Reddit reviews The Hungry Brain: Outsmarting the Instincts That Make Us Overeat

I recommend starting with his AMA. But all of his work is basically about the causes of overeating. Which, surprise surprise, is in the brain. So what should you do? How can you feel sated?

His short answer in the AMA:

>I don't claim to know the magic switch that shuts off the brain's starvation response to fat loss, if such a thing exists. But there is some evidence supporting these strategies: Eat simple unrefined foods, eat more protein, get regular physical activity, get restorative sleep, and manage stress (especially stress that feels uncontrollable). I discuss these strategies in greater detail in my book.

My slightly longer answers ^Taken ^Mostly ^From ^His ^Excellent ^Book: These are only tiny excerpts, seriously read the whole book, this is only a tiny slice of the evidence he uses.


Eat simple unrefined foods - Avoid hyperpalatable foods: (basically... junk food)

Avoid hyperpalatable foods. These are foods that are chemically designed to hit the "bliss-point" on people and do not make you feel full (think doritos, cheetos, oreos etc.).

Studies have been done on people fed only a nutrient paste. They are allowed to eat as much bland nutrient paste as they want. Regular weight people eat what they need every day keep their weight current. Overweight people on the other hand, seem to almost go into a starvation diet (as low as 200kcal a day!) and lose weight quickly. Crazy. They could eat more, but they don't want to.

In his book, he also shows studies about how it's really hard to fatten mice on food pellets. They really just don't want to eat any more. But they, like us, have a dessert stomach. Give them oreos, froot loops, or other human snacks and they will suddenly find a way to eat a lot more. Give these newly fattened rats only pellets again and they will slim down like their never fattened peers. Rats are not humans in diet and obesity (as leptin studies show), but it's an interesting inference.

Further, there appears to be evidence that exposure to these hyper-palatable foods even damage your brain's ability to feel sated.

He says his biggest take away is about habits:

>If I was limited to one concept it would be this. The brain is highly reactive to the cues in its immediate environment, such as the sight and smell of food (this is why US food corporations pay more than $10B a year to put images of food in front of us). If you can control your food environment so that it's consistent with your weight/health goals, you'll have a much easier time. Not only will your behavior tend to go in the right direction, but you'll have fewer cravings for foods that don't support your goals. To give you a concrete example, if you walk into my house, the only food visible anywhere is unsalted in-shell peanuts, raw almonds in a screw-top jar, and fresh fruit. If I want a snack, those are the only options. If I want more than that, I have to cook something. Fruit and nuts are satisfying, nutritious foods, but not overly tempting or calorie-dense, and I have to overcome small effort barriers to eat them. This means I tend not to eat them unless I'm genuinely hungry.

And to add to the appetite literature, take a look at the satiety index generated by the Susanna Holt. https://freetheanimal.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/fullness-factor.png It's taken from a few measures of people given the food in a specific caloric amount, rating their hunger later, seeing how much they eat following consumption etc. Dig in if you're interested. Some people have used this chart to justify a potato diet. It is interesting to consider.

Eat more protein

Protein, on average, appears to be a major contributor to satiety. So make it a larger percentage of your diet to feel more sated.

>Finally, the protein content of a food was a major contributor to satiety. This is consistent with a large body of research showing that protein is more filling than carbohydrate or fat, per unit calorie. Both the lining of the small intestine and the pancreas have the ability to detect dietary protein, and they relay this signal to the NTS. For reasons that aren’t entirely clear, this protein signal seems to play a disproportionate role in satiety. Coupled with the effects of protein on the lipostat we discussed in the last chapter, this may explain why high-protein diets help people eat less and lose fat without feeling hungry.

Sleep Well

Your body's chemicals do a good job regulating things when you're well rested, but not when you don't sleep well. From the book:

> At the end of the study, St-Onge and her colleagues analyzed the data and came to a striking conclusion: Their volunteers ate nearly 300 more Calories per day when they were sleep-deprived than when they were well-rested. “In our experience,” explains St-Onge, “sleep restriction increases food intake. It’s as simple as that.”

The short version is, not enough sleep messes up a ton of bodily processes, memory, focus, physical performance, and also on eating.

Exercise

Short version in an excerpt, seriously read the book, this is only a tiny slice of the evidence and argument:

>His findings show, not surprisingly, that exercise attenuates weight gain in rats when they’re offered a fattening diet. Yet Levin’s data also reveal that fit rats aren’t just leaner— they actively defend a lower adiposity set point than sedentary rats on the same diet. This is actually quite consistent with human studies, in which physically fit people are better able to resist fat gain in the face of overeating. It appears that exercise helps keep the lipostat happy at a lower set point.

So, working out may make people feel sated at a lower weight. Also, studies that enforce exercise (by making participants work out in a research gym with the scientists) show dose-dependent exercise effectiveness in weight loss. But the precise effectiveness varies person to person.

Manage Stress

Short version:

> Wilson’s research suggests that the magic formula for overeating is the combination of chronic uncontrollable stress and a choice of highly rewarding food. This specificity may go a long way toward explaining why some people overeat when they’re stressed and others don’t. Each person experiences a different combination of stressor type and food environment, and only some of these combinations are the magic formula.

The point is, no one stress eats broccoli. Everyone will stress eat girl scout cookies, ice cream or pizza. The palatability of the food matters. But when you're stressed, it's even more difficult to navigate your food environment.

Theoretically, yes. Practically, no.

Eating 500 calories of granulated sugar sends signals to the brain that makes it nearly impossible to not crave more foods and more calories.

Recommended read:
https://www.amazon.com/Hungry-Brain-Outsmarting-Instincts-Overeat/dp/125008119X

Satiety function is highly individualized.

On average, protein-rich and high-fiber foods tend to be more filling. Potatoes have the highest satiety index. But things like satiety index and glycemic index are averages, and when you look at the individual data, you see huge variations.

Also, if you have any insulin resistance at all, even early stages, you'll find carbs (even high protein, high fiber) less satisfying than healthy fat.

Quite literally, trust your gut, not research on averages. You are not a statistic. If you want to learn more, I highly recommend The Hungry Brain.

If it makes you feel any better, you're not alone! I'm almost finished reading Hungry Brain right now and the science behind our appetite and adiposity is so fascinating! There's more to it than willpower, you're not "weak" for behaving that way. If you're in the mood for a book I couldn't recommend that more!

I just picked up:

The Hungry Brain: Outsmarting the Instincts That Make Us Overeat https://www.amazon.com/dp/125008119X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Blr0Cb8X9XAMW

For real, why do we over eat?

Defending Beef: The Case for Sustainable Meat Production https://www.amazon.com/dp/1603585362/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Zmr0CbKVN2MJX

I'm very interested in the regenerative ag movement, and am not entirely convinced red meat is the scourge of the earth.

All CICO does is identify the underlying process for weight loss. Actually implementing that process in practice is far more complicated.

It's like saying the Green New Deal will solve climate change. The GND identifies a series of goals, which is easy, but doesn't tell us how to get there in practice, because that is actually hella difficult.

Two books I have found very helpful are The Hungry Brain by Stephan Guyenet and Salt Sugar Fat by Michael Moss. The Hungry Brain goes really in-depth into the neurobiology of how our non-conscious mind influences decisions and regulates eating behavior. The modern food environment triggers some very primitive responses in our brains and makes us want to eat far more than we should. Salt Sugar Fat is about the food industry’s part in that. Food companies (very understandably) want us to buy and eat as much as possible, and they spend an immense amount of time and money designing foods that tap into the brain circuits Guyenet talks about to get us to do it. Together the books have been pretty motivating, and I feel like knowing what’s going on in my head has helped me put together a way of eating that’s sustainable.

https://www.amazon.com/Hungry-Brain-Outsmarting-Instincts-Overeat/dp/125008119X

This actually isn't true. It is waaaaay more complicated than calories in calories out (CICO). In the end reducing you calories in and increasing calories expended is what causes weight loss, but making this happen isn't just a function of will power - it is actually primarily controlled by our unconscious mind. Overweight/Obese individuals have observable (via MRI) brain damage to the regions of their brains that control metabolism and eating behavior - they can try as hard as they want, but their mind will fight them to restore their weight (CICO alone has a long term success rate ~3%).

Telling people the are weak or somehow inferior to you (you won the genetic lottery) because they can't lose weight isn't helping anyone. This isn't an issue of lack of will power, it's an issue of a new food environment that is killing us. Over 80% of the U.S. population is overweight/obese and it's getting worse - this is an epidemic.

Until these individuals treat the underlying cause of their obesity (brain damage/hormone resistance), they will never be able to lose weight. Research is under way to understand the mechanisms to heal this brain damage - right now we have to rely on clinical experience that shows that a combination of eating natural/whole foods and fasting can reverse this brain damage.

Good Lecture:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMdSHNnRbEs&t=2s

Good book:
https://www.amazon.com/Hungry-Brain-Outsmarting-Instincts-Overeat/dp/125008119X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502462633&sr=8-1&keywords=hungry+brain