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Facing down the Famine Reaction
In my six years of failed dieting attempts, I always thought there was something wrong with me because I could never lose more than a few kilos on a diet before piling it all back on again. When I started medical research, I realized that there wasn't anything wrong with me at all; I was just a normal person having a Famine Reaction.The Famine Reaction is a survival mechanism that protects you from wasting away in times of scarcity. It's what makes you feel hungry and lethargic and slows your metabolic rate when you're trying to lose weight.
Conventional weight loss strategies encourage you to deny your Famine Reaction by ignoring physical hunger or trying to quash it with low-kilojoule substitutes for what you really feel like eating.
However, research shows that denying physical hunger can actually exacerbate the Famine Reaction and make it even harder for you to lose weight. On the other hand, scientific evidence shows that eating the types and amounts of mostly nutritious foods that make you feel really satisfied can help deactivate the Famine Reaction, therefore enabling you to lose weight more effectively.
How can you tell when your Famine Reaction has been activated? The most common telltale sign is hunger.
When you start losing weight, especially if you're starting after a time like Easter when you may have eaten a few more chocolate bunnies than you intended (as I did), you probably won't feel very hungry at all, in which case it's vital that you do other things besides eat.
But when you lose some weight and your Famine Reaction rouses, you may find that in addition to your usual meals, you need a snack or two to keep from falling into the jaws of ravenous hunger. And you may find that in order to reach the point of feeling just satisfied or elegantly satisfied, you need to eat larger servings than you normally would.
In the beginning you may not be sure that it's a Famine Reaction you're experiencing, but with time you'll become more confident about spotting it when it pays you a visit.
Beth, 65, lost 8.8 kilos over 10 months by connecting with her body and now weighs 68.7 kilos for her 1.6-meter frame. While Beth still wants to lose another 5 or so kilos in time for a trip to the UK with her husband this spring, she now has a good understanding of her Famine Reaction and the effects in can have on her appetite. Beth's first Famine Reaction came after twelve weeks on The Don't Go Hungry Diet, by which time she'd lost 5.3 kilos. As you'll read in Beth's account below, it took a couple of days for her to realize what has happening.
'For the first few days, I wasn't sure that I was having a Famine
Reaction as it wasn't how I expected it would be. I started waking during
the night feeling hungry but I wasn't sure if it was indigestion, as I felt
acidy and belchy. During the day I wasn't getting ravenously hungry, but I
was very hungry at lunchtime whereas normally I'm not that hungry, and I
needed to eat a bit more than usual to fill myself up to the point of
feeling properly satisfied. After a couple of similar days the gnawing in
my stomach during the night and the fact that I needed to add an afternoon
snack to my day's eating convinced me that this was a Famine Reaction.
I decided to have a snack before bedtime (a cup of cocoa and some trail mix), and that stopped me from waking up at night feeling hungry. This lasted for a total of six days (including the first two days when I wasn't sure). I thought I might be on plateau now, but I'm not as I've lost 0.3 kilos this fortnight, with the Famine Reaction taking up six days of it.'
I decided to have a snack before bedtime (a cup of cocoa and some trail mix), and that stopped me from waking up at night feeling hungry. This lasted for a total of six days (including the first two days when I wasn't sure). I thought I might be on plateau now, but I'm not as I've lost 0.3 kilos this fortnight, with the Famine Reaction taking up six days of it.'
Eating her way out of the Famine Reaction instead of denying her body's true needs as she would have done in past dieting efforts helped Beth to get over that first hurdle and continue on, to the point that she's now close to her healthy weight.
In addition to greater hunger, another effect of the Famine Reaction is that it can make you crave richer foods than you normally eat. When Stephanie had a Famine Reaction some weeks after she started losing weight by connecting with her body, she didn't notice an increase in hunger, as was the case for Beth, but something else.
'I've been craving sweets lately for some reason. On Sunday night I
finally gave into my cravings and had a rather large slice of the fruitcake
my sister made. I felt a bit guilty, but it was absolutely delicious and I
slept so peacefully that night'.
Stephanie's drive to eat that fruit cake was probably caused by her Famine Reaction, because by that time she'd already lost a couple of kilos and was very close to her ideal weight, and also because she was feeling very tired and lethargic at that time, another sign of the Famine Reaction at work.
Over to you
Here's something you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.Think back on your past experiences of losing weight. Can you pinpoint any instances where the Famine Reaction tripped you up? Can you see any past diet failures that you blamed yourself for but that in retrospect were caused by trying to fight the Famine Reaction with conventional weight loss strategies?
If so, what did the Famine Reaction feel like to you? Did you notice anything unusual about your appetite and your desires for food at that time? Tune into those feelings, for they hold the key to your freedom.
Changes in your usual appetite are the main early warning signs of a Famine Reaction. Once you see it coming, you can then take the necessary action to disarm it before it overruns you.
By eating the types and amounts of mostly nutritious foods that make you feel genuinely satisfied, you'll deactivate your Famine Reaction when it strikes, and this will make it much easier for you to continue losing more weight.
Have a wonderful couple of months, and I'll "see" you again in June.
If you'd like to comment on this newsletter or send me an update on your progress, click reply and send me a note.
Sincerely,
Amanda
Dr Amanda
Connect with your body
www.DrAmandaOnline.com
What our readers say...
"Dear Amanda, I have never been overweight, but I have always had 2-5 kilos that I want to lose to fit nicely into my jeans etc. and not have a roll of fat around my stomach. I started reading your book in January 09 after the "Xmas feast panic" as I was starting to become 5-7 kilos over my goal weight instead of 2-5 kilos over (I would like to be 60k). By the end of January I started your diet as it seemed like a easy way to lose weight and a lot of commonsense, some of which I was doing anyway, as I have always exercised regularly, but I was craving fatty foods and seemed to be always fighting the famine reaction. Through listening to my body I have got rid of most of the low-fat foods and I am now eating wholesome and nutritious foods (most of the time). Your toasted muesli is fantastic, I have it for breaky most days and I do not feel hungry until 3 pm some days. I have only lost 2 kilos and 2 cm in 3 months, but I don't feel like I am on a diet and I could easily do this for the rest of my life. Thanks for answering so many questions I have had about weight loss and I will never go on another milkshake or low-carb diet again. "
- Alison Kay, Charleston, SA