For example, consider water and protein shake – both are liquids of similar viscosity and sensation. How does my stomach feel fuller when I drink the shake?
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Your description of stomach feeling fuller is very complicated. There are vague explanations with respect to the feeling of fullness due to stretching detecting cells in the stomach, residency time of foodstuff, various neurotransmitters, but I think something better understood and easier to comprehend is the way to go. Obviously this is going to be a simplistic take on things.
When you consume sugar your body needs to prepare for and engage in changes in order to break it down and obtain energy from it. Note that carbs in general are just sugar with an extra step. The chemical most involved with this is insulin.
When you have excess insulin you feel hungry. The insulin wants sugar to process. When you eat a big meal (especially one of pasta or bread which are all carbs) your insulin levels spike in response to dealing with all the sugar. They over cook it though and there’s left over insulin after all the sugar has been dealt with leading to being hungry just a couple hours after a huge pasta meal.
If instead you eat a meal high in fats and protein rather than carbs your insulin has no reason to spike to deal with sugar and you don’t feel as hungry again just a few hours later.
Satiating your hunger due to high insulin or low blood sugar also gets picked up on by your dopamine reward system which reinforces behaviours that result in feeling good. It’s an evolutionary drive to eat because if you don’t you starve. That’s a bit too far afield though I think. It’s touching on hunger being modulated by fats and proteins too.
Hopefully though this gives you an idea of how it isn’t just physical sensation that contributes to the feeling of fullness.
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