I had a heavy, sumptuous meal lately. I was so full that I even skipped breakfast the next day. But by lunchtime I was craving a hearty meal again, even though I definitely didn’t need the food. It was like a hangover. Isn’t that completely illogical?
In: Biology
This is the simplest explanation, imagine your tummy is like a tank for food. When you eat a lot, your tank gets full. But your body uses up all the food you put in the tank, so by the next day, the tank is empty again. Since your tank is empty, your body sends signals to your brain that it needs more food to fill up the tank again. That’s why you feel even hungrier the next day after eating a lot the day before. It’s like your body saying, “Hey, I need more food to fill up my tank!”
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Your stomach stretches when you eat a lot to accommodate the volume. However, it takes some time for it to shrink back down again. Competitive eaters use this strategy by drinking a lot of water before a competition. That’s also why many of them do not look overweight.
There’s a lot of things that affect your hunger signaling, but two big ones are
* the physical volume of what you are eating (this is why just eating more low-calorie-density fruits and vegetables causes some people to lose weight)
* [your need for incoming protein](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8620426/), as your body does not store aminos for too long
If you have a big meal, you will (usually) be satiated for longer, but 1. eventually you’ll have cleared out all the physical space in your stomach and 2. you won’t have ingested protein for an extended period of time, and these two together will make your hunger rebound with a vengeance.
Having a few slow-digesting, protein-rich snacks after a big meal helps keep hunger under control. It’s a decent trick to have on hand after having a big “cheat meal” with friends – you kind of just work through a couple protein bars and some fat-free Greek yogurt the next day, and then resume normal eating at dinner.
Overeating for one meal shouldn’t be enough to make you hungrier the next day. Consistently eating a high volume of food can make it easier for your stomach to expand and disrupt the timing of satiety signals.
Why? Hunger is complicated, relying on both hormonal and gut-brain neural signals along the vagus nerve.
– When your stomach is near empty, it will release a hormone called ghrelin that increases appetite in the brain.
– Eating causes the walls of your stomach to stretch out and lowers pH levels. In response, the stomach sends a fullness signal to the brain. Eating past this point of satiety too often can make it take longer to set off this neural reflex.
– There’s also a hormone called leptin, which is produced by fat cells and sends fullness signals to the brain. It’s a long-term appetite regulator in response to levels of fat stores in the body; low leptin causes more eating, and high less.
So yeah…most likely you were hungrier at lunch the next day simply because you skipped breakfast.
Carbs (bread, sugar) just make you hungry later, simple as that. It’s why a Subway bun (and everything else in the food industry nowadays) is loaded with sugar. Return business is good business.
Try eating a bunch of tuna and chicken, it’ll be a while before you wanna even look at food.
The technical reason is that sugar is a simple carb and your body therefore absorbs it crazy fast, spiking your glucose levels and making you tired and hungry.
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