Unfortunately people respond differently to hunger.
Someone I know is trying to lose weight. Problem is, if they go ~100 kcal below maintenance they turn into a stress eater. ~200 below and they are unable to stop themselves from eating 400 kcal worth of food straight or of the fridge at night. All that on top of being hangry all day.
So losing weight means balancing the diet very carefully because that’s not much space between eating enough to maintain the weight and eating so little that hunger overrides reason and overcompensates.
For other people going below maintenance is just kinda uncomfortable but easily doable for a couple days. Advice like “just eat less” actually works for them without having to make a whole science out of it.
Yeah but that is how you lose weight. It’s one thing to be unwilling to do it because of a mental block. It’s another thing entirely to impart that mental block on others as a way of feeling better about their own shortcomings.
It’s quite important that you do not make the mistake of thinking that if you tell someone it is easy to do, because you find it easy to do, that does not make it easy for them to do.
With a kid, for example, you can tell them this and they will believe that it’s easy for everyone, then try it and fail, and suddenly believe they are fucking stupid and it must be their fault entirely. Which makes them feel bad. Which might make them eat more, or become anorexic, or any one of a number of eating disorders.
So instead, realise that there are many factors here beyond energy in and activity out. Those are important, but not the whole story. Be kind, and take your time.
It’s true. I remember when I could go most of the day without eating and feel nothing but minor hunger, which was easy to ignore.
But now I’m in my 30s, and if I try to skip lunch it’s like my entire body goes into revolt. Lethargy, headaches, mood changes, the works. My metabolism has changed with age and now the effects of blood sugar actually pack a punch.
People always underestimate the endocrine system. Your frontal cortex and everything that you are is basically just a tool for your endocrine system to use to get food and sex.
It’s why eating less is so hard for some people. If the endocrine system is being pushy, it can just make you not care about your goal, and not many people can do something uncomfortable that they don’t want to do in furtherance of a goal they don’t care about.
Healthy, stable eating habits need to come before weight loss eating habits, and that needs to be paired with light excercise as you build up.
Like taming a wild animal. Some people just have a capybara, and others have some sort of ocelot that’s addicted to meth. Most people have dogs. Gotta ease in, but once you get started it’s fine as long as you don’t traumatize the poor beastie.
True. Also don’t underestimate your gut microbiome. Those bacteria and fungi can have a distressing amount of control over you and if your microbiome is out of whack it can make it much more difficult to develop decent eating habits.
Sounds easy but we’re deep in “draw the rest of the fucking owl” territory here.
For some people the threshold for healthy eating habits is low. I have to actively try to gain weight and I can handle slight hunger well so for me very little would have to change on a diet.
That person I mentioned, on the other hand, has to pre-plan their nutrition for a week down to the macronutrients of each single meal, just like a bodybuilder. A planning mistake will most likely result in binge eating. And yes, they would eat half a loaf of full-grain bread at night if nothing else was there.
So for someone like them advice like “have some self control and don’t buy junk food” is about as helpful as “have you tried not being poor”. Getting their endocrine system and gut microbiome to accept anything below maintenance calories is a long and nontrivial journey.
Unfortunately people respond differently to hunger.
Someone I know is trying to lose weight. Problem is, if they go ~100 kcal below maintenance they turn into a stress eater. ~200 below and they are unable to stop themselves from eating 400 kcal worth of food straight or of the fridge at night. All that on top of being hangry all day.
So losing weight means balancing the diet very carefully because that’s not much space between eating enough to maintain the weight and eating so little that hunger overrides reason and overcompensates.
For other people going below maintenance is just kinda uncomfortable but easily doable for a couple days. Advice like “just eat less” actually works for them without having to make a whole science out of it.
Yeah but that is how you lose weight. It’s one thing to be unwilling to do it because of a mental block. It’s another thing entirely to impart that mental block on others as a way of feeling better about their own shortcomings.
It’s quite important that you do not make the mistake of thinking that if you tell someone it is easy to do, because you find it easy to do, that does not make it easy for them to do.
With a kid, for example, you can tell them this and they will believe that it’s easy for everyone, then try it and fail, and suddenly believe they are fucking stupid and it must be their fault entirely. Which makes them feel bad. Which might make them eat more, or become anorexic, or any one of a number of eating disorders.
So instead, realise that there are many factors here beyond energy in and activity out. Those are important, but not the whole story. Be kind, and take your time.
Yeah and I haven’t said it was easy I just said it’s how you do it
It’s true. I remember when I could go most of the day without eating and feel nothing but minor hunger, which was easy to ignore.
But now I’m in my 30s, and if I try to skip lunch it’s like my entire body goes into revolt. Lethargy, headaches, mood changes, the works. My metabolism has changed with age and now the effects of blood sugar actually pack a punch.
People always underestimate the endocrine system. Your frontal cortex and everything that you are is basically just a tool for your endocrine system to use to get food and sex.
It’s why eating less is so hard for some people. If the endocrine system is being pushy, it can just make you not care about your goal, and not many people can do something uncomfortable that they don’t want to do in furtherance of a goal they don’t care about.
Healthy, stable eating habits need to come before weight loss eating habits, and that needs to be paired with light excercise as you build up.
Like taming a wild animal. Some people just have a capybara, and others have some sort of ocelot that’s addicted to meth. Most people have dogs. Gotta ease in, but once you get started it’s fine as long as you don’t traumatize the poor beastie.
True. Also don’t underestimate your gut microbiome. Those bacteria and fungi can have a distressing amount of control over you and if your microbiome is out of whack it can make it much more difficult to develop decent eating habits.
Changing to healthier eating habits will make managing hunger easier. Also self control and just not keeping easy junk food around.
Sounds easy but we’re deep in “draw the rest of the fucking owl” territory here.
For some people the threshold for healthy eating habits is low. I have to actively try to gain weight and I can handle slight hunger well so for me very little would have to change on a diet.
That person I mentioned, on the other hand, has to pre-plan their nutrition for a week down to the macronutrients of each single meal, just like a bodybuilder. A planning mistake will most likely result in binge eating. And yes, they would eat half a loaf of full-grain bread at night if nothing else was there.
So for someone like them advice like “have some self control and don’t buy junk food” is about as helpful as “have you tried not being poor”. Getting their endocrine system and gut microbiome to accept anything below maintenance calories is a long and nontrivial journey.