Home
>
Weight Loss
>
Lose Fat and Retain Muscle By Getting In Touch With Hunger

Lose Fat and Retain Muscle By Getting In Touch With Hunger

"Unless that apple tastes like the best apple you've ever tasted in your life, unless that treat or slight deviation in your diet tastes like a dish prepared by a professional chef ? you ain't doing it right?unless you are always on the brink of hunger ? hunger so deep and intense that eating a single piece of fruit or having a bagel with a hint of jelly is a transcendental taste experience, than you need to redouble your diet effort. There comes a point in deep dieting where the slightest stray from your day to day eating routine results in what I'd call, amplified taste."

This statement was made by a well known professional bodybuilder I interviewed in 1982 just prior to a major competition; he carried a 4% body fat percentile weighing 232 pounds with 19-inch arms and a 31-inch waist.

"I would love just one sip of that beer?but of course that is ridiculous; I cannot have even one sip of that beer ? not that it wouldn't be incredible?that sip would taste so incredible? As soon as this competition is over in three days I can have all the sips of beer I want - and I shall!"

This man won the Mr. Olympia competition within a week. Denial and discipline are dietary keys but an overlooked aspect is acquiring "amplified taste phenomena."

"When Douglas MacArthur liberated General Wainwright's survivors of the Bataan death march in 1945, they treated the emaciated survivor's to a banquet consisting of the first real food these men had eaten after four years of brutalization and starvation. A major literally fainted away and fell to the floor in a fit of taste euphoria after he took a single sip of cold, whole milk." --William Manchester, American Caesar

Hunger and heightened taste are inexorably linked. You can improve your quest to effect a total physical transformation by purposefully getting in touch with hunger. Okay, so maybe you don't have to take it to the extremes used by those competing in professional bodybuilding competitions or perhaps you need not develop the taste deprivation sense of a concentration camp survivor, but getting in touch with hunger could be the missing piece of the dietary puzzle. Hunger and taste amplification could bust you through to the next level. Progress need be visible, tangible and statistically verifiable. A sensible fitness program has twin goals: add muscle, strip away body fat.

Like a sculptor paring marble into a sleek and defined finished product, we lift weights to build muscle and we diet and engage in cardio to melt off unhealthy and unsightly body fat. The culmination of all our training and diet effort is a muscular, fat-free physique. When proper exercise and precision eating are combined in a balanced way they create a physical synergy wherein the sum of the individual parts exceeds realistic results. When synergy is achieved (a direct result of a precise balance between progressive resistance training, cardiovascular training and precision eating) rapid physical transformation happens incredibly quickly. To trigger true transformation, not imagined or infinitesimal, nutrition and exercise must weave together in a delicate ballet.

Intense effort must be offset with nutrient-based regeneration: proper nutrients need be consumed in proper amounts at the proper time. Carefully consider the relationship between taste and hunger and if you scratch below the surface you will see that hunger can be used to manipulate powerful primordial urges. Can you use hunger in such a way that primitive hardwiring can be used to advantage instead of as a detrimental binge trigger? Yes but this is a high-wire act without a net. Getting in touch with hunger can be both smart and productive; hunger amplifies the sense of taste and hunger makes us appreciate what we get when we get it. Hunger is multi-leveled and multidimensional.

One trick of the bodybuilding trade is to purposefully induce intense hunger in order to achieve an amplified sense of taste. By carefully preserving this heightened taste sensibility we eat less and appreciate it more. A binge becomes eating an entire apple instead of an entire half gallon of ice cream. Once true hunger is achieved, we reintroduce foods into back our diet?slowly, carefully?savoring them and appreciating them ? never overwhelming the taste buds and never exceeding our reduced capacity. In doing so, we prolong the amplified taste sensation.

Take three days and gradually, imperceptibly, eliminate solid food. At the end of 72-hours fruit juice and protein shakes are all that is consumed. Adhere to this for another 24 to 72 hours. After the fast period, reintroduce foods one at a time. At this juncture, the taste buds are so alert, tactile sensibility so dramatically elevated that food never tasted better. By not going hog-wild, by reintroducing foods in a controlled fashion, we purposefully preserve hunger. By coming in low and light and precise in our portion size, quantity and quality, we maintain the precious amplified taste sensation.

By purposefully preserving hunger we also ensure rapid and complete nutrient assimilation and improve food utilization. Go on a fast to acquire a deep and intense sense of hunger and don't go crazy coming off the fast. Reintroduce foods and once the food is reintroduced, reintroduce exercise ? gradually and slowly. Put it all together and you force the human body to oxidize stored body fat in order to fuel caloric shortfall.

Once this physiological phenomenon of taste depravation takes hold, it will continue until the individual does something to derail this marvelous heightened state. Professional bodybuilders purposefully put themselves into this amazing metabolic state and stay there for weeks on end, resulting, ultimately, in a body that is virtually fat-free while still retaining 90% of hard-earned gym muscle. Let's expropriate these tactics for our own purposes.

ACCESSING THE HUNGER ZONE

Pick a time when you are not working. Let's use a hypothetical weekend.
Start on Friday morning: have a good breakfast; equal portions of protein and carbohydrate. Keep saturated fat and sugar to a bare minimum
Starting the fast mid-morning on Friday.
Every three waking hours drink a 6 to 8-ounce portion of either fruit juice of protein powder mixed with cold water.
See how long you can go?some can go for days, effortlessly alternating various types of fruit and vegetable juice with potent protein powder.

When you decide to come off the juice and protein shake fast, add back, in order:

Fibrous carbohydrates ? salads with lite dressing are a great way to segue from the ethereal liquids to the more substantial grub.
Lean protein can be added back but keep the sources 'clean' (devoid of saturated fat as possible), quantities small and infrequent; add fish, fowl and lean beef back in very slowly.
Starchy carbohydrates like rice and potatoes are fine but again portions should be kept small
Too much of any one food will mess things up coming off a serious fast. The slower you can add back regular food the more likely you are to maintain the 'hunger.'

Coming off the liquid fast, regardless the length of time you are able to maintain it, be it 24-48-72 or more hours, the first foods you taste will have a taste intensity that need be savored and preserved. That first piece of fruit you taste coming off the liquid fast will rival the descriptive ecstasy our IFBB pro bodybuilder used when recounting eating his apple. Depravation heightens taste sensitivity and as long as you don't overwhelm this amplified sense of taste, as long as you avoid eating too much or too often, you can maintain the taste ultra-sensitivity and thereby 'stay hungry.' Hunger as we use the term, denotes the proper combination of calories and activity and results in an elevated metabolism.

For all intents and purposes think of the metabolism as the body's thermostat. By turning up the thermostat we increase the number of calories burned while at rest. An accelerated metabolism allows us to eat often and eat a relatively high number of calories. The trick is not allowing ourselves to go berserk and begin recklessly consuming an excessive amount of calories derived from impure sources ? saturated fat, sugar or alcohol. The body's delicate metabolic gyroscope will be knocked off its pivot point and the accelerated metabolism becomes sluggish and inefficient unless great care is taken.

Get in touch with hunger on a periodic basis ? we all need to have sludge eliminated and the primordial sense of amplified taste reestablished. So take a tip from the pros and get hungry in a systematic fashion every once in a while.

Marty Gallagher is a former strength and fitness columnist for washingtonpost.com. He is also a former national and world champion powerlifter. Marty has written for world-renowned publications, including Powerlifting USA, Muscle & Fitness, and Muscle Media. His website, http://www.martygallagher.com, assimilates years of accumulated knowledge from the athletic elite and makes them accessible to the average person. The "Purposeful Primitive" way is deceptively simple, yet profoundly effective in the pursuit of fat loss, building muscle, increasing strength, and improving health. Read about http://www.martygallagher.com in Marty's daily blogs.

kitchen deep cleaning Deerfield ..

In The News:

X Square Robot unveils Wall-OSS open-source AI model that helps robots adapt to unpredictable real-world tasks beyond narrow scenarios.

Airport workers report surge in fake lost luggage claims as scammers retrieve discarded baggage tags containing passenger names and travel information.

Unlike robotaxi competitors, Tensor focuses on consumer-owned self-driving cars that adapt to highways and urban roads with full redundancy systems for safety.

Medicare scams cost $54 billion in 2024 as fraudsters target beneficiaries with fake calls demanding payments and personal information to steal benefits.

Scammers create fake Evite invitations that mimic legitimate event emails, requiring users to verify senders and use antivirus software for protection.

The new Apple Watch hypertension feature passively monitors blood pressure patterns over 30 days using sensors to detect chronic high blood pressure signs.

Chrome extension spyware disguised as a free VPN service highlights security risks after it captured private browsing data from trusted sites.

New research shows how fatty acids in cooking oil can safely dissolve and recover silver from circuit boards without harmful chemicals or environmental damage.

The Fox News AI newsletter gives you information on the latest AI technology advancements, and about the challenges and opportunities AI presents now and for the future.

Anthropic investigates alarming AI abuse case where hacker automated entire cybercrime campaign using Claude, stealing sensitive data from defense and healthcare firms.

TikTok, Meta and YouTube restrict Charlie Kirk shooting videos with age gates and warnings while X faces criticism for allowing continued circulation.

Cybercriminals use fake troubleshooting websites to trick Mac users into running terminal commands that install Shamos malware through ClickFix tactics.

San Francisco startup Fable launches Showrunner, an AI platform dubbed the 'Netflix of AI' that generates animated episodes from text descriptions with Amazon support.

Apple raised iPhone prices for some models despite receiving tariff relief from President Donald Trump, with the new lineup starting at $799 for the base model.

A two-story 3D concrete printed home in Western Australia demonstrates faster construction methods that could reshape American housing amid rising costs.

Credit scores remain important during retirement for insurance rates and housing applications, while seniors become prime targets for identity theft and financial scams.

Scammers now send unexpected packages with QR codes that redirect victims to fraudulent websites or download malicious software to steal sensitive information.

Meeting AI tools record private conversations alongside work discussions, creating privacy risks that can be managed with proper settings and awareness.

Hotel privacy concerns are valid but rare, with methods to detect hidden tech using smartphone flashlights, mirror tests and scanning apps.

Improve your Wi-Fi speed and reliability with 10 simple router optimization tips that don't require special apps or expensive subscriptions.

A Columbia University breach exposed names, Social Security numbers and academic records of nearly 869,000 people, with notifications beginning in August.

Rental car drivers use AI-powered apps like Proofr to protect themselves from unfair damage fees as major companies deploy automated inspection tools.

Fox News' AI newsletter brings you the latest on technology advancements around artificial intelligence.

OnTrac data breach between April 13-15, 2025, exposed personal information of over 40,000 people including Social Security numbers and medical records.

Lose Fat and Retain Muscle By Getting In Touch With Hunger

Weight Loss