Introduction to the Book – The Hunger Code

For the last 15 years, I’ve been a practicing Naturopathic Physician, assisting patients who, for health and emotional reasons, want to lose weight. I don’t say a substantial amount of weight, because it’s relative. Some need to lose more than half their body weight to prevent the risk factors and conditions associated with early mortality. Others are looking to drop 10 lbs. or less, a pant size or two, and feel more confident and comfortable in their own skin. I’m not here to judge. I support both, and am always the first to meet a patient where they are at. Especially when it comes to weight loss. I understand how hard it is to take the first step, and how much courage and strength it takes to ask for help. With all the shame, guilt and embarrassment that is often tied to weight gain, I applaud people who are willing to ask for support. This is something to be celebrated, because that first step is usually the most difficult. 

Over the years, I’ve noticed something interesting. Some of my patients are able to take my suggestions for a healthy lifestyle – the same suggestions you find in countless diet and wellness books – and radically transform their life and relationship with food. And yet some – no matter how many times I explain what a healthy plate looks like, or the necessary supplements to take, exercises to follow, and lifestyle habits to create – are not able to do it. Or, they can do it for a short period, but either can’t stick with it long enough to see results, or can’t maintain it after reaching their goal. Immediately after completing my weight loss program, they rave about how much better they feel inside and out. Their energy levels are higher, they sleep better, their mood is more balanced, their skin is glowing, their blood pressure and cholesterol is lower, and Type 2 diabetes often gets reversed. They feel like a million bucks. A year later, they’re back in my office, back to their old habits, their unhealthy weight, and unhappy about it. Why? What happened in that year?

Do they lack discipline? Maybe. Don’t we all lack discipline sometimes? But I don’t think that’s the reason. After all, they were disciplined enough to follow my strict weight loss regimen. Many of them are professionals with a career. Some have children, or ailing parents to care for. They, like you, are busy people that manage to stay the course in other difficult areas of their lives. Why should weight loss be any different?

Is my weight loss program too hard? It’s certainly a hard shift from how some people were eating and living before. But I don’t think we’ll find the solution by asking why a person can’t stick to their diet. I think we need to ask a different question. It isn’t about the fact that they gained their weight back in a year, it’s about why they gained it back. Instead, we need to look at what drove their weight gain in the first place. Why are they overweight? In particular, what motivated their decisions about what, when and how much to eat? Before any lifestyle change can become permanent, you need to understand why the old one held so much power. 

This book picks up where other diet books leave off. It covers the maintenance phase: how to keep the weight off after you’ve lost it.  It addresses key aspects that are often overlooked- The what, when and how of why people eat. It uniquely examines the hard questions of why people eat in the first place. What causes a person to struggle with their weight? When and how did this struggle begin? This book straddles self-help and science, balancing the emotional reasons for weight gain with the physical requirements for weight loss. 

This book is for those of you who are at the end of your rope. You’ve tried every program under the sun, lost and regained the same amount of weight countless times. You know in theory what is required to sustain weight loss, but in reality, you just can’t seem to do it. This book is for those of you who are frustrated, overwhelmed and confused by what and how you should eat. This book is for those of you who just want to figure it out, for once and for all, and start enjoying your life. You might be asking yourself, ‘When everything else in my life is under control, why can’t I just get control over my eating habits and weight?’

There are countless health and wellness books out there, recipes for weight loss, expert tips for losing fat fast, and more tips on how to maintain it. My approach to lasting weight loss is a bit different. My hope in offering this fresh perspective is to simplify the science and make it real- life applicable. I want to take weight loss and make it relatable for you. My approach offers strategies that will allow you to reach a calorie deficit (without depriving your body of what it requires) AND it recognizes that weight loss is so much more than calories in, calories out. We are complex emotional beings. We are not machines. As such, emotions and cultural norms have a huge impact on when, what and why we eat.