GOAL: RESILIENCE

The Brutal Truth About Weightloss

Hunger feels like an existential problem. It technically is. Our bodies evolved from a time when food was scarce, when we had to expend calories to gain calories (hunting or harvesting food), and when the food quality was poorer, providing less caloric energy per gram compared to today.

Today, our problem is too much food.

But the existential feeling hasn't vanished. It's the result of evolution and being alive. It's the instinct to survive.

And we instinctively soothe the feeling the ONLY way our bodies viscerally understand - with food.

Which is why I feel like I'm dying and my whole world is falling apart when I'm hangry. I find myself thinking about divorcing my partner, ruminating on the pointlessness of life, being tetchy with my coworkers and feeling the statement "I'm surrounded by idiots" as deeply, incontrovertibly true.

That's my hangry monster.

You have a hangry monster too.

That's why you find it difficult to commit to fasting. That's why you find it hard to follow your diet plan. That's why there's a billion dollar "health" industry that tries to sell you shortcuts, like gym memberships and Ozempic and liposuction.

These shortcuts won't solve the underlying problem, which is your relationship to hunger.

Understand the difference between hunger and starvation. Hunger is just a signal. If you're overweight, you can eat zero food for a week and not die because your body has all that stored fat to use up. You'll FEEL like you're dying though.

Starvation is your body literally not having enough calories to function. Starvation is different, and it doesn't happen in developed nations anymore.

If you're trying to lose weight, you WILL be hungry, which is existentially HARD. The body hates being hungry because it hates the feeling of burning fat stores.

So if your goal is to lose weight, and you're feeling hungry, then congratulations! You're actually on the right track.

Exercise

SELF-DISCOVERY

  1. How do you feel about your body's weight?

  2. What does food or eating mean to you?

  3. Do you believe you can do hard things?