Nutritionist "SM-Doctor" named 9 reasons why you constantly want to eat

Spring has arrived, and with it the desire to lose those extra pounds. But how can we do this if we are ready to eat an elephant at any time of the day?

ULYANA RUMYANTSEVA
Nutritionist, endocrinologist at the children's clinic "SM-Doctor", Ph.D.
“The feeling of hunger is a normal phenomenon that serves us to timely replenish spent calories and energy. This allows the body to work and survive. However, if the feeling of hunger becomes constant and uncontrollable, you should think about whether everything is okay with your health and emotional state.

Of course, a constant desire to chew something is not always a signal of some kind of illness. We are surrounded by many external factors that can cause increased appetite in a completely healthy person. Intrusive food advertising irritates our vision, hearing, and smell. For example, an intense pleasant smell, which can also be created artificially with the help of flavors sprayed at a food service point, attracts people passing by who initially had no idea of refreshing themselves with anything. They also certainly post colorful photos of delicious dishes - burgers, salads, pancakes, drinks, which in reality turn out to be not so juicy and of high quality. But this doesn’t matter - after all, you’ve already bought it... Besides, if someone next to you is crunching nuggets with a great appetite, then it’s quite difficult to resist. And this applies not only to public catering establishments.

If you don’t want to eat too much at home, try not to watch advertisements about food and generally avoid being distracted from the process of eating by gadgets, otherwise you risk eating more than is required to suppress hunger and replenish energy. However, not every increased feeling of hunger can be justified by external stimuli. Of course, there are also health problems that lead to a constant desire to eat. And you also need to remember this in order to consult a doctor in a timely manner.”

Diseases

One of the main reasons when hunger can be a signal of some kind of disease is a high level of insulin in the blood.
This hormone is produced by the pancreas to absorb glucose from food. Insulin levels rise when the body loses sensitivity to it. Typically, such people are at risk of developing diabetes, or have already developed the disease. Gastrointestinal diseases, especially those associated with high acidity of gastric juice, also affect appetite. Hydrochloric acid in excess amounts causes a constant feeling of hunger, leads to gastritis, and sometimes to peptic ulcers.

Wolf hunger: why you constantly want to eat

A good appetite is always associated with health. But only until it develops into a “wolf” one. If a person constantly wants to eat, even after the last crumb of a full meal has been eaten, then it’s time to think about the reasons for such an appetite.

Hunger and appetite are different concepts

Initially, you need to understand that the terms “hunger” and “appetite,” although very similar, are somewhat different concepts from a physiological point of view. Hunger is an objective reaction of the body to nutritional deficiency. It occurs several hours (usually 3 hours or more) after the last meal. With the help of hunger, the body requires replenishment of energy resources (food intake).

Increased appetite is a kind of protective mechanism that is triggered in the body in response to certain irritants. Most often, psychological factors or diseases serve as irritants. Thanks to increased appetite, the body tries to create reserves for a rainy day. Fat deposits begin to appear. If a person does not strive to satisfy the body’s needs, then a feeling of hunger arises. But this is not an objective reaction, but a false feeling.

People who have a constant good appetite should definitely visit a doctor. This sign can serve as a symptom of certain diseases.

Constant hunger: 5 harmless reasons

Almost all people experience the feeling of hunger from time to time. It can be caused by a variety of reasons. Moreover, in most cases they are completely harmless and easily eliminated.

Most often, hunger occurs in response to the following points.

Water scarcity

Dehydration can masquerade as hunger. The culprit of such an error is the brain, or rather its department - the hypothalamus. It is in this zone that the centers of thirst, satiety and hunger are located.

If hunger occurs a few minutes after eating, then most likely the body is suffering from dehydration. Drink a glass of water and listen to the sensations. Most often, hunger disappears completely.

Poor nutrition

Constant hunger can torment people who exhaust themselves with strict diets or practice unhealthy eating.

Basic diet mistakes:

Lots of fast carbohydrates. If a person overuses sweet cakes, donuts, candies, and cookies, then the feeling of hunger becomes his constant companion. All these foods contain simple carbohydrates, which are quickly broken down in the body, causing a sharp increase in blood glucose, and then an immediate decrease. Therefore, the body immediately requires replenishment of energy. A person feels hungry.
Protein deficiency. Protein-rich foods (fish, meat) take longer to break down than carbohydrates. In addition, they saturate the body better. People who are constantly faced with a feeling of hunger most often eat little protein foods.
Low fat. A complete rejection of fats (such extremes are often practiced by dieters) leads to hunger. However, when enriching the menu with fats, you need to observe moderation. It is better to give preference to products containing healthy omega-3-, 6 fatty acids.

An improper diet can lead to a constant feeling of hunger. If the intervals between meals are too long, then the person has time to become very hungry. In this case, by the time he eats, he simply has a voracious appetite.

Lack of sleep

With chronic lack of sleep in the body, the synthesis of ghrelin (the hormone responsible for appetite) increases. At the same time, the level of leptin (a hormone that provides a feeling of fullness) decreases. A person who lacks sleep usually feels a loss of strength. To compensate for the lack of energy, the body requires an additional portion of food.

Against the background of disturbances in the synthesis of hormones, a person can abuse food even when he is not hungry.

Taking medications

Sometimes increased appetite is completely independent of external factors (diet, lack of sleep, etc.). This feeling is practically impossible to correct on your own. In this case, the reasons should be sought in the pathological processes occurring in the body. To correctly diagnose the sources of the problem, you need to see a doctor.

The following diseases can provoke the appearance of a “wolfish” appetite:

Diabetes. With this pathology, glucose is not absorbed by cells. The body requires energy. Therefore, the patient's appetite is constantly increased.
Hyperthyroidism. This is a disease in which the thyroid gland synthesizes hormones in large quantities. This disorder is often accompanied by increased appetite. A person eats a lot, but continues to lose weight.
Helminthiasis. If there are parasites in the intestines, the patient constantly faces increased appetite. And no matter how much a person eats, he still does not gain weight.
Depression. Long-term stress can lead to depression. In this case, the feeling of hunger becomes constant.
Hyperphagia. Pathology is an eating disorder. A person abuses food (without experiencing a deficit in energy), because such a process gives pleasure. The causes of uncontrolled overeating are caused by mental disorders.

How to deal with the problem

If the causes of increased appetite are in no way related to diseases occurring in the body, then you can take control of your desire to constantly snack. To do this, you need to reconsider your lifestyle and completely change your attitude towards food.

The following tips will help:

Don't practice strict diets. The body perceives food restriction as a problem that needs to be dealt with. Therefore, he will begin to intensively demand energy, causing brutal hunger.
Stick to your diet. You shouldn't skip meals. This leads to increased appetite and constant overeating.
Get enough sleep. Be sure to set aside enough time for a night's rest. To avoid feeling tired and constantly hungry during the day, you need to sleep at least 8 hours a day.
Eat healthy. Eliminate sweets from your diet. Do not abuse alcohol (alcoholic drinks increase appetite and cause dehydration). Eat healthy if possible. Foods rich in fiber are very useful. They satisfy hunger for a long time. In addition, fiber improves digestion. To instantly satisfy your hunger, you can eat a non-starchy vegetable (for example, cucumber, cabbage).
Drink water. Drink enough water throughout the day. For those people who are constantly hungry, it is recommended to initially reduce their appetite by drinking a glass of water.
Avoid distracting devices. While eating, you should not read books, watch TV or look at messages on your phone. The more distractions, the higher the risk of overeating. And with it comes the appearance of increased appetite.
Avoid foods that increase your appetite. This category includes various sauces, seasonings, and marinades. These foods can excessively increase your appetite.

To cope with increased appetite without exposing yourself to hunger, it is best to consult a doctor. In addition to examining and finding out the causes of the problem, a specialist will help develop the right diet and, if necessary, advise a competent psychologist.

Prepared by O.S. Trotskaya, doctor of the CITL laboratory diagnostics.

Lack of sleep

Heavy thoughts often accompany any kind of experience and do not allow you to fully rest - sleep becomes intermittent and restless. But for health, 7–9 hours of sound, restful sleep are needed every day. Moreover, according to British scientists, women have 20 minutes more. Reasons cited include more active brain function; existence in multitasking mode; PMS, when the amount of melatonin naturally decreases. It would seem, what is the connection with overeating? The most direct thing: chronic lack of sleep leads to a decrease in leptin, the very hormone that gives you a feeling of fullness.

As for other points why evening gluttons come, there is a solution here too.

Be sure to have breakfast! It would seem that there is some kind of connection, but there is one. The sooner you start eating, the sooner you will finish. And if you have dinner no later than 4 hours before bedtime, then you will be happy to have breakfast in the morning! It's a vicious circle!
Don't starve yourself during the day! Even if you can’t have a full meal during the day, be sure to look for an opportunity to snack: nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables, a sandwich (even if only with sausage as an exception). And if you don’t eat all day, then you are guaranteed to have an evening meal. After all, the body needs energy, it screams SOS!
Eat dinner at the right times. You should eat no later than 4 hours before bedtime. Ideally – 18-19 hours. Dinner should be hearty with protein and vegetables.
Go to bed on time. Adequate rest replaces part of the food - this is true. And don’t forget that in our sleep we lose weight.

These simple rules will help prevent evening hunger. But if it does come, what then? How to deal with it?

Long gaps between meals

Regardless of how the night went, it is wrong to deprive yourself of breakfast. The road to work, a planning meeting, urgent calls... It’s good if you get to the treasured cup of coffee by lunchtime. A full meal is delayed for another couple of hours, you work with a persistent feeling of hunger, and at this time the body turns on the saving mode and begins to accumulate calories. And then you “help” him by adding a couple of dishes to his usual menu, which you could easily refuse if you weren’t hungry for too long. It is good for your health to eat in small portions, every 2.5–3 hours: breakfast - second breakfast - lunch - snack - dinner. At the same time, the first meal should not only be healthy, but also energy-intensive: porridge, egg, chicken breast, cottage cheese, cheese - then you won’t have to run to the refrigerator every five minutes.

Hunger as a symptom of disease

When you feel hungry after eating, and this happens with frightening consistency, it’s a reason to worry. Regardless of whether you are a woman or a man, this behavior of the body can signal a developing disease. There is no longer any time for figure and extra pounds when it comes to health. Be sure to pay attention to your health if you:

a heavy meal does not bring a feeling of fullness. According to nutritionists, a full dinner should make you forget about hunger for at least five to six hours;
in the afternoon it is especially difficult to resist the desire to eat, and in the evening it’s as if the gluttons attack;
you are constantly thirsty, regardless of whether you have eaten salty foods or not.

The presence of these symptoms may indicate improper processing of sugar by the body and the risk of developing diabetes. If you feel an insatiable, frequent desire to eat, your stomach hurts, or you are tormented by constant thirst, you should visit a doctor and check your blood sugar levels.

Hunger can be caused by genetic disorders. For some reason (there was a malfunction in the functioning of genes), the brain stopped receiving signals about satiety. He has a program running: “We need to eat!”, but there is no one to turn it off.

Hormonal changes can also affect the desire to eat. Many women know how difficult it is to control themselves during menstrual periods, and it seems that there is a hole in the “stomach” that cannot be filled with any culinary delights. Everything falls like into an abyss. The problems listed above should be dealt with by a specialist; traditional methods and self-medication are powerless in this case.

Another difficulty that cannot be dealt with alone is deep mental disorders provoked by stress and depression. A person does not feel full due to nervousness, absorbing an enormous amount of food, sometimes to the point of nausea.

Lack of microelements and vitamins also activates the desire to eat. For example, the disadvantage:

calcium causes a craving for eating lard, oil, fatty foods;
sodium, chlorine - herring, pickles, anything with more salt;
phosphorus, chromium, sulfur - provokes cravings for sweets.

If you notice that while following a proper diet, you often experience “emptiness” in your stomach, do not harm your body - undergo a medical examination and take the necessary tests.

Wrong snack

Most often these are buns, cookies, donuts, pizza, chips, chocolate bars - products containing light carbohydrates, carcinogens and huge amounts of sugar.
This unhealthy behavior is associated with eating habits or emotional hunger: you submitted a report and decided to reward yourself. Sound familiar? Not only are there zero benefits from such food, but also the harmful effects may be irreversible. Fast carbohydrates, for example, cause spikes in glucose, and with them increased appetite and subsequently the threat of diabetes. And regular consumption of trans fats, according to research, increases the risk of developing breast cancer, fatal heart attacks and coronary heart disease by 40%. The right foods for a snack: fruits, vegetables, including avocados, berries, nuts, dried apricots, prunes, sauerkraut and seaweed, olives, cottage cheese, kefir.

Hormonal abnormalities

Diagnosis of hormonal disorders during attacks of hunger after eating is a mandatory stage of examination, since it is hormones that are responsible for achieving the effect of satiety and transmitting corresponding impulses (signals) to the brain. 4 hormones are responsible for controlling appetite in humans.

Hormones that regulate appetite

Hormone name	Where is it synthesized?	Functions
Insulin	Pancreas	Regulates carbohydrate metabolism, sends a signal to the brain about saturation.
Leptin	Adipose tissue	Regulates energy metabolism and hunger.
Ghrelin (hunger hormone)	Adipose tissue	In increased quantities it can cause eating disorders, provoked by a feeling of constant hunger.
PYY (peptide hormone)	Small intestine (after meals)	Suppresses appetite.

Nutrient deficiency in the body

One of the mistakes that those who limit themselves in food often make is counting calories rather than nutrients. But there is a simple rule: to prevent breakdowns, the body must be given everything it needs in terms of macroelements. Otherwise, we will be sleepy, sluggish and hungry, despite the fact that we eat regularly. Remember: 40-50% of the daily amount of calories should come from carbohydrates - they are our main resource, and 50-60% should be distributed between fats and proteins. For example, in order to get 40% of calories from carbohydrates (600 kcal) with a diet of 1500 kcal, you need to eat 150 g of them, protein (30%, 450 kcal) - 112 g; fat (30%, 450 kcal) - 50 g.

The choice of one food or another is a complex chemical process. So, there is an assumption that neuropeptide Y, the level of which is especially high in the morning, inclines us to carbohydrates. Scientists conducted an experiment: they injected laboratory mice with a substance, and they attacked grains and sweets, but ignored other foods.

How to dull the feeling of hunger

Dulling the feeling of hunger is an extreme measure that you need to take if you are healthy and know how to distinguish false hunger from real one. Now we will consider several tips that will help dull the feeling of hunger:

Drink green tea with lemon, but without sugar. Green tea is not only good for health, but also helps in removing the feeling of hunger after eating. This is a very healthy drink, but you need to drink it without sugar; it is recommended to drink it with mint.
Drink 1 to 1.5 liters of clean water. Drinking enough water is something that every person needs to remember. Water supports natural processes in the human body, cleanses it, and improves overall well-being. With tea you can consume various herbs that help reduce appetite.
If you have a sharp desire to eat, you can take a little valerian.
If you feel hungry during the day, you can drink ginger tea. Drinking ginger tea at night is prohibited. If you want to make ginger tea, do not combine it with mint tea.

A persistent feeling of hunger after eating is a bad and unpleasant signal. If you are faced with a problem and want to get rid of this distributing feeling, which not only interferes with a normal life, but also ruins your health, be sure to pay attention to the causes, factors and solutions to this problem listed in this article.

Monotonous food

Have you noticed how increased salivation begins when you see a festive table?
According to psychologists, beautiful presentation stimulates appetite. But not only! We are also tempted by the variety of dishes - there is an irresistible desire to try everything at once. On weekdays it’s the same addiction. Ask yourself: what am I looking for when I slowly move my gaze along the shelves of the refrigerator? Surely something new, and not boring pilaf. To make food pleasing and enjoyable, make it a rule to cook an unusual dish at least once a week. In this case, you will stop being bored while swallowing your morning porridge, and your brain will receive the necessary signal: “I’m satisfied, I don’t need more.” Published on the portal parents.ru

Stress levels and emotional hunger

Sometimes we don’t want to eat physiologically, our stomach doesn’t rumble invitingly, and we don’t salivate when thinking about lunch. However, there is still a feeling of hunger and it usually extends to something tasty, conventionally harmful, “forbidden”. We can start eating bites to calm our nerves, we can eat ice cream because we were offended, we can overeat on the eve of the next “tomorrow”, on which we plan to go on a diet.

The reason for such snacks is not always stress. This can be the influence of the company, when everyone eats and you join in, removing pressures and inhibitions. Sometimes we eat a lot simply because it tastes good, or we understand that we are unlikely to try such a dish again. We often eat a lot when traveling, but when we're on vacation, we don't gain much weight because satiety is felt in a positive way, without guilt or self-flagellation.

When you feel acute hunger, even though you’ve just tasted homemade soup with a cutlet and a side of rye, ask yourself questions: “Did I eat what I wanted?”, “Am I thirsty?”, “What am I trying to make up for with a tasty treat?” What feelings do I cope with through food?” If you wanted mom's pancakes with cottage cheese or pizza with salami all day, and ended up grabbing yogurt, nuts and bread, you filled your stomach and left your brain starving. Naturally, he is not a fool and will soon demand “his” food.

By the way, intuitive eating is largely based on this approach, which promotes the legalization of food as the first step.

Emotional hunger