Food Cravings – the Dieter’s Challenge
If you do something over and over again, repetitively & predictably, such as eating something sweet after dinner, the body gets itself ready for the sweet food (or drink) with what’s termed a conditioned compensatory response. Sweet or sugary food destabilises body chemistry, so the body has to produce more insulin to return it to balance. This is the compensatory response. So if the body is conditioned to expect something sweet after dinner every night, the compensatory response will kick in whether you eat the sweet food or not. We experience this as a craving.
Craving is a classical compensatory response of the body’s defence against what’s coming.
The compensatory response is so good that people use more & more of the drug (coffee, sugar, nicotine) and the response keeps chasing it to meet it and neutralise the drug.
The body will engineer a compensatory response to push back against the craved food (or nicotine) and will meet in the middle after a period of time so that it neutralises the imbalance.
Furthermore, if someone eats a meal until they’re full and they are not hungry, and if they habitually still eat another rich food, the signals of being full can be also be the cue that more food is coming. So the day that you don’t eat more food the cravings can be very intense.
The system anticipates the arrival of more rich food and drives the craving system even when you are full.
The first day you don’t eat the rich dessert, the conditioned compensatory response drives the cravings high.
On the second day it is higher, & on the third day it is higher & on the fourth day it is higher.
It feels like hunger but it is not hunger.
It is early in the loss when it is the most intense.
Food addictions like this can be profoundly embarrassing, but it is not something to feel ashamed about. These physiological pathways are very powerful.
There is no denying that those first few days are incredibly hard. Part of the answer is to have a no-brainer strategy in place, so that when the cravings come, you have a go-to stand-in. For instance, some people find that physical activity distracts the body at that time, so instead of having a couple of biscuits after dinner, they go for a walk. Or phone a friend. Or prepare a meal for the next day. All these activities direct the brain’s focus away from opening that packet of biscuits. Be patient, be consistent, be kind to yourself, and the results will come.