I don't even want to imagine the consequences of having this fall into the wrong persons hand. You know some idiots are going to be eating nothing but this pill...I hope FDA keeps a short leash on it.

Actually, I heard about this pill months ago. I think in theory it doesn't sound like a bad idea. Infact I would go as far to try it because I do carry a lot of hunger, otherwise I wouldn't eat as much. But, at the same time, my goal is to learn to eat and feel satisfied, not learn to eat and feel full. I think taking such a pill would disrupt that goal.

I don't believe an "expanding jelly pill" would really do much to sate your appetite, LFM, and that's one issue I have with them.

There's a lot more to satiety than simply feeling full. Only when your cells and body tissues are fully nourished will you be truly satisfied. And that can only happen by consuming nutrient-rich foods, not some artificial diet pills.

Sure, you may get away with it for awhile, but it's only a matter of time before the body objects and starts asking for real food.

I understand what you're saying, but that's only assuming one wasn't getting the proper nutrition. Even if someone ate enough nutrition in a day, a healthy balance of carbs, protein,fat, even if someone is getting enough iron, enough calcium, enough of everything, that doesn't change the fact that some people are still hungry.

The pill isn't supposed to replace eating, it's supposed to encourage portion control/ not eating too much.

It's essentially supposed to have the same effect as surgery is.

I doubt that most people packing away very small amounts of calories each day are getting more nutrition than I would get on the "pill" anyways.


Edit: But I suppose in theory drinking a bunch of water would do the same thing.

Are you suggesting, LFM, that if a person was eating a healthy balance of carbs, protein,fat,and getting enough iron, enough calcium, enough of everything at maintenance level, they could still be hungry?

If so, why would that be?

I'm not trying to be facetious, I'm just looking for understanding.

True, it doesn't replace eating - only smaller portions.

But therein lies the problem of not getting adequate nutrition if one isn't vigilant.

Well of course I can argue with you, I didn't mean that I was physically incapable. I just saw no points that I could legitimately argue against in your previous posts.

With that said, I will argue with this post. Weight loss surgeries are successful for some people. If no weight loss surgery was ever successful, they wouldn't be done.

I personally know one girl that had gastric bypass done. She was morbidly obese, diabetic and under 30. She was in serious danger of not being around to raise her children. She had the surgery done several years ago...was very ill at first, but now she is at a healthy weight and is no longer diabetic. She has every reason to believe she will be around to greet her grandchildren now.

I am suggesting that. Yes. But my question to you is why couldn't that be the case?

Yes, but you get the exact problem with surgery.

My question to you is why would that be the case?

I asked you first.

But to answer your question, if a person was eating a nutrient dense diet with plenty of vegetables and fiber, I don't see how they would be hungry at maintenance.

Of course, they might have "phantom" hunger pains if they're coming down from a higher weight, but those aren't real hunger pains.

They just have to learn strategies to cope with them.

easier said than done often times...

my face is now blue I've saidthis so many times -at my highest weight - I ate healthy - i never ate anythign anyone woudl remotely consider unhealthy -I was always hungry.. and always ate good stuff... phantom hunger or not -they were real to me...

Well it also would depend on the kind of day. For instance someone like myself who has 30-40-30 days (fat, carbs, protein), and eat only foods with high nutrition, and takes multivitamins just incase, etc etc, if I've finished my days eating by 6:30, but stay up until midnight, five and a half hours without eating is long enough to feel hungry again.

It depends completely on circumstances. And while it may work for you not to be hungry after you've gotten all your nutrition, it's not always going to work for others.

Regardless of whether it's an unnecessary hunger, or not, the fact is if people FEEL hungry they are going to want to eat. There is no getting around it.

Unless you define "hungry" as "hasn't consumed enough nutrients (macro and micro) to maintain a healthy weight," I'm not sure why you'd think someone couldn't be hungry in the circumstances you've described.

I'd been eating a fairly reasonable healthy diet - getting more than 100% of the RDA of everything even before my daily multivitamin, 35-40g of fiber a day, lots of veggies, fruits, lean protein and healthy fats, eating at maintenance calories, drinking lots and lots of water. And I was hungry. Swapped out most of my carbs for fat (and I was at about 33% of calories from fat to start off, so I wasn't lacking in fat by any means) so that I wouldn't be so darn hungry all the time. Still getting more than 100% of the RDA of everything even before my daily multivitamin, 35-40g of fiber a day, lots of veggies, fruits, lean protein and healthy fats, eating at maintenance calories, drinking lots and lots of water. Four days later, I find myself hungry once again. I've got about 300 calories left today, and 5 or 6 hours to fill.

Seriously, I am hungrier now maintaining than I was when I was losing.

Since you're asking for a mechanism that might cause such a thing, I'll toss out "evolutionary advantage." When you never know when your next meal will be, eating to maintain your weight makes it more likely that you'll starve and fail to reproduce. Eating to gain makes it more likely that you'll survive and have children. And those of your children who feel hungry even when they've eaten enough to stay on their growth curve, so grow large and fat (or are just strong enough to keep up with the group), are more likely to survive to have children of their own.

So what mechanism do you propose for the body turning down available food that it might need later, just because it doesn't need it at the moment?

you said it much better than I could have

I would try the jelly pill if it were available. It is easy to start a diet and then when you are feeling hungry start to binge on something you shouldn't be having, and then continue down that path from there, losing your grip on the control you were exercising.
Yes there are times we eat that we are not hungry, but it is hunger that will frequently help us fall off the wagon, and anything that can help us stick to it is a good thing in my view.

There's a similar product to the one being discussed here that was just released by an MLM company. I won't mention the name of the company in case someone thinks I'm affiliated with them, which I'm not, but the product is called FORM and they describe it this way:

"Each FORM™ capsule contains hundreds of microbeads made from our proprietary, non-toxic, super absorbent polymer called SWELL™ that has been designed to expand 500 to 1,000 times its weight in water when taken as directed. Each FORM™ rapid-acting capsule dissolves within minutes of ingestion. The microbeads absorb the free water and expand to partially fill the stomach; promoting the release of hormones that signal the hunger center in the brain to suppress your appetite."

Tell me, Suz, or anyone for that matter, if you were experiencing hunger pains, do you think popping one of these pills would sate your appetite?

i doubt it..


becuase a lot of the times it's the texture or mouth feel of what i'm eating that satisfied the hunger.. Same reason why slim fast shakes were never satsifying for me...