Does hunger pangs hit you even before it is time for your next meal?
Diet plays an important role in satiating hunger and it is the choice of food items that makes you feel fuller for longer. Well, it is not just your diet, but your lifestyle, and also the biological and psychological factors play a role in making you feel hungry too soon.
Here we present the top 9 reasons why you feel hungry all the time:
- Carb rich diet: Carbs are essential for your body, but a diet rich in refined carbs like pasta, white bread or food products made with refined flour and sugar like cakes, donuts, quickly burns up in your body. This rapid burn of the carbs leads to a spike and a sudden crash in your blood sugar level. So your diet should comprise of complex carbs which will slow down the burning process.
- Stress triggers hunger: In the short run, stress curbs your appetite. But, our body reacts in a different way when you are stressed for a longer duration. Stress triggers the body’s fight or flight process, which leads to the release of hormones that increases your hunger. Hence, you need to exercise caution with what you eat to curb your stress hunger to avoid unnecessary weight gain.
- Lack of sleep: A sound sleep of 7-8 hours is important to relax your mind and body. Moreover, lack of sleep leads to lower levels of leptin. This reduced level of leptin increases appetite and the urge to eat more often.
- High metabolism rate: A high metabolism rate enhances the rate at which you burn calories. To replenish this lost energy, you may feel the urge to eat more frequently.
- Skipping meals: Skipping meals can impact your appetite and make you consume more food when you sit to eat. The ideal time gap between meals is approximately 4 to 5 hours.
- 5-minute meals: A busy schedule might allow you just 5 minutes to complete your lunch, but it has its own drawback. Eating your meal too quickly tends to make you hungry much before your next meal. So, take a break during meals and enjoy your meal to feel fuller for longer.
- Artificial sugar: Artificial sugar might have lower calories as compared to regular sugar, but it impacts your appetite and makes you feel hungry frequently.
- Hunger or thirst: More than often we mistake thirst for hunger. So, if you start feeling hungry between meals, have some water and wait for a while. If it is thirst, you will be satiated with the water, but if it is hunger, have some healthy and high fiber snack.
- Watching TV during your meals: Watching TV while you are having your meals will distract you. This, in turn, makes you eat more as your focus in on television, rather than what you are eating. So, it is best to avoid watching TV during your meals.
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