Why You’re Still Hungry Even After Eating
When you’re hungry, your stomach might growl. Or you might experience headaches. Or feel lightheaded.1Oh, and when you’re hungry, you might also become a total dick to everyone around you, as accurately described in a series of Snickers commercials beginning in 2010.
To stop any of those things from continuing to happen, you’re supposed to eat, right?
Right!
So then, ummmmmmm, WHY IS IT THAT YOU JUST ATE BUT ARE ALREADY HUNGRY AND EXPERIENCING THOSE THINGS AGAIN?!?!
Good question!
There are many reasons why you might still be hungry even after eating. The most obvious is that your calorie intake is too low to supply your energy needs. As for other explanations that aren’t so “DUH!!!”, looka here…
Other Explanations:
• Not enough protein, fiber, or fat
• Too many refined carbs
• Eating too fast
• Eating while distracted
• Poor hydration
• Inadequate sleep
• Excessive stress
• Medication2Certain antidepressants, antipsychotics, and corticosteroids.
• Medical condition3e.g. hyperthyroidism, high blood sugar and insulin resistance, leptin resistance, intestinal worms, etc.
What do all those things have in common?
Yup, all those things can affect satiety signaling from the stomach to the brain in their own respective ways!
So you find yourself getting super hungry between some of your meals and wanna know what to do about it, now do ya?!?!
Well, first of all, are you sure you’re eating the amount of calories you’re supposed to eat to align with your activity level?
Oh, you are, huh?
Well, are you double sure? Like, you’ve actually calculated your calorie needs and have weighed your food to make sure that you’re eating as much as you’re supposed to eat?
Okay, then…
Well, if the problem isn’t one of low calorie intake, what you can do to stop feeling hungry after eating is to identify the cause of the hunger from one of the possible reasons and then address it. So if you find that you eat too fast, then slow down by chewing your food more, using chopsticks, or putting your eating utensil down between bites to give your brain more time to receive the fullness signals from the gut. Eat while sitting at a table and not watching TV, talking or playing on your phone, or working on the computer if you’re usually distracted while eating for the same purpose as eating slowly. Take up yoga, meditate, work out, or find some other way to unwind if stress is at the root of the issue, as elevated stress increases the production of cortisol and ghrelin, two hormones that promote hunger.
To determine if it’s a matter of meal composition, you may want to take a look at the meal that you eat prior to experiencing hunger. So if you get hungry between breakfast and lunch, then you need to look at your breakfast food choices. Upon review, one issue that may present itself is that you’re eating carbs with a fast glycemic index, meaning that the glucose gets broken down and immediately absorbed as energy rather than taking longer to enter the bloodstream, leaving you hungry sooner. Something else that may also reveal itself is that you’re not eating enough dietary fat, protein, and/or fiber, all of which provide a satiety effect that keep you feeling fuller longer. Whatever the case, the solution is to simply make better food choices. So for breakfast, for example, you would opt for oatmeal, which is high in fiber and slow digesting, rather than eating a bowl of Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs.4What you may also want to do is just break one or two meals down into smaller ones. For instance, if you get hungry between breakfast at 8 and lunch at 12, then split your breakfast in half so you eat a portion of it at 8 and the remaining portion at 10, which should then hold you over until lunchtime at noon.
So yeah, do things like that!
Glossary: calories, dietary fat, hormones, work out, yoga
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