Hungry Fat Man

What’s the relationship between bodyfat and hunger?  What should it be?

 

Thinking better about these and related ideas may help us to achieve and maintain a more healthful percentage of bodyfat.  At least in affluent countries such as the United States and Canada, scientists tell us that at least two of every three people are too fat for optimum health.

 

If so and you value health highly, it might be a good idea to think better about bodyfat and hunger.

 

Desire begins with a primordial acquisitiveness, a desire to gain something that we seem to lack, a neediness to acquire something better than what we have.

 

To be hungry, to have an appetite, is to desire food.  Mother Nature gifted us with hunger because of its survival value. A person is a self (ego, bodymind).  If we persons don’t ingest food, we die.

 

Hunger is a sensation that is a signal that prompts us to pay attention.  Its value is that it means that we are beginning to starve to death.  Without it, we might forget to eat and, so die.

 

Thirst is a similar signal.  If we never experienced thirst, we might forget to drink and also begin to die.

 

Hunger and thirst are experienced internally (as opposed to perceptions whose objects are external).  When I feel hungry and see that tree over there, I identify with the hunger in a way that I don’t identify with the tree.

 

Being occasionally hungry is a normal experience of life.  So does occasionally being thirsty.

 

Desires are perturbations in consciousness.  When we desire something, what do we really want?  According to The Upanishads, what we really want is the at least relative tranquility that ensues when the desire subsides.

 

Persons are temporal.  Each of us has a story of our lives from birth until death.  Typically, experiencing normal episodes of hunger and thirst are recurring themes.

 

They vary in intensity.  Sometimes they range from barely noticeable preferences to intense cravings.

 

They vary with respect to age and physical health.  Aging causes a normal decline in the efficacy of our organs.  For example, the thirst mechanisms in the elderly work less well in the sense that the elderly ought to drink more water than merely relying on thirst suggests.

 

It’s instructive to isolate the present moment from the past and the future.  Let’s suppose that you are ravenously hungry right now.  You naturally identify with your bodymind and think, “I’m really hungry.”  You recognize a lack of food and naturally want to do something about it.

 

If asked, “Who is hungry?”, you’d reply, “I am.”

 

If asked, “What is hungry?”, you might be puzzled for a moment and answer, “This human being.”

 

It’s often beneficial to step back from our thoughts and, so, from our beliefs as well because beliefs are just thoughts that we consider true.  In the two cases just mentioned, the beliefs are “I am hungry” and “I am this human being who is hungry.”

 

Are these beliefs true? If you have an appetite, yes.  There’s an experience right now of hunger.  This sets up an important question.

 

What is the good with respect to this hunger?  What would be the best outcome for me?

 

Notice that asking about the good with respect to the hunger is not the same as asking about the good with respect to its object, namely, the desired food.  The food itself may or may not taste good; if it did, that would be a good with respect to the food.  Similarly, it may or may not be nutritious; if it were, that would also be a good with respect to the food.  Similarly, it may or may not even be available; if it were, that, too, would be a good with respect to the food.  Being delicious, nutritious, and available are qualities of food; they are not qualities of hunger.

 

So, set aside evaluating the food itself.  Instead, focus on the hunger itself.  What is the good with respect to hunger?

 

The answer is ceasing to be hungry.  The good with respect to this hunger itself is its end, its being over, its subsiding.

 

Why?

 

It’s not good to be hungry.  Being sufficiently hungry hurts.  It’s painful.  If you’ve never experienced real hunger, anyone who has will confirm that.  Hunger is a yearning to be in a different condition.  That craving can build until it seems to become all that we’re able to think about.

 

It’s better not to be hungry than to be hungry.  That’s important to understand.

 

It affects how we perceive the world.  For example, hunger makes high-calorie food seem more appealing and makes food taste better.  That’s not surprising to anyone who understands that what we perceive is governed by our beliefs.

 

Scientists are gathering evidence that hunger really does extend beyond food.  [See, for example, scientificamerican.com/article/hunger-makes-you-crave-more-than-food.]

 

There’s no doubt that we sometimes think and talk that way.  “She’s hungry for knowledge about black holes.”  “The Yankees were hungry for a win.”  “He was hungry to be recognized for his achievement.”  Notice, too, that we use ‘thirst’ in similar ways.

 

There’s research that hunger spawns other desires that have nothing to do with food.  For example, men who are hungry find photos of fat women more attractive.  For example, we are often crankier when we are hungry than when we are not.  For example, hungry shoppers tend to purchase more nonfood items.

 

Distinguish wanting or desiring something from the enjoyment, pleasure, or liking it when we obtain what we desire.  According to some psychologists who study addiction, those are two distinct experiences even though they usually go together.  Addicts can have the desire without the corresponding enjoyable fulfillment.

 

There are two practical takeaways.

 

First, whenever you make a judgment or decision that is important, take your present condition into account.  Ask yourself: “Am I at peace?”  If not, if you want something other than your condition right now, that otherwise ignored desire might be a result of some hunger or thirst you have but are not paying attention to with the negative result that it affects your judgment and you make a poor decision.

 

Second, as we make decisions, it’s better to be peaceful than not.  Ask yourself, “Am I practicing peacefulness often enough?”  If not and you increase your practice of peacefulness, it should not be surprising if the results of your decisions improved.  This is an important reason why meditative or yogic practices are beneficial.

 

What does all this have to do with bodyfat?

 

Of course, when we’re hungry, we have a tendency to eat too much, and overeating increases our percentage of bodyfat.

 

Let’s push a bit further:  Why connect hunger and food?  Why should we be eating food when we desire to eat food?

 

If this specific topic interests you, I invite you to check out my 2022 book The Best Way to Lose Body Fat . . . And Keep It Off!  For more information about it, go to:  https://endfearfast.com/the-best-fat-loss-method/

 

Whether or not you have much interest in bodyfat, you’d be wise to check out some great spiritual literature on the topic of desire.  There’s much wisdom there.  Here are just two examples.

 

“[D]esire is the roof of suffering.”  [In the Buddha’s Words, Bhikkhu Bodhi, ed., p. 92.]

 

“When you realize there is nothing lacking, / the whole world belongs to you.”  [Tao Te Ching, Stephen Mitchell, tr. p. 44.]

 

May the whole world belong to you!

Dennis E. Bradford, Ph.D.