Why do we feel still feel hungry even if we’ve eaten “enough”? (and what we can do about it)
TL;DR: Your brain get many different signals from your body to help you decide if you need to eat more or not. We need enough calories to keep moving and we need enough essential nutrients to be healthy. Not moving around after eating, or being chronically stressed out, or eating “nutrient poor” foods keep us feeling hungry even when we “enough” calories. (about 5 min read)
Metabolic tips for feeling full after we eat:
Drink a glass of water before eating and move around for 5-15min after eating. This increases circulation and helps our brains get the “we’ve eaten” signals that our guts send out.
Time your carbohydrates with your movement: eating carbs before and after moving helps maintain glycogen stores and reduces how hungry we feel after exercising.
Limit alcohol intake since it blocks your liver’s ability to put glucose back into the bloodstream and will trick your brain into thinking you need to eat more.
Here are some reasons why we might be eating “enough” but still feel hungry:
1. Our muscles are giving signals that we’re moving a lot and we’re using a lot of energy up quickly. It’s important to eat enough protein and carbohydrates before intense exercise to fuel that movement, and after exercise to replace glycogen stores and allow our muscles to get stronger. Eating “enough” calories but at times of the day that aren’t paired with movement can leave us feeling hungry because our “metabolic timing” is off.
2. Our brains are also getting signals that our BGLs are low and aren’t being brought up fast enough by our liver. This is a sign that our liver is stressed out, or that we haven’t eaten enough protein, or that there’s too much insulin around and it’s stopping our livers from putting glucose back in to the blood stream, or that there’s too much alcohol around and our livers can’t make new glucose molecules to put into the blood stream.
3. Our fat cells are giving signals that we don’t have enough fat stored on our bodies for proper functioning. We use fat as our main energy supply when we’re moving throughout the day, we use fat to keep our energy levels constant when we’re fasting (like when we sleep), AND we use fat (and cholesterol) to make a variety of hormones that allow our bodies to function properly. Some of these hormones include testosterone (very low body fat makes it hard to build or keep muscle because there’s less testosterone) and estrogen (very low body fat can stop people from having regular periods because there’s not enough estrogen).
4. Metabolic imbalance (aka stress) is increasing inflammation that encourages our bodies to store, and not burn, fat. This isn’t just in your head: being stressed out makes you hungrier. Our bodies respond to stress in the short term as if we are about to start running from our problems (the “fight or flight” response). Running requires a lot of energy, and you can end up with a short-term sugar craving. The “short term” stress response comes into play when something stressful first happens and then goes away (like one bad night of sleep, or one bad convo with your boss).
We respond to stress in the longer term as if we’re about to walk through the desert for 40 yrs (the “famine” response). Surviving a famine takes a lot of fat stores. The “long term” stress response comes into play when something stressful is happening and not going away (like telling yourself less than 5 hrs of sleep is okay and you’ll “catch up on sleep” over the weekend, or telling yourself that “next week will probably be better” when your workplace has consistently placed unrealistic expectations and deadlines as part of its company culture.)*
So how can we reduce the chances that we overeat? We will continue to feel hungry, despite how many calories we eat, if we’re missing essential nutrients (like omega-3 fatty acids or essential amino aicds) or if our liver can’t bring our blood glucose levels up when they start to fall. Our liver can’t put glucose back into our bloodstream if there’s a lot of insulin around or if we’re drinking alcohol. We will also slow down how quickly and easily our brain can get the signals that “we’re full” if we’re dehydrated, since dehydration can cause changes in our BGLs that confuse our brain. Reducing stress can also help us not overeat.
Overall, food is not just nutrients. In order to not feel “hungry”, we have to feel nourished. This means physically nourished but also psychologically nourished. Eating good food, with friends or family, nourishes all parts of us. Here’s a guide to helping decide if we need to eat less (you probably don’t). And here’s a reminder that getting 25g of fiber/day and building muscle will have a bigger impact on your metabolism that eating less or losing weight.
Metabolic tips for feeling full after we eat:
Drink a glass of water before eating and move around for 5-15min after eating. This increases circulation and helps our brains get the “we’ve eaten” signals that our guts send out.
Time your carbohydrates with your movement: eating carbs before and after moving helps maintain glycogen stores and reduces how hungry we feel after exercising.
Limit alcohol intake since it blocks your liver’s ability to put glucose back into the bloodstream and will trick your brain into thinking you need to eat more.
*Don’t let your job kill you. You’d literally be better off walking into the desert. Sleep deprivation and chronic “low level” stress = higher cortisol levels over a long period of time = extra pressure that builds up on your heart = you are being asked to put yourself at risk of having a heart attack. Look up the medical costs of having & recovering from a heart attack, then look at the rates of heart attack survival, and then look at your paycheck. Then look back at the medical costs. Now back at your paycheck. Don’t let your job kill you.
I know this is easier said than done. America’s healthcare system is tied to employment, and health insurance + pay rates for different jobs are not tied to how much we work or how important our jobs are (hi, fellow teachers, anybody in the healthcare industry, anyone doing childcare, anyone who was a “critical worker” during the COVID19 pandemic). It’s a real problem. Which is why it is so important that we understand the real consequences to our health, and so important that we leverage ways to maintain balance when/where we can…
