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Nervous hunger: how to neutralize the first cause of diet failure

You have decided to start what appears to be your ideal diet. But then, all of a sudden, you find yourself munching on breadsticks, chips and biscuits, following an “unstoppable” impulse that inexorably thwarts all efforts. Or worse: the diet worked and allowed you to lose weight, but you immediately got them all back and more with interest!

Nervous hunger is one of the least talked about eating disorders, but it is at the root of important problems such as bulimia and binge eating. Just think that 70 percent of weight problems are related to this disorder and that is the main reason why a diet fails.

To analyze all its characteristics is the psychologist and cognitive-behavioral psychotherapist Emanuel Mianscientific director of Emotifoodthe first high-performance psycho-nutrition center in Italy, and founder of MindFoodNess Academy. In his book Escape the scale – 10 minutes a day to overcome nervous hunger proposes techniques and practical exercises to refine one’s psychological skills, ally with emotions and control the urge to resort to food whenever it is not physiologically necessary.

“A lot of people can’t lose weight just because of it traps of the mind I talk about in the book, which make you lose control over what you eat and, above all, prevent any nutritional approach from becoming a healthy habit, ”explains Mian. «Over 70 percent of weight problems are related to nervous hunger and the point is that it is never treated or, if you do, you don’t have precise tools to manage it. This book was created with the specific aim of helping people who suffer from it in Italy and whom I do not have the opportunity to meet ».

Why “flee from the scales”?
“In the book I explain it: one must not escape from the balance but from the old idea of ​​the balance as if it were a thermometer, because it is the value given to that number on the display that creates the problem. Furthermore, the scale does not tell us how much lean mass and how much fat mass our body is made up of. And weight is a minor factor if you do sports. What matters, however, is how your clothes fit and how you look: the harmony of the shape ».

How is nervous hunger recognized?
«It is called this way to distinguish it from the typical physiological hunger, the one determined by the need for an energy intake. When you make restrictive diets, which remove carbohydrates, desserts, aperitifs or pizza, the mechanism can be triggered by which the more you eliminate one thing, the more you think about it and then when you find yourself in front of that denied and desired food , you can not resist, thus defeating the diet. Here: that is nervous hunger because it is not physiological, it is not the one that arrives in the evening or around lunch, a signal from the body to tell us that we are going to reserve; it is a hunger linked to the restrictions that one has, to the privations that one gives oneself and also to the emotions that one would like to quell in some way ».

Is there a close relationship between nervous hunger and emotions?
«Yes and first of all is the sense of guilt. It doesn’t happen when you eat for lunch or dinner, because it’s a bit like putting gas in your car when the reserve warning light signals us. The problem is when you collect petrol at every distributor you meet, that constant “nibbling” typical of many people – technically called nibbling – which reflects precisely the nervous hunger. A classic example is when you are in front of the computer for an important job and you have a bowl next to it with almonds, candies, chips or other, from which you continuously draw. If we were to put everything we put in our stomachs on the plate, we will notice that the quantity is great and also the calories are many more than we might have estimated “.

And besides the sense of guilt?
«There are also emotions such as boredom, sadness, loneliness, anxiety that we have somehow learned to” distract “and which can be at the origin of a nervous hunger. In other cases, however, it is stress that generates it, we use food to relieve it but the result is that the problem remains. Indeed, distracting yourself with food means avoiding taking into consideration the situation that makes you anxious or stressed, without resolving it. In this way, giving life to an “addiction” ».

How can emotions be transformed into “allies”?
«Knowing them better and stopping dividing them into” positive emotions “and” negative emotions “. We consider sadness a negative emotion but if there were no annoying emotions, which somehow bring darker colors into our life, then we could not enjoy lighter colors. Furthermore, the more words you have available to express emotions, the easier we will be able to manage situations. Having only the word anxiety to define a situation of uncertainty, or that creates panic, is different than having words such as worry, doubt, uncertainty, anguish, annoyance: 5 colors that are always dark perhaps, but with different shades of the same state of d ‘ soul that allow you to evaluate the level.

Let’s not forget, then, that the emotions they must always be present in our life because they are informative: they tell us how we are with ourselves and with the environment that surrounds us which is also made up of relationships. Plus, the emotions they are temporary and transitory and this is a very important factor to remember: every emotion, even the worst, will never remain in peak, but will tend to change and fade. The same goes for the transience: an emotion of anger could turn into disgust, disappointment, frustration, so it will change the color a bit, like the rainbow that changes after a while. And if we are clear about all this, we have already taken a step forward in their management. Anxious patients are able to get out of the problem when they begin to question the doubt, when they begin to wonder: “But isn’t it that I’m worrying too much?“”.

Can Mindful Eating Be a Solution?
“Not entirely. In the book, I talk about different techniques that are best available to deal with nervous hunger, because needs can vary. And there is also talk of intuitive eating, of Mindful eating, in fact, knowing how to eat with awareness. Generally, in our Center we use it to make the person stay in the present moment. It works when used well and with everything else: breathing, being in the present moment, listening to your belly if you have an overweight problem. Same thing for intuitive nutrition that says “listen and eat when you feel you want to eat”: in the case of a person suffering from bulimia, binge eating or nervous hunger that “eat as much as you want” can be a trap that imprisons the problem “.

Will those who go on a diet and suffer from nervous hunger never lose weight?
“Not if he doesn’t learn to manage it.”

How do you suggest in your book to tackle the problem then?
«In the book we managed to make the exercises work without giving a single technique: I proposed breathing but it is not the only method present. The solution is the result of a mix of various techniques that work in synergy ».

Who is it for? Escape from the scales?
«To all those who are about to start a diet, who have been on a diet but have regained the lost pounds or who have abandoned a diet and do not want to know any more. But also to all people who, in general, are struggling with food, the body, the emotions. Because in addition to giving hope for a healthy relationship with food, it offers tools to try to make order, on a universal level, in one’s inner life ».

Other stories of Vanity Fair that may interest you are:

The hormonal restart diet: how to reprogram hormones to lose weight and regenerate mind and body

How to start a diet to lose weight without risking to miss the goal

Weight loss diet: the manuals of the 15 most famous food plans

Source: Vanity Fair

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