Biologically, our body will gain weight and we could eventually become overweight. Our body will stop growing and our metabolism will be lower than when we were younger. This would be an indication that we should start a dieting session and lose excess weight. Diet is essentially about calorie restriction, although it could mean that we would feel hungry most of the time. For many people dieting is an unpleasant activity, because hunger is designed as an unpleasant signal that urges us to eat due the lack of immediately usable energy source. However, many diet clubs and even many experts overlook or disregard the importance of managing hunger. In fact, it could be considered as the source of downfall for many dieters. It is a sad fact that people pay a good deal of money for programs in diet club and they become miserable because they don’t know how to handle hunger. Many people fail in hunger management, causing them to become overweight and lose a lot of money in the process. It is a sad fact because weight loss is a big industry and some people become richer by taking money from people who end up becoming fatter than before.
So, when we start to become a bit hungry, what we should do? Hunger is just a natural and predictable reaction. It would happen if the only source of energy available is our fat layer. So, when feel hungry, then it is an indication that our body has started to convert fat into energy. A successful diet is about ensuring negative calorie balance. When we start a dieting problem, we will start to feel quite hungry during lunch, if we eat much less during breakfast. The real challenge is that we will have a strong urge to eat more during lunch to counterbalance the condition. Hunger will be accompanied with fatigue and weakness. So, people will likely to exercise less than before. If we feel tired, it’s more likely that we will have sedentary lifestyle. This will be a bad thing, because our lack of activity could compensate for the reduced calorie intake. It means that we will lose weight slowly and in some cases, we may still gain weight. When we are hungry, our body’s thermostat will become lower and our basal metabolic rate will go down, which further makes us lose weight slower.
In some cases, we need to observe how our body respond during the starvation mode. During the first week, we may not need to have an aim to lose weight. We should simply need to learn how our body responds during this period. We may try to perform exercise like we did previously and see whether we could perform well. Fortunately, our body could adapt to hunger and lack of food. It will readjust itself and operate at lower calorie intake. In general, we should look for ways to tell our body to start to go action and get used to the new condition.