An interesting comment from the WashingtonPost.com
Where's the Pleasure?
You'd think that people who overeat do so because food gives them so much pleasure. But new research suggests otherwise: For many overweight women, food doesn’t deliver the joy it promises. Brain scans of 77 women of varied body types taken while those women sipped chocolate milkshakes showed that the obese women had a muted response to the release of the pleasure-related chemical dopamine in the brain when they drank the shakes. That muted response meant those women got less pleasure out of food than the lean women, whose dopamine response was more robust.
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I wonder if this is a "chicken or egg" phenomenon... that the women are overweight because they keep eating to try to get enjoyment (that is, they're overweight because they don't enjoy food) or if their weight dampens their enjoyment (that is, they don't enjoy food because they're overweight). Or maybe both - a system that builds on itself.
In any case, I have found on No-S that I eat LESS and enjoy MORE. Perhaps I've re-trained my body! Or maybe it's all psychological - that the feelings of guilt I used to have drowned out any pleasure.
Who knows? At any rate, I think No-S broke the cycle for me. I'm just grateful for the change.
Eating isn't fun when you're overweight... (article)
Moderators: Soprano, automatedeating
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blueskighs
- Posts: 1787
- Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2008 4:11 am
- Location: California
KCCC,
very interesting article. I have found as I have "healed" my relationship with food that eating MORE is not pleasurable. Interesting to have some physiological evidence to support this.
Some of this also might be the tolerance threshold, i.e. for the first hit ... sweets whatever is potent but when a certain threshold has been reached you have to eat MORE to even get a hit, but then you are left with the awful feelings of being stuffed ... which, I re-expereinced just this past Sunday ... which I was reminded are AWFUL!
BLEYCH!
No S has been the ONLY thing that has helped me shift this I NEED FIVE PIECES OF CAKE to just you know ... wow that one cup of coffee is just delightful ....
really intereseting article, thanks for posting it,
Blueskighs
very interesting article. I have found as I have "healed" my relationship with food that eating MORE is not pleasurable. Interesting to have some physiological evidence to support this.
Some of this also might be the tolerance threshold, i.e. for the first hit ... sweets whatever is potent but when a certain threshold has been reached you have to eat MORE to even get a hit, but then you are left with the awful feelings of being stuffed ... which, I re-expereinced just this past Sunday ... which I was reminded are AWFUL!
BLEYCH!
No S has been the ONLY thing that has helped me shift this I NEED FIVE PIECES OF CAKE to just you know ... wow that one cup of coffee is just delightful ....
really intereseting article, thanks for posting it,
Blueskighs
www.nosdiet.blogspot.com Where I blog daily about my No S journey
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gratefuldeb67
- Posts: 6256
- Joined: Thu Apr 21, 2005 9:26 pm
- Location: Great Neck, NY
Hi KCCC, I am glad you broke that cycle!
For me, chicken or egg, egg or chicken, I feel *nothing* is fun when you are very overweight.
Everything becomes a struggle. Stress levels are high, and most eating events, not just milkshakes, are less joyful.
The beauty of NoS is that it brings pleasure back into the picture, and not just on S days. I enjoy food so much more when I am thinking of being mindful and preparing my meals, than years ago before NoS.
Peace,
Debs
For me, chicken or egg, egg or chicken, I feel *nothing* is fun when you are very overweight.
Everything becomes a struggle. Stress levels are high, and most eating events, not just milkshakes, are less joyful.
The beauty of NoS is that it brings pleasure back into the picture, and not just on S days. I enjoy food so much more when I am thinking of being mindful and preparing my meals, than years ago before NoS.
Peace,
DebsThere is no Wisdom greater than Kindness
Re: Eating isn't fun when you're overweight... (article)
I've kind of been thinking along a similar line--I've been realizing that sometimes the food that I *think* I enjoy so much--I'm really not enjoying all that much. Sure it tastes good--but No S is making me a pickier eater. I'm thinking more about what I eat and whether it really tastes all that great or not. And if not...then I really don't want to go on eating it as much. One night a couple of weeks ago (S day), I had an oreo cookie--and I really didn't think it was all that great. Now, maybe on another day it will taste awesome to me--but that night I thought it really wasn't all that, you know? It was odd--because supposedly I love oreo cookies. Don't I?
I know I've done lots of mindless eating in my time. I ate looking for the fix--was that it? Nope, must be something else I'm hungry for. Sometimes I'd find it, sometimes not (or what I wanted wasn't in the house). I can remember fixing something and then having eaten 3/4 of it before I stopped to think that I was eating--gee, it's almost gone, have I enjoyed it? I'd better enjoy what's left!
No S makes me try to enjoy it all along. I have to enjoy on N days because there's only the one plate--so my mind engages & I think about what's there, I don't want to inhale and miss the experience, LOL! And I see that carrying over to my S days, and I don't want to "waste my time" eating things I don't really enjoy to the nth degree.
Merry
I know I've done lots of mindless eating in my time. I ate looking for the fix--was that it? Nope, must be something else I'm hungry for. Sometimes I'd find it, sometimes not (or what I wanted wasn't in the house). I can remember fixing something and then having eaten 3/4 of it before I stopped to think that I was eating--gee, it's almost gone, have I enjoyed it? I'd better enjoy what's left!
No S makes me try to enjoy it all along. I have to enjoy on N days because there's only the one plate--so my mind engages & I think about what's there, I don't want to inhale and miss the experience, LOL! And I see that carrying over to my S days, and I don't want to "waste my time" eating things I don't really enjoy to the nth degree.
Merry
Homeschool Mom and No S returnee as of 11-30-15.
2 years and counting on No-S.
29 lbs. down, 34 to go. Slow and steady wins the race.
Respect Moderation
2 years and counting on No-S.
29 lbs. down, 34 to go. Slow and steady wins the race.
Respect Moderation
I just posted this yesterday in my daily check in:
"I have overeaten without really enjoying food. My 9 year old once said that the people who eat at McDonald's are overweight, but the people who eat McDonald's in their car are really overweigbt. It's true. I have observed this in myself and it seems to apply to others: those who are overweight don't ever allow themselves to enjoy food, so they have a tendency to inhale food while doing other things."
To me, the beauty of this diet is that you enjoy food today, even if you are still obese.
Kathleen
"I have overeaten without really enjoying food. My 9 year old once said that the people who eat at McDonald's are overweight, but the people who eat McDonald's in their car are really overweigbt. It's true. I have observed this in myself and it seems to apply to others: those who are overweight don't ever allow themselves to enjoy food, so they have a tendency to inhale food while doing other things."
To me, the beauty of this diet is that you enjoy food today, even if you are still obese.
Kathleen
I feel the exact same way. This past Saturday we went to the movies and I had a few squares of a Nestle Crunch white chocolate bar--white chocolate is my absolute favorite!--and it really didn't taste that great to me, and I kind of regretted eating it. Same thing with candy corn: when I was doing a low-carb diet, I always lamented the fact that I could never eat candy corn, since it's one of the few candies that doesn't come in a sugar-free version. On one of my S days I had a few candy corn, and I honestly couldn't understand what I ever saw in them. I think that is the beauty of eating this way.