I spoke with a 'born again' nutritionist friend of mine yesterday. She has seen the light and is now a believer in the Atkins way. Although she is the fittest (and most toned) person I know, she lives the Atkins maintenance way.

Anyway, she had an interesting thought for me.

The orthodox dieting view that I have heard is that when you get hunger pangs, it is your body's way of telling you that it is about to dip into your stored fat reserves.

No way, she says. It is actually your body telling you

" feed me now or I am going into starvation mode"

The moral is quite clear to her. On Atkins, if you are hungry, EAT.

Any thoughts??

Your friend is so right. That's what I love most about this WOE. If I am hungry, I eat. What a concept -- on this WOE we actually get to listen to our bodies!!!

After all, think about animals in the wild: when they are hungry they eat, and they are not fat! Only Humans get hungry and ignore what their bodies tell them.

I hope more health professionals, like your friend, will start to see the light also!

I have spent most of my life with a stomach ulcer and spent a long time trying to figure out what those pains are in my stomach.
The key is to treat yourself like you are your own child/pet and get on a feeding schedule. If you eat something-even 1 oz of cheese it will stop that stomach pain, more importantly drink water while you take a snack.
When your stomach is growling,, yes you are hungry and some snack should get you through it. Otherwise if you eat on schedule treating your body right you should not be hungry-that pain means I will not burn fat but I will send acid to your stomach thinking you must have eaten or drank something by now! You will not go into 'starvation mode' but you will cause damage to your tummy. Take care of yourself

Hey, the Atkins books say to eat when you're hungry! The trick is not to overdo it by waiting too long or eating too much too close to a meal-but nothing wrong with a little snacky-poo!