Fear of Hunger

[szymon]

Hey there,

So I found this diet last week, and it seems like a godsend. I need a diet that works on Psychology rather than Arithmetic, and gives me simple guidelines based on common sense.

My problem (and the reason I'm writing) is that I've found myself being scared of going hungry. This leads to me eating excessively large regular meals, larger than I would normally eat, to ensure that I don't go hungry. Irrational, I know. But most fears are. And this one does have a certain morbid logic about it.

I think part of it is that, since I have convinced myself I cannot have seconds, I take more in the first place to ensure that I'll not *want* seconds. Kinda going against the spirit of the rule! Then, when it's on the plate, I'll eat the damn food because I don't want it going to waste. In some ways, it's actually *worse* than having seconds, because at least there I can make a decision *not* to eat them if I don't want to!

I'm probably eating around the same number of calories a day as I used to with the snacking and seconds and sweets. I know consciously I should just be taking smaller portions. But the subconscious fear of hunger is stopping me. So, I'd appreciate any suggestions you have

-simon

[kccc]

That seems to be a normal initial stage.

It will pass. You'll naturally get better at estimating how much you want to eat over time.

Some ideas that may help...

- Try leaving a little food on your plate on purpose, to get over the "clean plate habit." (Better it go to waste than to waist!)
- Go ahead and get hungry once so you learn it really won't kill you.
- Check the "Dealing with Hunger" thread for ideas that may work for you.

Go the 21 days and see where you are.

[MerryKat]

Relax and don't get stressed over your meals. Once your body (and brain) realise that no snacks does not equal starvation, the meals size will also reduce in size.

My breakfast (in particular) was huge when I first started No S and now it has reduced back to nearly what it was before I started. All of my meals are still slightly more than before No S, but I am not pigging out with huge platefuls any more.

[reinhard]

szymon,

At the beginning, big firsts are fine.

If you can stick with this for a week, even if you're not actually eating any less than you were before, you've made progress in terms of self-discipline and habit. The most important, most enforceable part is sticking with the three plates.

And I have a feeling that you won't even need further conscious intervention to get your portions sizes down, because it looks so bad, and that will grate at you until eventually they're whittled down a bit.

I also think that even if your single plate meals seem huge, they're probably smaller than your multi plate meals use to be. The excess wasn't obvious before, but it was still there -- probably more so, because it bypasssed any sense of shame. I read in the nytimes recently about an experiment showing that people who were told to fill up their plates in the kitchen just once ate on average 14% less than people who kept serving plates on the table and could opt for seconds.

Hunger isn't a disease. It isn't going to kill you (and least, not the kind of hunger we're talking about here). It's natural and can even be pleasant ("hunger is the best sauce"). I remember reading something about one of the "lost boys" of Sudan being shocked that people in the U.S. ate as *many* as 3 meals a day here -- he used to consider himself lucky to get one (I have to wonder what anachronistic part of the country he was in where people still limited themselves to 3). 3 meals is plenty, and any hunger you feel in between them is something you can either get used to or even recast as something positive.

Reinhard

[hexagon]

I totally hear you about a plan that addresses psychology...Other regimens would infuriate me because they solely focused upon calories or types of foods. I always wanted to say "Hello! Our ability to do addition is not the problem!"

I'd say you might want to experiment a bit and see what you can handle, hunger-wise. You might be surprised at how little food it takes to keep you sated, but you won't find that out unless you try it. I've found it to be a balancing act. Some hunger is okay, but then again you don't want to get so hungry that you'll reach for the jar of pickled whale lard with carob powder. Everybody's different, so you would have to find where your balance is.

It took a little bit of playing around (actually, long before I stumbled upon the No S site) but I eventually found that due to my extended working hours, four well-defined small meals works best for me physically. After all, Reinhard never specified the number of meals. That way, I'm getting regular small inputs of food so I don't become dizzy with hunger, instead of loading up three plates with a lot more food.

Maybe you could experiment with cutting your portions on 3 squares a day, and have one mini-meal (e.g. an apple and a small handful of roasted soynuts) ready in case you start to really starve. Maybe you would think of this as a snack, but I'd think of it as a decent mini-meal (it is a carefully controlled quantity of healthy food, rather than an unlimited quantity of junk food). Eventually, you could wean yourself off of that mini-meal--or not! It depends on you and how big your portions are at your other meals. Stricter people may not like this idea, but that might be better than getting to the point where you're longing for Moon Pie-and-Slim Jim sandwiches.

--H