Not sure if this is the right sub, but i have a question about how appetite works. I’m not asking for personal health advice, but instead in general if this is a real concept out of curiosity.
In a healthy adult, is it possible to eat so little that you get used to very little food, causing you to eat even less, getting used to even less, going in a spiral until you end up eating almost nothing?
Do some people have to “keep their appetite in check” or does everyone have an equillibrium their body will always aim for?
I’ve lost over 150 pounds since around 2018, so eating progressively less along the way to keep losing. My anecdotal experience is that you get used to eating less, though it is a very slow process. I think people adjust psychologically and I assume there are physical changes with that relating to hormones, how much the stomach stretches, etc.
I try and manage appetite by eating the same things at the same time of day, so that may contribute to my improving appetite control as well.
i’m not sure about it going to that extreme, but from personal experience i can say more mild versions of that can absolutely happen. i do construction and exercise regularly, in addition to a high metabolism. i used to eat 3 full meals with 3 small ones packed in between. 6 total meals a day like clockwork, averaging 3500-4000 calories. i had a carb and protein heavy diet with moderate fat.
i eventually switched to high fat, moderate-high protein, low carb (exclusively natural and/or complex carbs, which was new bc i used to eat lots of simple carbs). my appetite was thrown into your “downward spiral” until i was eating 2000ish calories and then going so far as doing intermittent fasting along with this. then it got to where often times i would do whole-day fasts and eat well under 2000 calories many days.
bizarrely i have not lost weight. to the contrary, i have seen and felt my body become leaner and develop more muscle. but mentally i still feel like i am expecting more hunger than i ever feel, and i continue to widdle down overall calories.
my takeaway is this - the more whole foods and nutrient dense foods you eat, the less food you need. so if you quantify “hunger” by how much general food you want/need, i’d say your downward spiral DOES exist to a degree, but only under specific circumstances and with a change to a diet that suits your own body well.
Revisionist History had a podcast on an experiment conducted during WW2 where people were starved for extended durations to learn what happened and how to recover. Your body basically deteriorates and it has some long term effects on your mind.
https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/revisionist-history/the-department-of-physiological-hygiene
Appetite and hormones definitely vary and people have natural ‘set points’ that their hormones will adjust to keep them at.
It’s one of the reasons maintenance of major weight loss is nearly impossible, with maybe 5% of people managing longterm sustained lower weight. I know that personally—after losing about 30% of my body weight, the time I spent that low I was insanely hungry all the time.
In addition to hormones and the ketones levels in the blood, appetite is also influenced by the nature of eating eating behaviours. Therefore, when working with patients, I usually use elements of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). In my opinion, without CCBT is very difficult to teach a person to control appetite.
depends what you eat,
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if you rely on carbs for energy, your appetite is not a need for energy directly bit a sideways signal your blood sugar is dropping, carb -> glucose -> fat -> energy
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if you rely on zerocarb, carnivore etc, then you are burning fat, and the appetite mechanism is thrown a loop, when low blood sugar does not trigger hunger because there is plenty of energy from other sources such as on board body fat, fat -> ketones -> energy