I’m going to say that this advice doesn’t work for everyone.
Some people are taste-motivated and some people are fullness-motivated.
My whole family is taste-motivated. They have specific foods that they love; fine food is very important to them; to them, “dieting” means eating smaller quantities, because giving up their favorite foods altogether is out of the question. I’m the one who horrifies my mother by eating beef jerky. It’s fairly healthy, it satisfies my hunger, and it tastes good to me, the way all food does. Seriously, all food tastes good to me, with few exceptions. Sometimes I crave fat or protein or sugar, but I never crave a specific food. What’s really important to me is feeling full—I hate being hungry.
So I actually hate that “savoring” business. I’m starving! I want to be not-starving! That’s the point of food! Savoring it is just prolonging the period when I’m starving. And the “want” vs. “like” confuses me—I understand the notion, but I can’t apply it to food in my case. I like (almost) everything! (Sure, I desire things I shouldn’t eat, like desserts, but it’s not a want/like thing—I both want and like them.)
Where this logic actually makes sense to me is recreation. Intense fun—going out with friends to have a new, exciting, transcendently wonderful experience—is actually remarkably easy. It’s just that most people spend their free time budget on mild fun—TV, movies, internet. One of the things I’m trying to do is to focus more of my fun budget on intense fun.
I think this distinction is very important in determining the efficacy of weight loss advice.
I’ve read plenty of advice oriented toward people who are hungry all the time, and it made no sense to me until I realized I was not the intended audience. Being full is supposed to make me not want to eat that cookie? What planet are these people from?!
If someone wants to lose weight, and mainly eats due to hunger, but doesn’t mind sacrificing taste, they should eat to maximize the satiety-to-calories ratio, with just-in-time fatty snacks like nuts, and high-water-content stuff like veggies.
On the other hand, if like me they’re motivated mainly by the fun of tasting things, and have no problem being hungry as long as there aren’t super-tasty things available, or they aren’t bored, etc., then they should try to maximize the taste-to-calories ratio, with e.g. tea, itty-bitty chocolate truffles, to add lots of taste but not many calories.
EXACTLY.
I have the same reaction with “just eat a tiny bit of ice cream” advice. I don’t want a tiny bit of ice cream. I want a whole bowl of Greek yogurt. One way or another, I’m going to have a whole bowl of something—sooner or later—because I’m hungry.
I know what you mean in terms of food. I am very non-picky, and while I prefer to eat a variety of different foods over a day to avoid boredom, I don’t really mind what. (I do have favorite foods, like muffins, which I shouldn’t really eat because I have a wheat sensitivity...)
However, I don’t find it more fun necessarily to go out and do new things with friends… It can be fun, but I mainly find it exhausting. My ‘transcendental fun’ usually takes the form of engaging conversations with interesting people. This is probably an introverted trait.
I’m going to say that this advice doesn’t work for everyone.
Some people are taste-motivated and some people are fullness-motivated.
My whole family is taste-motivated. They have specific foods that they love; fine food is very important to them; to them, “dieting” means eating smaller quantities, because giving up their favorite foods altogether is out of the question. I’m the one who horrifies my mother by eating beef jerky. It’s fairly healthy, it satisfies my hunger, and it tastes good to me, the way all food does. Seriously, all food tastes good to me, with few exceptions. Sometimes I crave fat or protein or sugar, but I never crave a specific food. What’s really important to me is feeling full—I hate being hungry.
So I actually hate that “savoring” business. I’m starving! I want to be not-starving! That’s the point of food! Savoring it is just prolonging the period when I’m starving. And the “want” vs. “like” confuses me—I understand the notion, but I can’t apply it to food in my case. I like (almost) everything! (Sure, I desire things I shouldn’t eat, like desserts, but it’s not a want/like thing—I both want and like them.)
Where this logic actually makes sense to me is recreation. Intense fun—going out with friends to have a new, exciting, transcendently wonderful experience—is actually remarkably easy. It’s just that most people spend their free time budget on mild fun—TV, movies, internet. One of the things I’m trying to do is to focus more of my fun budget on intense fun.
I think this distinction is very important in determining the efficacy of weight loss advice.
I’ve read plenty of advice oriented toward people who are hungry all the time, and it made no sense to me until I realized I was not the intended audience. Being full is supposed to make me not want to eat that cookie? What planet are these people from?!
If someone wants to lose weight, and mainly eats due to hunger, but doesn’t mind sacrificing taste, they should eat to maximize the satiety-to-calories ratio, with just-in-time fatty snacks like nuts, and high-water-content stuff like veggies.
On the other hand, if like me they’re motivated mainly by the fun of tasting things, and have no problem being hungry as long as there aren’t super-tasty things available, or they aren’t bored, etc., then they should try to maximize the taste-to-calories ratio, with e.g. tea, itty-bitty chocolate truffles, to add lots of taste but not many calories.
EXACTLY. I have the same reaction with “just eat a tiny bit of ice cream” advice. I don’t want a tiny bit of ice cream. I want a whole bowl of Greek yogurt. One way or another, I’m going to have a whole bowl of something—sooner or later—because I’m hungry.
I know what you mean in terms of food. I am very non-picky, and while I prefer to eat a variety of different foods over a day to avoid boredom, I don’t really mind what. (I do have favorite foods, like muffins, which I shouldn’t really eat because I have a wheat sensitivity...)
However, I don’t find it more fun necessarily to go out and do new things with friends… It can be fun, but I mainly find it exhausting. My ‘transcendental fun’ usually takes the form of engaging conversations with interesting people. This is probably an introverted trait.