Website owner: James Miller
I have made a discovery about appetite. I have discovered that when I eat less my appetite decreases and when I eat more my appetite increases. I find if I start eating doughnuts, snacks, sandwiches, etc. at coffee breaks my appetite is awakened for them, I become hungry for them at these times of day, and I feel I need them. What usually happens then, after relaxing my guard and indulging my appetite like this for awhile, is that I step on the bathroom scales and find I have gained six or seven pounds. I then decide I have to get tough and austere with myself. And I find that if I deny the hunger pangs that come at coffee break time and don't appease them they will soon go away. Moreover, if you keep doing it they will stop coming after several days. Thus if you deny your appetite it goes away; if you appease and cater to it, it increases. And I have discovered something else. I have discovered that this is true not only for appetite for food, it is also true for sexual appetite. Abstinence and denial of the appetite causes it to decrease and go away. Playing up to it, gratifying it, causes it to increase. What is the implication of these discoveries with regard to people who are obese, who have tremendous appetites, who have tried many times to lose weight but have failed every time? What is the implication for people who have great and uncontrollable sexual appetites? Oct 1983