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’m only recalling what I’ve been told / heard before but,
Sending hunger waves takes energy, the more it sends, the more energy it wastes, and when you are already without food for a while, it’s better for the body not to waste more energy than needed.
So it does it in bursts, hoping that you’ll listen/find food, then it stops for a bit, and if it doesn’t receive food still it will send another wave at some point.
Someone else might be able to explain this better though but this is what I’ve been told in simple terms
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For intermittent fasting, the reason hunger comes in waves has to do with how your body changes it’s energy source for metabolism. First, the body breaks down sugars (glucose) for energy in the first wave of metabolism. The brain has the highest demand for, and is optimized for sugar (because of how quickly sugar can be converted to energy) as its main energy source. So, once your sugar levels run low, your body begins to switch to fat burning. The second stage of metabolism is called “ketosis” because of the fat molecules being converted into ketone bodies as an energy source. The third stage is protein breakdown.
So, during the transition between stage 1 and 2 metabolism, the brain sends “hunger” signals throughout the body, which causes the stomach to growl. The brain runs more efficiently on sugar than is does on fat, so that is why the brain sends this signal. Once, the transition from stage 1 to 2 is complete and the brain is able to convert the ketone bodies into energy, the “hunger” signals start to die down for a while. Which, is likely long enough to not bother you until your next meal. But just remember, eventually your brain will take over and win that hunger battle because it really wants to run on sugar.
What my diet/fitness coach guy said was that in simple terms your body finished digesting food and is saying give me more to work. Then after you dont give it it says “fuck you, I’ll just burn your fat and muscle”
As ready mentioned, hunger is signaled via the hormone ghrelin. Counter-intuitively, ghrelin secretion is not necessarily tightly linked to the actual energetic state in the body. It’s highly influenced by our circadian clock (aka biological clock, a huge subject itself) and our eating habits.
You gave the example of intermittent fasting, so I’ll chime in on that. During your fasting periods, the body tries to signal hunger but doesn’t receive food. After a couple of weeks of strict IF, it ‘learns’ that hunger signaling is useless during these times of day, just like it’s useless during your night sleep. So, it stops sending hunger signals during those times.
EDIT: Thank you for my first gold, kind stranger!
The comments on the typo were correct, I’ve fixed it in my original post above. Otherwise, I’m leaving the post as is and will answer some of the questions in replies.
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.
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.
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 🙂
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.
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.
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