Does CR Make You Hungrier?

[Guest guest]

The question has been put forth, "Does CR make you hungrier?" Speaking for myself, CR does indeed make me hungrier. Until I came to terms with this unfortunate fact of life, I was unable to successfully "do" CR. Fortunately, there are strategies for managing the increased appetite, beginning with recognition of it, and I no longer believe that emotionally or physically denying my hunger is healthful or neccesary to doing CR.

The "beast" analogy is commonly used in drug and alcohol rehab. When you quit drinking (using, smoking, whatever) your attraction to your addiction diminishes over time. The longer you abstain, the less you think about your addictive substance. The "beast goes to sleep." (One drink will wake up your sleeping beast immediately, with gasoline and hand grenades!) Eating is the opposite. The longer you go without eating, the angrier the beast becomes and the louder it cries for food. If it were otherwise, dieting would not be so difficult and obesity would not be a national epidemic. One of the most common mistakes dieters make is to eat too little during the day, causing irrational bingeing and overeating in the evening. A better strategy is to make friends with the beast--to become more, not less aware of the body's natural appetite and satiety signals.

While it's interesting that "the beast" goes to sleep for some CRONies after periods of food deprivation, I don't believe this is a universal experience. Quite honestly, most of the people I've known who no longer experience their appetites are now six-feet under. Management rather than denial of one's appetite seems to me a more rational approach to CR.