This post discusses the past 12 months where I’ve had the opportunity to work closely with a group of individuals, who, for various reasons, acknowledged the necessity to return their body composition to its original and intended state.

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It became clear the instinctive trigger of “hunger” played the most significant role in <a href="http://balancehealthprograms.com.au/wp-content/uploads/HUNGER.png"><img class="alignright wp-image-2717 size-medium" src="http://balancehealthprograms.com.au/wp-content/uploads/HUNGER-300x115.png" alt="HUNGER" width="300" height="115" /></a>weight loss, and towards continued lifestyle weight management.

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When starting their “reboot journey”, all 9 subjects were visibly and medically assessed to be potentially at high (ill-health) risk. And, I’m talking about 30-40 years prematurely at risk. Yikes!
While I usually offer names and photos in case studies, I will refrain in this post. But the principles they all followed are clearly represented.

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Of note - all members, who didn’t know each other, were genetically highly intolerant to carbohydrates (namely; simple sugars). All were instinctively lead towards sugars when under emotional lifestyle stress or tiredness. And all believed the main ingredient towards weight loss was to simply reduce total calories. And, given the staple message from Health Experts and Governments over the last 40 years they had every right to believe this dogma to be correct.

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Oh, and if you’re thinking they all lead predominately sedentary sloth-like lifestyles, you’re wrong. They were no less sedentary than the average. Which, OK, is not great, but incidentally, they all logged a few extra heart beats per day.
<blockquote><span style="color: #008080;">I kicked off our journey offering this legendary experiment – based on the biochemistry of hunger.</span>

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Immediately post WW2 an experiment was conducted on the psychology and physiology of human starvation — and, thus, on hunger. More so, it became an experiment on caloric deprivation.

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For 24 weeks 36 subjects (some overweight, some not) were semi-starved on 1600 calories a day. Note, the average male would consume around 3,500 cals per day. Making up those 1600 cals where foods that represented “normal” European choices – that being: “whole-wheat bread, potatoes, cereals and considerable amounts of turnips and cabbage” with “token amounts” of meat and dairy. So basically a low cal, low fat diet (with only 17% coming from fat).

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Over the first 12 weeks subjects lost an average of 400grams of stored fat per week. Fat <a href="http://balancehealthprograms.com.au/wp-content/uploads/Vincent_Willem_van_Gogh_002.jpg"><img class="alignright wp-image-2715 size-medium" src="http://balancehealthprograms.com.au/wp-content/uploads/Vincent_Willem_van_Gogh_002-234x300.jpg" alt="Vincent_Willem_van_Gogh_002" width="234" height="300" /></a>loss dropped to an average of 100 grams per week for the last 12 weeks of the experiment period. Also assessed &amp; noted was consistent swelling of extremities, hair loss and skin irritations, and most complained of feeling continually cold and recurrently complained of joint aches.

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More alarming were the psychological effects. The men became depressed, lethargic, ill-tempered and lost their libido. They obsessed about food, day and night. The researchers called this “semi-starvation neurosis.” Two had breakdowns, one with talk of suicide and another displayed repeated threats of violence.” He was eventually committed to the psychiatric ward.
When the imposed semi-starvation ended, the subjects were allowed to “refeed.” The men consumed prodigious amounts of food (their choice), up to 10,000 calories a day. They regained weight and fat with remarkable speed. After 20 weeks of recovery, they averaged 50 percent more body fat than they had when it began — “post-starvation obesity,” the researchers called it.

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So my point to our group was, hunger, or food deprivation, will likely lead to (serious) metabolic, and perhaps more damaging, psychological challenges.
<blockquote><span style="color: #008080;">Stripping back on cals with low-satiating foods will only lead brain pathways going on the war path towards all things that make us fat (in most cases). Employing lifestyle pliable self –discipline WILL NOT WORK.</span></blockquote>
Just don’t eat, just eat less, just eat veggies and salad, simply drink this chocolate protein shake every morning, just start with these supplements – ALL OF IT IS RUBBISH! It’s doesn’t work and never will.

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<span style="color: #993366;"><strong>Let’s talk about hunger!</strong></span>
When your stomach feels full you probably do not feel hungry and when your stomach is empty you probably experience the trigger of “go eat”. Researchers used to believe that the feeling of hunger comes from our stomach. To test the theory out, they made some bloke swallow a balloon and inflated the balloon inside his stomach.

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He felt full for awhile. But after a few hours he began to feel hungry again (even with the full stomach). The bloke showed us that hunger does not come just from our stomach. In fact, most of the biological feeling of hunger comes from the brain in a structure called the hypothalamus.

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There are two areas on the hypothalamus that control hunger. First, there is the lateral hypothalamus that, if stimulated, causes you to feel hunger. So every time you feel hungry, you know your lateral hypothalamus is working. If I took a knife and cut your lateral hypothalamus, you would NEVER again feel hungry from a physical perspective.  Consequently you could expect to lose a tun of weight – including your legs!!

Next there is the ventromedial hypothalamus, which, when stimulated, makes you feel full. <a href="http://balancehealthprograms.com.au/wp-content/uploads/ROAMINGHUUNER.png"><img class="alignright wp-image-2716 " src="http://balancehealthprograms.com.au/wp-content/uploads/ROAMINGHUUNER-292x300.png" alt="ROAMINGHUUNER" width="257" height="264" /></a>Whenever you eat a big meal and don't even want to think about eating another bite, the ventromedial hypothalamus is doing its job - well. If I cut out your ventromedial hypothalamus, you would never feel full again (much like a dog), and, without this gauge, it’s likely you’ll be seriously over-fat – and quickly.

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If the hypothalamus is functioning normally, these two areas oppose each other and signal impulses to eat and stop eating at appropriate times. Set-point theory describes how the hypothalamus might decide what impulse to send (via the hormone leptin – discussed in other posts). This theory states that the hypothalamus wants to maintain a certain optimum body weight. When we drop below that weight, the hypothalamus tells us we should eat and lowers our metabolic rate- how quickly our body uses energy. The hypothalamus tells us to stop eating when that set point is reached and raises our metabolic rate to burn any excess food.

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<span style="color: #993366;"><strong>Psychological Factors in Hunger Motivation</strong></span>
Some of us eat even though our hypothalamus is not sending us any cues. If you are motivated to eat by external cues, such as stress, smell, or just the fact that food is in front of you, then you are driven by external means. If you are more motivated to eat by internal cues, empty stomach, feelings of hunger, then you are an internal. Most of us are a combination of both, although my group seemed to be very much on the external side of the fence.

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In PART 2, we’ll discuss finding appropriate foods that switched on the ventromedial hypothalamus - quickly – AND – kept it switched ON for long periods of time. Equally, it<a href="http://balancehealthprograms.com.au/wp-content/uploads/hea.jpg"><img class="alignright wp-image-2718" src="http://balancehealthprograms.com.au/wp-content/uploads/hea.jpg" alt="hea" width="213" height="142" /></a> also became important to select food type, volume and timing to prevent the lateral hypothalamus from cranking into overdrive.

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If this happened it was good night nurse – game over!
Foods that encouraged ventromedial hypothalamus drive, seems to have an improved (calming) influence on behaviour. Meaning, if we could control hunger, we had a far better chance of controlling emotional stress – which – often lead towards poor choices – and lots of it.

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BP