Reasons for feeling hungry after a meal

The feeling of hunger is considered a completely normal natural feeling, indicating that we need to add energy and nutrients to the body. We eat in order to provide energy to our organs and systems so that the body can fully function and perform its vital functions.

Experts have analyzed human nutrition over several centuries and concluded that in the past, people were satisfied with much less food than they are now. Previously, a clear division of three meals a day was accepted: breakfast, lunch and dinner were obligatory, when the whole family usually gathered at the table. Snacks, with the exception of tea drinking, were not accepted.

What do we have now? An abundance and variety of all kinds of food literally at every step: not only in grocery stores and markets, but also just stalls on the streets, cafes and restaurants, kiosks with fresh baked goods, stalls with shawarma and chebureks, etc. You can order food without even leaving your home, and it is not necessary to stand in the kitchen near the stove, preparing a family dinner. Rarely does anyone today adhere to family dinner traditions: snacks on the run, sometimes a candy, sometimes chips, sometimes cookies... People are simply used to constantly chewing something.

In addition, the rhythm of life has changed: a lot of stress, worries, lack of time for normal meals. Food production also plays an important role: almost everywhere, special additives are added to products to stimulate appetite, so that a person wants to eat a tasty product again and again, despite the fact that the body only needs a small portion of food to be full. All these are tricks of the manufacturer, who does everything to ensure that his products are bought in large quantities and as often as possible. In such situations, you need to have an iron will to refuse the constant intake of food that is not entirely healthy and unnecessary for the body.

The results of the above reasons are gluttony, heaviness in the stomach after eating, overstretching of the stomach and a feeling of guilt for eating too much food.

There are many reasons for feeling hungry after a seemingly sufficient lunch. Let's look at the main ones.

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Why do you feel hungry after eating?

The causes of the "pit of the stomach" are varied, and each person has their own reasons for this phenomenon. A person eats a lot to stabilize various feelings in themselves. What are the most common reasons?

• The period before ovulation or menstruation, pregnancy. This period is characterized by a lack of some hormones in the body that are responsible for our mental comfort, mood and appetite. At this time, a woman is drawn to sweets: without eating the necessary and desired product, the meal will be considered incomplete, as if something is missing in the body. If a woman does not get what she wants, she becomes irritable, even too much. However, everyone feels this syndrome differently. The feeling of insufficient satiety can last for several days: a woman eats food, but without the presence of the "right" product, she cannot achieve a feeling of satiety. No methods of "cheating" the body with other products give results. What is the way out to solve the problem and not harm the body? From sweets, choose natural products: marshmallows, marmalade, dark chocolate, caramelized and fresh fruits, berry smoothies, honey with cottage cheese, etc. Do not forget to drink enough water.
• Stressful and tense situations. This is probably the most common factor in the development of a constant feeling of hunger. Many of us, upset or angry, run to the refrigerator to calm ourselves with delicious food. But even after eating after such a situation, we again and again reach for a candy or a chocolate bar. Why? Because the problem that caused the stress remains unresolved! Experts recommend in such cases not running to the refrigerator, but to the pharmacy for a sedative. You can also just take a walk in the fresh air, or better yet, in a park or forest - this is very calming (just do not take food with you). There are even similar methods of losing weight: if the patient is prone to stress and because of this cannot stick to a certain diet (constantly breaks down), then along with the "weight loss" diet, he is prescribed herbal soothing teas, products with a high content of "pleasure hormones" dopamine and serotonin, as well as the help of a psychologist.
• Stress for the body: for the mind and for the body. With physical stress, everything is clear - we have spent energy and we need to get it back. At the expense of what? At the expense of food intake. Many people know how important it is to stick to a healthy diet during active training and sports. Mental work also requires a sufficient amount of glucose. But the difficulty is that people who work mentally often either forget about the next meal, or, even worse, consume it unconsciously: they pull out cookie after cookie, staring at the monitor screen. When distracted by a computer or another important activity, the brain thinks only about the task at hand, and does not pay attention to the simultaneous absorption of food by a person. As a result, the brain does not receive a signal that it is full, and we continue to eat non-stop. Even when under the conditions of a normal full lunch we would have been full long ago. Conclusion: eat only at the dinner table, or only after completely moving away from your workplace, without continuing to finish a report or make a presentation during the meal. For the same reason, it is not recommended to read the newspaper or watch TV while eating.
• Constant and strict diets. Agree that women rarely choose diets for weight loss that provide for slow weight loss: for example, 1-2 kg per week. After all, you want to lose all the excess weight at once! We choose diets that require a sharp restriction in nutrition, a complete rejection of your favorite food, the use of only one line of products (the so-called "monodiets"). What does all this sooner or later lead to? To the appearance of a constant feeling of hunger and obsessive thoughts to finally eat something that is prohibited. What is the result: We either eat the product allowed by the diet in incredible quantities and cannot satisfy our hunger with it, or we break down on the "forbidden fruit" and also eat it in large quantities, until we get stomach cramps, because "we wanted it for so long that now the body, tired of waiting, wants to eat it for future use." After such approaches to nutrition, we acquire two undesirable consequences: we break down and return the kilograms lost with such difficulty and we set our body to the fact that some products may be in short supply, and therefore it is necessary to stock up on them. Frequent and "harmful" breakdowns are guaranteed after this. Conclusion: do not choose "quick" and starvation diets, and if you do not know how you can eat everything and lose weight, seek help from an adequate nutritionist.
• Dysbacteriosis in the intestines. It would seem, what is the connection between the intestines and the feeling of constant hunger? The answer is simple: with dysbacteriosis, the body cannot fully digest food components. Insufficiently digested food mass ferments in the intestines, and fermentation products are absorbed through the intestinal walls into the bloodstream. As a result, the body does not receive the substances it needs, and is also exposed to toxins, which disrupts the normal course of metabolic processes. If you have frequent problems with defecation (constipation alternates with diarrhea), increased gas formation, a feeling of hunger after eating, fatigue, deterioration of the skin, hair and nails, then you should start restoring the intestinal microflora. Eat fresh herbs, fruits and vegetables, and, of course, fermented milk products - but only fresh, no more than three days from the production date. Drink more clean water.
• Worm infestations. Intestinal parasites can also provoke a feeling of hunger after eating. They prevent useful substances from food from entering the blood, as a result of which the body experiences a deficiency of essential substances that it is forced to demand, causing a person to feel hungry.
• Diseases of the endocrine system - diabetes, hyperthyroidism. These reasons require mandatory consultation with a specialist. Self-medication is inappropriate here.
• Deficiency of some important substances in the body. This reason is also typical for those who adhere to a limited and too strict diet, or simply "forget" to eat during the day.

If your body requires something salty, it does not always mean that you are pregnant. You may simply have a sodium chloride deficiency in your body, if, for example, you have been on a salt-free diet for a long time. Solution: do not eat a jar of pickles in one sitting, or a large salted bream - firstly, this is a big burden on the kidneys, and secondly, a large amount of salt will retain fluid in the body, after which you will turn into a big swollen bun, and the lost kilograms will return in the form of fluid accumulation. Just take a small crystal of sea salt and hold it in your mouth until it dissolves completely, and the craving for salty things will pass.

If you want sour foods, this is a sign of magnesium deficiency in the body. Do not rush to eat everything in search of the right product: nibble on seeds, nuts, make pea or bean soup.

You are drawn to fatty foods (fried chebureki, lard, a sandwich with a lot of butter) when you have a calcium deficiency. Try not to be tempted by fatty foods, it is better to rely on yogurt and kefir, milk, cottage cheese, natural cheeses.

Craving for sweets is a common addiction, it may indicate a deficiency of chromium, phosphorus or sulfur. What to do? Replenish the deficiency with fresh fruits, vegetables, dried fruits.

In some cases, the feeling of hunger is caused by a deficiency of B vitamins, which are found in eggs, white meat, beans, liver, etc.

Evaluate the situations listed above and choose the one that is closest to you. Follow the recommendations given, and the constant feeling of hunger after eating will stop haunting you.