Posted by 
A weight loss psychologist has created an appetite pendulum – which can help you to recognise how much food your body actually needs, in order to lose weight without dieting. Dr Helen McCarthy, based in Bristol, said that we’ve all been trained to eat at certain times, rather than when we’re hungry and we overeat when we don’t need to.
The appetite pendulum starts at 0 when your hunger is neutral and swings into minus when you’re hungry and plus when you start to eat. She believes that you shouldn’t start eating until your hunger gets to minus 3, which signifies when you’re ‘definitely hungry’ and you should stop when you are ‘just full’ at plus 3.
Eating according to hunger and recognising when we’re full, will prevent overeating, and allow you to enjoy any food you fancy without gaining weight – even if it’s a piece of cake. A weight loss psychologist says that we can use our hunger to change our eating habits and help us lose weight
Don’t fear hunger
The former NHS psychologist, with an Oxford doctorate in Psychology, says we shouldn’t fear mild hunger – and five minutes of it can be essential for a healthy diet. The author says: ‘Many of us eat too much either because we’re enjoying the food and don’t want to stop, or we’re eating mindlessly.’
The Japanese have a principle of eating only until you’re 80 per cent,’ she said. [According to the proverb: ‘Eight parts of a full stomach sustain the man; the other two sustain the doctor.’] ‘That’s similar to stopping at +3 (just full.) It’s a feeling of definite satisfaction, but not what we traditionally think of as a full sensation. That’s what needs to be re-evaluated if we’re ever to find a happy and healthy weight.’
How To Retrain Your Appetite details how you can retrain how you see hunger
‘If your portion sizes are too big, regularly, you’re constantly putting more food into your body than it can use,’ she says. Whatever that food is, healthy or not, excess food will be converted into fat.’
How hungry are you?
The weight loss psychologist, who is also training other professionals in this way of thinking, says hunger signs aren’t a bad thing. ‘Mild hunger in the hour or so before your next meal or snack is healthy. ‘When you never feel mild hunger, your body may have been continuously digesting food, with no chance to stop and rest.
‘Understanding and respecting mild hunger lets your gut work in the way that it evolved.
‘The hunger message to the brain is our body’s inbuilt natural way of letting us know we’ve used up the energy from our last meal, and that we’re having to switch over to using our stored energy, i.e. fat, so the hunger signals are switched off.’ ‘We can go a whole day, or month or lifetime, without actually getting hungry – and it’s one of the biggest reasons we put on weight.’
Stop dieting and lose weight
Most diets make people change their food habits dramatically – that’s why we end up failing. Instead she said you should plan what you eat based on how long it will be until your next meal or snack. ‘If there’s going to be just a couple of hours until you next eat, choosing something that will be quickly digested, raw fruit or veg or a piece of toast for example, will allow you to get hungry sooner.
‘If it’s several hours, go for foods with protein, fibre and fat to keep you going. Like scrambled egg or boil-in-the-bag kipper or yoghurt with fruit, nuts and seeds for breakfast if it’s going to be a long time until lunch. ‘If you are eating just enough, and only letting you appetite pendulum swing to +3, which is ‘just full’ – it will allow you to be hungry for your next meal.