Why am I so hungry? Science question...

olivia3263

So I was previously in a state (I won't say starvation mode) that erased my appetite. I was eating very little and exercising a lot and not getting hungry, or losing weight. I've recently upped my calories and have started losing again, and have been getting appropriately hungry. I have been eating really well, tons of fiber, fruits and vegetables, dairy, healthy fats, etc. and have been staying in my calorie range everyday.

Last night my mom was visiting and we went to a fancy restaurant for Restaurant Week (3 course meal for $30). I had an AMAZING dinner and everything fit into my calories because I ran that morning: I had a glass of prosecco, piece of bread, peach and fresh mozzarella salad for 1st course, grilled salmon over a romanesco sauce, and fresh raspberry sorbet for desert. It was divine, but I was STUFFED at the end. We walked home (a good 35 min. walk) and then I crashed, I was sooooo tired.

Anyway, now, all day I've been so much hungrier than I've been. I'm eating like every 2 hours (healthy filling foods and eating to satisfaction only) and have my food planned for the day so I don't go over, but I'm so curious if my hunger is related to the large meal I ate. I mean, I'm seriously starving within an hour of eating.

I can handle the hunger pains, but I'm more interested in learning about the science behind this. Did my metabolism increase because of the large meal (my body had to work harder to process it) and now it's trying to get me to eat more?

I'm so interested in nutrition now these days, and really want to understand what's going on in my body. If anyone knows anything about this, please feed my mind

genxrider

I too would like to know the science around this phenomena.

kperrigin

How much sleep did you get last night? If not enough might have too much ghrelin today which makes you feel hungry. Notice on days you didn't get enough sleep night before will be hungry.

SallieBeige

I have been told that one of the control mechanisms to slow down your eating is a full stomach (nerves in the stomach lining tell the brain when the stomach is full). If you over-eat you stretch your stomach and stimulates these nerves.

The result of your hunger today is over-stretching of your stomach yesterday.

Well, this is how it has been explained to me - and it seems to be true for me. Whenever I overeat one day, I seem to be extra hungry the next.

Just a theory.

olivia3263

I got a normal, if not ample night of sleep (9 hours)

SallieBeige, that sounds interesting - the only thing is, I am eating my normal small meals and it is filling me up. I just get hungry in like 1 hour, verses before where I wouldn't get hungry for 2 or 3 hours later. If my stomach was over-stretched, wouldn't it take more than a small meal for me to feel "satisfied"?

I love that I'm listening to my body more, but it's confusing me more than ever. I feel like I want to go back to school to study this - I find it so interesting!

chellabella26

You probably did stretch your stomach some with the meal. You also made your body feel like the "famine" was over so it is now trying to grab on to calories. Biologically any kind of diet mimics starvation in our bodies, and since genetically we are programmed to operate in feast and famine modes, I believe that is what you are experiencing. Just keep feeding your body when it asks to be fed. Keep to your healthy food choices and small portions, but don't worry as much about toal calories. You can exercise to balance it out if needed, but the trick is to satisfy your body so that you don't trigger a metabolism slow down. If you are careful you could be back to normal tomorrow. I have had this happen a couple times and the next day I am hardly hungry at all. Good luck

Rae6503

I have unexplained hungry days too. I don't think there's any science behind it at all.

olivia3263

Ok, I did some internet research and came to a very interesting conclusion.

I thought about the stomach shrinking and stretching idea, but then I remembered that I often have a plate of food about twice as large for dinner - it's just filled with steamed vegetables and greens and good low calorie stuff. The thing that was different about this meal was that it was larger in calorie content, not in quantity of food - so I don't think the stomach stretching thing would be appropriate.

I did come across some info on Salmon (and remember, I had a nice healthy slab of the good stuff) and why it is always on "diet lists" on foods that help jump start your metabolism.

So we all know that salmon contains omega-3 fatty acids - and those are supposed to be good for you, but I never actually knew why. Omega-3 apparently lowers levels of leptin in your body, and when that happens, your body can metabolize fat more efficiently, speeding up your metabolism. I think my metabolism is experiencing a surge today -

which explains why:

1) I broke my pace record on my run this morning (more energy)

2) why I am getting hungry sooner (my body is burning and processing the food quicker and more efficiently)

3) my skin has been very oily today (a personal indication that my metabolism is working - when I first started increasing my calories, when I had plateaued due to over training/ not eating enough, I broke out and my skin got very oily - like a teenager).

I think it's a good thing. However, I ate a huge healthy dinner not an hour and half ago, and now I'm getting hungry again. Half of me is going "Yay, my metabolism is working!" and the other half of me is going "Arg, I'm hungry AGAIN!" Guess I'll have an orange.

JohnnyStorm

3) my skin has been very oily today (a personal indication that my metabolism is working - when I first started increasing my calories, when I had plateaued due to over training/ not eating enough, I broke out and my skin got very oily - like a teenager).

IMHO this sounds Hormonal. Why? Oily skin like a teenager, combined with increased hunger and metabolism sounds like your endocrine system; possibly increased testosterone, decreased estrogen, thyroid or other. I don't know if you would be able to determine with certainty why. Could be normal periodic changes or could be related to diet and exercise or could be something else altogether.

It is interesting but my guess is that it is transient.