I had a healthy stir fry for my lunch today. Just chicken and a variety of vegetables. I figured the veggies would be filling. But 20 minutes after I’m done, I’m still feeling hungry. So I figure I’ll grab a KitKat bar, calories are calories and I’ll still be under my target. I finished half of it and felt full.
But the thing is for dinner last night, I had 2 portions of that stir fry and still went to bed feeling hungry. How does more food make me still feel hungry, but less food with a dessert make me feel fine
In: Biology
Generally, there is a delay between your stomach being filled and your ceasing to be hungry. This is why common advice to avoid overeating is to slow down when eating.
The stretching of the stomach lining (amongst others) stimulates the release of the full hormone.
However, feelings of hunger can be caused by low blood sugar or dehydration.
Additionally confusing the sensation is habituation. Refined sugars can suppress or distract us from how hungry we feel, because they release pleasure hormones.
Tiredness can also mess with hormone regulation.
In the first situation you describe, it could be that by the time you started eating the kitkat your brain was starting to register the higher full hormones.
In the second, it could be the lack of protein and fats, or thirst, or a craving (psychological rather than physiological).
Things that make you feel full:
* protein: sounds like you had that with the chicken, depending on how much you had
* fiber: you probably had this with the vegetables
* fats: this is probably what you were missing. healthy fats like olive oil are great, but also nuts, seeds, etc. The Kit-Kat bar had fat in it, and that’s what helped you feel full.
* It also takes about 20 minutes for your brain to register the hunger-suppression hormones being sent to it, so in the future, maybe wait 25-30 minutes before you decide if you need more or not.
It’s a rather complicated question. However, a good rule is, the more difficult it is to digest, the longer it takes thus the “fuller” you feel. Foods that are rich in fiber belong in this category. Stuff like beans, lentils, chickpeas etc.
Now this is an hard bounded rule or something. As you’ve noticed, you are veggies and chicken yet you were still hungry. As I said in the beginning, it’s complicated. Another thing that can affect it’s fullness is, how was the food prepared.
For instance, lettuce a very green veggie. Lettuce will never satiate you. It has only 15kcal/100g. Even then it’s mostly water. However If you were to drown it in olive oil, chances are that you would feel, slightly “fuller”.
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