Carbohydrate addiction can cause hunger, carb restriction can fix it

Question
Hey Tanya.

I'm a healthy seventeen year old male, not overweight or anything (BMI is about 22 - 23) and I think I eat quite healthily, I never eat junk food or sweets, I have at least 1.5 Litres of water per day. However I have two problems

1) I feel constantly hungry, Even after I eat food I still feel hungry, Occaisonly this causes me to indulge and have two portions of dinner just to fill me up or a snack on whatevers in the fridge. I've tried eating foods that I've heard fills you up like a Jacket Potato or Sushi, but they still don't work.

2) I do quite a lot of cardio exercise (15 minutes of exercise bike in the morning, 45 minutes in the afternoon, kickboxing 3 times a week and gym 2 times a week) yet I find it quite difficult to lose weight. It drops off very slowly like 1 pound every two weeks and I find this frustrating. I'm going on holiday in the summer and I want to get in shape for it, I kind've have love handles and some slightly visible man boobs that I wanna get rid of.

By the way heres my usual daily diet

Breakfast: Special K Cereal or Bran Cereal
Morning Snack: 1 to 2 peices of fruit
Lunch: Smoked Salmon Bagel/Sushi/Something filling and a peice of fruit or fruit salad
Afternoon Snack: 1 peice of fruit or breakfast bar
Dinner: Whatevers I'm cooked
Dessert: Fat free yogurt

Thanks :D

Answer
I received an interesting question regarding this Q&A I thought might be interesting for this community members( see my initial ansver to Alex below)
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Q: Dear Dr Zilberter, I have jsut read on this website your answer to "Alex" on the above question, posted on 4/12/2009. Since I don't see any other way of contacting you, I am sending my comments via this form. I am simply unable to understand stand why you recommended a diet to this young man. He is 17 years old, with a healthy BMI and on his own account performs up to TWO HOURS of exercise EVERY DAY but he claims he is feeling hungry. Although he lists a typical daily diet he did not mention any quantities, in any meaningful way ("one or two pieces of fruit" doesn't count). It may well be that he is feeling hungry because he is NOT EATING ENOUGH, as even under a heavy exercise regime, he is actually trying to lose weight (love handles, man-boobs, whatever). My personal opinion is that "Alex" needs counselling about body image, not recommendations to diet. Fortunately or unfortunately, not everyone can have that perfect figure, however much exercise or dieting we do.

A: Dear Richard,

The Q&A you refer to can be found here:
http://en.allexperts.com/q/Nutrition-Dieting-939/2009/4/Carbohydrate-addiction-c...

To be more specific:

1. I offered Alex not"a diet' but the diet I am developed basing on a solid and vast research and almost century of clinical use, my version for healthy people. It's possible to read all information following the link I placed in my answer (http://bantadiet.com/), including the formula (Wilder 1921, see at http://brainfuels.com/2010/01/energy-substrates-availability-in-milk/) I used to balance the meals. In my answer to Alex I've mentioned that the plan is online and would cost him nothing.

2. Alex does not mention that he limits his food intake, this made me concluding his problem is not hunger but appetite and it's a common problem for any Western dieter.

3. His food list shows that he overeats carbohydrates and not eats enough fats. In this case, we have to talk qualities not quantities. Meal composition of Alex's typical day clearly indicates that the balance between insulin and glucagon is shifted toward insulin and away from glucagon, thus the appetite not hunger.

4. BMI is a very poor tool to assess one's body composition, the plan I offer contains a body fat percent calculator (http://bantadiet.com/Day-1.html). Should Alex use it, it'd become more clear whether his desire to lose fat is justified.

5. The plan I offered contains stress control body image workshop, so should Alex wish to engage, he'll be able to work on this problem as well.

Hope it helps,

Tanya Zilberter
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Alex,

You might be a carbohydrate addict. Is one of these true for you?

- feeling sluggish after a meal
- getting tired in the afternoon
- unable to lose weight on any diet you tried
- having a difficult time stopping to eat starches or sweets
- not satisfied after you just finished a meal
- ready to start eating even after the thought of food

Don't worry, if so, it's easy to fix. Just change the fuel for your body from carbohydrates to fats (good fats) - this dieting approach, in our experience, helped 92 percent out of 1300+ dieter we tested. It's online and costs you nothing - http://bantadiet.com

You might also consider the Carbohydrate Addict Diet ?an intermittent ketosis plan:
http://agelessbrain.com/2010/08/carbohydrate-addict-diet-an-intermittent-ketosis...

There, you'll find explanations on why and how carbohydrates make you addicted while fats don't and why hunger and cravings disappear when you give your body the opportunity to use an alternative (and more efficient fuel)

Hope it helps,

Tanya Zilberter  

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