For example if you’re intermittent fasting or water fasting, and the hunger comes and goes in waves as opposed to just getting hungrier and hungrier by each passing hour. How come? I do intermittent fasting and my periods of hunger are brief. You’d think the longer I go without eating, the worse my hunger would get but instead, I just get these brief periods of hunger and they eventually disappear, as if I had already eaten.
In:
I don’t know if I’ll get an answer here but ill try anyway.
In my case, weirdly, i barely ever feel hunger. Like, i can spend all day without food no problem, and still wouldn’t feel hunger. On the very rare occasions i do feel hunger, i can ignore it and it will pass shortly. Like, within 10m, and it’s more like “i could use a snack” in the first place.
In the past, in preparation for a medical procedure, i was forbidden to eat for 2 days, only liquid. Except that i was to have this procedure because of pain, pain that made me not eat. Over 5 days, all i had was 2 pack of ramens ( all i was able to eat ), water and water with chicken broth.
And i still wasnt hungry. Sure, i felt kinda weak and tired, but not hungry.
But why does this happen ? Why do i not feel hunger? Now, i eat when its time to eat, rather than because im hungry. And i can eat as little as i like to, since im not hungry anyway, even tho i do try to eat a portion that makes sense for me, normally.
From an evolutionary, or a survival standpoint, it’s because being hungry doesn’t pose an immediate threat to life and limb. While starving is a danger, and hunger a primary motivator, it’s not a pain that needs to be as potent as say, a broken bone.
Related: why does eating nothing make you nauseous?
Exact same thing with me, I don’t eat until 3pm and stop at 9pm. I don’t get hungry until about 10 for only about an hour and then I feel fine
Very simple answer. These waves are controlled by the naturally occurring hormones in your body Ghrelin and Leptin.
If I were to explain this to a five year old, I’d say that your body makes you more hungry when you start eating so it tricks you into eating enough not to be hungry again for a while. Eventually your body expects to do that process if you tend to eat at the same time every day. If you miss a meal, your body will send the hunger signals (the hormone Ghrelin) for a bit then stop sending signals.
One way to hijack this is to water fast for 48ish hours at which point your body will stop sending hunger signals all together and you can choose when to add food to your daily routine.
So does sleep, no? I get a wave everyday at 11 PM and then once I conquer that, I sleep at like 4, the next wave.
The hunger you feel then isn’t actual hunger. We have a lot of bacteria in our digestive system that is use to regular intake at the same times each day, and are sending message about the lack thereof.
It is our innate messaging system, it’s like needing a cigarette when you smoke, even though it’s bad for you.
It’s all hormones, chemicals and bacteria.
If you follow a intermittent fasting diet, this internal clock will change and ring the bell at the new times you set for intake of food.
Same if you want to stop smoking, start ignoring the craving you get, and after a while it will fizz out.
Actual hunger feels different, pain in you mouth is one of the symptoms.
Our bodies work better on empty stomachs, it takes a lot of energy to digest food, and as most people food habits are several times a day, you never get to feel the full force of your own energy.
Just think about all the energy packed in fat storage.
For this interested in fasting/intermittent fasting, google autophagy 🙂
The hunger sensation you feel is not a result of your stomach being empty, nor a requirement for food.
The sensation is caused by the hormone ghrelin. It is produced to stimulate appetite to encourage you to eat. Sights and smells can stimulate ghrelin production, but also learned behaviour in regard to food timing. This is why you will feel hungry at breakfast time, then the sensation goes (regardless whether you’ve eaten or not) only to come back again at lunch time.
What I understand from what I’ve read is that hunger pangs are not due to real hunger but more due to your stomach being used to receiving food at regular intervals.
I’ve read about something called true hunger which you apparently feel in your throat once you’re actually hungry. Apparently this feeling is very intense and can not be compared to the slight discomfort of hunger pangs.
I may be wrong but this kind of makes sense to me, you’re not hungry 3 hours after your last big meal, there’s just no way.
Latest Answers