It really does work

In the Hacker’s Diet, John Walker discusses the body’s feedback system with respect to food and appetite. In most cases, unless it’s broken, your body knows how many calories you’ve eaten and adjusts appropriately by making you more or less hungry.

Right, but isn’t it cool when you see stuff like this in action and you know that people aren’t just talking out of their ass?

This morning for breakfast, I didn’t get down to the cafeteria early enough to get my hard-boiled eggs, so I answered the call of my sweet sugary master and got some pop-tarts instead. Bad idea. Bad, bad. But… my body made it less bad, apparently, because I haven’t been really hungry all day. I ended up eating lunch primarily because I was bored, not because it was lunchtime and my stomach was threatening to hold my kidneys hostage unless it got some freaking food (like what usually happens). It was 2 1/2 hours after my usual lunchtime, even. Not hungry. I skipped my afternoon snack. Not hungry. Wasn’t particularly hungry for dinner, either.

Lesson learned, then: add a few calories to breakfast, and be happier and saner the rest of the day. Not 400 though. Geeze. It kinda makes me wonder how my body’s going to react to going back to maintenance-level calories if this is what 1200-1600 feels like.

Tags: Health