Basically as the title says. If I’m already obese right, why does my stomach still feel hungry when it has “food at home” aka an excess stored up as fat. Why would it not just utilize the energy that is already there and then when it gets to a certain body fat percentage become hungry again at that point? Why does the body just continue to store up fat to an uncomfortable and unhealthy point and keeps asking for more food when there is already so much available to it?
UPDATE: Thank you everyone for your responses. There are lots of great explanations and viewpoints here 😊.
In: 414
I am not a biologist or chemist. This is just what I recall from various forms of learning.
Iirc part of hunger (physically) is stomach acid starts to become less diluted and starts to affect the stomach lining (non-seriously). This sends a signal to the brain about the deficiency in dilutants, and the brain responds by focusing on diluting the stomach acid by eating or drinking, thus forming what we call ‘hunger’. In part, this is why it’s recommended to drink a large glass of water before eating something. It ‘fills your stomach’ by diluting the acid and literally increasing in contents in it. The stomach then processes the extra water as normal until it undilutes itself.
Fat has already been processed and CAN be broken down for nutrients/energy, but it takes longer and more effort/energy from the body to do so when compared to finding food and eating it.
So when we are hungry, we search for means to dilute our stomach acid. If we cannot find any, we remain hungry, but our body burns fat to maintain energy levels/minimums. Burning/consuming the fat in the body does not reduce our hunger as it is never placed back into the stomach and thus does not dilute the acid.
Edit: basic spelling mistakes…
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