34 – Why you can't control your hunger or appetite
[00:00:00] : Welcome to the Peak Revival Podcast. My name is Vesna and today I'm going to talk about how and why hunger is not under your conscious control.
[00:00:10] : So with any kind of health journey or weight loss journey that you may have, there is an element of if people think if I just eat less and exercise more, I will lose weight. And then the other thought is, well, they have so many cravings, they get so hungry and it feels so hard, right? And so in this episode, I really want to talk about how that part of the eating or the appetite or the hunger or the cravings is not a lack of willpower.
[00:00:37] : It's not because you're not disciplined,
[00:00:40] : it's not because you need to be more restrictive,
[00:00:42] : and it's not because you need to be more
[00:00:43] : hyper focused on what you're doing, right? That part of our Metabolism is not controlled by conscious control. So what I mean by that is that we have Kind of like a metabolic control center and from that place it influences our hormones Which then influences our appetite, and our cravings, and how much hunger we have.
[00:01:07] : And it also influences how much energy we burn, and how much body fat that we burn. So that will then dictate whether our body fat goes up, or down. Okay, and so the area that controls that is the same area that controls your heart beating, your breathing.
[00:01:24] : And if I said to you, I want you to stop your immune system right now, or stop your heart beating right now, you would not be able to do it. Okay? And that's because it's not within your conscious control. So there's a part of this dieting culture that we, it's been ingrained in us, that if we just eat less and exercise more and get a handle of our hunger and constantly monitoring.
[00:01:45] : that actually will be able to lose weight and reach our goals. But we can't control that. And so the part that we do have control with is the kind of signals that we, we send to the metabolic control area. So, um, There are hormones that the metabolic control center adjusts, which adjusts our appetite and our metabolism. So as our appetite increases, unfortunately, our energy expenditure or fat burning decreases and vice versa. As our appetite decreases or our hunger decreases, our energy expenditure increases our ability to burn fat increases.
[00:02:19] : And again, this is all coming from the metabolic control center, which is influencing hormones in our body. Okay. Which bring about those changes and those hormones there are many there's like leptin, there's ghrelin,
[00:02:31] : thyroid hormones & GLP,
[00:02:33] : which is a gut derived satiety hormone
[00:02:35] : and many more Okay, so those hormones while that part Cannot be influenced by our conscious control. So you can't make a decision right today and for the rest of the month I'm going to eat less and that is going to fix my issues, right? you can only control it for so long, right? So you could hold your breath for a certain amount of time, but eventually, you have to take a breath.
[00:02:56] : And this is the same, right? So you will get to a point where your hunger is, quite high that you will cave, and then you will blame yourself, and then you will, you know, you will Think that you can't follow through with anything and there's a lot of guilt that goes with that, right?
[00:03:09] : but that's not your fault,
[00:03:10] : because we've not been explained
[00:03:12] : how this all really works. And so while this is an unconscious control area So the metabolic control center, we can't change how that operates that operates in a certain way We can't alter that function But we can alter the signals that it gets and what I mean by that is that You When our body is relaxed, our body feels safe to burn body fat for fuel.
[00:03:33] : So we have two sources of fuel. We have So we have glucose or we have body fat, and so body fat gives us a high source of energy that lasts all day long. But when we're stressed and the stress response is activated, we will only go for glucose.
[00:03:46] : So being relaxed is the best place for our body to burn body fat. And so that means we can influence through these kind of relaxation signals or safety signals, which will Send information to the metabolic control center, which will change the hormones.
[00:04:03] : So for example, it's sending like danger signals or hunger signals Through to the metabolic control center looks like missing meals, restrictive meals, cutting out major food groups, poor sleep, disrupted circadian rhythm, poor gut health, poor liver, poor thyroid, like there's a lot of things that can influence that metabolic control center.
[00:04:26] : And so the signals that we want to send, we want to send relaxation, that means we want to have good nutritious food. You don't want to have processed foods. Processed foods. I've specifically designed to hijack the satiety hormones and the satiety center in the brain. So you never feel satisfied, you're always looking for more, you have a lot of cravings, and those foods become addictive.
[00:04:46] : And it sends the brain crazy, right? looking at where you're having processed foods and cutting them out because that is 100 percent hijacking your metabolic control center, hijacking your appetite and your hunger.
[00:04:57] : I don't care how much willpower you have,
[00:04:58] : you won't override that, okay? And so making very conscious choices about what you're eating, making conscious choices About how much sleep you're getting. The amount of people that I see that struggle with weight but yet they go to bed so late. Right, they end up staying up late, watching TV, then ultimately snacking on something because we're meant to be asleep, and so therefore, it disrupts our whole circadian rhythm.
[00:05:23] : Okay, and then we're eating because our body doesn't know what time it is because we're in front of a TV with blue light, right? So sleep is really important. Resetting the circadian rhythm that has a profound effect on our metabolism. Okay. And so now they're finding that a disrupted circadian rhythm
[00:05:39] : actually leads to the addiction
[00:05:42] : to ultra processed foods. Okay, which is really interesting, right? So again, it's kind of shifting that focus away from, you're not eating well and it's all your fault.
[00:05:51] : And looking at it in a more holistic perspective, like looking at, well, there's a lot more going on when it comes to our metabolism. And that means our health. That means our energy production. That means our vitality and our hormones, et cetera. There's a lot more going on than just,
[00:06:04] : you should be eating the right food, okay? Obviously, what I want you to take away from this podcast, and I have further training for you if you'd like to access it, because I did a training at the end of last year, which went gangbusters, and we've had people in our program, and they're just having amazing results. And so I want to share the training with you that they watched at the end of last year.
[00:06:23] : To really show you that, you know, if you've been stuck with your health or your weight loss journey and you feel like you just can't stick to the dietary changes, because we know food does influence, right? But we have to look at those factors that
[00:06:37] : break down our metabolism, and affect our mitochondria,
[00:06:41] : and affect our health, and energy, and vitality.
[00:06:43] : beforehand. Okay. So that's what leads us to poor food choices. Okay. So there's a lot that you can do through changing your understanding or seeing this different understanding and shifting your lifestyle as well. Another thing that I talked about on the training, which I'll give you is that for a lot of women, there's a constant hyper focus on their weight.
[00:07:06] : on good and bad days with food, on their body shape, just constant assessing of where they're at and why they haven't lost weight, and why they feel the way that they do, which plays a role in affecting the metabolic rate. control center. Okay. And so while we have that thinking in us in a way to try and control and rein things in, and so we don't have a complete blowout, but actually that thinking is moving us
[00:07:30] : further away from our goal.
[00:07:32] : Okay. So from this, I really want you to see that hunger and appetite is actually further down the chain and metabolic Disruption happens much earlier on,
[00:07:41] : before those symptoms come about. So this, excessive eating and cravings and low energy is a symptom of a metabolic breakdown. Okay, and so it's not something that comes before, it's something that comes after.
[00:07:55] : So if you'd like to know more and you'd like to access the training, I'm going to put a link with this podcast that you can watch that training. It's only going to be available for the next 48 hours. So jump on it and I'd love to hear your comments.
