> I've heard people say that the solution is to eat (healthy food) when you're hungry, and stop when you're full. The thing is, I'm never full. I can eat until I physically can't eat anymore (not something I do regularly, of course), and as soon as my stomach has emptied a bit, I feel fairly hungry again. "Eat until you feel full" is literally a human experience I had never really had.
I had this exact same experience when I was prescribed a drug that, as a side effect, blocked receptors in parts of the brain responsible for signalling satiety from food.
I went from having trouble eating enough food to maintain a healthy weight, and just not being hungry, to suddenly being unable to feel full at all. It was like I always had room for more, no matter how much I ate. And I was constantly hungry, felt like I was starving 24/7 and would ruminate about food so much that it impacted my ability to sleep or concentrate. My brain was obsessed with preventing me from "starving" and it ultimately dissolved the illusion of willpower that I thought I had.
No longer take that drug, but it was an eye opening experience. I didn't know that was a thing people could experience, as someone who was always skinny. It really drove home that we are products of our biology and made me more empathetic with those who struggle with food.
I know what you mean. My doctor prescribed Naltrexone. The first day I took it I ate half my dinner and felt full for the first time in my life. As a middle-aged man I had never had that feeling before. Previously I assumed what people meant by feeling full is that you felt like you literally can't eat anymore.
Unfortunately that stopped working for me after a few months. Hopefully this one will work better.
If that doesn't work out, I think they make a combination drug of naltrexone/bupropion if the naltrexone worked for you originally. The latter drug activates parts of the brain that are responsible for emesis and it works well with the reward blocking effects of naltrexone.
Bupropion also helps increase dopamine and norepinephrine levels within the synaptic cleft. It was somewhat helpful for me when I wanted to reduce smoking. I was able to go from losing my mind if I went 90 minutes without a smoke to losing my mind after 3-4 hours without a smoke. I've heard anecdotal evidence from people I know that it helped with weight loss.
Personally, I can say that while Bupropion didn't help me lose weight that it did at least help me stop gaining weight. I've never taken it with naltrexone though. In fact, I'm long-term opiod agonist therapy for chronic pain developed in my early 20s. This actually has more or less the opposite effect of opiod antagonists such as naltrexone. They've definitely had a negative effect on my ability to lose or maintain my weight, although I seem to have achieved some kind of balance where my body plateaus after a certain weight.
I had this exact same experience when I was prescribed a drug that, as a side effect, blocked receptors in parts of the brain responsible for signalling satiety from food.
I went from having trouble eating enough food to maintain a healthy weight, and just not being hungry, to suddenly being unable to feel full at all. It was like I always had room for more, no matter how much I ate. And I was constantly hungry, felt like I was starving 24/7 and would ruminate about food so much that it impacted my ability to sleep or concentrate. My brain was obsessed with preventing me from "starving" and it ultimately dissolved the illusion of willpower that I thought I had.
No longer take that drug, but it was an eye opening experience. I didn't know that was a thing people could experience, as someone who was always skinny. It really drove home that we are products of our biology and made me more empathetic with those who struggle with food.