Health
Use a Blood Glucose Monitor to Lose Weight
Improve Eating Habits and Reduce Weight with Hunger Training
Something I’m working on is becoming more aware of when I want to eat from hunger, and when I want to eat for other reasons such as boredom, stress, or sadness. It’s not easy for me, and I wrote about my difficulties in the article “Better You: Reducing Snacking Through Interoception.”
Hunger is driven by several mechanisms in the body, including the vagus nerve communicating the emptiness of the stomach, the release of the hormone ghrelin, glucagon and epinephrine levels, and blood glucose levels. Even though all those things contribute to triggering hunger, there are studies showing that blood glucose is a generally reliable indicator of when we are hungry. Studies indicate that blood glucose levels below a marker between 80 and 85 mg/dL indicate hunger.
Scientific researchers have used this information for “hunger training” —educating our brain to know when we are really hungry by using data about the physiological state of the body. The goal is to teach them to delay meals until they feel physiological hunger. During hunger training each subject was given a blood glucose monitor and then instructed them to test it when they wanted to eat something, every time. If their blood…
