Hunger is your body’s way of letting you identify it needs more food… or so we have always thought. A good majority of us find ourselves feeling hungry even after eating. Quite a lot of factors, including your diet, hormones, or lifestyle, can explain this phenomenon. This blog helps explain why you’ll feel hungry after a meal and what you can do about it.
Causes & Solutions
There are several reasons why some people feel hungry after a meal. Not drinking enough water is probably the main reason why you experience hunger. You may feel the sensation of hunger but that’s actually dehydration. Next time you feel hungry after eating, drink a large glass of water. I promise you if you let that settle for a few minutes you will no longer feel hungry.
However if water doesn’t help and that feeling of hungriness is still there, you can read below about 4 other reasons this could be happening to you.
1) Meal Composition
For starters, it might be because to the nutritional composition of your meal.
Meals that contain a greater proportion of protein tend to induce greater feelings of fullness than meals with greater proportions of carbs or fat — even when their calorie counts are similar.
Numerous studies have shown that higher protein meals are better at stimulating the discharge of fullness hormones, like glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), cholecystokinin (CCK), and peptide YY (PYY). Also, if your diet lacks fiber, you’ll end up feeling hungry more often. Fiber may be a sort of carb that takes longer to digest and may slow your stomach’s emptying rate. When it’s digested in your lower alimentary canal, it helps in promoting the release of appetite-suppressing hormones like GLP-1 and PYY.
Foods that are high in protein include meats, like pigeon breast, lean beef, turkey, and shrimp. Meanwhile, foods that are high in fiber include fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and grains. Of course, there are plenty of vegan protein options as well.
If you realize that you’re hungry after a meal and see that your meals tend to lack protein and fiber, try incorporating more protein- and fiber-rich foods into your diet.
2) Stretch Receptors
Apart from meal composition, your stomach has stretch receptors which play a key role in promoting feelings of fullness during and directly after a meal.
The stretch receptors distinguish what proportion your stomach expands during a meal and send signals on to your brain to induce feelings of fullness and reduce your appetite. These stretch receptors don’t believe the nutritional composition of the food. Instead, they believe the entire volume of the meal. Although, feelings of fullness brought on by the stretch receptors don’t last long. So, while they’ll assist you to eat less during a meal and shortly after, they don’t promote long-term feelings of fullness.
If you don’t end up feeling full during or immediately after a meal, try incorporating more foods that are high in volume but low in calories. These foods, like most fresh vegetables, fruits, air-popped popcorn, shrimp, pigeon breast, and turkey, tend to possess greater air or water content. Also, beverage before or with meals adds volume to the meal and should further promote fullness.
Though many of that high volume, low-calorie foods promote short-term, immediate fullness through the stretch receptors, they tend to be high in protein or fiber, both of which promote feelings of fullness long afterward by stimulating the discharge of fullness hormones.
3) Leptin resistance
In some cases, hormonal issues may explain why some people feel hungry after eating.
Leptin is the main hormone that signals feelings of fullness to your brain. It’s made by fat cells, so its blood levels tend to extend among folks that carry fatter mass.
However, the matter is that sometimes leptin doesn’t work also because it should within the brain, especially in some people with obesity. this is often commonly called leptin resistance. this suggests that although there’s much leptin within the blood, your brain doesn’t recognize it also and continues to think that you’re hungry — even after a meal though leptin resistance may be a complex issue, research suggests that getting into regular physical activity, reducing sugar intake, increasing fiber intake, and getting adequate sleep may help reduce leptin resistance.
4) Behavioral & Lifestyle Factors
Aside from the key factors mentioned above, several behavioral factors may explain why you are feeling hungry after eating, including:
- Being distracted while eating. Research suggests that folks who eat distracted feel less full and have a greater desire to eat throughout the day. If you always eat distracted, try practicing mindfulness to raised recognize your body’s signals.
- Eating too quickly. Research suggests that fast eaters tend to feel less full than slow eaters thanks to a scarcity of chewing and awareness, which are linked to feelings of fullness. If you’re a quick eater, aim to chew your food more thoroughly.
- Feeling stressed. Stress raises the hormone cortisol, which can promote hunger and cravings. If you discover that you’re often stressed, try incorporating yoga or meditation into your weekly routine.
- Exercising tons. people that exercise tons tend to possess greater appetites and faster metabolisms. If you exercise tons, you’ll get to consume more food to fuel your workouts.
- A lack of sleep. Adequate sleep is important for regulating hormones, like ghrelin, levels of which tend to be higher among sleep-deprived people. Try setting a healthy sleep routine or limiting blue light exposure in the dark to urge adequate sleep.
- Not eating enough food. In few situations, you might feel hungry after eating just because you didn’t eat enough during the day.
- High blood glucose and insulin resistance. Having high blood glucose levels and insulin resistance can significantly increase your hunger levels.
The Bottom Line:
You may feel hungry after eating thanks to a scarcity of protein or fiber in your diet, not eating enough high-volume foods, hormone issues like leptin resistance, or behavioral and lifestyle choices. Try implementing a number of the suggestions above.
Feeling hungry may be a common problem for several people worldwide. Often, it’s the result of an inadequate diet that lacks protein or fiber and lack of water. However, it might be thanks to hormone issues, like leptin resistance, or your daily lifestyle. If you habitually end up hungry after eating, try applying a number of the evidence-based suggestions above to help curb your appetite.