# Is hunger the feeling you get when you are losing weight? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 29, 2010, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hunger-the-feeling-you-get-when-you-are-losing-weight/548499 "2010-07-29T20:24:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2010, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hunger-the-feeling-you-get-when-you-are-losing-weight/548499/21 "2010-07-30T23:23:47Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > Here’s a tip: when you feel hungry, drink some water or some other zero-calorie drink. If you still feel hungry afterwards, it’s time to eat. Or munch on some foods that are effectively no calories. celery, cucumber, lettuce, white mushrooms, bean sprouts, radishes, or egg whites. 2.5 ounces of white mushrooms are only 15 calories. Try broiling them dry to bring out the delicious mushroom flavor without adding any calories. The egg white from 1 large egg is 16 calories. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2010, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hunger-the-feeling-you-get-when-you-are-losing-weight/548499/22 "2010-07-30T23:52:01Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](#): > > > [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > > > Here’s a tip: when you feel hungry, drink some water or some other zero-calorie drink. If you still feel hungry afterwards, it’s time to eat. > > Or munch on some foods that are effectively no calories. celery, cucumber, lettuce, white mushrooms, bean sprouts, radishes, or egg whites. 2.5 ounces of white mushrooms are only 15 calories. Try broiling them dry to bring out the delicious mushroom flavor without adding any calories. The egg white from 1 large egg is 16 calories. I just got some seaweed for this. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hunger-the-feeling-you-get-when-you-are-losing-weight/548499/23 "2010-07-31T00:47:53Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](#): > > Or munch on some foods that are effectively no calories. celery, cucumber, lettuce, white mushrooms, bean sprouts, radishes, or egg whites. 2.5 ounces of white mushrooms are only 15 calories. Try broiling them dry to bring out the delicious mushroom flavor without adding any calories. The egg white from 1 large egg is 16 calories. Pickled mushrooms! Of course, you put your salt through the roof if you eat too many, but they’re the tastiest thing I can think of that has negligible calories. And I guess the salt encourages you to drink more water too. ---
**Author:** ![Candyman74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hunger-the-feeling-you-get-when-you-are-losing-weight/548499/24 "2010-07-31T02:13:38Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > I’ve read somewhere that hunger is the feeling you get if you’re losing weight. Nope. Otherwise people who were not losing weight would never feel hungry. ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hunger-the-feeling-you-get-when-you-are-losing-weight/548499/25 "2010-07-31T03:16:55Z")
I’ve found that while I’m losing weight, I may feel hungry occasionally, but _damn_ I’m cold. Freezing half to death in SoCal in the middle of July is not fun. It’s worth it though. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hunger-the-feeling-you-get-when-you-are-losing-weight/548499/26 "2010-07-31T04:00:41Z")
Somewhat. Certain foods like fiber and protein can lower hunger even as you lose weight. Other foods that cause blood sugar spikes can cause hunger issues in the opposite direction. So somewhat. I notice that if I eat as much casein protein and fiber (both soluble and insoluble) in the morning as I can that I am less hungry throughout the day, despite eating fewer calories. So yes and no. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hunger-the-feeling-you-get-when-you-are-losing-weight/548499/27 "2010-07-31T23:29:53Z")
> [@phouka](#): > > I’ve found that while I’m losing weight, I may feel hungry occasionally, but _damn_ I’m cold. > > Freezing half to death in SoCal in the middle of July is not fun. It’s worth it though. This experience deserves an explanation. As you lose weight with calorie restriction your body is trying to fight against the process, trying to keep you at what it has experienced as its “normal weight”, its “settling point”. Part of that is a relative hypothyroid-hypometabolic state which is experienced as feeling cold. Its your body responding to the restriction by literally burning less to keep you warm in order to conserve calories, and part of the explanation for plateaus in weight loss. ---
**Author:** ![code\_grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@code\_grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/code_grey)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hunger-the-feeling-you-get-when-you-are-losing-weight/548499/28 "2010-08-01T01:18:31Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > Go on a two day water fast. You will find after 24 hours you will HURT from hunger. This will be very different from anything most people feel. I did it once, and there was no “hurt”. There was loss of body vitality, e.g. you cannot walk fast and you get tired and so forth. Doing real physical work (like in the field) probably would have been very tough (at least for somebody as unused to this state as myself). But methinks 24 hours or even 48 hours is way too little to experience pain. At the other end of the spectrum, according to Solzhenitsyn, comes the state where people are so frail from hunger and physical exhaustion that they will keep on moving only when threatened by immediate pain, beatings. Being screamed at, desire for self-preservation, or the threat of immediate execution just doesn’t cut it after a certain point. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hunger-the-feeling-you-get-when-you-are-losing-weight/548499/29 "2010-08-01T02:02:32Z")
Nope, the hunger feeling I feel is the exact same feeling as the water fast. I’ve done it before. It’s a pain in your stomach that gets gradually worse. In fact, quite often I’ll have that feeling and not want to eat. That’s one of the responses of drinking too much water. The feeling of merely wanting something to eat is usually localized in my mouth–it’s all about wanting to taste something. That’s what gets the dopamine reaction going. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hunger-the-feeling-you-get-when-you-are-losing-weight/548499/30 "2010-08-01T09:40:23Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > Hunger is an actual PAIN, what most people feel when they say is hunger is not. What your feeling is an urge to eat. I was wondering when someone was going to trot out this urban legend. The meaning of words is determined by usage. And for the vast majority of English-language speakers, when they say they’re “hungry”, they mean they have an urge to eat, not that they’re in actual physical pain from starvation. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hunger-the-feeling-you-get-when-you-are-losing-weight/548499/31 "2010-08-01T13:48:32Z")
> [@Candyman74](#): > > > [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > > > I’ve read somewhere that hunger is the feeling you get if you’re losing weight. > > Nope. Otherwise people who were not losing weight would never feel hungry. A little [Logic 101](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrapositive): “If A then B.” does not imply “If not A then not B.” “If you are losing weight then you feel hungry.” in no way leads to “If you are not losing weight then you never feel hungry.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hunger-the-feeling-you-get-when-you-are-losing-weight/548499.md?page=1)