Last Updated on 18th August 2021 by Charlie Walsh
A change in diet or circumstances could make us hungry, maybe you have recently joined a gym and are burning more calories or potentially there is a medical reason as to why we feel hungry. Let’s take a more in depth look at some of the reasons behind it…
Diet
If you have recently changed your diet it may be worth a while looking at the foods you are eating and the nutritional value. One of the reasons can be that you do not eat enough proteins. Protein reduces hunger so that is why you do not feel any need to eat at night. How does this work? Proteins turn on the production of hormones that send a signal to your brain and then you feel full. Protein controls appetite in your body and uses “hunger hormones” to do this. For this reason, you may feel hungry frequently if you don’t eat enough protein and crave for some snacks at night.
Foods like pasta, pizza, deep fried food, coca cola, sweets and cakes and baked goods are full of sugar. This means that you crave carbs. Why? Because eating empty calories that do not give your body anything healthy makes you feel even hungrier and then you just end up eating more and more. But it is not the end of the story. Food like that, because of its lack of fibre, is digested very quickly and this is another reason why you feel hungry all the time.
Eating refined food in a daily diet causes low blood sugar and that’s another reason of having these cravings all the time. How can you change it? Simple as it is, you have to change your diet. Try to add foods that give you fibre like vegetables, whole grains, proteins etc. Try to avoid having snacks all the time and instead – just eat healthier as Bathmate wrote in many of our previous articles on this blog.
Maybe you are on a diet where you eat only low fat products and generally avoid fat? Fat plays the key role in diet and this is the thing that keeps you feeling full. Fat takes part in digesting vitamins A D, E and K and without fat that process does not exist and you will feel hungry and weak all the time.
Life style
Sleep is even more important than your diet. If you do not sleep enough you can start suffering from heart disease or even cancer. Moreover, your skin looks worse and you cannot think properly when you do not sleep, your immune system is weak which can make you feel out of sorts. Sleeping regulates ghrelin that is why when you do not sleep it does not work properly, it is the appetite-stimulating hormone. Lack of sleep leads to higher ghrelin levels, which is why you may feel hungrier. If you want to feel better and not as hungry try to sleep 7-8 hours.
WATER
Have you ever counted how much water you drink a day? Probably not. Water is the major key to feeling better and can solve many problems. Sometimes, people mistake the feeling of being hungry with a feeling of being thirsty. Try to drink a glass of water and wait couple of minutes. Does it make sense?
Of course. But this is not only about water, eating vegetables full of water or fruits like watermelon, melons etc. If you still have some problems with drinking water, mainly remembering to do so, just set a few alarms on your phone that will remind you of it.
STRESS
Stress is one of those things that affects a lot of us. Work, home life, social life = problems. Everything can make you feel stressed. When you are always hungry, it can mean that sometimes you are eating to get rid of stress. It is called emotional eating. We eat when we are happy, sad, miserable, drunk even. Instead of eating, try to solve the problem and find the reason why you have a need to eat something. I know, it is very easy to say but before you eat that chocolate – try to ask yourself why do you want to do it?
Gym
If you have started to workout, or upped your routine you will need to take a look at what you are eating to ensure your body has the fuel it requires, if not you may crave fatty sugary foods that can undo all the hard work you are putting in at the gym.
Medical reasons
This is important. You may have an underlying medical issue that needs a health professional to take a look at. Your medicines. The most popular medications that may cause constant hunger are antipsychotics, such as clozapine and olanzapine, antidepressants, mood stabilizers, corticosteroids and anti-seizure drugs, diabetes medications like insulin (secretagogues and thiazolidinedione’s). And finally, the myth that women gain weight because of birth control pills…it is not true. Birth control drugs make you feel hungrier and that is why you eat more. Simple. It is not because of the pills themselves. If you feel like you are still hungry and on some of the above medications, contact your doctor for a review.
