There’s one thing that most of today’s fad diets have in common.  They almost always relate back to calories and trying to get people to consume just the right amount of calories to lose weight.  The theory being that if your body burns 2000 calories per day, and you consume 1800 calories per day, then you’ll lose weight, and if you eat 2200 calories per day then you’ll gain weight.  Here’s the problem with this equation from my experience.  If you’re a person who currently *should* be eating 2000 calories per day, and you’re overweight then it probably means you’re eating like 2200 or 2400 calories right now, not 2000.  At 2000 your body would have stayed at it’s current weight indefinitely (according to the calorie theory).  So, if you want to lose weight and you want to eat only 1800 calories, then you’re going to have to cut out 400 or 600 or more calories compared to what you normally eat, not 200.

 Why do I think this doesn’t work?  Because, there is a reason why you’re eating 2200 or 2400 calories right now.  Your body gravitated towards that because it is basically how much food you need to eat right now to meet the basic nutritional needs you have.  It doesn’t mean you have met those needs, but it is your body trying to.  What do I mean?  I mean, your body has strong internal instincts and if it needs a certain amount of vitamin C to survive it will make you crave foods that have vitamin C.  If it needs protein, it will make you crave proteins.  If your body needs nutrients like minerals and vitamins it will make food appealing to you, even if those small amounts of vitamins come along with a bunch of unhealthy crap that the body has to ingest along with it.  For example if all you have in front of you is a pizza loaded with unhealthy toppings and a few green peppers, it will make you hungry for that because a few green peppers is still better than starving.  It’s like there is an internal instinct within us that will do whatever is necessary to ensure we eat enough food to survive.  So, if you’re eating foods that are very low in nutrients, vitamins, minerals, etc. your body is going to want to eat a lot more of those foods to survive compared to healthy foods.  For example, a burger from a fast food joint might have 1/10th the nutrients of a healthy meal so your body is going to want to eat 10 of those to make up for the lack.  As we continue to consume foods with less and less nutritional value as a society in North America, we will continue to eat MORE AND MORE because our internal instincts will force us to.

I am speaking from personal experience.  Since I’ve been following my 98% Diet and Fitness Plan for the last 16 days I haven’t been feeling hungry at all, and I haven’t counted calories once, and I’ve lost weight.  How?  I’ve been eating foods that are good for me, and automatically my body cuts down on the amount of volume of food (calories) that I need to eat.  It is rather amazing how full you feel after eating a nutritious salad for example.  The sheer volume of food that you crave, that you hunger for diminishes so it’s then possible to reduce the amount of calories you’re consuming on a daily basis automatically WITHOUT starving yourself or always feeling hungry.  One thing I haven’t done in the last 16 days at all is limit the AMOUNT of food I’ve been eating.  I haven’t had to, my body has done it by itself.   I’ve been eating healthy meals and I’m allowing myself to eat as much as I want until I am fully satisfied and full, but because what I’m eating is healthy I automatically eat less.

Mistaking Sugar Cravings for Hunger

One thing I will add to this article is related to sugar cravings.  Sugar cravings are something that most people have and they don’t even realize it, mistaking them for feeling hungry.  Hunger is the feeling you get when your stomach is empty, but sugar cravings are subtly different.  Have you ever eaten a full meal and your stomach was really full and you felt like you couldn’t eat another bite but you STILL felt unsatisfied?  Like you wanted something different to eat?  Like maybe a piece of chocolate, or a chocolate bar or some potato chips or some form of junk food?  Well, that’s most likely a sugar craving, not hunger.  It is almost impossible to convince someone that there is a difference until they experience it for themselves.  To do that, you need to kill your sugar cravings which is what I did for the first 4 days of my diet.  After about 4 days you no longer crave sugar and you become a lot more in-tune to your hunger signals without mistaking them for sugar cravings.

So, if you’re addicted to sugar, you may have a nutritious meal and feel full in your stomach but you’ll still be craving that chocolate bar, ice cream, dessert, or something to satisfy the sugar addiction.  If you don’t believe there is such a thing, just try not to eat sugar in any form for 4 days - no chocolate, no pop, no white sugar, no white rice, no chips, no white pasta, no bread, basically nothing with refined carbohydrates or sugar in it and you’ll see that by the end of the first day or the second day you’ll be tweaking like a drug addict trying to get your fix.  The good news is that it only lasts a few days and then you overcome the addiction, but it’s not an easy thing to do especially considering how much sugar North Americans consume on a daily basis.

Anyway, I just wanted to share with you guys that your body has it’s own built in calorie counter and you don’t need to try to fight it.  It is much easier to go along with it than to try to fight it.  Consume healthy meals and your body will automatically make you feel full and satisfied when you’ve consumed enough food to bring you back to your perfect natural weight without trying to starve yourself.  If of the other hand the foods that you eat are dead, unhealthy, with no nutritional value whatsoever your body will force you to consume 3000, 4000 or even 6000 calories a day just to try to suck any ounce of nutrition out of the foods you eat to try to survive the day.

If nothing else, if you aren’t ready to get rid of your sugar cravings or drastically cut out unhealthy foods, at least eat something healthy FIRST before you eat crap so that your not fighting your bodies inner instinct to eat food.  Start with a healthy salad and maybe you’ll feel satisfied after eating half of that burger instead of the full thing.

Also, drink plenty of water.  A lot of people also mistake thirst for hunger so they go hunting for food but really their body just wants water.  What do most people do when they eat food?  They also consume fluids, right?  Maybe your body is craving the fluids.  Drink some water first and see.

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