Hungry is a common term used to indicate one’s craving for satisfying appetite with food. It is the most common condition that every human being on earth undergoes; however, a certain percentage of people suffer from it more than usual. Of course, there are various factors related to such condition linking to the association of critical diseases.
Why do You Get Hungry?
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Hunger compels the body to find food and fulfil its needs for gaining energy to continue body functions. There is no doubt that it is a powerful human Instinct that forces one to go for extreme behaviours.
Acting as a response to indicate that your body has not consumed adequate food, it can also drive the body to eat unhealthy foods that may be tasty to the palate. Whether we have eaten our heart’s content is strongly driven by the food products that we consume. The brain perceives that we have eaten enough, the search for food ends.
Hormones Playing a Role in Your Hunger
The hormones are known to play huge roles in your body function as they can control your growth to hunger. Yes, whether you crave to eat anything is driven by the hormones since they make sure that your body responds to an emergency while being alert. Additionally, the regulatory substance ensures that the body is prepared to be suppressed or released for keeping up homeostasis.
Storage and digestion of nutritional elements in the body include the interplay of hormones and here come the hunger hormones.
Leptin
One of the hunger hormones, leptin is secreted by the fat cells functioning as appetite restrainers. When you fill yourself with food, the level of hormone goes high and when you actually feel that you cannot take another bite, the body is flooded with this hormone.
Therefore, you can understand that the low level of leptin leads to hunger.
Ghrelin
“I’m so hungry that my stomach is making noises†– if you get this type of feeling every now and then, ghrelin which is an appetite simulator, is active in your body. When you notice that you are super hungry, you should know that ghrelin has filled your body. In addition to the context, the growling noise is produced due to ghrelin.
Neuropeptide Y is secreted from hypothalamus of the brain which can stimulate your pangs of feeling hungry.
But What are the Reasons behind Feeling always Hungry?
It goes without saying that feeling hungry is a natural signal that your body sends out for letting you know that the body needs food. Not only does your stomach growl at the time of feeling hungry, it can cause problems in concentration leaving you to feel irritable.
Of course, there are many people who can continue their lives without touching one morsel of food but there are also many people who identify themselves to be hungry all the time. Fat or fibre, lack of protein in diet and dehydration can be pivotal factors for regulating the hunger.
Lack of Sleep
There is no doubt that sleep is one of the most important parts in everyone’s life and without sleep, the brain cannot function well. From minimising the risk of terminal diseases like cancer and heart condition, sleep is important for all. Now it is found that sleep is an essential factor in controlling appetite with the regulation of ghrelin.
- If you do not sleep enough, the secretion of ghrelin goes high. Ghrelin is known for making your hungry and this is why, sleep deprivation can cost you a lot.
- Adequate sleep can ensure that your body is charged with leptin and this is the hormone that controls your ability to feel full.
- One of the studies indicates that 15 people who did not have enough sleep on the night were found to be hungrier than the group of people who had sound sleep. The sleep deprived and hungry people went for 14% larger portion in comparison to the well-slept people.
You can imagine that acute sleep can lead to increase in appetite among adults and the plasma level of ghrelin of those people with no sleep was high. The result further shows that overconsumption after the night with no sleep is influenced by hedonic and homeostatic factors.
In a nutshell, lack of sleep causes irregularity in the hormones controlling appetite and hunger making you hungry always. Henceforth, it is highly recommended to get uninterrupted eight hours of sleep every night for relieving yourself from being hungry all the time.
Diabetes, Obesity and Hunger
Diabetes and obesity are two interlinked chronic diseases that degrade the quality of life. One of the research studies shows that these two long-term health conditions lead to lack of sleep which eventually results in the impairment of metabolism and increasing appetite. Since leptin and ghrelin are essential for regulating one person’s hunger and appetite, sleep duration can only decrease for the people who undergo these health conditions.
The lack of sleep and imbalance in the levels of ghrelin and leptin can lead to weight gain influencing the food intake amount. Sleep loss can change the ability of ghrelin and leptin to channelize the energy requirements in the right way. Moreover, people encounter the urge of going for unhealthy food habits including choosing carbohydrates more than usual.
Consumption of Refined Carbs
Refined carbs
Refined carbs or processed carbs are known to contain zero vitamins, minerals and fibre; therefore, the medical professionals categorise these as empty calories. Pasta and bread are made of flour and flour are one of the prime examples of refined carbs. In addition to the context, you should know that baked goods, candy and soda are filled with sugar or processed carbs.
Processed carbs
The processed carbs do not have filing fibre and your body ends up digesting them quickly. However, there is no guarantee that your appetite will be fulfilled and you will be relieved from the feeling of being hungry frequently. Even it is important to keep in mind that the refined carbs can lead to chronic health conditions like obesity .
- The processed carbs maximise the chances of increasing blood sugar and the level of insulin goes high as well.
- For responding to the high level of blood sugar, there may be a drastic drop in the blood sugar level due to the huge insulin release.
- Now the blood sugar level indicates that the body is in dire need of food and this causes the feeling of being hungry every now and then.
Only if you are able to switch to a better diet full of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes, you can satiate your hunger. While being enriched with fibre and carbs, the foods can control your appetite and help you to embrace a healthy diet.
Pay Attention to Fat Intake
You are well aware of the fact that food is more than only consuming nutrients and calories for surviving each day and the fat cells are also more than acting as indirect storage ways for additional calories. Fat cells in your body are only capable of releasing calories when they receive instruction to do so from the external cues. In this way, they take over the insulin control and excess insulin results in weight gain.
It is necessary to remember that overeating out of feeling hungry does not exactly make one fat but the way of becoming fat results in the pangs of overeating. Once you embrace the sugar diet, you are bound to be hungry frequently.
It is advisable to consume fishes (tuna, salmon and mackerel) and plant-related foods (flaxseeds and walnuts) with omega-3 fatty acids to fill yourself with good fat.
Modern Lifestyle
It is true that people’s mindset regarding lifestyle is rapidly changing and there is hardly one child who goes out to play. Since childhood, the children are developing the habit of engaging themselves only in the smartphone games which limit their scope for playing and exercising and resulting in chronic boredom. The rate of chronic boredom among the adult is not less significant because adults are caught in the web of smartphone every second.
Lack of outdoor activities
Lack of outdoor activities or exercise results in sheer boredom and it is important to ask yourself whether you are actually hungry or bored. If a person is willing to satiate physical hunger, he/she will go for any wholesome food; no matter whether it is a fruit or vegetable. On the contrary, in case of fulfilling a craving, the person is likely to go for comfort foods like cake, chips or cookies.
In order to get rid of craving of refined carbs, one should go for a walk or read something to engage himself/herself in a better way. Stress, sedentary habits and lack of sleep are common problems of the modern lifestyle and the body craves for only sugar overdrive to comfort it.
Once you drive away the thought of eating unhealthy snacks, you can free yourself from the emotional craving which makes you say, “I am hungry†every 45 minutes.
Certain Medications
In the postmodern world, there is hardly one person left who does not have to take medications and it is difficult to digest that the life-saving medications can have not-so-positive sides, after all.
- When the person is prescribed with anti-seizure drugs, mood stabilizers and antidepressants, he/she may undergo the hunger pangs.
- There are several diabetes medicines like thiazolidinediones, secretagogues and insulin that increase longing for food.
- Birth control pills contain appetite-stimulating ingredients but this theory does not have strong scientific support.
Once you observe that the medications are making you super hungry even after you are indulging with little snacks, it is best to rush to the doctor or physician for choosing another treatment method.
Control Hunger, Control Life
The conventional calorie approach becomes an issue because it is not focused on the right target. With this type of approach, you only end up having way too many calories in your body but none of them is placed in the right place that can satisfy immediate demands and regulate bloodstream.
The over processed carbs have the potential to over stimulate fat cells and they are driven into a frenzy, in exchange. Of course, you can go low on calories but the severe restriction on calories cannot do any good for yourself. You will only feel hungry and succumb to the craving of consuming wrong refined foods.
The solution is up to you but here is the fundamental strategy that you can consider once to undertake:
Some Strategies to control Hunger
- Go with a prescribed lifestyle where the indulgence of sedentary lifestyle is limited to a minimum.
- Choose activities that make you less stressed and anxious.
- Control the fat cells by opting for a diet which can keep the insulin levels down and reduce inflammation. Moreover, redirection of calories into various parts of the body is highly essential, too.
- Do not drink too much alcohol as it also appetite-stimulating components.
- Satisfy your hunger needs by turning off starvation calling and eat fruits as snacks until you find yourself to be full.
The strategy can keep the downfall of your strength to be physically fit at bay and improve your confidence throughout your life. Not only do you need to satiate your hunger with foods but also always remember to drink plenty of water for being hydrated.
Sleep, nutritious meal and exercise should be everyone’s life mantra for leading a healthy life. If you are up for daily exercise and healthy diet, you can manage hunger pangs that extend the risk of chronic disease. Moreover, if you do fail to manage hunger in an effective way, it is best to leave things on doctor’s hands that can create a diet chart for you.
By satiating hunger, one can gain stable mood and high energy level, get rid of weight-related issues and master at a better lifestyle. In this way, it becomes easy to find satisfaction with food which can last for a long period. Go for healthy foods and habits, only if you wish to leave the “always hungry†behind.