Hunger Type Diet - Softcover

Lowri Turner is a popular TV personality, radio broadcaster and consumer journalist in the UK. She is also a qualified nutritionist and hypnotherapist and currently writes on health and lifestyle for magazines including Top Santé and Women’s Fitness. She is the resident nutritionist for Mother & Baby magazine. Lowri sees private clients at two clinics specializing in women’s health and weight loss. She is also author of The Serotonin Revolution from Nourish.

Like many people, I'm always on the search for an ideal way to lose weight. In reality, the only true way to lose weight, and keep it off, is to eat less and exercise more. But this is easier said than done when you crave food all the time. This book focuses on how hormones affect hunger levels, what's driving your eating habits and why do you always feel hungry ...

In her book, Lowri Turner discusses that there are three phases of eating - hunger, eating and satiation. For some people, the hunger never actually switches off. This all sounds very familiar to me as I could eat all day long.

First of all the book discusses how different hormones impact on hunger. This section was very easy to understand and well written. It established that cravings and hunger pangs could be due to sub-optimal levels of key brain neurotransmitters, such as serotonin and dopamine, and hormones in the body, such as insulin and leptin.

According to the questionnaire I completed, I am a mixture of three hunger types - Anxious, Never-full and PMS. Although I would actually consider myself to be the Bored hunger type too. The book then provides advice on rebalancing my hormone levels, depending on my hunger type, with tips on what and what not to eat and meal plans. This was followed by the 48-hour Hunger Rehab to follow, to rebalance my hunger levels and learn how to recognise true physical hunger, rather than hunger driven by other factors.

There is a recipe section at the back of the book, split into breakfast, lunch, snacks and main meals. I will certainly be trying some of these recipes out, alongside the other recommendations (e.g. increasing my magnesium intake, cutting down on sugary foods, drinking green tea).

An interesting read for someone who knows how to eat healthily but is struggling to lose weight because they simply can't stop eating!

--Victoria Goldman, Off the Shelf Books