Eat to Live 23they look too thin, or their friends or family members tell them they
look too thin, even though they are still clearly overweight. Bear in
mind that by their standards you may be too thin, or at least thinner
than they are. The question to ask is: Is their standard a healthy one?
I doubt it. Either way: Do not try to force yourself to overeat to gain weight!
Eat only as much food as your hunger drive demands, and no more.
If you exercise, your appetite will increase in response. You should
not try to put on weight merely by eating, because that will only add
more fat to your frame, not muscle. Additional fat, regardless of
whether you like the way you look when you are fatter or not, will
shorten your life span.
Once you start eating healthfully, you may find you are getting
thinner than expected. Most people lose weight until they reach
their ideal weight and then they stop losing weight. Ideal weight is
an individual thing, but it is harder to lose muscle than fat, so once
the fat is off your body, your weight will stabilize. Stabilization at a
thin, muscular weight occurs because your body gives you strong
signals to eat, signals that I call "true hunger." True hunger maintains
your muscle reserve, not your fat.
True Hunger
Once your body gets to a certain level of better health, you begin to
feel the difference between true hunger and just eating due to desire,
appetite, or withdrawal symptoms. Your body is healthier at this
stage and you won't experience the withdrawal symptoms such as
weakness, headaches, lightheadedness, etc., that most people associ-
ate with hunger.
It is our unhealthy tendency to eat without experiencing true
hunger that contributed to our becoming overweight to begin with.
In other words, to have become overweight in the first place, ap-
petite, food cravings, and other addictive drives that induce eating
have come into play. Poor nutrition induces these cravings (addictive
drives), and nutritional excellence helps normalize or remove them.
My experience with thousands of patients following my healthful,
high-nutrient eating plan is that most of these people no longer get
the discomfort that they formerly mistook for hunger. Even when
they delay eating and get very hungry, they no longer experience
stomach cramps, headaches, or fatigue accompanying their falling