What to do if you constantly want to eat? Often we overeat or go to the kitchen for food, although we are not hungry, we do not think about the reasons for such behavior. A How to Green correspondent spoke with a medical psychologist about whether increased appetite can be a sign of illness and whether it is possible to cope with it on your own.
Why can the feeling of hunger become constant?
– Skipping meals or eating unbalanced meals
For example, if your diet is poor, when it lacks protein, complex carbohydrates or fats, or certain microelements. If the intervals between meals are more than four to five hours, then in this case the body will send hunger signals, and the saturation processes will be less noticeable.
– Bad dream
If you sleep less than 7-8 hours a day, it can cause an increase in ghrelin (a hormone that stimulates appetite) and a decrease in leptin (a hormone that causes a feeling of satiety). Sleep, like food, is a kind of fuel for a person. And if there is not enough sleep, the body will require energy differently. There is a study that shows that people who do not have enough sleep choose more caloric foods and their weight increases by about two kilograms every year.
– Diabetes type 1 and type 2
This is because the body’s tissues cannot absorb sugar from food and convert it into energy, which causes the muscles and other parts of the body to experience a lack of energy and ask for more fuel.
It is common for people with diabetes to experience increased thirst, sudden weight loss, blurred vision, problems with wounds and bruises healing, tingling in the hands and feet, and very often fatigue. It is important to diagnose the disease and control blood sugar levels to avoid these side effects.
– Hormonal changes, menstruation and pregnancy
When thyroid hormone levels are higher than normal, bodily functions speed up, the body burns calories faster and begins to ask for food more often. Such changes occur, for example, with hyperthyroidism.
Other hormonal changes occur in women during menstruation, so they also want to eat more often in the run-up to the cycle. Increased appetite also occurs during pregnancy. However, it is worth noting that it is often the opinion that pregnant women need to eat more that pushes women to eat more often.
– Dehydration
It is important to understand that hunger and thirst signals are sent from the same part of the brain, the hypothalamus, so they can be confused. In addition, if the body is chronically under-hydrated, it can send a hunger signal in the hope of getting moisture from food.
– Excessive alcohol consumption
If a person drinks alcohol often, then the production of the hormone ghrelin increases, which causes hunger even with a full stomach. Alcohol also dehydrates the body, which is why the brain can send false signals about hunger, although in fact, it needs water.
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What are the psychological reasons for constant hunger?
Any psychological reasons can cause eating. As a rule, a person eats away emotions that he has not learned to cope with. We all come from childhood, and if your parents or guardians did not know how to cope with some emotions or events, then you probably do not have this skill either. Accordingly, food can become a psychological strategy. Bored? – Eat a candy. Tired? – Take chips.
Overeating can also help cope with positive experiences. For example, if you have good news, but your family is not used to rejoicing. You were told that if you laugh a lot, you will cry a lot later. Against this background, anxiety may arise: the event seems good, but it turns out that rejoicing is dangerous. Such a tangle of conflicting feelings is tiring and causes tension, which you want to relieve with food.
In other words, any event that we do not know how to cope with psychologically can cause an attack of overeating.
Also, any attempts to lose weight can increase appetite – the more you try to artificially limit your diet, the more subjective value food acquires and the more you will want to break these limits. That is why it is worth understanding what is behind food needs, and not trying to simply stop by willpower.
Why is overeating dangerous?
It doesn’t matter what exactly we call overeating – one candy or kilograms of food. If a person subjectively believes that he has overeaten, that in this process he has lost the sense of control and eaten something that he did not plan, then this will most often cause him to feel confused, his failure, and guilt.
This reduces self-esteem, and mood, and can cause a decrease in daily activity, and a desire for isolation, which affects relationships with others, there is a risk of suicidal thoughts and intentions, the development of addiction, and other mental illnesses – eating disorders, and depression.
What eating disorders cause constant hunger?
For example, with nervous bulimia, a person with this disease eats a lot of food and then induces vomiting. The body is still left without food and nutrients. It does not understand whether it has been fed or not, so it can give frequent signals of hunger. In general, a restrictive eating style and any adherence to a strict diet will only cause a feeling of hunger. The presence of external boundaries and rules of nutrition can also provoke a constant feeling of hunger.
How do you know if you have an eating disorder and how can you help yourself?
It is important to understand that the basis of proper eating behavior is the motivation to maintain the health and energy of the body. The presence of a constant desire to lose weight or maintain it, the perception of food as good and bad, constant counting and planning meals – all this indicates an unhealthy attitude toward food and the body.
This can also be indicated by tactics for reducing calorie intake – skipping meals, diuretics, and laxatives, or inducing vomiting, etc. The presence of overeating and subsequent feelings of guilt and shame can also indicate the possible development of an eating disorder.
If you have any doubts, it is better to consult a specialist – a psychiatrist, but not try to diagnose yourself.
You should also not try to help yourself, because eating disorders are one of the most complex mental disorders, and they have the highest fatality rate. You need to contact a specialist immediately. He should say that you are fine then to miss the disease and your condition will worsen.
You definitely shouldn’t listen to your neighbors or fitness trainers who tell you that you just need to be patient, get married, have a baby, and then everything will go away. This is not true, because certain behavior patterns need to be worked through and changed. You need to immediately contact a specialist who works with eating disorders and who has an education on this topic.
How do you know if you’re really hungry?
When hungry, the qualitative need decreases – the more a person wants to eat, the more he does not care what it will be. Some say that they always care what to eat, but they probably do not experience severe hunger, or they always have the opportunity to choose.
How can you get rid of increased appetite?
It is important to diagnose the cause, but in any case, it is a signal for help if the appetite is increased.
