Blame It on the Wiring

Ladies, are you trying to lose weight or just maintain? Forget mind over matter, forget "move more, eat less", forget lap band. What you really need is a new brain--preferably a man's brain. According to a recent study reported in the Tuft's University Health Letter, the part of the woman's brain that sends hunger signals is much more active than a man's. The study asked a group of men and women to fast for 24 hours before they were presented with food. Both groups both used similar behavior modification techniques to avoid eating. Both men and women reported that they were not hungry, however, the brain scans of the women showed that their brain activity in the "hunger" areas was significantly higher than the men's. The theory is that our brains just haven't evolved as quickly as our culture. For thousands of years, women have traditionally been the ones to nourish the children (think breastfeeding, cooking, gathering, etc) and so our brains were programmed to eat whenever food was available. As a side note, Carson was up 3 times last night to complain that he was so hungry that he couldn't sleep. He had a tournament today and was cutting weight (he had to lose 1 1/2 pounds--not very easy when you don't have any body fat). I guess I'm curious what this says about his brain? Carson says this study does NOT at all relate to teen-agers because they are growing so fast and so much.