The hungry brain
by Stephan J. Guyenet · first published 2017
74% recommend21% neutral5% critical
Why HN recommends it
A neuroscience-based look at how appetite and fat regulation work and misfire in today's food environment. Argues willpower, sugar, or insulin alone can't explain obesity. For anyone trying to understand overeating.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"From an obesity and neuroscience researcher with a knack for engaging, humorous storytelling, The Hungry Brain uses cutting-edge science to answer the questions: why do we overeat, and what can we do about it? No one wants to overeat. And certainly no one wants to overeat for years, become overweight, and end up with a high risk of diabetes or heart disease--yet two thirds of Americans do precisely that. Even though we know better, we often eat too much. Why does our behavior betray our own intentions to be lean and healthy? The problem, argues obesity and neuroscience researcher Stephan J. G
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…mind. The food environment that we have built up around us is a bad one for human beings. If you want to learn more about how our hunger and fat regulation systems work then I can highly recommend "The Hungry Brain" by Stephan Guyenet [1]. [1]: https://www.amazon.com/Hungry-Brain-Outsmarting-Instincts-Ov...
on “Canadian researcher behind one-minute workout has a shorter option” ↗…not an understanding of the system. 0. Basically every obese person has lost a significant amount of weight at least once in their life. Losing weight is not a mystery. Book recommendations: guyenet hungry brain https://www.amazon.com/Hungry-Brain-Outsmarting-Instincts-Ov... pontzer burn https://www.amazon.com/Burn-Research-Really-Calories-Healthy...
on “Goodhart's Law Isn't as Useful as You Might Think” ↗…maintenance we can actually tolerate a lot, esp if we are lightly active, but if you want to lose weight, striving for better tasting food is a poor strategy. An excelent book on this subject is "The Hungry Brain" by Stephan Guyenet: https://www.stephanguyenet.com/thehungrybrain/ This guy's blog is awesome too and if you're interested for example into why the "carbohydrate insulin model" is wrong, checkout this…
on “Study: Low Carb Diet May Prevent, Reverse Age-Related Effects Within the Brain” ↗…to self regulate, and how it can miss-regulate. It also talks about what it is about our food since the late 1970's that has changed to cause this to happen more frequently. [0] https://www.amazon.ca/Hungry-Brain-Outsmarting-Instincts-Ove... EDIT: I want to add a bit. This book goes through how the metabolic system of humans is supposed to work, and it can get technical at times. It also goes over the specific…
on “Overweight and healthy is a big fat lie, obesity study finds” ↗A great book as well is The Hungry Brain by Stephan J. Guyenet. It looks at the neurology of eating, overweight and obesity, and there is a ton there. Basically, most of the popular theories (insulin, microbiome, willpower, sugar, etc.) are…
on “Overweight and healthy is a big fat lie, obesity study finds” ↗You should read "The Hungry Brain" [0]. It's by a neuroscientist, who explains the deep ways that the appetite mechanism is wired into just about every area of our brain, making "willpower" very hard to sustain. As just one example, prisoners…
The Hungry Brain: Outsmarting the Instincts That Make Us Overeat by Stephan Guyenet Gives a good base to understand how we are tricked into consuming much more food that we need
on “Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?” ↗Hungry Brain - Guyenet - You're not bad at 'losing weight', your body is exceptionally good at holding onto energy reserves. Managing hunger is at least as important as managing diet. Burn - Pontzer - Similar to…
on “Ask HN: Do you recall any book or course that made a topic finally click?” ↗…se, but if we can prove that those factors cause weight gain and related health issues then I'd be pretty comfortable calling ultra-processed foods bad. Have you heard of Stephan Guyenet? His book The Hungry Brain is a good read on the neuroscience of obesity. He proposes that eating highly palatable calorie-dense foods changes the brain in various ways that ultimately drive us to consume more of those foods and…
on “Red meat is not a health risk. New study slams years of shoddy research” ↗…dynamically, so if you mess with one of them and don't change anything else, it's most likely just going to adjust the other one. This has been mainstream science for a generation or longer, read The Hungry Brain by Guyenet for a good introduction. > Certainly, i was never obese just slightly overweight. Then it works, of course. Your metabolism was not "broken." This is like buffing out a bump in your car door.…
on “Excess weight, obesity more deadly than previously believed” ↗- The Hungry Brain: https://www.amazon.com/Hungry-Brain-Outsmarting-Instincts-Ov... - Burn: https://www.amazon.com/Burn-Research-Really-Calories-Healthy...
on “Open Questions” ↗…correct, this approach to diet and weight is like saying “poor people just need to make more money, or spend less”. It misses a lot of important nuance. I would recommend you check out a book called” The Hungry Brain“ by Stephan Guyenet. It changed my perspective on this topic and made me much more empathetic to people who struggle with weight issues.
on “Can You Change Your Metabolism?” ↗…explanations. Two books have helped me understand the obesity epidemic: Burn by Pontzer - https://www.amazon.com/Burn/dp/0241388422 Podcast about above: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CSNS45RJL0 Hungry Brain by Guyenet - https://www.amazon.com/Hungry-Brain-Outsmarting-Instincts-Ov... Podcast about above: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlWriMdYuKk
on “‘Forever Chemicals’ Are Everywhere. What Are They Doing to Us?” ↗Hungry Brain by Guyenet is huge recommend from me, and I second the recommendation for Burn
on “The biggest losers: Metabolic damage or constrained energy?” ↗…we have access to a wide variety of highly palatable foods, each with distinct flavor profiles; and advertisements reminds us how much better we'll feel after a snack! Big recommend for Guyenet's "The Hungry Brain" (randomly chosen podcast interview) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fl1g8l-MdZk
on “Scientists are learning why ultra-processed foods are bad” ↗