Why do I always feel hungry?

We have to eat three meals a day. If we skip one meal, we will feel hungry. However, if you always feel hungry, this may be a symptom of a disease, such as false hunger, so you must analyze what specifically causes this hunger.

1. Eating the wrong food

Symptoms of false hunger: craving for sweets or feeling "hungry" right after a meal.

Reason: The meal may be too simple and lacks fiber, protein or healthy fat that produce a "feeling of fullness", which in turn leads to a drop in blood sugar after the meal.

Tip: It’s best to have a healthy snack, such as a piece of fresh fruit, a handful of nuts, cheese or peanut butter.

Note: The diet should be light and moderate. Do not blindly satisfy your hunger or eat too much meat and fish, otherwise it will easily lead to indigestion or gastrointestinal discomfort.

2. Lack of water

Symptoms of false hunger: Lack of water in the body often causes you to confuse hunger with thirst. Many times people feel hungry, but it is likely due to lack of water in the body.

Suggestion: When you want to eat, drink a glass of water first and wait for 10 to 15 minutes. This way you can determine whether you are thirsty or really hungry.

3. Lack of sleep

Symptoms of false hunger: Lack of sleep can cause a disorder in the hormones responsible for hunger in the body. If you sleep less than 4 hours for two consecutive nights, the hormones responsible for hunger in the body will nearly double, while the hormones that regulate body fat content and appetite will be relatively reduced. The increase and decrease of these two hormones will significantly increase the feeling of hunger, and at the same time make people numb to the feeling of fullness, which will cause them to invisibly eat far more food than what is needed for the normal functioning of the body.

Suggestion: You should make sure to get enough sleep. If you must stay up late, you should be careful if you feel hungry after staying up late. Don’t eat anything immediately. You should wait for 15 to 20 minutes so that you can judge whether you are really hungry or just pretending to be hungry.

4. After exercise

Symptoms of false hunger: Many people feel tired after exercise, but mistakenly confuse the feeling of fatigue with hunger and then go for a big meal. In fact, the secretion of "hunger hormone" that controls appetite in people's bodies has no very direct connection with exercise itself.

Recommendation: To relieve fatigue after exercise, you only need to supplement some specific nutrients, such as choosing chicken or other lean meat. The protein in it can replenish the energy consumed by the muscles after exercise. You can also choose brown rice or other whole-wheat cereals. The right eating choices after exercise will allow the body to restore energy faster and fight hunger longer.

5. Negative emotions

Symptoms of false hunger: Negative emotions such as fear, anxiety, stress, loneliness, etc. will interfere with and disrupt the complex nervous system that controls appetite, ultimately leading to abnormal appetite and false hunger. Therefore, many people habitually eat when they are in a bad mood as a way to relieve stress.

Suggestion: Try taking a walk, writing in a diary, listening to music, calling a friend, chewing mint gum, reading a book, going to a library or museum, etc. when you are in a bad mood. These positive things may be the "safe place" that helps you stay away from the temptation of false hunger.

6. Social drinking

Symptoms of false hunger: Social gatherings and work interactions often involve drinking, but some people find that even if they don’t drink much and don’t vomit any food, they soon feel themselves being called by hunger after drinking.

Reason: This is also a false feeling of hunger, because alcohol contains a certain amount of carbon dioxide. In addition to some of it being excreted from the body through breathing and other means, the rest will also be excreted from the body through urine, sweat, etc. in a relatively short period of time. When these things are digested quickly, people feel very hungry.

Recommendation: Eat before drinking; to avoid eating too much the next day, if you drank a lot of alcohol the night before, be sure to drink as much water as possible to replenish the body's large amount of water consumed. It is best to drink some sobering soup to wake up the stomach and intestines, thereby ensuring the normal functioning of the stomach and intestines.