Why Your Body Thinks It’s Hungry, When It’s NOT?
Have you ever wondered why you feel like snacking, when you should feel full?
It could be boredom, it could be sugar craving, but, aside from it all, it could be you’re not detecting the right hunger signals your body sends you.
Check out some reasons you could feel like climbing the walls for food, when you should unwind with friends or so something without any calories consumption:
- Lack of sleep. If you didn’t get enough sleep last night, chances are you feel out of energy, confused and with a high appetite for food. The American Dietetic Association spokeswoman Karen Ansel, RD. explains better what’s going on inside us:
When our bodies are drained, levels of leptin—a hormone produced by our fat cells that controls our appetite—decrease, while levels of gherlin—a hormone produced by our stomach that stimulates our appetite—increase. Getting eight hours of sleep a night is the easiest thing you can do to prevent overeating.
- Side effects of a Medication: Milton Stokes, RD, owner of One Source Nutrition, LLC claims: “Medication that contains mild steroids, like prednisone, a corticosteroid, ramp up hunger big time. If you’ve already eaten a normal-size meal, ignore the drug-inflated hunger.”
- Dehydration or thirst: the same symptoms of dehydration, namely the sleepiness and the lack of energy are similar to those of being hungry. Experts suggests that drinking a glass of water or a generous cup of green tea before eating and waiting for few minutes would allow your body’s hunger signals to adjust. Also, it could save a lot of calories per day!
- Eating ‘on Autopilot.’ Dr. Ansel tells us to ask ourselves if we are really hungry before having a meal and also, to think twice before engaging in possible actions which our brain associates with eating, like flying a plane, watching a movie or a football match.
- Just finished working out: the worst mistake you could make is to think that you feel out of energy because of hunger. It’s mostly because of dehydration and burning of the minerals in your body. Instead of extra calories, try some brown rice with chicken and a big salad.
- Not enough time passed since you had meal: you probably ate faster than you should and your brain did not record the eating process as it should have. Eat slowly and enjoy the meal by taking little bites, enjoy the favor.
- The ones around you are eating: just because everyone at your table overeats, it doesn’t mean you need to stuff yourself with goodies as well. If you’re celebrating something, make sure you follow your stomach and only eat for necessity, not for festive reasons.
- Alcohol consumption: you probably noticed that the Irish breakfast works the best after a heavy drinking night. That is because your brain mistakes dehydration with hunger. Instead of generous and hyper calorie meals treat your hangover with enough liquids and vitamins from fruit.
- Stress: you’d better start drinking green tea or eat a carrot when you feel stressed if you do not awn to become obese. This is called emotional eating. Just remember that if you’re depressed and feel sad, you don’t need to be fat too!
- The smell or sight of food: stop eating with all your senses, at least for a while, because you’re mouth waters and stimulates appetite. The safest solution: leave the space, hide and do something else.
The best way to decode the right hunger signals is to ask yourself “Am I hungry?”, “Do I need to eat now?” or “Didn’t I eat enough sugar today?” If the answer is “No!”, then take your mind of the fridge and do something creative, to keep it busy. If it “yes!” then makes sure you recover your body line after the damages at the gym.
Related Posts
RSS Trackback URL 1. December 2010 (09:29)Filed under: Nutrition by Rio
2 Comments»
Nancy
2. December 2010 | 16:50 hYes one of the biggest thing that affect hunger is lack of hydration you have to keep your body well hydrated and for sure cut back on sugar!! Because will give you the yo-yo effect on your blood sugar level.
Hunger and Psychology | DietMotion
28. February 2011 | 09:12 h[...] mind is a powerful thing, we know that by now. Countless studies have shown that both our actions and our feelings are greatly influenced [...]