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Comment by sneak | Hacker News Reader

It was a very weird transition, as a well-off American, from going to never, ever actually feeling _real hunger_ at any point in any of my normal days (our workplaces, transit hubs, homes, lifestyles, and app landscape are all designed to deliver/provide high caloric density food, in extreme abundance, at all times and places, from snacks to full meals), to regularly/often being actually hungry for some/all of most days.

It's done wonders for my well-being - anecdotally, of course.

It turns out we don't actually need to never be hungry; our society just pushes us to assume that even the tiniest pang of hunger is a negative health issue that is to be instantly eradicated. It's actually fine as long as you're not skinny or otherwise malnourished.

It's ok to fast, and to hear your body demanding sustenance and just say "no, maybe tomorrow" - doubly so if you're 10kg+ overweight like I have been (in my case, 20-40kg) my entire adult life.

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> society just pushes us to assume that even the tiniest pang of hunger is a negative health issue

This is the mistake. In fact, the hunger pangs and light headedness, nausea, etc. are the result of low blood sugar. This can be a dangerous condition, but our body is equipped to deal with that situation - it can create sufficient energy from stored energy (fat and glycogen) - and will do so if we let it. But most people have conditioned their bodies for a steady supply of easy energy, and this makes the body increasingly less willing to go to the stores for energy (we are at a hormonal imbalance with excessive insulin prevalence which works to lock up fat stores and crave quick increases in blood sugar).

This condition can be gradually fixed with intermittent fasting, which gives the body time to burn off the blood sugar spike, and concomitant insulin, and allow the process of fat burning to pick up, before you start feeding again.

The effect of the fasting can be enhanced by eating fewer carbohydrates (which are the main trigger for blood sugar and insulin), which is the principle behind the keto diet.

> It turns out we don't actually need to never be hungry; our society just pushes us to assume that even the tiniest pang of hunger is a negative health issue that is to be instantly eradicated.

Huh, is that really something you feel like your society teaches you? In my upbringing (UK), snacking was very much discouraged (you won't eat your dinner) and although eating meals was encouraged, going without one was never seen as a health issue and would be seen as preferable to giving me other food if I didn't like what had been cooked for me.

Yes, that's what I got. Fast food everywhere, snacks constantly available, cookies and cakes in break rooms, vending machines, junk food, snack bars in offices, coffee milkshakes, kiosks in airports... everywhere you look in the USA there are people trying to sell you stuff to spike your blood sugar between meals. As opposed to Europe, there are entire aisles in the grocery stores here that are stocked solely with non-meal foods. This extends even to drugstores! CVS and Walgreens have a seasonal candy aisle!

I eat very low carb (I target <10g per day, with 20-30g as a hard limit) and it's sort of freaky how prevalent it is, because despite a million food options in some circumstances, precisely 0 of them are without carbs. I've been in airports when I haven't eaten for 18-24h with multiple places vending food and there has been approximately nothing available that would fit my diet.

Definitely. Just go look for the official line on how to eat for losing weight. They actually recommend lots of small meals as often as possible. It's ridiculuous.

I notice this difference with my US friends. They do seem to think hunger is a genuine problem that must be resolved immediately. A sort of health risk. I've occasionally tried to press in on what the unspecified danger is meant to be but it's hard to do so without being obnoxious.

Obviously hunger where there is food insecurity is terrible. But the first pangs of hunger in an otherwise well fed and, in my case, well padded person? It doesn't seem like it's a big deal to me.

Snacking does seem to have become established in the UK now though for children at least. (I also remember being told not to spoil my appetite as a child.) The children I know now often have some kind of tiny packet of something on the go in between meals.

You may be onto something here. I never thought about this effect of IF. The self-control aspect of overcoming hunger, or not just eating when you needn't to.

This self-control aspect also works in other diets, too, of course. It's why I prefer cheat days over cheat meals in my diet. I've found that keeping myself consistent with my eating, and make deliberate decisions, for 6 days straight leads to much better results than letting my diet slip occasionally through out the week and excusing it by convincing myself it's a "cheat meal."

How do you deal with distracting hunger? I try ignoring it and then find myself subconciously going to the fridge every 10 minutes. And I'm not doing somewhat abnormal things like not eating for 20+ hours.

I keep a glass of water on my desk and keep slowly sipping it, and refill when it runs out. It’s helped me significantly to reduce cravings.

I eat when the hunger is so distracting I can't not.

Consuming 3-5g of salt in 1L of water makes the distraction less sometimes, I find. Also, coffee helps, as does the keto diet.

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