"If you are hungry, you cannot go on a diet."

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In the beginning, most people find it easy to keep a diet. But at some point there will be great hunger. What you can do then, explains the Australian diet researcher Prof. Amanda Sainsbury-Salis. She tried it herself.

Dr. Amanda Sainsbury-Salis

Dr. Amanda Sainsbury-Salis researches and teaches weight loss at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and the University of New South Wales. She is the author of the books "The Don't Go Hungry Diet" and "Don't Go Hungry For Life".

Prof. Salis, in your diet guide "The Don" t Go Hungry Diet "you write that you would have made diets really fat.

That's correct. When I was a student, I wanted to lose a few pounds. It worked very well at first: until what I called the “hunger reaction” set in. Most people who have ever been on a diet are familiar with this: I suddenly developed a craving for everything I had forbidden myself - chocolate, pizza, lasagna.

At some point I couldn't take it any longer and devoured large amounts of it. Then I felt bad! I felt guilty, like a failure - and ate more out of frustration. It went on like this for six years - I lost weight and then gained weight again - each time more than I had lost. In the end, I was 40 pounds heavier!

The hunger reaction you are describing can break the strongest will. Why is that?

It is a powerful reaction of the body - something nature came up with in order for humans to survive. When we lose some weight, it triggers a whole series of biochemical reactions in the body and brain designed to keep us from starving. For some, the hunger reaction is less pronounced, but for many, for example me, it is very strong.

Most diet advisors then recommend sticking out and still continuing with the diet until you have reached the desired weight.

Yes, there are lots of tips, for example to drink water or nibble on raw vegetables when you get hungry. The only problem is: it doesn't work for many. At some point, the need to eat something rich in food becomes overwhelming for most of them. That is why so many diets fail. Those who are too hungry cannot go on dieting. This has nothing to do with a lack of willpower.

How did you get hunger under control?

The solution was actually quite simple: by eating more again for a while, including things that I really wanted to eat. Whenever I noticed that it was becoming increasingly difficult to stick to my diet, that my appetite for high-calorie meals was growing, I would take a break from the diet and also eat things that I had previously pinched off. I called it "diet vacation". Usually two weeks are enough, then you can continue with the weight loss. That's how I lost 30 kilos.

But don't you inevitably gain back the weight you lost during the diet holidays?

The diet vacation is nothing like abandoning the diet in frustration. You still try to eat mostly healthy food and continue to do sports. But you are not so strict with yourself and enjoy all the things that you have been without for a while. In such a way that you really feel full and satisfied. The big difference is that you don't feel lousy, but that you know that these phases will help you keep losing weight afterwards. The diet vacation is part of the strategy.

How do you know it's time for a diet break?

There are several signs. For example, you find it harder to stick to the diet - you are more hungry and have a growing need for high-calorie foods. Even if you suddenly lose little or no weight at all despite dieting, this is an indication that the hunger reaction has started and you should take a break from the strict diet.

Does your weight loss strategy work for everyone?

No. There isn't one method that works for everyone. It is therefore important that we develop a range of diet strategies. The “Don't Go Hungry Diet” is helpful for people like me who have a strong hunger reaction and who don't like being told what and how much they can eat. For others, however, the concept is too free. You prefer to have specific eating plans to adhere to.

You are now researching the turbo diet, a much more extreme method in which patients consume very few calories under medical supervision. That seems to be the exact opposite of what they just recommended.

That's right. We are currently investigating how fast and slow weight loss affects the hunger response. Even if it would never work for people like me - I've tried it several times - there are actually many people who lose weight quickly and successfully with an extremely low-calorie diet. What is astonishing is that although they only absorb 25 percent of the energy they convert, many do not experience hunger during the diet phase. We do not yet know why this is so.

Last question: are there any differences in weight loss between men and women?

Men often approach a diet very pragmatically. They say: “Tell me what I can do and I will do it.” For women, the subject of food is more emotional - for example what they eat and what not. That makes things a little more complicated.

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