This is a short but very important bit of information. The reason behind needing to eat before you get to the hunger pangs is because your Brain needs glucose and if it does not get it from food then it feasts on YOUR MUSCLE! That’s right your brain will release Cortisol (stress hormone) which is sent to your muscle and begins breaking it down into Glucose. This is also a reason that it is important to eat BREAKFAST! If that is not reason enough it also slows down your Metabolism (the speed in which you burn calories) and in turn holds on to fat. Eat whole food, stay away from food in packages that have no fiber and eat every 3-4 hours. Then you will turn your body into a fat-burning furnace instead of buffet for your Brain.