Real hunger vs. fake hunger

M Shirley Chong wrote:
:: DJ DeLorie wrote:
::
::::: I've done multi-day fasts. I've done very low cal diets. The
::::: "true hunger" feeling kicks in, but stays constant for me and
::::: doesn't
::::: result
::::: in me passing out.
::
:: Roger Zoul wrote:
::
::: But you'd be weak and light headed, right? Not a good condition,
::: imo. Surely, your body has turned to feeding upon itself by now.
::
:: I can't speak for DJ and my experience was different (I didn't feel
:: hungry at all after the second day).
::
:: A lot of people assumed I would feel weak and light headed but it
:: wasn't so. And I didn't curtail my activity level, either. Just
:: lived my usual life except without eating.
::
:: I think if I got below a certain minimum bodyweight I'd probably
:: start to feel weak, dizzy, etc, but I'm a long way (unfortunately)
:: from facing that problem.
::
::: Well, my guess is that during time when man had to wait long
::: periods before getting to eat again, those constant hunger signals
::: would have been bothersome. Hence, the body adapts by "lightening
::: up" a bit so as not to interfere with the process of getting food.
::: Just my theory, mind you.
::
:: Keep in mind that for many types of sensory stimulation the nervous
:: system habituates if it goes on long enough. One fairly well known
:: phenomenon is that of becoming insensitive to a certain scent,
:: leading one to apply more and more of it.
::
:: A constant state is more likely to become habituated than an
:: inconsistant state. I think, based on my own experience only, that
:: hunger falls into the category of "easily habituated" if it doesn't
:: change much.

Interesting comments, Shirley!

Luna wrote ...
You know how sometimes you're not hungry in the sense that your body needs
nutrition, but you "just feel like eating"? This can be for different
reasons with different people, emotional eating, boredom, oral fixation,
etc. I call this "mouth hungry" as opposed to "stomach hungry."

Totally. Pre-LC I was constantly 'mouth-hungry' for empty carb junk like
chips, etc and it was what kept me eating long after I was no longer
'stomach hungry.'

It was all about the taste, for me.

These days I don't usually eat between meals because there are no LC snacks
that appeal to me, which makes life much simpler (except pork rinds, but
they're nearly impossible to find in this backward little country).

Rachel
(New Zealand)