How to Lose Weight Without Being Hungry All the Time

Today we are asking the question, “How can I lose weight without being hungry all the time?”

This unassuming question is actually packed with sub-questions and misunderstandings about how hunger and weight loss are related.

So today I want to talk about how we lose weight in the Freese Method without ever using portion control or food diaries or being hungry. Ever.

The direct association between losing weight and being hungry is like its own meme, right?

Do you think weight loss equals hunger? 

Weight Loss = Restriction + Deprivation + Hunger

Diets for the most part, I’m talking Weight Watchers, new or old, Noom, Bright Line Eating, Nutri System, Ideal Protein, all these diets do one thing. 

They restrict your calorie intake to create a calorie deficit which in theory would thus result in weight loss… but that’s not really what happens, is it?

What really happens with portion control and restriction and deprivation?

Obsession. Hunger.  You may try to strong-arm your body into submission but you are dealing with biological forces beyond your control.

So, eventually, the hunger becomes just too much and we crack.  We say things like, the diet wasn’t sustainable, right?

Why, because hunger isn’t sustainable.

So if hunger isn’t sustainable, how can we lose weight?

Well, hunger actually doesn’t have to be part of losing weight.

For real. 

First, we have to understand more about hunger.

There are two types of hungry.

Body hungry and brain hungry.  

Body hungry, like when your tummy growls or you haven’t eaten food in a long time is different than brain hungry.

Body hungry signals an energy crisis. 

When your liver and your brain are not receiving energy in the form of sugar or fat (or ketones for that matter) via your bloodstream, they will signal hunger.

They use a bunch of hormones like glucagon, ghrelin, neuropeptide Y, and others to stimulate your appetite so that you eat and provide your brain and liver, and the rest of your body with energy.

But it’s the absence of energy that is the stimulus of hunger.  If your brain and liver are receiving energy in the form of body fat that you are utilizing, you will not feel this hunger.

Hunger isn’t automatic. It’s stimulated by the absence of energy for your cells.

Brain hungry is different. Brain hungry is driven by dopamine.  

This is an emotional crisis. You are “hungry” per se because food is a cheap and fast source of dopamine and dopamine makes us feel good and calms us or soothes us.

Brain hungry is when we eat for anything other than nourishment.

Eating in your car, snacks between meals, eating at your desk, nibbling on candy, stopping at fast food for just a little something, popping a piece of candy. All brain-hungry stuff.

So body hungry is when there are not enough energy units getting to the cells and brain hungry is when we want to use food for self-soothing to stimulate dopamine.

Here’s another way to look at it. When you’re body hungry, you will eat broccoli.  When you are brain hungry you won’t.

When you’re body hungry, you’ll eat whatever is available. When you’re brain-hungry, you’re picky and want something specific.

Ok, back to hunger and weight loss.

The way we curb hunger during weight loss is to make sure that we don’t have an energy crisis.

While we are losing weight, we make sure our brains and cells have enough energy to get to the next meal without becoming overly hungry.

We do this by learning what to eat, what not to eat, and when to eat. The first three of the five steps in the Metabolic Repair Plan.

NOT BY SNACKING.

Eating to ward off hunger is not conducive to weight loss! No matter how "healthy" your snacks are, if you snack to appease hunger, you will struggle to lose weight.

When women first join the Freese Method, I tell them, there are no portion restrictions, they just stare back at me like I’m talking a different language.

Because I am.

I am talking about the language of metabolism and energy. 

They only know the language of hunger and depravity. 

We spend the first six weeks repairing your metabolism so that you are not body hungry. Not in an energy crisis mode.

We spend the next six weeks working on repairing your relationship with food so you’re not brain hungry.  Using food for dopamine for self-soothing.

When these two pieces come together, hunger is no longer a giant monster that we are afraid of.

We actually move into… well honestly, a higher plane of consciousness about what our hunger is and what we should do about it.

Sometimes we do something about it and sometimes we don’t.  But we never panic. We don’t fear starvation mode.  We don’t fear hunger because we own it.

Hunger in an energy or emotional crisis is awful. 

Imagine when Bruce Banner turns into the hulk. Like out of control, can’t reason or function correctly, just crazy with hunger.  That’s the hunger you feel now with your damaged metabolism when you try to diet.

With a repaired and fully functioning metabolism and an upper awareness of your emotions, you are more like Doctor Who who just sees things more clearly and is in complete control.

Your cells have plenty of energy that doesn’t cause excess weight gain and actually promotes fat burning… for you guessed it… more sustained and awesome energy for our cells.

That’s how we were built to function.

Being hungry all the time and obsessing over what you can and cannot eat and when you will eat is a sign of metabolic damage.

Diets just pour gasoline on an already flammable situation.

That’s why you feel like you can’t sustain anything.

But you can. 

You totally have it within you to control your hunger with ease and peace.

And that starts with repairing your metabolism so that you can get to this place of hunger nirvana.

You can lose weight without ever being hungry if you have a great metabolism.  

If you are ready to repair your metabolism and take control of your hunger, let’s get to it.