Embrace Hunger and Hunger Pains While Fasting

2012 Weight Loss Plan
Is losing weight one of your primary objectives in the New Year? If so, I would like to draw your attention to hunger and hunger pains, before you kick start any dieting plan.

Embrace Hunger and Hunger Pains While Dieting
When I talk about my fasting habit, the immediate feedback from most people is hunger and hunger pains. Right, we are taught to avoid hunger and getting hungry even while dieting. I'm going to suggest something that could be a taboo to most of us. You will get faster weight loss results if you allow yourself to get hungry from time to time. I'll even go as far to say that you should embrace hunger and look forward to it for rapid fat loss. Of course I don’t mean to stay extremely hungry for a long period, but to extend the hours between meals is certainly beneficial.

Getting Hungry While Fasting? Good!
In Hong Kong parents are complaining that kids are facing too much pressure at school. There is an argument that if kids cannot put up with some kind of pressure at school, there is no way they can face any kind of pressure from the world when they grow up. Sounds inhuman but true. This made me think of weight loss. If we cannot put up with hunger for a few hours, how can we face other greater challenges in life?

Hunger does not bother me much in my particular body make up. But I always look forward to it. Unlike many people who want to get lean, I seldom feel hungry, but…I just need to remind myself that it is okay to get hungry from time to time.

Getting Hungry is the "Old School" Dieting Approach
When I was a teen in the 70's, people would actually get hungry while dieting! At some point in the 80's, the "eat 6 meals per day" approach became the norm. The idea was that "eating every few hours" keeps your metabolism high. In theory it looked like a great strategy, but it isn't working for most people.

Is Eating Every Few Hours Working For You?
In my years of weight loss struggle, I’ve tried almost anything including eating 6 meals per day which never worked for me. The problem with eating all the time is that you always have "food energy" circulating in your system. When you do any activities or exercise, your body always has an abundant supply of energy from the food you eat. Why would it need to access your stored energy source (aka BODY FAT)? The answer is that your body will not burn body fat with excessive food energy in your system.

Those who do outdoor activities and eat normal meals are usually lean. Those who eat all the time are the ones with weight problems. Think about it…a lot of us play video games and surf the Internet. They are indoor near food. If they get hungry, food is just a few steps away. People at work are near food all the time as well and share the exact same problem!

"Allowing Yourself to Get Hungry" is Key to Getting Lean
I don't believe our bodies were meant to have a never ending supply of constant food. I am not suggesting that you should stay hungry all the time, but don't be so quick to grab food the moment you feel hungry. This is your chance to get rid of some of that excessive body fat. Want to really lose some weight quickly? Let yourself get hungry on purpose before doing cardio. This is when you will see visible results quickly. Try short term fasting. Skip meals whenever you feel you can. Let yourself feel hungry and laid off some fat quickly.

My Suggested 2012 Fasting Plan

Don’t announce your fasting plan. Let people notice it and come consult you for weight loss tips. That was my experience back in 2006. I started my short term intermittent fasting in March and my colleagues came to ask for weight loss tips soon after July.

Don’t set a schedule. Say there must be a day or two in a week that you don’t have any meal appointments or you don’t really feel hungry and that you're sure you can survive without eating, then skip meal. Try this for a quarter and you’ll see noticeable results.

PS: I realize that many dietitians and personal trainers will give you conflicting advice when it comes to the subject of hunger and meal frequency. They will throw out the "slowing metabolism" argument.

There is an amazing eBook on this subject, called Eat Stop Eat. It was written by a top nutritionist who did his graduate research on this topic. His study was called "The Metabolic Effects of Short Periods of Fasting in Humans and its Potential Application in Weight Loss"

It will change the way you think of eating. Even if you don't decide to buy the book, you should opt-in to subscribe the blog.