The Real Reason Why We Feel Hunger & It Has Nothing To Do With An Empty Stomach

By
Boon Hun
-

Last Updated on 2023-01-22 , 5:59 pm

Every time you feel hungry, you’ll eat.

After all, that’s the entire reason why you’re hungry, right? Because your stomach is empty.

Wrong, because it’s actually not an empty stomach that makes you feel hungry, but hormones instead.

The Real Reason Why We Feel Hunger & It Has Nothing To Do With An Empty Stomach

Google the word Ghrelin and you’ll be smacked in the face with the following description:

Ghrelin is a multifaceted gut hormone which activates its receptor, growth hormone secretagogue receptor (GHS-R). Ghrelin’s hallmark functions are its stimulatory effects on food intake, fat deposition and growth hormone release.

Simply put, Ghrelin is the “hunger hormone“; it stimulates appetite, increases food intake by 30% and affects the hypothalamus portion of the brain.

In other words, every time you feel hungry, it’s because your Ghrelin hormones are activated.

If you’ve gone through NS, especially outfield exercises, there’d be times where you did not eat much food for the entire day.

But do you feel hungry throughout? The answer’s probably no because you don’t even have the time to think about it.

Ghrelin Levels

Here’s another interesting fact: You can feel less hungry even without eating.

According to a medical study published back in 2005, a group of researchers studied a group of people who went on a 33-hour fast.

During the fasting period, the subjects’ ghrelin levels were observed every 20 minutes.

Here’s what they found:

Image: NIH

Throughout the entire study, it was found that the ghrelin hormones come in waves.

It typically reaches its peak during the lunch and dinner periods.

And even without eating, ghrelin levels will fall on their own, typically within two hours.

The study also found that there was no relation between hunger and not having eaten in a while, as at 9:00am, the breakfast timing of the day, ghrelin levels were at their lowest.

That is also the longest point in time since you would’ve last eaten, which is around 14 hours ago.

In other words, if you’re feeling hungry, it’ll probably go away after a while.

Should We Eat One Meal A Day?

So, you ask, if being hungry doesn’t mean we need to eat, should we just eat one meal a day?

Well, other than subjecting yourself to unnecessary hardship, here’s one other reason why you should eat regularly: so you won’t be malnourished.

But, of course, if you are looking to lose weight, the knowledge of what ghrelin and hunger really does might just help you in your weight loss and fasting journey.

One particular fasting method that is really popular among weight loss enthusiasts is the intermittent fasting method, where you stop yourself from eating for a certain period of time.

How Food Works:

But won’t we run out of energy?

Yes and no.

Food equals calories, which is what we call the “fuel” of our bodies.

To simplify the entire process, here’s how the food system in our bodies works.

Think of the calories necessary for our survival as your monthly salary.

You need a job to get paid monthly to survive, but what if you lose your job (unfortunately, it’s pretty common nowadays since it’s COVID-19)?

You’ll have to use up all the cash in your wallet, which is known as the glycogen stored in your body.

Once you’re done with that, you’ll start to extract money from your savings for survival.

The amount of savings in the bank is your fat storage, and how long you can survive without food depends on the amount of fat you’ve stored in your body.

Everyone has fats in his or her body, even the leanest person.

Stomach Growling Isn’t Exactly An Effect of Hunger Either

On a separate note, when we hear our stomachs growling, it’s not because it’s empty.

The growling noise is caused by gases in our intestines.

As for why it stops after we ate, it’s because our intestines are filled with food, replacing the gas that’s making the noise.

Feature Image: Have a nice day Photo / Shutterstock.com

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Boon Hun
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