Why does my body tell me it's hungry, when it's been fed enough.

sparx350

I'm not understanding the evolutionary benefit of a body that say's "eat eat eat" when excess fat slows you down and makes you ill. It seems like the body should stop eating when it's eaten enough to cover it's expenditure. Maybe it's predicting you're going to run a marathon? lol. Or maybe the new foods we've invented are messing with our body's signals. A great invention would be an exact calorie reader built into your blood stream, displaying a red or green light indicating whether to eat or not eat. I'll get right on inventing that.

Cortneyrenee04

I want/need one of those too, please. Wouldn't that be nice?

loribethrice

I feel hungry while I'm eating, lol. I'm jealous of people who can eat and actually feel full. Sometimes I wonder if it's a blood sugar issue since I have PCOS.

Kalikel

Hunger comes in waves. Wait 20-30 minutes and it goes away.

I don't know why you are hungry when you get enough food. Maybe your body took lessons from my cat.

The point of fat, obviously is to hold you over if you can't get any food.

emdeesea

sparx350 wrote: »

I'm not understanding the evolutionary benefit of a body that say's "eat eat eat" when excess fat slows you down and makes you ill. It seems like the body should stop eating when it's eaten enough to cover it's expenditure. Maybe it's predicting you're going to run a marathon? lol. Or maybe the new foods we've invented are messing with our body's signals. A great invention would be an exact calorie reader built into your blood stream, displaying a red or green light indicating whether to eat or not eat. I'll get right on inventing that.

Well, before man became agriculturalists, food was scarce. We evolved to store fat for those times when we didn't know whether we would eat or not and when the next meal was coming. Hence our natural craving for very high calorie foods and sugars.

But about 10,000 years ago we learned how to grow our own food and settle down a bit. And now food (at least in the first world) is no longer scarce, but our evolution has not caught up.

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lorib642

sparx350 wrote: »

I'm not understanding the evolutionary benefit of a body that say's "eat eat eat" when excess fat slows you down and makes you ill. It seems like the body should stop eating when it's eaten enough to cover it's expenditure. Maybe it's predicting you're going to run a marathon? lol. Or maybe the new foods we've invented are messing with our body's signals. A great invention would be an exact calorie reader built into your blood stream, displaying a red or green light indicating whether to eat or not eat. I'll get right on inventing that.

That is pretty much how I use mfp. When I run out of calories it's a signal for me to stop eating.

For me the hunger is more under control after a couple of months. I changed my weight loss goal to a slower rate so I have some more calories and I think I have adapted to not having so many snacks.

acogg

The body has no mind, it can only adapt to the mind of its owner.

WalkingAlong

Also, sometimes we think our body is asking for more food but it's more like our mouths are. Or our minds. Eating feels good. Being full feels good. Tasting good stuff feels good. We use food as a reward and a drug and a celebration and all kinds of non-nutrition related things. Which is fine, but try to ferret out the body asking for food due to hunger vs. other.

A good way to learn to identify actual hunger is to let yourself get actually, physically hungry sometimes. Don't eat for 16-24 hours as a test. Note how hunger feels. Compare it to wanting ice cream after dinner. Be specific. The feelings are very different, you'll probably find.

Kalikel

emdeesea wrote: »

sparx350 wrote: »

I'm not understanding the evolutionary benefit of a body that say's "eat eat eat" when excess fat slows you down and makes you ill. It seems like the body should stop eating when it's eaten enough to cover it's expenditure. Maybe it's predicting you're going to run a marathon? lol. Or maybe the new foods we've invented are messing with our body's signals. A great invention would be an exact calorie reader built into your blood stream, displaying a red or green light indicating whether to eat or not eat. I'll get right on inventing that.

Well, before man became agriculturalists, food was scarce. We evolved to store fat for those times when we didn't know whether we would eat or not and when the next meal was coming. Hence our natural craving for very high calorie foods and sugars.

But about 10,000 years ago we learned how to grow our own food and settle down a bit. And now food (at least in the first world) is no longer scarce, but our evolution has not caught up.

That parenthetical part is important. We still starve to death from lack of food, so we don't need to evolve. Besides, we are all one illness, one kidnapping or plane crash away from needing those fat reserves.

When I see people trying to rid their body of all fat, I always hope they don't get sick.

CynthiasChoice

Lots of veggies helps me. Foods high in water content and fiber fill your stomach.

emdeesea

Kalikel wrote: »

When I see people trying to rid their body of all fat, I always hope they don't get sick.

That's actually true of elderly populations who do better overall if they are a tiny smidgen overweight.

apparations

WalkingAlong wrote: »

Also, sometimes we think our body is asking for more food but it's more like our mouths are. Or our minds. Eating feels good. Being full feels good. Tasting good stuff feels good. We use food as a reward and a drug and a celebration and all kinds of non-nutrition related things. Which is fine, but try to ferret out the body asking for food due to hunger vs. other.

A good way to learn to identify actual hunger is to let yourself get actually, physically hungry sometimes. Don't eat for 16-24 hours as a test. Note how hunger feels. Compare it to wanting ice cream after dinner. Be specific. The feelings are very different, you'll probably find.

^^ This. Also I think that we are constantly bombarded with media and advertising around food that is designed to make you crave it. You might have a chocolate craving, but not realize that you're thinking about an ad you saw, or a product placement in a movie.

apparations

emdeesea wrote: »

Kalikel wrote: »

When I see people trying to rid their body of all fat, I always hope they don't get sick.

That's actually true of elderly populations who do better overall if they are a tiny smidgen overweight.

They do, because so many elderly people have medical/mental barriers that prevent them from eating enough and therefore they can become underweight very easily. But it is not the fat itself keeping them healthier.

emdeesea

apparations wrote: »

. But it is not the fat itself keeping them healthier.

No, but it can keep them alive. I'm thinking along the lines of stroke patients, for example, who have trouble eating. Those who are just a bit heavier will do better with their rehab just because they've got some fat to survive on while they're taking in their IV fluids and relearning how to swallow.

GaleHawkins

sparx350 wrote: »

I'm not understanding the evolutionary benefit of a body that say's "eat eat eat" when excess fat slows you down and makes you ill. It seems like the body should stop eating when it's eaten enough to cover it's expenditure. Maybe it's predicting you're going to run a marathon? lol. Or maybe the new foods we've invented are messing with our body's signals. A great invention would be an exact calorie reader built into your blood stream, displaying a red or green light indicating whether to eat or not eat. I'll get right on inventing that.

sparx350 the calories in your blood stream is not your concern but it is the glucose that is your concern. It is your body's cells that are starving for calories/glucose that is telling your brain to eat. When our bodies become insulin resistant our cells can be starving to death and we are dying from a sugar overload/glucose in our blood flow. If insulin can not effectively move glucose from the blood into our cells we are starving to death. Read all of the article. Feeding our cells is not as simple as poking our faces.

medicinenet.com/insulin_resistance/article.htm

cincysweetheart

For me hunger was never the question. I ate, ate, ate because I liked food. I would overeat to the point of uncomfortably stuffed just because it tasted good. If someone offered me something that sounded good, I would eat it, no matter how full I was. It wasn't an emotional thing either. I just ate because food tasted good. It's something I'm still learning to deal with. MFP is great because it gives me a reality check. I'm learning to just portion out my food and stop. If it tastes good, I can have more tomorrow. I'm also learning that that uncomfortably stuffed feeling sucks!

LAWoman72

I only get that "I'm still so hungry" feeling after a lot of refined carbs. So for me - I have to keep those down and pair them with a protein.

Unfortunately it took me a LONG time to accept this and I gained, and gained, and gained. I look back on my Standard American Diet life and it has been one of constant hunger...when I was limiting it as total calories, when I was gorging...just all the time.

I don't know that this will work for everybody or even a majority, but I thought I'd put in my $.02. I know people who can load up on carbs per meal but not end up bingeing, and do end up feeling satisfied. It seems to me to be a very individual thing.

evileen99

emdeesea wrote: »

sparx350 wrote: »

I'm not understanding the evolutionary benefit of a body that say's "eat eat eat" when excess fat slows you down and makes you ill. It seems like the body should stop eating when it's eaten enough to cover it's expenditure. Maybe it's predicting you're going to run a marathon? lol. Or maybe the new foods we've invented are messing with our body's signals. A great invention would be an exact calorie reader built into your blood stream, displaying a red or green light indicating whether to eat or not eat. I'll get right on inventing that.

Well, before man became agriculturalists, food was scarce. We evolved to store fat for those times when we didn't know whether we would eat or not and when the next meal was coming. Hence our natural craving for very high calorie foods and sugars.

But about 10,000 years ago we learned how to grow our own food and settle down a bit. And now food (at least in the first world) is no longer scarce, but our evolution has not caught up.

Yes, evolution is a slow process. In order for humans to survive, we needed to be able to eat large amounts of food when it was available to build fat stores to get us through lean times. I doubt there were many obese Cro-Magnon humans running around despite the desire to eat, eat, eat. It's only in the past 100 years that there has really been an over abundance of food--and it's going to be several thousand years before any evolutionary change in our desire to eat occurs (if it does at all).