How do you lose weight in a healthy way and prevent you from gaining weight again? According to doctors Felix Kreier and Maarten Biezeveld, it starts with taming the hypothalamus, the 'hamster' in your brain, which always checks to see if there is anything left to eat.
Maybe you've tried it:lose a few pounds quickly, because you want to wear that one dress to a special occasion in a few weeks. You follow a crash diet, the pounds fly off and the result is great. Until the pounds suddenly start flying again – even more than you had. You are yo-yoing. What happened? Your hamster has been stressed, say doctors Felix Kreier and Maarten Biezeveld † In their book The hamster in your brain they explain what happens in your brain when you decide to lose weight and what you can do to lose weight in a healthy way.
What do you mean by the 'hamster' in your brain † Kreier:“The hypothalamus, a small and ancient brain region, has a simple task:to ensure that you do not die from an energy deficiency. The hypothalamus always scans your environment to see if there is anything left to eat. He doesn't know that we can walk into a supermarket at any time, so he always wants to build up extra energy reserves just to be safe – hence the comparison with a hamster. Fortunately, we have another brain region, the prefrontal cortex. This is the 'decision maker' in your brain, which is able to tame and slow down the hamster. With this part you think logically, plan and make agreements. The intention to lose weight is taken here. The decision maker is just not good at doing several things at the same time. As long as he's actively trying to lose weight, he'll be fine. But as soon as he has to deal with other things - private problems, fatigue, business endeavors - he does less well. Then the hamster makes his move. He thinks:we were starving, so we're going to get that lost five kilos back. And we're adding another five kilos."
Is that why crash diets don't work? Kreier:“Exactly. If you lose weight too quickly, your hamster will think, oh dear, we're dying. He will then strongly oppose the weight loss. It gives you a very strong feeling that you have to eat and puts your energy in the saving mode:your body temperature drops, your heart starts beating slower, you have no energy for anything anymore. It becomes even more difficult to achieve a healthy weight, because you have to eat even less.” Biezeveld:“With a crash diet you achieve nothing in the end. People often go very low in their calorie intake and they are mainly concerned with what they will not eat for a while, but you do not build a new routine with that. While it is just so important for sustainable weight loss:slowly but surely build new habits with small steps, so that you automatically make sensible choices without the hamster angry.”
Where is the hamster angry with? Kreier:“From losing weight very quickly. A healthy, normal hypothalamus immediately springs into action when your energy reserves run out – if you lose weight, that is. He wants to reverse that. You can't change your hamster, but knowing how it functions and what it needs can help prevent it from taking charge. If you slowly give him a little less stock, he will eventually notice something, but less violently than with a crash diet. But if you make the reserves a lot smaller in one go, it will become vengeful."
Your Hamster brain method is emphatically not a diet. What is it? Kreier:“It is a philosophy about healthy living , where we provide insight into what happens in your brain when you decide to lose weight. Three areas of the brain are involved, which work together. The hypothalamus and the prefrontal cortex, as mentioned, but also the limbic system:the 'lobbyist' in your brain that gives you a good feeling when you have lost weight or when you have resisted a croquette sandwich. But you can't rely on it, because it also gives you a good feeling when you have eaten that croquette.” Biezeveld:“The most important points are focus, which allows you to suppress the hypothalamus's urge to build up energy stores, build up new routines and slowly lose weight. If the energy balance is slightly negative, because you eat just a little less, your hamster will not panic and you will be less hungry, so that you can continue losing weight for longer." Kreier:“We don't say what and how much you should eat on which day, but explain how you influence your brain. The direction you go is determined by the part of the brain that yells the loudest, so you have to trick certain areas.”
How do you do that? Kreier:“Because of fewer calories to eat, but feel full. And by giving the hamster the maximum sensory information. If it is missing, the hamster becomes very restless. For example, fast food is lukewarm and soft; you chew twice and it's gone. If you do your own shopping, you think in advance about what a healthy choice is and you feel, taste and smell the food while it is being prepared. This gives your hamster more information and you tell him:take it easy, there will be food. . If you also eat from a smaller plate, which makes your plate look very full, that gives the hamster even more reassurance. None of those individual tricks are the answer, and losing weight and maintaining a healthy weight is also difficult with our method. But you can find out what works for you and teach yourself those habits.”
How much weight can you lose in a healthy way per week? Biezeveld:“We assume 200 grams per week. That doesn't seem like much, but that still amounts to ten kilos per year. In the book I liken it to an ice cube. If you put an ice cube of minus seven degrees in a room with the same temperature, it won't melt. If you slowly warm up the room, to minus six and minus five degrees, it still seems like nothing is happening, but something is indeed happening. You only see that at the turning point, zero degrees. But the whole process before that was essential to get to that point.” Kreier:“If you consume a little less energy in a healthy way and use more, major changes will already take place in the body. This is how your fat distribution changes:you lose belly fat, and that fat is an important risk factor for premature death and all kinds of disorders. Even if that belly fat is redistributed in your body and you stay at the same weight, you are already doing well.” Biezeveld:“It doesn't matter how you lose weight. The Pioppi Diet , a Mediterranean diet or keto :Many dietary styles fit our method, as long as it's not a crash diet. You will have to find out for yourself what works for you. It is of course important to eat healthy and wholesome, but there are books enough left. Our book is mainly about the underlying processes.”
You write that evaluation moments are important to maintain weight loss. Do you have to weigh yourself every day? Biezeveld:“It is advisable to keep a record of what you eat in a day, so that you know what your weak moments are, recognize a pattern and come up with healthy alternatives. It's about awareness. That is why we also recommend checking how many calories something contains. Many people think that nuts are healthy. That's right, but only if you eat fifteen grams of raw, unroasted nuts – about eight almonds. If you eat a bowl of roasted, salted cashew nuts, you are not healthy, but you have consumed 750 calories in an hour. If you step on the scale three times a week, at a fixed time of the day, you keep an eye on whether you are not losing weight too quickly. You have to be able to steer towards something, whether that is your weight, calorie intake or waist size.”
A healthy weight is often difficult to hold on to once you have achieved it. How is that possible? Kreier:“When you think you have it all under control, the focus often wanes. Especially if you are tired or busy, because then your decision maker is distracted. But your hamster never sleeps; he just wants to eat. You can prevent a relapse by drawing up an emergency plan during the waste process. Ask a friend to talk to you if things go wrong or get moving if you want to snack.” Biezeveld:“You can also draw a hamster on a sticker sheet and stick it in a place where you have difficult moments in the house, such as the refrigerator. Every time you see that sticker, your decision maker is activated.”
How do you know that the Hamster brain method works? Kreier:“Eighteen years ago I started researching the principle behind it at the Netherlands Brain Institute. Maarten and I have studied all new studies on the influence of the brain on weight loss in recent years. When all kinds of diets were compared in a large study and none of them turned out to make much difference, we were not surprised. They were all based on imposed rules, not on their own routines. As a result, the decision maker had to think again about each choice. Together with fellow doctors, I lead an outpatient clinic for overweight children at the OLVG. I am grateful to those children, because they forced us to explain everything in an understandable way. And over the past two years, we've done two pilots with 270 participants to try out the method. That turned out very well.”
What is your tip for readers who want to tame their hamster? Biezeveld:“Take your time. The faster you lose weight, the greater the chance that you will revert to your old behavior and weight.” Kreier:“Accept that your brain consists of several parts and that they will start arguing with each other. And don't be too hard on yourself if the hamster does win, because that hamster is also part of you.”
Text Kim van der Meulen, Image:Getty Images
