose weight



## Starfire (Sep 22, 2012)

Expect to be hungry - you can't lose weight unless you are hungry and none of the so-called diets tell you this.

To be hungry is natural - you don't have to be content and to lose weight you must burn fat and that means you must be hungry - it's biological

The trick is to be gently hungry and avoid  Hypo's - just on the edge. 

If you are severely over weight - then BE HUNGRY for most of the day


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## Starfire (Sep 22, 2012)

Exercise will not lose you weight unless you are hungry also - the metabolic pathways  say so.


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## Starfire (Sep 26, 2012)

Be hungry - lose weight.

Don't be hungry - don't lose weight.


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## MaryPlain (Sep 26, 2012)

Starfire said:


> Be hungry - lose weight.
> 
> Don't be hungry - don't lose weight.



I disagree with this as it is not my personal experience. I've lost 17lbs since July and if I'm hungry, I eat. Most of the time I'm not hungry despite eating a lot less than I used to. If I feel hungry then I eat something - just not as much as I might have done in the past.

The main thing I do differently is to try to eat protein if I feel hungry instead of carbs, although some of my snacks combine the two. For example I will eat a handful of nuts, a piece of cheese, rather than fruit or a biscuit as before.


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## Starfire (Sep 27, 2012)

The only way to lose weight is  to burn fat tissue and you can't burn fat unless you have nothing else to burn and if you have nothing else to burn - you will be hungry - explain otherwise?


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## lucy123 (Sep 27, 2012)

I disagree.  I dont ever let myself be hungry for more than a second. If I get hungry I eat. I have lost 2 stone in doing this.
I think by encouraging people to be hungry - especially when a lot of weigh is to be lost, all that ends up happening is people get so fed up at feeling hungry they give up - and overeat. Overeating is what makes the weight go up. Going hungry is not a healthy way to lose weight surely.

I think good healthy food when we need it, and stopping before we are full is the healthy way to go.


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## everydayupsanddowns (Sep 27, 2012)

MaryPlain said:


> The main thing I do differently is to try to eat protein if I feel hungry instead of carbs, although some of my snacks combine the two. For example I will eat a handful of nuts, a piece of cheese, rather than fruit or a biscuit as before.



That's very interesting MaryPlain. I had heard that protein etc has a higher satiety index (real word?) as trumpeted in the 'fuller for longer' supermarket lines. I have to agree that carbs seem to have a slightly addictive 'flash and disappear' quality for me even though I'm lucky not to have much of a problem with my weight. I can certainly recognise the sense of having a massive carb blowout and then feeling peckish just a couple of hours later while simultaneously knowing this is ridiculous and that my stomach is certainly still chugging through the last lot. 

There was something in that 3-part BBC2 documentary about research into eating habits, and snacking apparently almost never reduces the size/calorie intake of a subsequent meal. Most of us can just keep eating with no 'off switch'!


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## Andy HB (Sep 27, 2012)

I sort of see where you are coming from, but I think you are overstating it a little.

As for me, over a period of two years I lost around 5st and don't remember being particularly hungry for much of that time beyond the normal hunger pangs before meal times.

As for being hungry most of the day? Nope, not in my case.

Andy


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## StephenM (Sep 27, 2012)

Totally disagree. I have lost some weight but still off my target weight. You do not have to be hungry just eat the "right" food. Veggies and salads contain hardly any calories but plenty of fibre. Also lean meat, such as chicken or beef with all the fat removed, and fish do not make you gain weight unless eaten in vast portions. Being harder to digest they keep you fuller longer.


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## MaryPlain (Sep 27, 2012)

Starfire said:


> The only way to lose weight is  to burn fat tissue and you can't burn fat unless you have nothing else to burn and if you have nothing else to burn - you will be hungry - explain otherwise?



I don't really understand how feelings of hunger work, but I'm pretty sure just from my own experience of life that it's not as simple as you describe. For example, I get severe hunger pangs when my blood sugar is low, but also sometimes when it's high. Hunger does not appear to be a very good guide to how much fat I'm burning, otherwise I'd have been hungry constantly for the past three months, which I haven't.


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## Starfire (Sep 28, 2012)

Low blood sugar triggers detector cells which tell the brain and you feel hungry.

When you eat, the body converts surplus sugar to fat, because it can't store sugar but can store fat - fat is a stored reserve of sugar (fat = sugar = energy)

When your blood sugar is low (you're hungry) the body converts the fat back into sugar which it then uses as an energy source.  (it will even convert muscle if it has no fats - someone actually  starving )

The conversion of fat back to sugar normally can not take place unless your blood sugar is low. (you are hungry)

Hence my statement   ......    face it - you've gotta be hungry  




www.livestrong.com/.../231986-when-does-glucose-convert-to-fat


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## Andy HB (Sep 28, 2012)

I think there are probably genetic and other variations which play a part in this too.

Some people naturally feel 'hungrier' than others hence why some people become morbidly obese wheras others, because their feelings of hunger appear suppressed, become stick thin.

Wheras what you say plays a part, I believe the WHOLE process is more complicated and there are factors that you haven't considered.

I don't claim to be an authority on this, by the way, but anecdotal evidence would seem to support an alternative/modified view to yours. 

Andy


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## Starfire (Sep 28, 2012)

Perhaps Andy, but one of symptoms of an addict is always to make excuses and I play devils advocate       

 p.s. i'm way over weight


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## MaryPlain (Sep 28, 2012)

Starfire said:


> Low blood sugar triggers detector cells which tell the brain and you feel hungry.
> 
> ...snip
> 
> ...



This can't be right, otherwise why do people lose loads of weight pre-diagnosis. I lost two stone in a month before I was diagnosed and I can assure you my blood sugar was not low at any point during that time!

So many people here have told you that they have succeeded in losing weight without being hungry - and yet you continue to assert that this is not possible. Don't you believe us?


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## Starfire (Sep 29, 2012)

The conversion of fat back to sugar *normally* can not take place unless your blood sugar is low or *the glucose detect cells are suppressed*.

perhaps some other system is at work (but I dont know of any) which suppress's hunger but there  is alway's a reason why things happen  so *what's the chemistry and mechanism of this?* 

 Please explain how to convert fat back without having low BG? 

Exercise burns energy and causes low blood glucose which is replaced by converting fat to sugar or are you saying exercise dosen't make you hungry?

Mind you I could be wrong and fat people can convert fat to glucose without 
being hunger - somehow.


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## Katieb (Sep 29, 2012)

Well for me I tend to agree with Mary. Losing weight (if you are overweight) is a simple scientific equation - output needs to be greater than input! Because people's metabolism differs, there is no simple way of calculating a 'one size fits all' foolproof amount! That's why people have to  find what works for them. It is also a well known fact that you can 'train' your stomach to be fuller on less food (if you overeat). Which is why (unless there are medical reasons) anyone who eats less calories, but ups their exercise should lose weight. There is no need to feel hungry - just choose foods with a lower calorific value! I too have lost over 2 stones, have some more to lose and have never gone hungry whilst losing weight. I simply made the right choices! By lowering refined carbs, sugars and fats and upping fruit, veg and protein. That's the theory anyway, the problem is to avoid the foods which are high in fat, sugar and refined carbs - which, as I know, is very difficult to do when you enjoy eating them as I do!!


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## cherrypie (Sep 29, 2012)

There is a chemical process involved in hunger.

How your brain signals your body's need for food.
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-your-brain-signals-your-bodys-need-for-food.html

Could it be that when you are trying to lose weight, the signals are turned off or is it mind over matter where you know you are hungry but decide that losing weight is more important and you devise ways of ignoring the signals?


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## Katieb (Sep 29, 2012)

cherrypie said:


> There is a chemical process involved in hunger.
> 
> How your brain signals your body's need for food.
> http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-your-brain-signals-your-bodys-need-for-food.html
> ...



Agreed Cherrypie. In addition to the subliminal messages sent to the brain via sight, smell etc, the chemical process of converting food has a bearing on hunger ie. we all know that low GI foods take longer to process leaving you feeling fuller for longer and having a lesser impact on BG levels. Katie


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## ceejayblue (Sep 29, 2012)

I have a lot of weight to lose and am Type 2 diabetic. I try to eat sensibly (have good days and bad days) but I'm never hungry when I'm on my healthy eating plan. I certainly think that Starfire is misinformed about having to be hungry to lose weight, its not my idea of a healthy eating plan if you're hungry all the time!

I belong to an on line weightloss group called www.weightlossresources.co.uk, it does cost to belong but I've found lots of great information (in addition to what's on the Diabetes website) and support. When I'm being very good I weigh and log all my food and any exercise (how little - I'm quite lazy that way!). I am losing weight slowly, which is better and I'm never, ever, hungry. If I exercise, I make sure that I log it and it earns me calories that I can chose to eat all of or half of. I know it might not make sense to some people but if you have a look on the website it will explain it far better than I can!

My late mum always said everything in moderation and I try to stick to that ethos too.


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## Starfire (Sep 29, 2012)

Katieb - basically I agree but see 'the-essentials-of-losing-weight-on-a-lowglycemic-d.html' in dummies. 
It is logical, you can't lose weight unless you keep you BG low and you will be hungry. If you go slow perhaps you don't notice the hunger so much..

But:-   


If you can lose weight without low BG - tell me about it - i'm dieing to try.


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## Mark T (Sep 29, 2012)

Define low BG!

I get hungry when I'm at about 4 mmol/L (sometime as high as 5mmol/l).  But I'm definitely not that low all of the time and I'm not hungry all of the time.

You can loose weight with very high BG (say 30+) - but doing that is pretty much heading towards HONK or DKA - so best avoided.

The bigger issue for me is how to distract yourself from feeling hungry.  Most of the time when I get nibbly isn't because I'm hungry.  It's because I'm bored/idle.  So as long as I can do something to keep my mind off it - I can avoid snacking.

I also find that I can get naughty.  Because I tend to eat moderate to low carbs, you have to make up the energy requirement in other ways.  For me thats generally fat's (nuts!) - but I find I can easily empty a 200g packet of nuts very quickly   (even unsalted nuts)


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## Starfire (Sep 29, 2012)

Define low BG! ->     when you are hungry!  

serious though many good folk here say they don't feel hungry when losing weight and I must take that fact on-board but I don't understand this - for me low BG means hunger.

How-ever I can be wrong and I am not afraid to be wrong as the average here say otherwise. I am perplexed - perhaps they suppress hunger somehow.

Two other facts;-  When I was a child during the war and just after - people were much thinner and diabetes was unheard of because of the very low incidence, ( in the days of animal insulin ) also the weight increase in modern society has a reason and I think because we don't accept hunger as normal and natural. 


But still the devils advocate


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## MaryPlain (Sep 29, 2012)

Starfire said:


> Katieb - basically I agree but see 'the-essentials-of-losing-weight-on-a-lowglycemic-d.html' in dummies.
> It is logical, you can't lose weight unless you keep you BG low and you will be hungry. If you go slow perhaps you don't notice the hunger so much..
> 
> But:-
> ...



Have a look at the "what did you eat yesterday" thread. I've been posting what I eat nearly every day, and have been averaging 1.5lbs a week weight loss. I did not start of hugely overweight, just slightly overweight, and I'm now a healthy weight for my height. I'm not suffering from any more low blood sugars than normal, because I've adjusted my insulin (both basal and bolus) to accommodate my lower carb intake. If I hadn't done this then I would be having hypos all the time and having to treat these, which would have prevented me losing so much weight. I have found that I don't need to eat much at all to stave off hunger pangs. The temptation when hungry before a meal is to eat more but it's not necessary, I have found.


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## Mark T (Sep 29, 2012)

The thing is, if you say that you needed to be hungry to loose weight then probably you do.  Diabetes is individual for each one of us - which is why any sweeping generalisation will often turn out to be wrong.

Interestingly, if you are a post war child, then you are my fathers generation.  My fathers father was also diabetic (on insulin).


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## Starfire (Sep 30, 2012)

MaryPlain - Where is the thread? ( sorry I'm a bit thick )


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## MaryPlain (Sep 30, 2012)

Starfire said:


> MaryPlain - Where is the thread? ( sorry I'm a bit thick )



It's in the General Forum - sorry, I should have said. It's on the front page near the top as I've just posted in it!


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## Starfire (Sep 30, 2012)

Thanks  MaryPlain


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## LeeLee (Oct 5, 2012)

*Not hungry and 4st lighter*

Since the first couple of weeks of the weight reduction routine started 6 months ago, I seldom feel hungry except when I'm supposed to - i.e. shortly before meals.  I rarely feel the urge to snack, but make sure there are suitable 'good' snacks available if necessary.  Having one of those gives me an opportunity to polish the halo!

To stave off the hunger pangs before meals, I always carry a supply of sugar free VERY strong mints or chewing gum.  They take the edge off it for long enough to prepare something sensible.  They are also a godsend on shopping trips.  With one of those in one's gob it's just about possible to walk past the pasty shop without going in.


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