Jonathan Steedman (00:01.322)
All right, it is time for another hunger related podcast. I did one a few weeks ago now. Please make sure you've listened to that one first, because the strategies and skills I talk about in that podcast will be super relevant in this one. And I will be recommending them. Today is more about identifying times where you're at a greater risk of hunger. Because I found a lot of people don't realize this stuff and it can be really, really helpful.

because hunger that you can plan for is so much easier to deal with than hunger that sneaks up on you. If you know you're in a situation or a scenario where you're far more likely to be hungry, you're make different choices, you're gonna think differently, you're gonna plan differently, you're gonna structure your day differently. Whereas if hunger creeps up on you, you kind of panic because hunger is, if you're not ready for it, can be a bit worrying.

And so instead I have found with all of the people, you all of the food groupies and weight off, we do a whole workshop on hunger. And one of the big things we talk about is these days that put you at a higher risk of hunger. And after that workshop, there's so many occasions where someone said that this day that I usually just get hungry and I don't know why, and I flip out and I eat all the things instead, before I even got hungry, I knew I was at a greater risk of being hungry. So I was more prepared with my snacks.

I was better with my meal timing. I ate my food more slowly. Even just mentally knowing that you're going to be hungrier can help. know, forewarned is forearmed. You know, if you're going to get slapped, it's nicer to know that you're going to get slapped than getting slapped out of the blue. I guess I might argue about that, but for the most part, I would prefer to know that I'm about to get slapped. so hunger is much the same way. And if there's one thing I can get you to take away from this other than watch out for these occasions, it's that

Proactively responding to hunger or planning for hunger is so much more powerful than reacting to hunger because if you're reacting to hunger, it's almost it's not entirely too late, but you're already in the back foot. You're already hungry. So your decision making is already influenced and kind of clouded. Whereas if you can prepare, predict and proactively put all the peas proactively prepare for hunger, you're in a much better position, much, much, much better position. You feel better.

Jonathan Steedman (02:27.724)
mentally, because you feel in control, you feel like you've got a plan, and you feel better physically because you don't starve and then blow out and eat all the things and feel terrible and then think about, that's probably ruined my weight loss efforts. It hasn't, but that's where our brain goes. you know, so all of that is to say being prepared for this stuff is really helpful. There are two main scenarios where hunger is predictably going to increase. The first of those is sleep deprivation. So if you are sleep deprived,

you're very likely to be hungrier on that day. unfortunately, sleep deprived means like five and a half or less hours of sleep a night, which I imagine for a lot of people is like, I know for me, five hours of sleep is often, that's a great night. Like I'm proud of that night of sleep. And so there is some like you adapt to less sleep. You probably shouldn't, but you do. But if you have had a night or two

of particularly rough sleep or you've had a random night of rough sleep, I just clicked, sorry if that sounded terrible on microphone. The next day, you're almost certainly going to be hungry. We see in the studies that people who are sleep deprived subconsciously, so without even realizing it, consume on average an additional 500 to 700 calories a day. That's significant, particularly if your goal is weight loss. It's unlikely that you have...

lowered your food by more than 700 calories. So if you have lowered your food to be in a deficit for weight loss, and then you are subconsciously eating an additional 700 calories because you're tired, you just wiped out that deficit. And if that's happening multiple days a week, because you're not prepared, you're in trouble, right? Not for me, I just mean your weight loss goals looking shaky. So

I'm not telling you this to make you feel guilty about not getting enough sleep. I'm telling you this because if your sleep deprivation is in your control, if you're just crappy at going to bed and your sleep hygiene sucks and you've got to watch an episode, an extra episode of that thing and then you've got a doom scroll for an hour, I strongly encourage you to work on rolling that back, work on your sleep hygiene, make some changes. It's so important. Instead of bedtime alarm, that was my greatest hack.

Jonathan Steedman (04:49.038)
for going to a bit earlier. But anyway, so for those of you who can do that, but for those of you can't, because there's going to be times where sleep deprivation is outside your control. know, kids, obviously is the number one thing that springs to mind, but maybe it is a heat thing, maybe it's a stress thing, maybe it's a shift work thing. And if that's you, please don't feel guilty. It's outside of your control, but you can still be proactive in planning for your hunger the next day because you know you're going to be hungrier. And so don't feel attacked, but still do something, right?

The second.

The second very frequent occasion that influences your hunger is certain stages in your menstrual cycle. Now, I can't tell you when that's gonna be because anyone who gives you blanket advice around eating around your cycle or training around your cycle is a charlatan. There is no science supporting eating a specific way at a specific time in everyone's cycle because it's all gonna be a bit different. I've had clients who...

barely even notice, like they notice that their menstrual cycle has absolutely no impact on their energy and their appetite. And then I've had clients where they've just crippled for almost two weeks of every month, right? And then everything in between. And so what I want you to do, I don't want you to follow what that influencer said about during your luteal phase, need to eat more. No, maybe you do, but maybe you don't. And so instead I want you to pay attention to your own hunger cues.

your own physical and psychological symptoms throughout the different stages of your menstrual cycle. And what you'll probably do is identify two, five, seven days worth of your cycle where things are more difficult, where you feel crumby, both, you know, not just physically, but mentally, and days where you do have increased hunger during those times. And so again, once there's a bit of a pattern that's emerged, we can do something about it.

Jonathan Steedman (06:47.682)
Maybe you do need to eat a bit more on those days. Maybe you do need to adjust your structure a little bit. But again, doing that before things get out of hand, because you've taken the time to stop and identify those high risk hunger days.

It's so powerful and it can really, really change the game. So make sure that you spend a bit of time thinking about your cycle and noticing changes. And if you haven't, that's cool. Do it next time. Over the next couple, keep a note in your phone or however you want to log it. And then from there, build a plan similar for the sleep-deprived days. If you've had a crappy night or two of sleep, just be aware that you might be hungrier and start to prepare to do something about it before.

before it gets out of hand. All right, enjoy.