By Dr Deborah Lee, Dr Fox Online Pharmacy
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We all know what it feels like to be hungry. That gnawing, growling feeling in your tummy and the irresistible urge to eat. I don’t do well with hunger. I often have a headache, feel very irritable and start salivating. The urge to find food and start shovelling it in is almost overwhelming. Most of us eat at regular intervals to stop these unpleasant hunger feelings from setting in.
But there’s a problem. Many of us frequently eat at times we are not hungry. We eat out of habit, boredom, or when we feel anxious or stressed. Food is readily available, sociable and feels comforting when it’s been chewed and swallowed. No wonder obesity is such an enormous problem in the Western world. And it’s one reason losing weight is so hard – we all hate to be hungry.
- What else can cause hunger?
- What can we do if we are always feeling hungry?
Read on and find out more.
Hunger hormones
Hunger is largely controlled by the hunger hormones, ghrelin and leptin. The stomach distends as it fills up with food, but as the contents pass out into the intestines, it shrinks back to its resting size. This triggers the release of the hunger hormone – ghrelin – which induces all those miserable hunger feelings and tells you it’s time to eat again. The hormone leptin is crucial for the control of appetite and weight. It tells your brain you are full and that it’s time to stop eating.
Causes of hunger
To successfully lose weight, somehow we have to deal with feeling hungry. Understanding what is making us feel hungry can help us adapt to hunger, learn how to cope with it, and help us not to eat when we don’t need to.
- Poor mental health
Stress, depression and anxiety have been shown to increase ghrelin levels. For example, a 2018 study in the journal Obesity Review concluded that stress often results in poor sleep, increased appetite, food cravings, and lack of motivation to exercise, all of which have a major effect on weight gain and obesity. Other studies have also demonstrated a link between depression, ghrelin levels and weight gain.
In fact, it’s a chicken and egg situation. Depression is linked to weight gain and being overweight is linked to depression. Improvement in either of these conditions also leads to improvement in the other.
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Emotional eating
Could you be an emotional eater? In 2018, a study in the journal Appetite concluded anxiety is associated with emotional eating and increases susceptibility to hunger. For example, fear of abandonment (attachment anxiety) is strongly associated with over-eating and obesity. Sufferers are unable to deal with their negative emotions and eat in order to soothe their feelings. Learning how to manage negative emotions provides a long term strategy to help with weight loss.
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Lack of sleep
Sleep deprivation is linked to obesity. One reason is thought to be because leptin is produced at night during sleep, meaning leptin levels are lower in those who are not getting enough sleep. In addition, many people who are overweight or obese suffer from leptin resistance, meaning leptin levels are high, but the body doesn’t recognise it, so the normal cues about feeling full and stopping eating are missed.
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Diabetes
People with type-2 diabetes often feel hungrier than people without. This is because in diabetes, your body is either producing too little insulin, or there is plenty of insulin but your cells are not recognising it (insulin resistance). As a result, glucose levels inside your cells are low, and these cells are sending out messages all the time telling your body you need to eat.
Hunger can be a symptom of undiagnosed diabetes. Other symptoms include excessive thirst, frequently passing urine, tiredness, dehydration, dry itchy skin, fungal infections, and blurred vision.
If you have any symptoms of diabetes, have any risk factors such as being overweight or obese or a family history of diabetes, it’s very important you go and get tested. Around 600,000 people in the UK have undiagnosed diabetes. It is vital to get diagnosed as soon as possible.
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Excess alcohol
You may not realise that drinking alcohol stimulates your appetite. For example, studies in mice have shown that those given alcohol before their feeding time, went on to consume 10-25% more food. Also, because alcohol is second only to fat in the number of calories it contains, drinking alcohol remains a poor choice for those wanting to lose weight.
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Overactive thyroid
Your thyroid gland governs the rate of many of your body processes, including your basal metabolic rate. If your thyroid is overactive, it produces too much thyroxine, meaning your cells are using up energy faster. As a result, this makes you feel hungry. On the contrary, an underactive thyroid means you are using up energy more slowly and is associated with weight gain.
Signs of an overactive thyroid include unexplained weight loss, a fast or irregular heartbeat, a tremor, and nervousness and anxiety.
If you have any of these symptoms it’s important to see your GP.
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Medication
- Antipsychotics – These are drugs used to treat major mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. These patients are twice as likely to be obese as the normal population.
- Antidepressants – These affect levels of brain neurotransmitters which can affect your appetite and increase food cravings. 25% of people taking antidepressants report weight gain.
- Insulin – Insulin causes weight gain. New-onset diabetes is often associated with weight loss, due to relative insulin deficiency. However, when insulin is replaced, weight increases again. This is a natural effect of insulin.
- Steroids – These cause sodium and water retention; hence they tend to cause a rise in blood pressure, but they also stimulate appetite. Both these effects mean those on steroids tend to gain weight.
- Beta-blockers – These are thought to cause weight gain as they are associated with tiredness and lethargy, meaning you are less likely to exercise while taking them.
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Thirst
37% of us confuse hunger with thirst. This means we are reaching for food when all we need is water. The reason seems to be because the symptoms of thirst are difficult to spot – you may just feel a bit sluggish, tired, and have a slightly faster heart rate. You may just feel you need to eat to get your energy levels up when what you really need is simply more fluids – not more calories. This is why when you are trying to lose weight you are recommended to drink at least 2 L of water per day.
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Erratic eating
Studies suggest that those who eat regular, small meals tend to be less obese than those who eat food variably from 3 – 9 times a day. Each time you eat, your blood sugars rise and then fall. As they fall, this triggers more hunger to eat again. For best results, you need your blood sugars to be stable.
To do this you need to eat portion-controlled, healthy meals with enough protein, healthy (unsaturated) fats and fibre. Avoid processed foods that are often high in unhealthy fats, salt and sugar – all of which can lead to increased hunger after absorption.
Final thoughts
Feeling hungry is one of the commonest reasons people can’t control the amount of food they eat. But if you go back to the first principles and understand why you might be feeling hungry, this gives you the best opportunity of dealing with it.
Ask yourself –
- Are you under stress? How could you deal with this?
- Are you an emotional eater? Do you need help with any psychological issues?
- How can you improve your sleep and ensure you get the recommended 7 hours per night?
- Can you cut out alcohol?
- Do you need to see your GP to rule out diabetes and thyroid disease? Does your medication need changing?
- Are you drinking enough water? Could you be dehydrated?
- Are you eating the correct types of food at the correct times?
Hopefully, addressing these issues will help you feel less hungry and help you lose weight.
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