Why Hunger Increases With Dieting – SCIENCE!!!

As you continue to diet in your pursuit of fat loss, as body fat gets LOW, etc., you ARE going to experience hunger here and there. This is biologically normal. I am not sure how this is even debatable. That a person here and there says they don’t, does not change any of these physiological facts.

When someone pipes up and says “well I lost fat and wasn’t hungry therefore you’re wrong you dummy”, we call this a hasty generalization fallacy – the person draws a conclusion about a population based on a sample that is not large enough. Such a ‘sample’ is thus not representative.

Why do I say it’s biologically normal? That it doesn’t go against your body’s physiology? Hormones.

Leptin is a chief regulatory hormone which tends to fall with dieting and falling body fat levels. Related to this, lower leptin levels impair the functioning of cholecystokinin. The relevance of this leptin/CCK relationship is that CCK is a hormone that stimulates fullness from a meal. Can you see the implications of the falling body fat? Lower leptin and subsequently impaired CCK functioning.

Then you also have the hormone ghrelin to consider. Ghrelin is a hormone that rises in anticipation of meals and serves to stimulate hunger. Going back to leptin, there’s a relationship between these two hormones as well. As leptin levels fall, ghrelin levels RISE – which means greater hunger signals.

To recap, leptin falls with dieting, fat loss, etc., period. It just does! CCK stimulates fullness but its effect is lessened when leptin falls so you experience LESS fullness. Ghrelin stimulates hunger and RISES with falling leptin levels so you experience MORE hunger episodes.

Make sense? And hence, it’s not biologically or physiogically abnormal. It’s not about glorifying hunger or wearing it as a badge of honour; it’s a simple explanation that it is not abnormal.

There is no such thing as a fat-loss diet that takes you to low body fat levels without an eventual hunger experience. This is marketing nonsense!