Appetite is a tricky thing. Some people seem to be hungry all the time, while others forget to eat. Humans vary widely in their subjective experience of hunger due to neurobiological variations (our brains!) and how exposed we are to environmental cues. The key to appetite control is learning how your brain works and controlling the cues that set it off.
Remember how Pavlov’s dog was cued to salivate at the sound of a bell? This occurred via a process called classical conditioning. The bell was initially presented with meat, which naturally causes a dog to salivate. After several pairings of the bell and the meat, the dog became conditioned to salivate to the bell even when no meat was presented. Humans are subject to the same appetite conditioning processes (e.g., the sight of the Golden Arches). The food industry has turned us all into Pavlov’s dog pound, and it’s messing with our brains — making it hard to tell if the belly is truly empty. To regain control of your appetite, you must regain control of your brain. Here are some behavioral strategies to try:
1. Surveillance. The best way to learn the conditioned cues is to study them. Track your hunger/fullness throughout the day on a scale from 0-10, where 0 is starving, 5 is comfortably full and 10 is uncomfortably full. Note what you’re doing when you’re getting close to a 0. Are you hours from a meal, or might something be cuing your hunger? Cues can be a person, place, thing or even the time of day. Once you know the cues, you can make a plan to protect yourself from them.
2. True or false hunger? One way to determine if hunger is true hunger or conditioned hunger is to ride the feeling out for 15 minutes. Going for a walk or occupying your mind with an activity will make that much easier. If the bell rang for Pavlov’s dog right after a lunch of dog chow, he would still salivate, not because his belly is empty but because of that darn bell and its association with yummy meat. If you let the moment pass without eating, conditioned hunger will subside.
3. Hunger tolerance. Even when hunger is “true hunger,” it doesn’t mean we have to feed it instantly every time. Whenever we feel physical and/or emotional discomfort, we’re in a hurry to make it go away. This misses an opportunity to practice tolerance. Being able to tolerate small to moderate distresses is a valuable skill in life because it makes us more resilient when more intense distress strikes. In fact, studies show that people high in distress tolerance are more buffered from mental illness. If you have a snack every day at 3 p.m. because you feel hungry, practice delaying the snack a few minutes each day. On the first day, delay the snack five minutes, on the second day 10 minutes and so on up to a half hour to practice tolerating increasing degrees of discomfort.
4. Is it food you’re hungry for? We eat because we’re bored, sad, mad, thirsty, lonely, stressed out, tired and to satisfy that vague feeling of needing something. We experience these things as “hunger” all the same. Next time you feel hungry, ask yourself: Is my belly empty or do I just feel like I need something? If the latter, pause and ask yourself, what’s wrong? Let’s say the answer is that you’re just stressed — then try something that reduces stress like talking to a friend. If you know you eat all the time because you need something, but you aren’t sure what you need, diets won’t help you lose weight. I recommend bringing this concern to a licensed psychologist and getting help in exploring what that need is.
5. Decondition the cues. If you feel constant hunger during a certain activity, the solution will involve breaking the link between that activity and eating. For example, if you always feel like a snack when you’re watching TV, make a rule that you must eat the snack in a different room as the TV. Or, try to engage in an activity while watching TV that isn’t compatible with eating — like walking on a treadmill, yoga stretches or a crafting task that occupies your hands. You might also try to find a different activity from TV watching altogether, because the frequent desire to eat while watching TV might be a sign that you are bored or understimulated by the TV. Challenge your family to a card game, take a trip to the library or go for a walk instead of the usual TV routine.
6. Low-calorie munchies. If you’re hungry a lot, having easy access to super-low-calorie snacks can help keep the hunger pangs at bay. Bring raw fruit and/or veggies to work and have them available in abundance at home so you always have something healthy to scratch the itch. At the same time, eliminate from your reach calorie-rich foods that you tend to overeat, or it’ll be difficult not to grab those instead.
7. Exercise. Research shows in general that exercise does not stimulate appetite; however, some people do feel hungry after exercise. Exercising while hungry may be the culprit. Eat an hour before you exercise, and you’ll feel more energy during the workout and less hunger afterward. The temperature of your workout environment may also be to blame. Studies show exercising in cold conditions (e.g., walking outside during winter or swimming in chilly water) can result in increased appetite later. In the colder months, head inside for your workouts. Studies have also shown that exercise can strengthen dietary self-control, aka “willpower,” which is a great reason to make it a part of your daily routine.
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Taming Hunger: Why It Starts With Your Brain originally appeared on usnews.com
