The Atkin's theory, which I believe has been largely substantiated, is that carbohydrates (sugar, HFCS) do not satisfy hunger, they tend to trigger hunger.<p>John cut out the sugar and his hunger dropped.  FWIIW, my experience was the same and there are many others who echo this.<p>See "Sugar: The Bitter Truth" (UCSF lecture) which goes into detail on the metabolism of carbohydrates, especially HFCS
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM</a>
and discussed on HN:
<a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1006980" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1006980</a><p>One of many references:
<a href="http://heartdisease.about.com/cs/riskfactors/a/lofatlocarb_2.htm" rel="nofollow">http://heartdisease.about.com/cs/riskfactors/a/lofatlocarb_2...</a>