Why does hunger sometimes feel good and sometimes very bad?

Tuumest
Tuumest Posts: 5 Member
edited November 23 in Health and Weight Loss
Right now I’m going to bed and I’m hungry, but I feel good. Despite feeling hungry I really don’t “feel” like eating. But, other times, being hungry is like being in hell. I feel like crap and I can tell it’s affecting my mood etc. What I want to know is why? Why can I feel hungry and good (not tired, happy, etc) but other times hunger is a nightmare. Basically I want to figure out how to avoid the nightmare feeling. Anybody else have this and know why it happens?

Replies

  • Momepro
    Momepro Posts: 1,509 Member
    edited November 2017
    Probably because you aren't actually hungry, just not completely satiated, and your body isn't really used to that yet. It interprets it as ""hungry" because you are used to feeding it befor6eit gets stronger. Over time, that will probably pass into feeling not quite hungry yet... Really hungry on the other hand is still uncomfortable and sucks, lol.
  • rheddmobile
    rheddmobile Posts: 6,840 Member
    I'm wondering if that nightmare feeling you're describing is low blood sugar. If it is, eating a few carbs to bring it back up should help. A small glass of milk or piece of fruit, for example.
  • rheddmobile
    rheddmobile Posts: 6,840 Member
    kaye4health wrote: »
    rheddmobile wrote: »
    I'm wondering if that nightmare feeling you're describing is low blood sugar. If it is, eating a few carbs to bring it back up should help. A small glass of milk or piece of fruit, for example.

    I am thinking opposite of your response. (I am diabetic btw)

    I would think if your eating a more carb food (as last food eaten before hunger strikes) would make you feel more hungry (due to carb foods digesting quicker), It also is a known fact that carby foods will not only digest quicker, but they turn to sugars in our bodys, which in turn will make you more tired, miserable. Now if eating more of a protein food prior to hunger pangs. Protein digest slower, helps with satiety, so you don't feel that hungry as quickly as with carby foods. Also protein does not change into a load of sugar rushing through your veins to make you have that tired, feel like crap (which effects your mood).

    This is just my 2 cents on this.
    You could be right. Carbs do digest quicker and make you hungrier quicker, compared to proteins, which stay with you, and fats, which raise satiety hormones. Without knowing more, it's hard to say what the issue is, but it's almost certainly something to do with macros.

    I'm also diabetic. Unless the OP is diabetic, insulin levels will keep blood glucose levels below 100 except immediately after high carb meals. So no excess sugar rushing through the veins. And all foods are turned into glucose before the body can use them for energy, it just takes longer and is a more complicated process for other foods.
  • WillingtoLose1001984
    WillingtoLose1001984 Posts: 240 Member
    I would like to know this too. I feel the same way- sometimes hunger feels good and sometimes very bad.
  • Beaudom91
    Beaudom91 Posts: 54 Member
    I agree with the other poster that you're probably not hungry and just not full. As a society we tend to be programmed to eat until we're full instead of eating until we're no longer hungry. It can be a real learning curve when figuring out how to eat appropriate amounts and become familiar to what the different sensations in our bodies mean. It's something I struggled a wee bit with at first because I felt like I was hungry still after every meal but yet felt fine otherwise (plenty of energy, clear headed ect). I'm used to it now and I realize it was never hunger, just what I'd always mistakingly thought of as mild hunger
  • Beaudom91
    Beaudom91 Posts: 54 Member
    And now I actually hate the feeling of being full! It feels uncomfortable to me now
  • bisonpitcher
    bisonpitcher Posts: 519 Member
    I always hate feeling hungry.
  • counting_kilojoules
    counting_kilojoules Posts: 170 Member
    I can feel hungry and it kind of feels good. It's usually when I've had dinner four or five hours a go, I could definitely eat but I'm not so hungry my stomach is complaining at me terribly and I've not been doing terribly much in the meantime. In that situation, it's just a sensation and not an unpleasant one.
    If it's been quite a long time since I've eaten and/or I've been relatively active since I last ate I'm likely to feel more uncomfortable. (I'm doing Intermittent Fasting at the moment and the last hour before my first meal of the day is pretty uncomfortable.)

    I don't find it makes any difference what my last meal was (carbs/protein) but ymmv and it's never a bad thing to experiment with your macros for satiety.
  • littlebabekitty
    littlebabekitty Posts: 398 Member
    It can be anxiety and emotional eating habit..i have it and i am trying to break it..when anxiety comes it is like a feeling of emptyness so it can be confused with hunger and emotional eating is when i eat to fill that emptyness and take away the anxiety subconsciously. Try writing down ur feelings in single words when u feel this 'bad hunger'.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    How many calories do you eat? Perhaps you eat too few Cals on the days you are nasty hungry.
  • dwilliamca
    dwilliamca Posts: 325 Member
    I find that most of the time what I feel is not really hunger, but desire to eat/taste a food I like. Even eating doesn't always help. When I actually get hungry and my stomach starts to growl, which does happen before bedtime especially if I stay up too late, I find a glass of warm cashew milk with cocoa and stevia seems to be all I really need to go to sleep.
  • AmyOutOfControl
    AmyOutOfControl Posts: 1,425 Member
    It always feels terrible when I am hungry. I tend to graze on food all day to avoid getting hungry. Does feeling hungry really feel “good” for some people? How? I find it uncomfortable....
  • whosshe
    whosshe Posts: 597 Member
    I sometimes can't differentiate hunger from tiredness. If I start to get hungry late at night and it's not a stomach growling hungry I usually chalk it up to tiredness.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    amymoreorless wrote: »
    It always feels terrible when I am hungry. I tend to graze on food all day to avoid getting hungry. Does feeling hungry really feel “good” for some people? How? I find it uncomfortable....

    I don't find it particularly unpleasant, and I like feeling it when I plan to eat. I'm sure it would be unpleasant if I were truly hungry (i.e., did not have adequate food, were worried about where it would come from) but in a day in which I have regular meals I don't think it's possible to get to that point. I've definitely had times when I feel ravenous -- one example is when I exercised hard last Sunday after eating very little during the day (partly I was traveling, partly I was saving calories for dinner), and so I was looking forward to eating, but I wouldn't say it felt that bad -- I tend to think that's a mental thing and if I think about how much I will enjoy the food I am going to eat it becomes a pleasant or anticipatory feeling.

    I hate snacking/grazing all day, because I feel like I don't really appreciate what I eat, I like being a little hungry before/anticipating it.

    I do find that other things (anxiety related to emotional eating habits, desire to taste something, tiredness) can seem like hunger.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    Hard to say, how one handles hunger is pretty subjective. I personally never liked feeling hungry so I just did things to avoid that feeling.
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