Why Am I Always Hungry (Part 2)
In Part 1 of Why Am I Hungry blog post, we discussed some of the biological reasons why the hunger monster rears it’s head. Our reason for hunger is not only limited to biological reasons, but also psychological ones as well.
We have listed out the 3 biological reasons in Part 1, but those are not the only biological reasons why our stomach starts to grumble even after we have had a big meal. Let’s continue with the fourth reason.
4. Low-blood sugar:
Eating too much refine carbs such as white bread, white rice, sugary cereal, that slice of pizza…
When you are constantly fuelling yourself with nutritionally-deficient refine carbs, your blood sugar spikes and crashes, thus triggering your hunger hormones as you experience low glucose levels. Your body will start craving for more carbs! And once you feed your body with more refine carbs, you will keep experiencing this cycle on and on again.
Avoid taking white flour, white bread, pastries, pasta but instead consume whole grains as whole natural carbohydrate sources do not cause a spike in your blood sugar level and provides fibre to your body as well.
5. Having a sweet tooth
Sugars will cause your digestive system to go out of whack as it feeds the harmful bacteria in your gut as well as weakening the beneficial bacteria. This prevents the good bacteria in your body from doing their job effectively to regulate your hunger hormones according to researchers at the New York University.
So avoid eating sugary food whilst at the same time load up on both prebiotics and probiotics so that your guts get strengthened.
Emotional Hunger
- Negative Emotions:
Negative emotions especially stress causes your body to pump out adrenaline which causes a lost of appetite in the short term. However, long term stress causes your adrenal glands to release a hormone called cortisol which not only triggers your hunger hormones, but to also pull in lipids from the bloodstream and to store them in our fat cells.
From work stress, to financial issues to relationship issues, stress comes in many forms and it is part and parcel of life. Negative emotions may also manifest as a feeling of emptiness or an emotional void. These negative emotions coupled with the biological causes of hunger such as not getting enough sleep or rest allows one to be vulnerable to emotional eating.
One of the ways you can deal with stress is through journaling, regular exercise or trying out yoga and meditation to help you let go and relax.
You could even just try a simple practices like deep breathing which has an indirect positive influence on your vagus nerve. Stimulating the vagus nerve helps to reduce stress, anxiety, anger and inflammation as your parasympathetic nervous system is also stimulated and at the same time lowers you fight or flight responses in your body.
- Eating while distracted: Remember the ASMR videos on YouTube and just by watching and listening to the food videos make you hungry? As it turns out, it is not just your eyes, but also your perception of sound affects your perception of how full and satiated you feel. When you are less aware of the sound of the food you eat due to the fact that you are watching TV or listening to music whilst you are eating, you basically forget that you are eating, which causes you to eat more than your body needs.
When you are eating, eat in a peaceful environment and savour each mouthful of your food. Remember to eat slowly and chew each mouthful properly and mindfully.
- Sitting for long hours: Research shows that sedentary people eat more than active people and those found sitting for a long time have actually been found to eat more and have higher hunger levels than people who actively took breaks to walk around. According to researches, too much sitting alters our perception of hunger.
If you work long hours at the desk remember set an alarm to get up and walk around to take a break from sitting every hour. Regular exercise is one of the keys to loosing weight and keeping it off. Despite what many people believe, moderate amounts of exercise will actually reduce your caloric intake and curb your hunger, it is only if you do strenuous exercise that the hunger monster may visit.
How many of these reasons for feeling hungry holds true for you? Do you notice that by staying active, it keeps your mind happy and your muscles in shape. Not just that you are less prone to snacking and mindless eating?