You just finished with your meals one hour back, and you still fell hungry and start searching for some snack to munch on. This is not just your case. But it happens with most of them. There are some people who carry some snacks along with them to the workplace so that you have something to kill your after-meal hunger. Getting hungry is one thing that you notice when you are pregnant or PMS’ing, or after training hard in the gym.
However, when you always feel like a bottomless pit for no apparent reason, then something is clearly wrong. Maggie Moon, RD,who is a nutritionist based in Los Angeles and also the owner of Everyday Healthy Eating says that hunger is the physiological want for calories, water and salt, and it’s driven by a combination of factors, such as diet, appetite hormones and also some of the emotional factors, like stress. However, you certainly need to find out what is the reason behind the excess hunger, since it can tip you off to a physical or perhaps a mental health problem. Here, you will be able to find 11 things that will reveal why your stomach had been grumbling.
You’re dehydrated
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Alissa Rumsey, RD, who is a spokesperson for the American Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics says that mild dehydration is often concealed as feelings of hunger when your body actually needs fluids. The confusion occurs in the hypothalamus, which is the part of the brain that controls both appetite and thirst. When you get dehydrated, the wires get crossed in the hypothalamus; this will drive you to seize a bag of chips when you really require a bottle of water. Rumsey advises preventing this by increasing the intake of fluid by beginning with a glass of water first thing in the morning. If you feel hungry, and you haven’t drunk much water that day, all you need to do is to try drinking a glass of water and wait for around 15 to 20 minutes to check if the hunger subsides.
You’re a restless sleeper
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When you have a poor and restless sleep and wake up in the morning, you will find two hormones associated with appetite conspiring against you. Rumsey says that too little sleep can drive to surging levels of ghrelin. Ghrelin is a hormone that helps in stimulating the appetite, as well as reducing levels of leptin, which is a hormone that causes feelings of fullness. Lack of shut eye on a daily basis will make you hungry for another reason. After a restless sleep, you’re more likely to have serious fatigue and brain fog. The whole body will be desperate for a shot of energy, and thus it will trigger longings for sugar carbs, even if you’re not really hungry. Try to target seven to eight hours of sleep at night, and you will get back your energy level, and thus the hunger hormones will remain on track.
You load up on starchy carbs
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Whenever you munch on high carb foods such as a cookie or a doughnut, you start eating with a thought to have just one piece. But you end up finishing it. That’s what your brain does when it comes to starchy carbs. Moon says that simple carbs, which are found in sugary, white flour foods such as crackers, pastries, and cookies, increase the blood sugar levels instantly, and then leave them falling soon after. That sudden decrease in the blood sugar level causes a severe craving for more sugary carbs, and this cycle keeps continuing. So the best thing you can do is to avoid simple carb foods. Get your carb fix with the complex, filling kind that comprises of lots of fibre. Moon suggests that almonds, chia seeds, apples, and pistachios are healthy options that ward off the hunger.
You’re a stress case
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Stress is something that everyone may have gone through or is perhaps going through. It could be the work or perhaps your relationship that is giving you the stress. However, the stress has a sneakier way of making you voracious. Rumsey states that when one is upset, their system increases the production of the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol. When the level of these hormones increases, it will trick the system into thinking that it is under attack and it requires energy. This, in turn, raises your appetite. Moon says that the stress also decreases the levels of the brain chemical serotonin, and that can make you feel hungry when you actually are not.
You drink too much alcohol
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Moon states that the pre-dinner cocktail or even a glass of wine meant to whet your appetite before the dinner actually does just that. It will stimulate the feeling of hunger even when your stomach is full. A small study which was published in the journal Appetite backs this up, observed that people were more prone to eat foods higher in calories after drinking alcohol. And since booze dehydrates you, it can trick you into thinking that you are hungry and that you need food. But, actually, your body might just need a glass of water. Rumsey advises offsetting the influence by eating before you drink, and make sure to substitute your cocktails with water so that you stay hydrated.
You need to eat more protein
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You should have more of proteins so that you will feel full until the next meal time. So, just fill up your plate with some proteins and healthy fat. However, you should also make sure that you have lean proteins so that the amount of calorie intake reduces. Rumsey says that not only does protein remain in the stomach and promote feelings of fullness, but it’s been proven to have an appetite-suppressing effect. You should aim for at least 46 grammes of protein each day, which is the RDA for women between the age of 19 and 70. For men, it is around 56 grammes each day.
You aren’t eating enough fat
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Make sure you are having enough fat since when you don’t have enough fat, it tends to increase the feelings of satiety, just like the protein. Rumsey says that when you’re satisfied after a meal, you will most probably listen to the hunger cues and will not eat again until you are really hungry. So, combine this heart-healthy and brain-boosting sort of fat to your meals in the form of nuts, oils and seeds and even avocados. Experts suggest that adults restrict their fat intake to around 20 to 35 percent of their total everyday calories.
You skip meals
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Do you skip your breakfast, lunch or dinner? Then, that could be one of the reasons why you feel hungry most of the times. Rumsey says that when you skip a meal, and your stomach stays empty for a long time, then it will produce an uptick in the hunger hormone known as ghrelin, which will thus increase your appetite. Ghrelin also urges the GI tract to expect the food to come. Your ghrelin levels are in overdrive, and so is your desire for food. When you eventually give in, you’re prone to a binge. You have to try not to let more than 4 to 5 hours go by between each meal. And even if you do not like breakfast, eat something in the am within an hour of waking, such as peanut butter, yoghurt and apple slices, or perhaps soymilk smoothie.
Food porn bombards you
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Late-night TV ads, pictures of your friends’ lunches, etc., all make us crave for more and more food. Science has documented the link between what we see and what we want. A study which was conducted in the year 2012, from the journal Obesity, observed that just looking at food will crank up the levels of ghrelin, which is the hunger hormone. Moon says that getting a whiff of food has almost the same effect. She also opines that pleasant food aromas will stimulate an involuntary physiological reaction: the mouth will salivate followed by the contraction of the stomach. This will thus make you feel that you are hungry. Of course, you can’t totally eliminate the probability of seeing or smelling food. But you could actually try restricting the exposure by changing the TV or perhaps by unfollowing food brands on the Instagram.
You inhale your food
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If you want your brain to register the fullness of what you ate, you should eat slowly instead of gulping it down. When you have your food fast, you are not giving your brain sufficient time to register that fullness. This, in turn, will keep your appetite high and you will keep on eating. One of the studies published in the year 2013 in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, observed that eating food at a moderate pace urges the release of hormones that tell your brain that you are satisfied and that you need no more. So, you need to try to eating your food slowly, savouring each bite and thus enjoying every bit of your meal. Then wait for around 20 minutes or more before deciding if you actually need another helping.
You’re on certain meds
The same drugs you might regularly be having to treat a health condition can also drive you to raid the refrigerator. Rumsey says that antidepressants such as Zoloft and Paxil, as well as corticosteroids like prednisone, which is prescribed to treat potentially hazardous flare-ups of the immune system due to asthma, allergies, inflammatory bowel disease such as Crohn’s disease, and also some cancers, are known to influence appetite. If you’re on one of these prescriptions and feel ravenous after a normal-sized meal, you need to talk to your doctor to check if it’s possible to switch to any other drug.
