The Hungry Brain Quotes

“Genetics loads the gun, and environment pulls the trigger.”
― Stephan Guyenet, The Hungry Brain: Outsmarting the Instincts That Make Us Overeat

“Although that idea is common in popular science writing, it has long been out of date within the scientific community. As a matter of fact, dopamine release doesn’t correspond very well with the experience of pleasure. Experiments have shown that animals appear to experience pleasure without dopamine, and studies in humans back this up. Pleasure is more related to a class of chemicals called endorphins that are often released in the striatum simultaneously with dopamine, although these are probably only one component of the experience of pleasure. Dopamine is the “learning chemical” rather than the “pleasure chemical.”
― Stephan Guyenet, The Hungry Brain: Outsmarting the Instincts That Make Us Overeat

“It appears that exercise helps keep the lipostat happy at a lower set point.”
― Stephan Guyenet, The Hungry Brain: Outsmarting the Instincts That Make Us Overeat

“Again, it seemed as if the diets were not just passively causing weight gain but actually changing the set point of the lipostat.”
― Stephan Guyenet, The Hungry Brain: Outsmarting the Instincts That Make Us Overeat

“Although 116 pounds is an impressive amount of weight to lose, at the end of the weight-loss period, the volunteers were still considered to have obesity. Remarkably, after weight loss, the number of calories their bodies consumed was only about three-quarters of what it should have been based on their new, slimmer body size. What’s more, they were ravenously hungry. Something was shutting down their metabolic rate and ramping up their appetites—fighting their weight loss—even though they remained quite fat.”
― Stephan Guyenet, The Hungry Brain: Outsmarting the Instincts That Make Us Overeat