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This is something I've been exploring on a personal level lately. I'm practicing intermittent fasting, and have found that listening to your body is key to main

This is something I've been exploring on a personal level lately. I'm practicing intermittent fasting, and have found that listening to your body is key to maintaining personal discipline. Sometimes I'd get "the munchies" and I'm gradually developing the ability to respond to those urges by stopping, listening to my body and understanding what it really wants. Now that it's more used to it, my body would say "I don't need anything right now, I have enough energy, proteins etc in my reserves, thank you." It also occurred to me that I can develop this skill of listening to my body for other uses/occasions. For example, listening to music can also be done with our skin, which is sensitive to vibrations. Finally, it's the realization that our bodies have a very rich interface with our environment, and can provide us with so many signals, we just need to turn off our brains for a while in order to have that feeling of connectedness.

BLKNSLVR 5y ago
I've done some intermittent fasting as well, and one thing I've noticed is that it's easier to suppress what feels like actual hunger (stomach rumbling kinda feeling) than it is to suppress a "want to eat", which I'm assuming is your "munchies". If I think of, or see, something like Country Cheese biscuits or Pringles, something clicks and there becomes a kind of vacuum in my mind which can only be filled by that particular snack. Want, it seems, outranks the mild beginnings of need. This is one data point that helped me realise just how much humans are tuned to be slaves to their habits.
- akdor1154 5y ago
  I have the same experience but had never consciously realized this difference. My gf is the opposite, which I find interesting. Genuine hunger is a much more intense feeling for her.
- tharkun__ 5y ago
  Anecdata point: I've found that I had to train my brain/body in this again. It's so easy nowadays to just eat whatever you want, whenever you want. Have a sweet craving? Choose from a wide variety of snacks you have in the house and more are just around the corner in the store (but at least that would require leaving the house, so it's a bit of a barrier). I usually don't eat breakfast. But some days I do (sometimes on weekends). Especially when breakfast was or included carbs, I'll be hungry again for lunch. If I don't eat breakfast, then most days I don't really feel hungry for lunch. I have days where there's so much going on at work that I get to 5p.m. and suddenly notice that all I've had all day was coffee and water. When I've been eating no carbs or not many carbs for a while again, then it's easier to get over a carb craving. The body has learned that if it doesn't get carbs after a short while of signaling hunger, it will just stop and use the stores. It basically becomes easy enough to ignore and just being busy e.g. with work makes the hunger feeling not even appear at all in most cases. Totally non scientific guess: Our bodies have evolved to live on both a carb and a fat metabolism that was driven by the availability of food sources. It's perfectly happy to use either of these. Long winters with a limited amount of preserved carbs but lots of protein and fat available (partially from your own body or from hunting/preserved meats) use the fat metabolism. Summer and fall with lots fresh fruits and such the body is happy to use the carb metabolism and make you eat everything you can and fill up the fat stores. Unfortunately today we are able to feed that carb machine indefinitely, even in long winters.
  - BLKNSLVR 5y ago
    I've definitely noticed that being busy reduces the distraction factor of hunger or the munchies. I'll have a conscious effort at minimising carbs as your description of how the body works through energy types seems to make logical sense. Cheers.
mensetmanusman 5y ago
Nice, it helps me to combat the hunger confusion with a nice amount of water and hydration to dilute the signals:)

BLKNSLVR 5y ago

I've done some intermittent fasting as well, and one thing I've noticed is that it's easier to suppress what feels like actual hunger (stomach rumbling kinda feeling) than it is to suppress a "want to eat", which I'm assuming is your "munchies". If I think of, or see, something like Country Cheese biscuits or Pringles, something clicks and there becomes a kind of vacuum in my mind which can only be filled by that particular snack. Want, it seems, outranks the mild beginnings of need. This is one data point that helped me realise just how much humans are tuned to be slaves to their habits.

akdor1154 5y ago
I have the same experience but had never consciously realized this difference. My gf is the opposite, which I find interesting. Genuine hunger is a much more intense feeling for her.
tharkun__ 5y ago
Anecdata point: I've found that I had to train my brain/body in this again. It's so easy nowadays to just eat whatever you want, whenever you want. Have a sweet craving? Choose from a wide variety of snacks you have in the house and more are just around the corner in the store (but at least that would require leaving the house, so it's a bit of a barrier). I usually don't eat breakfast. But some days I do (sometimes on weekends). Especially when breakfast was or included carbs, I'll be hungry again for lunch. If I don't eat breakfast, then most days I don't really feel hungry for lunch. I have days where there's so much going on at work that I get to 5p.m. and suddenly notice that all I've had all day was coffee and water. When I've been eating no carbs or not many carbs for a while again, then it's easier to get over a carb craving. The body has learned that if it doesn't get carbs after a short while of signaling hunger, it will just stop and use the stores. It basically becomes easy enough to ignore and just being busy e.g. with work makes the hunger feeling not even appear at all in most cases. Totally non scientific guess: Our bodies have evolved to live on both a carb and a fat metabolism that was driven by the availability of food sources. It's perfectly happy to use either of these. Long winters with a limited amount of preserved carbs but lots of protein and fat available (partially from your own body or from hunting/preserved meats) use the fat metabolism. Summer and fall with lots fresh fruits and such the body is happy to use the carb metabolism and make you eat everything you can and fill up the fat stores. Unfortunately today we are able to feed that carb machine indefinitely, even in long winters.
- BLKNSLVR 5y ago
  I've definitely noticed that being busy reduces the distraction factor of hunger or the munchies. I'll have a conscious effort at minimising carbs as your description of how the body works through energy types seems to make logical sense. Cheers.

mensetmanusman 5y ago

Nice, it helps me to combat the hunger confusion with a nice amount of water and hydration to dilute the signals:)