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 😊.
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Why do you still try to earn money when you have money in the bank? Your body sees those as reserves for future need, not resources for current need.
The short answer is blood sugar. as soon as it goes down, our body first puts on hunger, and only if no food is available for quite a long time, it starts burning fat
If you want to tap into your Emergency Supplies. Cut out all carbohydrates and follow a keto diet. With no carbs as an energy source, your body reverts to fat. On this diet you will also feel a lot less hunger.
Why do you still try to earn money when you have money in the bank? Your body sees those as reserves for future need, not resources for current need.
Food has two purposes – a source of energy and a source of raw materials to repair cells and build new cells. And hunger, therefore, has two possible meanings “I need energy” or “I need raw materials”.
Because there is always repair work to do (like any complex machine, cells are breaking down, being damaged, or dying all the time – and you have billions of cells in your body) your body gets hungry when it has run out of raw materials to carry out this repair.
Your stored body fat is not useful for this purpose, so no matter how fat you are, you will regularly get hungry. Not because of a lack of energy, but because of a lack of raw materials. And if you don’t eat the right foods (eg if you eat a load of sugar rather than a source of protein) they won’t do much to stop your hunger either. This is why a high protein meal keeps you fuller for longer than a high carbohydrate meal – it stops the body running out of the raw materials for longer.
If you don’t give your body the necessary raw materials it will start breaking down your muscle to get the protein it needs to keep the more important organs as healthy as possible. This is why fat people when they diet often end up losing lean body tissue as well as fat. Because not only are they reducing their energy intake to below what their body is using, they can very easily drop their raw materials intake below what their body needs.
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…
also when you feel hungry might that be true hunger
i felt hungry before but went 24 hours with no food and no hunger
Food has two purposes – a source of energy and a source of raw materials to repair cells and build new cells. And hunger, therefore, has two possible meanings “I need energy” or “I need raw materials”.
Because there is always repair work to do (like any complex machine, cells are breaking down, being damaged, or dying all the time – and you have billions of cells in your body) your body gets hungry when it has run out of raw materials to carry out this repair.
Your stored body fat is not useful for this purpose, so no matter how fat you are, you will regularly get hungry. Not because of a lack of energy, but because of a lack of raw materials. And if you don’t eat the right foods (eg if you eat a load of sugar rather than a source of protein) they won’t do much to stop your hunger either. This is why a high protein meal keeps you fuller for longer than a high carbohydrate meal – it stops the body running out of the raw materials for longer.
If you don’t give your body the necessary raw materials it will start breaking down your muscle to get the protein it needs to keep the more important organs as healthy as possible. This is why fat people when they diet often end up losing lean body tissue as well as fat. Because not only are they reducing their energy intake to below what their body is using, they can very easily drop their raw materials intake below what their body needs.
It takes about 3 days of no food intake for your body to switch to burning down your fat for food. You would start losing about 1kg a day, it requires a lot of willpower, a lot of water and electrolytes. I did a 5 day water fast once and the first two days were the worst. Day 3,4 and 5 I never felt hunger and mentally I never felt better. Of course, you shouldn’t just stop eating and see how long you go, everything over 7 days of fasting should be tracked with a doctor.
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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