Dr. Jason Fung

Well, calories in is greater than calories out.

I agree with you, but that's the only the first level thinking, right?

I'm not interested that calories in is greater than calories out.

I'm interested in why calories in is greater than calories out.

Right?

And that's the real question.

You can't just say eat fewer calories because that's not the answer.

That's the don't hit icebergs advice.

And the reason calories in is greater than calories out is because you're hungry.

Right?

And that's fundamentally true.

You eat because you're hungry and you stop eating because you're full.

Which gets you to the third why, which is to me the most interesting, which is why are you hungry?

And that's where, when you start to look into the scientific literature, you find that there's actually multiple types of hunger.

You don't eat for just one reason.

There's the physical hunger that we all think about, you know, your stomach's growling and so on.

And that's actually called homeostatic hunger.

But there's also emotional hunger.

You eat because you want to eat, because it gives you pleasure, because it makes you feel better.

That's like comfort foods, right?