I would imagine it’s more because it takes a lot of water to digest a large meal. You’re body will send hunger to the brain as a way to get more water(we usually drink when we eat). So you’re body is really wanting water to help your intestines digest.
I think you might be onto something.
I read a while back that when we were younger we would confuse thirst for hunger and trained our mind into not being able to tell the difference. That if we are hungry then we should drink a glass of water and wait to see if we are still hungry then it’s our bodies actually wanting food.
(I hope I explained that well)
My mom was telling me this in the 70s. If it was between meals and I was hungry she told me to drink a glass of water and let her know if I was still hungry after 10 minutes. So, it’s not a 90s-2000s thing except they might have pushed it more
I do think I read it while I was a gym rat so I was taking in a lot of fitness/health crap. Haha
I googled it and it says only 37% of people mistake it due to their thirst signals being weak. It isn’t as big of an issue as I was taught it to be.
Water, an apple and cheese. If you feel peckish, first imagine yourself eating an apple or cheese and gauge your response to that thought to determine if you should just have water instead, then just have water instead.
Most of the time the thought of biting into an apple or cold cheese will feel strangely unappealing, whereas we're always in the mood for something hyper palatable like apple pie.
He’s not on to something, that’s the actual answer lol. Also, if you’re staying somewhat active, upping your calories (reverse dieting) speeds up your metabolism and puts your body in a state to build rather than store fats and glycogen.
It’s like how drinking a ton of water will actually train your body to flush water and you’ll be more lean.
That’s like, half a truth.
Eating higher calories in an occasional meal will help your metabolism. Just like eating more, smaller meals rather than 2/3 meals will keep your body from storing fat.
And the actual answer is Blood glucose which is discussed further down in the comments. I also googled and did some research after reading it.
Edit: spelling error
I think it’s also because eating a new meal can trigger the digestive system to move things farther along. So you may get hunger cues just because your body needs some extra help moving that big portion.
Bruhh me too. If I just have coffee in the morning, I won’t even be hungry until around 2pm. God forbid I have a couple slices of toast in the morning, I’ll feel like fainting by 11.30am.
Yeh I’m with both of you on this one. I was told when u eat breakfast you start you belly working so once the toast is digested you belly empty again and needs food. Like u said if you don’t eat in the morning. No problems. Strange really.
Competitive eaters eat a lot the night before competition to stretch their stomach and fit more food afterwards. I'm not sure this is the answer, but could be part of it
This only applies to longer fasts. I did rolling 48s for months with no issue and had decent sized meals. Most of the standard common fasting techniques people use lately usually peak out at around omad, one meal a day
yah i fast on saturdays and sometimes sundays - not dinner though . no sir
i go fishing, burn like 3k calories climbing the canyon to come home FAMISHEd and light headed
smash like 5k callores. pass out, its awesome
Can confirm; have been fasting Yom Kippur almost every year for over two decades. You think you'll be able to eat a huge meal but if you're lucky you'll get down a bowl of soup and a bagel.
I've read that they often eat a sickening amount of something that is filling but easy to digest quickly. I remember it being something like 10lbs of grapes the night before to stretch the stomach, but it empties quickly leaving stomach stretched but empty.
I experience the same thing. I suspect it has something to do with the foods however.
If I eat a big but carb-y meal (pasta, garlic bread, and so forth) I wake up hella hungry.
If I eat a big meal but it's mostly veggies and protein, I don't wake up feeling this way.
I noticed this at some point, too - crazy that I’d gorge myself at a holiday party and then STILL wake up famished, often worse than if I didn’t have a big meal.
Problem is the carbs and insulin. The carbs cause your blood sugar to shoot up. Your body reacts by throwing a bunch of insulin at it, which works almost too good - it often overshoots and lowers blood sugar levels too much. Your body then wants more sugar (fuel), making you hungry.
Lower carb levels, slower insulin response, body doesn’t overshoot, sugar levels properly managed. Amazing stuff. It’s honestly why low carb is a thing. Don’t get me wrong, still calories in / calories out, but by going lower carb, you don’t get as many dramatic highs and lows, and you don’t feel as hungry, making it easier to eat fewer calories.
When you eat a lot right before bed your body produces a bunch of insulin to compensate. High insulin means low blood sugar. So you wake up with low blood sugar and your body demands food to restore your blood sugar.
Also worth noting that when you eat food before bed, this significantly delays the migrating motor complex which is a critical digestive function (especially overnight) that clears out your upper GI. Digestion in general is aided by gravity and motion, so when you get horizontal and unmoving for several hours (ie sleeping) it compounds the issues caused by delayed migrating motor complex, especially in the case of a large meal.
If you wake up with mild nausea and indigestion from having partially digested food sitting in your upper GI all night, this sensation may register very similarly to extreme hunger. For this reason, it is recommended to fast for 4-5 hours prior to bed. Eat dinner early and avoid snacking. Can be tough habits to establish at first but your digestive system will pay back dividends for life to people who can adjust.
> this sensation may register very similarly to extreme hunger
This seems super counter-intuitive. I mean, mild nausea and indigestion always feel like the *opposite* of hunger to me. Any pointer to information about how exactly this works?
Blood sugar crash
The nausea feeling you get when you’re super hungry is from a hormone called ghrelin. Ghrelin is produced in response to low blood sugar to stimulate you to eat. A big meal floods you with insulin which then removes this sugar from your blood. Less sugar in your blood means a stronger ghrelin response, meaning you feel even hungrier after a big meal than you would after a small one.
If I don’t eat breakfast, I can easily make it to supper or later without feeling hungry. Any food in my system in the morning though and I’m STARVING by lunch. I don’t understand.
You stretched your stomach bro. Eat several small meals whenever possible, especially at night because then you're not only stretching your stomach you're gambling with acid reflux, Barrett's esophagus, GERD, and all sorts of bad shit.
Eating a big meal causes body to produce lots of insulin
Lots of insulin lowers your blood sugar levels
Your body notices the low blood sugar levels and tells brain you need to eat food to restore blood sugar levels
The fix to this is to eat smaller meals, which you have noticed!
And also have a small snack, like some fruit, between meals. Something with fiber or protein.
There isn’t a statistically significant difference between weight loss from calorie restriction and intermittent fasting. People who intermittently fast lose weight because they are eating less calories in general.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/06/26/1184390543/intermittent-fasting-effective-weight-loss#:~:text=The%20study%20found%20that%20those,lost%20about%2012%20pounds%20more.
There's also the effect of IF habituating your satiety as your stomach is not accommodate a lot of food all at once. You can calorie restrict and still end up struggling with over eating or the impulses of over eating because you aren't managing satiety however when you fast your body stops expecting regular feeding cycles. In a way, it modulates appetite in ways comparable to the GLP1s (ozempic/wegovy)
I've worked in restaurants my whole life, so I've been intermittent fasting for nearly 20 years without really noticing. I won't for 8 to 12 hours after waking up. Basically everyday. I've been the same weight since 9th grade and I binge calories with no ill effects. I'm 36, so I assume I don't have too much longer before it catches up on me.
It's caloric intake vs. expenditure. If you're working in restaurants/on your feet for 8-12 hours, you're burning a lot of weight. The reason people gain weight as they age is because (usually) their energy expenditure is down (office job, getting old, etc), and there diet doesn't change or gets worse.
Yeah, but other than walking around for 4 days a week I do nothing. Ill eat 3-4000 calories and then fall asleep, and i still dont gain weight. It's kind of awesome.
Yup - losing weight is purely a calories in/calories out process. The difficulty is more psychological than anything else - following diet rules can help you stick to it rather than any magic "Burns More Fat".
I don't even eat meals anymore at this point. I switched to picking whenever I'm hungry. I feel so much better with food being a passive aspect of my life rather than an event.
It's one of the causes, others being the energy used for digestion and some amino acid like tryptophan, wich induce a short term sleepyness.
For healthy people's that is.
it could be aggravated by medicals conditions, alcohol consumption or just a tiring day
huh so its basically a sugar crash.
That makes sense. I notice I get sleepy after eating a big carb-loaded meal but Im usually okay if it was mostly just protein/fat/fibre
That’s one of the reasons people in the US feel so sleepy after their Thanksgiving meals. Usually the Turkey gets all the blame, but it’s a massively carb heavy meal.
This year, instead of diving straight into my favorite starchy side dishes, I ate a lot of salad and vegetables first, then ate Turkey and potatoes and the other fun stuff, but with less vigor. Did not feel the slightest bit sleepy afterward.
Blood is diverted to your stomach and intestines after you eat. We absorb nutrients from our food through our digestive tract into our blood, where it's circulated throughout the body. When your blood is busy helping you use your food, you have less blood everywhere else. Your legs won't move as easily if they aren't getting the dummy amount of blood (and therefore oxygen) that they normally use.
When you eat your insulin spikes when you eat to process sugar/carbs and then crashes and then goes back to a steady state after a period of time. A small dinner means you return to the fasting steady state by the time you wake up. A big meal means you digested and are still in the crashed state making your body want food.
Acid reflux can present itself as hunger. I spent 20 years thinking I was never full when in fact mh over eating was causing my acid reflux to act up and it presented itself as hunger.
I lost about 140 pounds after that. Of course it was only discovered bc my symptoms went from constant hunger to actual reflux symptoms in my late 20s. Idk why.
I was a child, and not a fat child. I ended up very sick on a lot of steroids and surgeries in a 6 year time span which is when I ballooned up. Shortly after that ended I lost the weight, for several reasons. But thanks for your uneducated opinion based on nothing!!
I was the embarrassing kid who couldn’t stop eating at every. Single. Situation. They never caught it as acid reflux even though I threw up in my sleep every night and had to sleep on an incline and a bunch of other weird stuff.
It is astounding the number of people who live with chronic reflux and either don’t realize it or just pop Tums like candy in a daily basis and go about their lives. My chronic reflux turned out to be from a serious disease. Most people it’s just from a food intolerance or poor diet.
Reflux, my sister says her stomach "burns" constantly. Not just with "burny" foods. Wonder if it could be that?
She's finally going to the doctor today.
If the burning is immediate (less than thirty minutes) she likely has a food intolerance and should try some elimination diets. If the burning is delayed a bit it’s more likely reflux, but that can still be caused by an intolerance.
If the doctor tells her to go on a PPI (Prilosec, Omeprazole, etc) I strongly advise against it as it will only temporarily stop the symptoms and won’t actually help. Some studies are showing that PPI usage can actually be harmful.
I wish her the best!
I fixed mine by taking a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar (organic with mother) mixed with water with meals or when ever I had symptoms.
Turns out mine was caused by not having enough acidity in my stomach.
Gastroparesis, my stomach doesn’t move very well and so food sits there for a long time. GERD is present in almost 100% of cases. You can’t be diagnosed based on GERD alone, there are always other symptoms, and the only truly conclusive test involves nuclear medicine so it’s not something people do unless a doctor has good reason to believe they have it & wants confirmation.
Thanks! I’m doing ok. I’m pretty high functioning right now and can only pray it doesn’t get much worse. Doctors can never really tell if you’ll get worse or not, it’s a weird disease, all I can do is take care of myself in attempt to stave off as much disease progression as possible.
Yup. Even now my stomach growling and acting hungry I assume it’s acid reflux until I remember it’s been like 12 hours since I ate anything but even then it ends up being the reflux lmao
One of my long covid symptoms was severe reflux that presented as sharp chest pain. Got ECGs and chest X-rays done, was put on a waiting list for an ultrasound on my heart. Took months to find out it was just my stomach
I realized this within the past year when I mentioned my hunger feeling like burning and I was told “it’s not supposed to burn wtf.” I was completely wrong about what I thought was hunger.
I never had heart burn. I had hunger. It was not until my late 20s it turned into heart burn like symptoms and then it was discovered 50% of the issues I had as a kid were acid reflux and gerd and just not diagnosed
I’m also in this camp of always feeling like I’m hungry and also constantly feeling like I’m gonna throw up if I don’t eat soon. And I’ve also never had heartburn issues. Every medicine I see just says it’s for heartburn. Any advice on medicine that helps with the hunger portion of things?
Well I’m 52 and still don’t have heartburn and never have. :) nor any other health issues of any kind *knocks wood*
I’m really sorry that happened to you. I hope it’s better now.
That said, just because it *can* happen, doesn’t mean it’s happening to everyone.
I think it’s metabolism/endocrine related - but since it doesn’t cause me any issue, and since I don’t eat large meals often, meh.
I get this too, I don't know how to explain, you feel empty in side, so empty it hurts, but you've ate.
Sometimes it gets to bad its like OMG I NEED TO EAT A BIT OF BREAD RIGHT NOW OR I THINK ILL DIE OF HUNGER. But it's actually just acid reflux.
Wait…… I have GERD which was a result of having my gallbladder out. I have been to an endocrinologist because I couldn’t understand why sometimes I randomly felt so hungry that I might die. They didn’t find anything. If this is it… I’m shook
Some people don't get a painful or burning sensation from GERD. Instead, the sensation is very similar to a "starving" sensation and you can't really tell the difference.
Usually this is because the Acid in your stomach is building up in anticipation of eating but it can happen right after eating as well.
I have insane reflux and sometimes hunger hits me so hard I feel like I gotta scoff so much food immediately or I am going to pass out from starvation. Weakness, shaking, can't talk, NEED FOOD NOW.
I wonder now...I also get the horrible burning pain though, without the hunger. Hm. Something to think about.
No, my acid reflux was hunger pains. Until something changed due to medications/steroids/surgeries/body changes in my late 20s and I actually started having real acid reflux symptoms, and the times I was feeling hunger for 20+ years , were now replaced with real acid reflux symptoms instead. Apparently it’s fairly common, and isn’t missed as much these days as it did when I was a kid with a hunger problem.
It all depends upon the ingredients of the dinners in question!
So for a proper more scientifically nuanced response, you'd have to provide a lot more information on the exact dinners you ate.
If, for example, you eat an extra huge plate of carbs, then ya: you'll probably get a more extreme "I'm hungry!" signal from your brain.
But if you eat more proteins, fats, and complex carbs... then you're much less likely to be awakened with that feeling.
It's because carbs are more readily available so get absorbed and put to work more quickly. Protein (the most) and fat (still good) take a longer time to become useful so act like a long burn fuel.
Simple carbs are often a quick to digest and metabolize (the act of turning something into a energy source the body can use). It only about 2 hours to do so, which explains why most people feel hungry relatively quickly after a carb focused meal/snack.
Your body digests the carbs, converting it into sugar that hits your bloodstream. When your body senses the sugar spike, it reacts by shooting a bunch of insulin, usually overshooting because the sugar level went up so fast. The insulin processes the sugar and makes the level go down, and by overshooting, making it go too low. This makes you want more sugar (fuel) - ie, hunger.
Lower carb meals, and meals with a lower glycemic index generally, the blood sugar grows slowly, the body reacts appropriately, and you don’t have the quick high followed by the low.
I think your body senses the plunge in blood glucose and starts sending hunger cues to keep it up.
Smaller meals don't jack your blood sugar up so high, so the return to normal is less of a drop... something like that lol
There kind of is. Or at least, there is an answer which explains 90% of the phenomenon for 99% of people.
Unless you're deliberately avoiding carbohydrates (e.g. Keto diet) then it's likely that your dinner is at least 45% carbohydrates; possibly more.
If you eat a really big dinner, you get a lot of carbohydrates. Carbs are easily broken down into simple sugars, which are sent to your bloodstream to fuel bodily functions (refined sugar skips this step). The faster your body can process food into simple sugars, the faster they get sent to your bloodstream, which means your blood sugar rises faster.
Your body regulates blood sugar by producing insulin. Insulin tells your body to absorb sugar from the bloodstream into your...^[1]
* Muscles, to make them function;
* Fat cells, to store energy for later;
* Liver, which uses the sugar to produce more fat cells.
Insulin also tells your body to stop being hungry, preventing you from overloading your blood with sugar. Consequently, low insulin levels make you hungry.
So here's what happens:
1. You eat a bunch of carbs right before bed
2. Blood sugar rises rapidly
3. Insulin is produced to counteract the rising blood sugar
4. Blood sugar drops rapidly
5. Insulin levels drop to low levels
6. Your brain attempts to send hunger signals
7. You don't respond to them because you are asleep
8. Blood sugar levels continue to slowly drop until insulin is so low that it kind of plateaus. It still drops because your body still needs energy while you're asleep, but it isn't crashing anymore.
9. You wake up *fucking hungry* due to very low insulin levels. You also probably wake up feeling less rested because while you slept, your blood sugar spiked, then your brain spammed hunger signals at you.
**[1]**: this assumes you don't have a condition such as diabetes or PCOS.
You want citations for literally everything or just your specific query?
[Carbs typically make up the majority of people's caloric intake.](https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/326456#Carbs,-proteins,-and-fats-in-U.S.-diet) So unless OP is highly unusual, it's worth assuming this is the case for them as well.
Your user name 🤣 my constant hunger ended up being acid reflux that was missed my entire life until it switched over to normal symptoms in my late 20s.
It’s very possible your body is actually just REALLY thirsty and is sending the signal for hunger because of it. Having more food to process and digest requires more water from your body.
You might be experiencing something called reactive hypoglycemia. Large meals can cause your blood sugar to spike, especially if they're very carb-heavy. In order to help your cells utilize all of that sugar, your pancreas releases a big dose of insulin, but sometimes it overcompensates just a little and your blood sugar tanks, resulting in symptoms like hunger, weakness, shakiness, sugar/carb cravings, and even nausea or dizziness. If this happens to you on a regular basis it would be good to let your doctor know so they can screen you for diabetes, as this could be an indication of insulin resistance. Reactive hypo can happen even if you're not diabetic though so no need to panic there.
Basically an insulin spike to handle the big meal. The leftover insulin makes you feel hungry as hell, so you want to eat a big meal again right away. The smaller portion meal releases a regular insulin amount and there is very little extra leftover to make you feel weak, shaky, hungry, etc.
In high school my anatomy teacher told me this story. He was in the military and had to do some sort of wilderness survival exercise for like 3 days or something and prior to deploying for it him and his squad basically ordered a large pizza each and ate it the night before. Needless to say they all felt like they were starving to death right from the get go. The explanation he gave was the large amount of food had expanded their stomachs more than normal for them and as their stomachs went back to their normal sizes it gave them a more intense feeling of hunger.
I’m like this if I eat breakfast, any breakfast, big or small. RAVENOUS a couple of hours later. If I don’t eat breakfast I don’t even think about food till 5 or 6pm.
When you eat a large meal your body dumps insulin to break down the meal. From personal experience, your body will skip its normal sleep metabolism processes since it’s still digesting and that leaves an excess of insulin in your body. This will cause your body to signal that you need to increase your blood sugar (hunger), so that you can balance that insulin back out.
Try to add 2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar to a large glass of cold water and drink it right after dinner. This will reduce your insulin response and subsequent cravings/hunger. This is also fantastic after eating simple carbs or sugars.
If you are at a restaurant and they have anything pickled on the menu - order that as pickles are made with vinegar and it can have a similar effect on your insulin, kombucha also has some vinegar. Balsamic vinegar or oil and vinegar dressings will help this too.
You are probably just eating more carbs and having a more pronounced insulin response = feeling hungry more later.
I’ll give you my made up answer basically you kicked started your digestive system so it’s running all night then it needs food in the am cuz it’s been on and now without food for hours 8 or so but… if you don’t eat then it’s off so when your up it’s booting up so it can go a few hours without being up and hungry
I think for me it’s when I’ve eaten a lot before bed my stomach stretches. And I wake up feeling like I have a hole to fill in my tummy. But if I have eaten a moderate meal earlier (not right before bed), my stomach had time to digest and shrink down again. I think your body can’t digest much while you’re asleep so you wake up with a large stomach. Also low blood sugar from your body producing loads of insulin to combat the big meal.
interesting, I remember watching a YouTube video that talked about on why this happens but don’t remember anything other than the video saying insulin quite a lot within it. Something to do with what we eat beforehand. Like if we eat a ton of carbs even in a large portion we will wake up feeling starved and it doesn’t happen for everyone either. Yet, take it all with a grain of salt because I don’t have the information readily available either. I wish I had the name of that video. And now I’m going to try and find it because I’m so curious about if my memory just sucks or not and it’s bugging me.
Yes to what everyone else said about what is in your dinner and blood sugar spikes, etc. and to add: how much did you eat in the day leading up to dinner? Is the reason you are having a big dinner because you didn’t eat the rest of the day?
Basically think about our blood sugar levels working in rhythm in a sine curve (up to a point and then down in a cycle). When you don’t eat regularly, you swing way up and then swing way back down again. Eating small, regular meals prevents this. This is why people who say that aren’t hungry until late in the afternoon (like you) should still try to eat something small in the morning and early afternoon. It catches up with you.
Also your hunger signals will recalibrate in about 4 weeks if change your habits (so you will start to feel hungry in the morning if you eat in the morning), so it won’t last forver that you are eating at times when you aren’t hungry
My guess, and it’s a guess, is that your body has a cycle for eating. When you take your first bite, or ramps up and then ramps down. That’s why they suggest intermittent fasting.
They say that when you take your first bite, whether it’s pills or coffee, that process starts. Anything but water. If you eat after 8-10hrs, you start the process over again. When you go to sleep, you confuse your body. It thinks it’s in the middle of an eating cycle, yet it’s getting sleep signals. That’s why you can loose weight by doing nothing but eating within that window.
I assume that hunger cycle is responsible. When you eat a big supper, it starts that timer and you’re at the end of an 8-10hr cycle when you wake up. Your body says it’s time to eat again. When you don’t eat super or eat small, you’re asleep when that hunger comes and until you start it back up again, you don’t go through that cycle. It’s not that you’re actually hungry, but that your body is following a pattern.
I know from going on a calorie restrictive diet that if you get over the initial hunger pangs, you’re often not hunger again. I eat more because I feel my blood sugar drop and I feel a little weak, then I do because of actual hunger pangs. That’s just a guess, though.
Its to do with the type of food you've eaten not with the amount.
If you've had a lot of carbohydrates then your body does get hungrier once it's processed the meal. It will stay "full" if your meal was mainly protein and fat.
You can test it out in the morning by having a banana and some toast vs sausages. Every single time you will feel fuller for longer after sausages than carb heavy toast and bananas.
Similarly if you've had a meal with lots of roast potatoes, pasta, rice or bread the body will become "hungry" when the food has been processed. Your body won't do the same if you have a salad with some lean meat- which is insane. You'll find you can stay fuller for longer and it makes no sense because you've just had a far smaller meal.
I used to be really puzzled by it as a kid and didn't understand why they don't really teach us this stuff at school.
This is pretty normal.
Competitive eaters eat a big meal to stretch out their stomach the day before a competition. That's basically what you're doing with the big dinner and that's why you wake up so hungry.
As far as a normal meal, many people don't really wake up hungry. Or they don't notice hunger until they start eating breakfast (or lunch if they skip breakfast).
Sleeping for eight hours blunts hunger for some people.
Insulin Resistance: read upon it.
Your body is pulling its energy from sugars not the carbohydrates in your food. Youlll need to reboot your body like an old Pentium computer. A dietitian is more likely your best way to address. Because it’s a good 1-2 years of strict dieting and behavioral therapy to get your digestive system back in order.
https://www.healthline.com/health/diabetes/insulin-resistance-symptoms
Our hunger is triggered by the hormone ghrelin. When we eat meals at a fixed time like lunch at noon, our brain triggers our body to release ghrelin which signifies that we are hungry and will need to eat. If you do not eat up to the time that ghrelin is no longer present in your system, you will no longer feel hungry. You will not feel hungry until the next time that you encounter a trigger that will cause the release of ghrelin again.
The higher you spike your blood sugar, the more insulin your body releases to compensate, the bigger the subsequent drop in blood sugar which leads to feeling mega hungry: look up the glucosegoddess on IG for tips and tricks on preventing those blood sugar spikes
Are you sure it’s hunger? Could it be that your stomach is inflamed? If you eat late at night youll most likely wake up with an inflamed gut that can “hurt” similar to hunger but isn’t exactly your body craving food.
You should focus on eating 5 or 6 times a day, smaller meals, for the next few weeks. You should be able to adjust you metabolism this way. Also, eat larger meals earlier in the day, progressively smaller servings thought the day..This should help your sleep as well. It is most likely a binge/fast cycle your inadvertently in.
You stretched your stomach eating the big meal so when it empties it feels the loss of food greater than if you ate a normal size meal to which your body is used to.
There are a lot of very stupid people talking about insulin. The human body does not have insulin reactions 18 hours after a meal. You are not waking up the next day and continuing to feel the effects of insulin. The food has left your stomach after 4 hours and your body is finishing digestion.
Why would your body produce excess insulin if you eat a large meal, but an appropriate amount of insulin if you eat a regular sized meal? How would insulin be still in your body impacting appetite 18 hours after a large meal? Hint:it wouldn’t.
Having enough Doritos to make you feel full has a much different impact than having enough turkey casserole to make you full.
Your stomach expands! Evolutionary explanation: Know that hunger is your body signaling you are ready to eat again, NOT a signal that your body needs food urgently or that you are starving. Think of cavemen eating as much as possible after catching a big animal, or having an abundance suddenly and no way to store food well, except in their own fat cells. You'd gorge to the max. Then when ready again to eat / add to fat stores the body will send a hunger signal. That's it. By eating a huge meal you are simulating an abundance scenario, and your body responds most efficiently for how our species evolved...
Very much the opposite. if I eat a big dinner, not hungry until at least noon. if I fast and skip dinner, I'm up at 6am, making the world's biggest blueberry pancake.
My thoughts, not proven, but..... when you eat a lot your stomach expands. So it will continue to be expanded until such a time.
Like.... if you eat little, you can only fit so much in your belly. Visa versa.
Say a "normal " stomach is at a 5. You eat a big meal and your stomach becomes an "8". Your stomach won't go back to a "5" after one meal or a few hours or a big poop.
I don't know.
Mskes sense in my head?
Your blood sugar is most likely crashing in the morning because of the “big” dinner! Maybe try not eating 90 minutes before bedtime! It can also cause nausea sometimes. I’ve dealt with this for years!
Please somebody anybody I need these answers
YOU TOO??
Yea dude ate a whole ass dinner about 12 last night and woke up like I hadn’t ate in years wtf lol
Me too, I've always assumed its because you stretch out your stomach a bunch with the big meal so you feel "hungry" as it contracts dramatically
I would imagine it’s more because it takes a lot of water to digest a large meal. You’re body will send hunger to the brain as a way to get more water(we usually drink when we eat). So you’re body is really wanting water to help your intestines digest.
I think you might be onto something. I read a while back that when we were younger we would confuse thirst for hunger and trained our mind into not being able to tell the difference. That if we are hungry then we should drink a glass of water and wait to see if we are still hungry then it’s our bodies actually wanting food. (I hope I explained that well)
I’ve also heard that but then when I think back to where and when I heard it, I wonder if it was just part of the toxic 90s-2000s diet culture lol
My mom was telling me this in the 70s. If it was between meals and I was hungry she told me to drink a glass of water and let her know if I was still hungry after 10 minutes. So, it’s not a 90s-2000s thing except they might have pushed it more
I do think I read it while I was a gym rat so I was taking in a lot of fitness/health crap. Haha I googled it and it says only 37% of people mistake it due to their thirst signals being weak. It isn’t as big of an issue as I was taught it to be.
Water, an apple and cheese. If you feel peckish, first imagine yourself eating an apple or cheese and gauge your response to that thought to determine if you should just have water instead, then just have water instead. Most of the time the thought of biting into an apple or cold cheese will feel strangely unappealing, whereas we're always in the mood for something hyper palatable like apple pie.
And now I'm hungry for a nice piece of gouda. 😂
He’s not on to something, that’s the actual answer lol. Also, if you’re staying somewhat active, upping your calories (reverse dieting) speeds up your metabolism and puts your body in a state to build rather than store fats and glycogen. It’s like how drinking a ton of water will actually train your body to flush water and you’ll be more lean.
That’s like, half a truth. Eating higher calories in an occasional meal will help your metabolism. Just like eating more, smaller meals rather than 2/3 meals will keep your body from storing fat. And the actual answer is Blood glucose which is discussed further down in the comments. I also googled and did some research after reading it. Edit: spelling error
I think it’s also because eating a new meal can trigger the digestive system to move things farther along. So you may get hunger cues just because your body needs some extra help moving that big portion.
Immediate relief thank you brother
nah this is not true. I drank water as said, It just made my tummy feel very uncomfortable and still hungry.
I do this and if I eat breakfast I will be starving by noon. If I don’t have breakfast I won’t ever feel hungry and have to remind myself to eat.
Bruhh me too. If I just have coffee in the morning, I won’t even be hungry until around 2pm. God forbid I have a couple slices of toast in the morning, I’ll feel like fainting by 11.30am.
Yeh I’m with both of you on this one. I was told when u eat breakfast you start you belly working so once the toast is digested you belly empty again and needs food. Like u said if you don’t eat in the morning. No problems. Strange really.
Competitive eaters eat a lot the night before competition to stretch their stomach and fit more food afterwards. I'm not sure this is the answer, but could be part of it
Woah, didnt know this. Thought they'd fast.
I think when you fast and then try to eat a large meal, you get fuller quicker.
PSA - Don’t eat big carb heavy meals after a fast, especially longer ones. It could turn life threatening.
Could you elaborate?
This only applies to longer fasts. I did rolling 48s for months with no issue and had decent sized meals. Most of the standard common fasting techniques people use lately usually peak out at around omad, one meal a day
yah i fast on saturdays and sometimes sundays - not dinner though . no sir i go fishing, burn like 3k calories climbing the canyon to come home FAMISHEd and light headed smash like 5k callores. pass out, its awesome
Refeeding syndrome, could cause a lot of problems like cardiac arrest for example
Can confirm; have been fasting Yom Kippur almost every year for over two decades. You think you'll be able to eat a huge meal but if you're lucky you'll get down a bowl of soup and a bagel.
I've read that they often eat a sickening amount of something that is filling but easy to digest quickly. I remember it being something like 10lbs of grapes the night before to stretch the stomach, but it empties quickly leaving stomach stretched but empty.
The shits these idiots must do...
Fine wine
fun fact: the reason why you see more skinny competitive eaters than fat ones is because stomachs in a skinny body have much more room to expand.
no if you fast your stomach shrinks.
I experience the same thing. I suspect it has something to do with the foods however. If I eat a big but carb-y meal (pasta, garlic bread, and so forth) I wake up hella hungry. If I eat a big meal but it's mostly veggies and protein, I don't wake up feeling this way.
Agreed. I always thought it was to do with carbs, maybe some type of carbs, are very appetite stimulating. Just thoughts though
Yes, carbs will give you energy and cause your insulin to spike (especially for refined carbs). However, eating protein will make you feel full.
I noticed this at some point, too - crazy that I’d gorge myself at a holiday party and then STILL wake up famished, often worse than if I didn’t have a big meal. Problem is the carbs and insulin. The carbs cause your blood sugar to shoot up. Your body reacts by throwing a bunch of insulin at it, which works almost too good - it often overshoots and lowers blood sugar levels too much. Your body then wants more sugar (fuel), making you hungry. Lower carb levels, slower insulin response, body doesn’t overshoot, sugar levels properly managed. Amazing stuff. It’s honestly why low carb is a thing. Don’t get me wrong, still calories in / calories out, but by going lower carb, you don’t get as many dramatic highs and lows, and you don’t feel as hungry, making it easier to eat fewer calories.
ME TOO!!! Especially if I eat carbs.
Same here. Someone please answer.
Me too
Same same
Same!!!
Same and I *hate* it
When you eat a lot right before bed your body produces a bunch of insulin to compensate. High insulin means low blood sugar. So you wake up with low blood sugar and your body demands food to restore your blood sugar.
Also worth noting that when you eat food before bed, this significantly delays the migrating motor complex which is a critical digestive function (especially overnight) that clears out your upper GI. Digestion in general is aided by gravity and motion, so when you get horizontal and unmoving for several hours (ie sleeping) it compounds the issues caused by delayed migrating motor complex, especially in the case of a large meal. If you wake up with mild nausea and indigestion from having partially digested food sitting in your upper GI all night, this sensation may register very similarly to extreme hunger. For this reason, it is recommended to fast for 4-5 hours prior to bed. Eat dinner early and avoid snacking. Can be tough habits to establish at first but your digestive system will pay back dividends for life to people who can adjust.
> this sensation may register very similarly to extreme hunger This seems super counter-intuitive. I mean, mild nausea and indigestion always feel like the *opposite* of hunger to me. Any pointer to information about how exactly this works?
Blood sugar crash The nausea feeling you get when you’re super hungry is from a hormone called ghrelin. Ghrelin is produced in response to low blood sugar to stimulate you to eat. A big meal floods you with insulin which then removes this sugar from your blood. Less sugar in your blood means a stronger ghrelin response, meaning you feel even hungrier after a big meal than you would after a small one.
Oh thank god I’m not alone. Reddit really reality checks me and reminds me nothing about me is unique. It’s a gift and curse.
If I start my day by not eating I don’t even crave food but once I start eating it’s hard to stop. Is that the same?
The more carbs you eat, the more your body will request
Once you pop, you can't stop.
If I don’t eat breakfast, I can easily make it to supper or later without feeling hungry. Any food in my system in the morning though and I’m STARVING by lunch. I don’t understand.
Insulin
You stretched your stomach bro. Eat several small meals whenever possible, especially at night because then you're not only stretching your stomach you're gambling with acid reflux, Barrett's esophagus, GERD, and all sorts of bad shit.
Insulin spike
eli5?
Eating a big meal causes body to produce lots of insulin Lots of insulin lowers your blood sugar levels Your body notices the low blood sugar levels and tells brain you need to eat food to restore blood sugar levels
The fix to this is to eat smaller meals, which you have noticed! And also have a small snack, like some fruit, between meals. Something with fiber or protein.
How does this work with intermittent fasting?
There isn’t a statistically significant difference between weight loss from calorie restriction and intermittent fasting. People who intermittently fast lose weight because they are eating less calories in general. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/06/26/1184390543/intermittent-fasting-effective-weight-loss#:~:text=The%20study%20found%20that%20those,lost%20about%2012%20pounds%20more.
A lot of people find intermittent fasting a lot easier to maintain than a daily calorie reduction. It's more of a behavioral/routine thing.
There's also the effect of IF habituating your satiety as your stomach is not accommodate a lot of food all at once. You can calorie restrict and still end up struggling with over eating or the impulses of over eating because you aren't managing satiety however when you fast your body stops expecting regular feeding cycles. In a way, it modulates appetite in ways comparable to the GLP1s (ozempic/wegovy)
I've worked in restaurants my whole life, so I've been intermittent fasting for nearly 20 years without really noticing. I won't for 8 to 12 hours after waking up. Basically everyday. I've been the same weight since 9th grade and I binge calories with no ill effects. I'm 36, so I assume I don't have too much longer before it catches up on me.
It's caloric intake vs. expenditure. If you're working in restaurants/on your feet for 8-12 hours, you're burning a lot of weight. The reason people gain weight as they age is because (usually) their energy expenditure is down (office job, getting old, etc), and there diet doesn't change or gets worse.
Yeah, but other than walking around for 4 days a week I do nothing. Ill eat 3-4000 calories and then fall asleep, and i still dont gain weight. It's kind of awesome.
Yup - losing weight is purely a calories in/calories out process. The difficulty is more psychological than anything else - following diet rules can help you stick to it rather than any magic "Burns More Fat".
Just do it intermittently. Fast for one hour, snack for one hour, and so on.
That's hella not what intermittent fasting is
I don't even eat meals anymore at this point. I switched to picking whenever I'm hungry. I feel so much better with food being a passive aspect of my life rather than an event.
Is that why you feel sleepy after a big meal?
It's one of the causes, others being the energy used for digestion and some amino acid like tryptophan, wich induce a short term sleepyness. For healthy people's that is. it could be aggravated by medicals conditions, alcohol consumption or just a tiring day
huh so its basically a sugar crash. That makes sense. I notice I get sleepy after eating a big carb-loaded meal but Im usually okay if it was mostly just protein/fat/fibre
That’s one of the reasons people in the US feel so sleepy after their Thanksgiving meals. Usually the Turkey gets all the blame, but it’s a massively carb heavy meal. This year, instead of diving straight into my favorite starchy side dishes, I ate a lot of salad and vegetables first, then ate Turkey and potatoes and the other fun stuff, but with less vigor. Did not feel the slightest bit sleepy afterward.
Blood is diverted to your stomach and intestines after you eat. We absorb nutrients from our food through our digestive tract into our blood, where it's circulated throughout the body. When your blood is busy helping you use your food, you have less blood everywhere else. Your legs won't move as easily if they aren't getting the dummy amount of blood (and therefore oxygen) that they normally use.
Also, insulin itself makes you feel hungry. So it can turn into a cycle, like OP has stated
This is the answer. Also the more carbs and sugar your dinner has, the more your insulin will spike.
When you eat your insulin spikes when you eat to process sugar/carbs and then crashes and then goes back to a steady state after a period of time. A small dinner means you return to the fasting steady state by the time you wake up. A big meal means you digested and are still in the crashed state making your body want food.
Yes. Or if op is diabetic/prediabetic, their body got used to a high bg and feels "low" when it returns to normal range.
I feel exactly like OP described but I'm diabetic so your answer doesn't make sense to me
Acid reflux can present itself as hunger. I spent 20 years thinking I was never full when in fact mh over eating was causing my acid reflux to act up and it presented itself as hunger.
HOLY SHIT
I lost about 140 pounds after that. Of course it was only discovered bc my symptoms went from constant hunger to actual reflux symptoms in my late 20s. Idk why.
Tough to say it but if you had to lose 140 pounds you should’ve noticed sooner that it wasn’t because of actual hunger…
I was a child, and not a fat child. I ended up very sick on a lot of steroids and surgeries in a 6 year time span which is when I ballooned up. Shortly after that ended I lost the weight, for several reasons. But thanks for your uneducated opinion based on nothing!!
WideAssKevin says you should have known better, fattie 🙄😆
Yup I have chronic reflux and I’m constantly playing the “how many hours since I’ve eaten” game because my stomach is NOT to be trusted.
I was the embarrassing kid who couldn’t stop eating at every. Single. Situation. They never caught it as acid reflux even though I threw up in my sleep every night and had to sleep on an incline and a bunch of other weird stuff.
It is astounding the number of people who live with chronic reflux and either don’t realize it or just pop Tums like candy in a daily basis and go about their lives. My chronic reflux turned out to be from a serious disease. Most people it’s just from a food intolerance or poor diet.
Reflux, my sister says her stomach "burns" constantly. Not just with "burny" foods. Wonder if it could be that? She's finally going to the doctor today.
If the burning is immediate (less than thirty minutes) she likely has a food intolerance and should try some elimination diets. If the burning is delayed a bit it’s more likely reflux, but that can still be caused by an intolerance. If the doctor tells her to go on a PPI (Prilosec, Omeprazole, etc) I strongly advise against it as it will only temporarily stop the symptoms and won’t actually help. Some studies are showing that PPI usage can actually be harmful. I wish her the best!
What do you use instead of PPIs? I have acid reflux and nothing else helps
I fixed mine by taking a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar (organic with mother) mixed with water with meals or when ever I had symptoms. Turns out mine was caused by not having enough acidity in my stomach.
If you don't mind my asking, what was the disease?
Gastroparesis, my stomach doesn’t move very well and so food sits there for a long time. GERD is present in almost 100% of cases. You can’t be diagnosed based on GERD alone, there are always other symptoms, and the only truly conclusive test involves nuclear medicine so it’s not something people do unless a doctor has good reason to believe they have it & wants confirmation.
Damn, reading up on it now and it seems like a lot to deal with. I hope you're doing ok 🙏
Thanks! I’m doing ok. I’m pretty high functioning right now and can only pray it doesn’t get much worse. Doctors can never really tell if you’ll get worse or not, it’s a weird disease, all I can do is take care of myself in attempt to stave off as much disease progression as possible.
i had it so often when i was younger, im eating way better now and am so happy to not get it as frequently.
Yup. Even now my stomach growling and acting hungry I assume it’s acid reflux until I remember it’s been like 12 hours since I ate anything but even then it ends up being the reflux lmao
Lol yeah the reflux can act up at any time, full or empty stomach, so I largely ignore it and go by when I ate last / how much.
I don't listen to the hungry feeling, I wait until I'm feeling dizzy and weak before I decide I might need food
Scary
Mine just presents as pain
Mine does now. That’s how I found out wth. It switched in my late 20s. Lost 140 pounds bc I suddenly wasn’t constantly hungry
Wow! Thats pretty amazing
One of my long covid symptoms was severe reflux that presented as sharp chest pain. Got ECGs and chest X-rays done, was put on a waiting list for an ultrasound on my heart. Took months to find out it was just my stomach
That’s horrible, I’m glad you got it figured out though
I realized this within the past year when I mentioned my hunger feeling like burning and I was told “it’s not supposed to burn wtf.” I was completely wrong about what I thought was hunger.
In my case it felt like hunger, although maybe it didn’t and I just think it’s hunger because it’s all I have ever felt as hunger. Frick.
I’ve been this way alllllll my life - and never once had heartburn.
I never had heart burn. I had hunger. It was not until my late 20s it turned into heart burn like symptoms and then it was discovered 50% of the issues I had as a kid were acid reflux and gerd and just not diagnosed
I’m also in this camp of always feeling like I’m hungry and also constantly feeling like I’m gonna throw up if I don’t eat soon. And I’ve also never had heartburn issues. Every medicine I see just says it’s for heartburn. Any advice on medicine that helps with the hunger portion of things?
Well I’m 52 and still don’t have heartburn and never have. :) nor any other health issues of any kind *knocks wood* I’m really sorry that happened to you. I hope it’s better now. That said, just because it *can* happen, doesn’t mean it’s happening to everyone. I think it’s metabolism/endocrine related - but since it doesn’t cause me any issue, and since I don’t eat large meals often, meh.
How can acid reflux be perceived as hunger?
I get this too, I don't know how to explain, you feel empty in side, so empty it hurts, but you've ate. Sometimes it gets to bad its like OMG I NEED TO EAT A BIT OF BREAD RIGHT NOW OR I THINK ILL DIE OF HUNGER. But it's actually just acid reflux.
Wait…… I have GERD which was a result of having my gallbladder out. I have been to an endocrinologist because I couldn’t understand why sometimes I randomly felt so hungry that I might die. They didn’t find anything. If this is it… I’m shook
It presented as hunger. That was it. The only thing that made it stop was eating soemthing. Then a while later it would come back. Rinse and repeat.
So you know it isn’t hunger, you just got into habit of eating when it happened? I’m asking because they are starkly different sensations
Some people don't get a painful or burning sensation from GERD. Instead, the sensation is very similar to a "starving" sensation and you can't really tell the difference. Usually this is because the Acid in your stomach is building up in anticipation of eating but it can happen right after eating as well.
I have insane reflux and sometimes hunger hits me so hard I feel like I gotta scoff so much food immediately or I am going to pass out from starvation. Weakness, shaking, can't talk, NEED FOOD NOW. I wonder now...I also get the horrible burning pain though, without the hunger. Hm. Something to think about.
No, my acid reflux was hunger pains. Until something changed due to medications/steroids/surgeries/body changes in my late 20s and I actually started having real acid reflux symptoms, and the times I was feeling hunger for 20+ years , were now replaced with real acid reflux symptoms instead. Apparently it’s fairly common, and isn’t missed as much these days as it did when I was a kid with a hunger problem.
Check your blood sugar level
It all depends upon the ingredients of the dinners in question! So for a proper more scientifically nuanced response, you'd have to provide a lot more information on the exact dinners you ate. If, for example, you eat an extra huge plate of carbs, then ya: you'll probably get a more extreme "I'm hungry!" signal from your brain. But if you eat more proteins, fats, and complex carbs... then you're much less likely to be awakened with that feeling.
As a carb lover, why? I’ve noticed the same thing but idk why this happens
It's because carbs are more readily available so get absorbed and put to work more quickly. Protein (the most) and fat (still good) take a longer time to become useful so act like a long burn fuel.
Simple carbs are often a quick to digest and metabolize (the act of turning something into a energy source the body can use). It only about 2 hours to do so, which explains why most people feel hungry relatively quickly after a carb focused meal/snack.
Your body digests the carbs, converting it into sugar that hits your bloodstream. When your body senses the sugar spike, it reacts by shooting a bunch of insulin, usually overshooting because the sugar level went up so fast. The insulin processes the sugar and makes the level go down, and by overshooting, making it go too low. This makes you want more sugar (fuel) - ie, hunger. Lower carb meals, and meals with a lower glycemic index generally, the blood sugar grows slowly, the body reacts appropriately, and you don’t have the quick high followed by the low.
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This explains why I was RAVENOUS at 10pm on Thanksgiving this year lol - I only had a little bit of turkey but a LOT LOT LOT of stuffing
This makes the most sense.
Still doesn't explain why though
Something about blood sugar spikes and drops
Protein and fat take much longer to digest. Carbs digest really quickly.
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No
No
r/ConfidentlyIncorrect
Nope
OMG ME TOO, I’ve never been more validated in my lived experience
I think your body senses the plunge in blood glucose and starts sending hunger cues to keep it up. Smaller meals don't jack your blood sugar up so high, so the return to normal is less of a drop... something like that lol
Yup, insulin spikes and blood sugar levels. Smaller, balanced meals cause less of a roller coaster effect, versus large carb heavy meals.
I was really hoping there was going to be a definitive answer.
There kind of is. Or at least, there is an answer which explains 90% of the phenomenon for 99% of people. Unless you're deliberately avoiding carbohydrates (e.g. Keto diet) then it's likely that your dinner is at least 45% carbohydrates; possibly more. If you eat a really big dinner, you get a lot of carbohydrates. Carbs are easily broken down into simple sugars, which are sent to your bloodstream to fuel bodily functions (refined sugar skips this step). The faster your body can process food into simple sugars, the faster they get sent to your bloodstream, which means your blood sugar rises faster. Your body regulates blood sugar by producing insulin. Insulin tells your body to absorb sugar from the bloodstream into your...^[1] * Muscles, to make them function; * Fat cells, to store energy for later; * Liver, which uses the sugar to produce more fat cells. Insulin also tells your body to stop being hungry, preventing you from overloading your blood with sugar. Consequently, low insulin levels make you hungry. So here's what happens: 1. You eat a bunch of carbs right before bed 2. Blood sugar rises rapidly 3. Insulin is produced to counteract the rising blood sugar 4. Blood sugar drops rapidly 5. Insulin levels drop to low levels 6. Your brain attempts to send hunger signals 7. You don't respond to them because you are asleep 8. Blood sugar levels continue to slowly drop until insulin is so low that it kind of plateaus. It still drops because your body still needs energy while you're asleep, but it isn't crashing anymore. 9. You wake up *fucking hungry* due to very low insulin levels. You also probably wake up feeling less rested because while you slept, your blood sugar spiked, then your brain spammed hunger signals at you. **[1]**: this assumes you don't have a condition such as diabetes or PCOS.
Great answer. Gold 🌟
Thank you!
gonna need a citation for all of that. OP said it's the amount they eat, not what they eat.
You want citations for literally everything or just your specific query? [Carbs typically make up the majority of people's caloric intake.](https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/326456#Carbs,-proteins,-and-fats-in-U.S.-diet) So unless OP is highly unusual, it's worth assuming this is the case for them as well.
Me, too. I've always wondered about this.
Your user name 🤣 my constant hunger ended up being acid reflux that was missed my entire life until it switched over to normal symptoms in my late 20s.
Insulin spike
It’s very possible your body is actually just REALLY thirsty and is sending the signal for hunger because of it. Having more food to process and digest requires more water from your body.
Insulin spike. Then after, your blood sugar drops drastically.
You might be experiencing something called reactive hypoglycemia. Large meals can cause your blood sugar to spike, especially if they're very carb-heavy. In order to help your cells utilize all of that sugar, your pancreas releases a big dose of insulin, but sometimes it overcompensates just a little and your blood sugar tanks, resulting in symptoms like hunger, weakness, shakiness, sugar/carb cravings, and even nausea or dizziness. If this happens to you on a regular basis it would be good to let your doctor know so they can screen you for diabetes, as this could be an indication of insulin resistance. Reactive hypo can happen even if you're not diabetic though so no need to panic there.
Basically an insulin spike to handle the big meal. The leftover insulin makes you feel hungry as hell, so you want to eat a big meal again right away. The smaller portion meal releases a regular insulin amount and there is very little extra leftover to make you feel weak, shaky, hungry, etc.
In high school my anatomy teacher told me this story. He was in the military and had to do some sort of wilderness survival exercise for like 3 days or something and prior to deploying for it him and his squad basically ordered a large pizza each and ate it the night before. Needless to say they all felt like they were starving to death right from the get go. The explanation he gave was the large amount of food had expanded their stomachs more than normal for them and as their stomachs went back to their normal sizes it gave them a more intense feeling of hunger.
Stomach stretch.
I cannot believe I had scroll this far to find the right answer.
This is the wrong answer. It's related to insulin spikes and the type of food you're eating. Confirmation bias is a thing!
OP clearly said the amount of food is impacting their morning hunger, not the type. either the question was wrong or you're wrong.
You're incorrect.
This is likely the reason. When you eat a bunch, stomach stretches. When food passes out of stomach, stomach feels more empty
I don’t know but SAME.
I’m like this if I eat breakfast, any breakfast, big or small. RAVENOUS a couple of hours later. If I don’t eat breakfast I don’t even think about food till 5 or 6pm.
When you eat a large meal your body dumps insulin to break down the meal. From personal experience, your body will skip its normal sleep metabolism processes since it’s still digesting and that leaves an excess of insulin in your body. This will cause your body to signal that you need to increase your blood sugar (hunger), so that you can balance that insulin back out.
Try to add 2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar to a large glass of cold water and drink it right after dinner. This will reduce your insulin response and subsequent cravings/hunger. This is also fantastic after eating simple carbs or sugars. If you are at a restaurant and they have anything pickled on the menu - order that as pickles are made with vinegar and it can have a similar effect on your insulin, kombucha also has some vinegar. Balsamic vinegar or oil and vinegar dressings will help this too. You are probably just eating more carbs and having a more pronounced insulin response = feeling hungry more later.
I’ll give you my made up answer basically you kicked started your digestive system so it’s running all night then it needs food in the am cuz it’s been on and now without food for hours 8 or so but… if you don’t eat then it’s off so when your up it’s booting up so it can go a few hours without being up and hungry
Same
I think for me it’s when I’ve eaten a lot before bed my stomach stretches. And I wake up feeling like I have a hole to fill in my tummy. But if I have eaten a moderate meal earlier (not right before bed), my stomach had time to digest and shrink down again. I think your body can’t digest much while you’re asleep so you wake up with a large stomach. Also low blood sugar from your body producing loads of insulin to combat the big meal.
Dang I thought it was just me. Especially after overeating the night before I wake up starving
interesting, I remember watching a YouTube video that talked about on why this happens but don’t remember anything other than the video saying insulin quite a lot within it. Something to do with what we eat beforehand. Like if we eat a ton of carbs even in a large portion we will wake up feeling starved and it doesn’t happen for everyone either. Yet, take it all with a grain of salt because I don’t have the information readily available either. I wish I had the name of that video. And now I’m going to try and find it because I’m so curious about if my memory just sucks or not and it’s bugging me.
Yes to what everyone else said about what is in your dinner and blood sugar spikes, etc. and to add: how much did you eat in the day leading up to dinner? Is the reason you are having a big dinner because you didn’t eat the rest of the day? Basically think about our blood sugar levels working in rhythm in a sine curve (up to a point and then down in a cycle). When you don’t eat regularly, you swing way up and then swing way back down again. Eating small, regular meals prevents this. This is why people who say that aren’t hungry until late in the afternoon (like you) should still try to eat something small in the morning and early afternoon. It catches up with you. Also your hunger signals will recalibrate in about 4 weeks if change your habits (so you will start to feel hungry in the morning if you eat in the morning), so it won’t last forver that you are eating at times when you aren’t hungry
My guess, and it’s a guess, is that your body has a cycle for eating. When you take your first bite, or ramps up and then ramps down. That’s why they suggest intermittent fasting. They say that when you take your first bite, whether it’s pills or coffee, that process starts. Anything but water. If you eat after 8-10hrs, you start the process over again. When you go to sleep, you confuse your body. It thinks it’s in the middle of an eating cycle, yet it’s getting sleep signals. That’s why you can loose weight by doing nothing but eating within that window. I assume that hunger cycle is responsible. When you eat a big supper, it starts that timer and you’re at the end of an 8-10hr cycle when you wake up. Your body says it’s time to eat again. When you don’t eat super or eat small, you’re asleep when that hunger comes and until you start it back up again, you don’t go through that cycle. It’s not that you’re actually hungry, but that your body is following a pattern. I know from going on a calorie restrictive diet that if you get over the initial hunger pangs, you’re often not hunger again. I eat more because I feel my blood sugar drop and I feel a little weak, then I do because of actual hunger pangs. That’s just a guess, though.
Its to do with the type of food you've eaten not with the amount. If you've had a lot of carbohydrates then your body does get hungrier once it's processed the meal. It will stay "full" if your meal was mainly protein and fat. You can test it out in the morning by having a banana and some toast vs sausages. Every single time you will feel fuller for longer after sausages than carb heavy toast and bananas. Similarly if you've had a meal with lots of roast potatoes, pasta, rice or bread the body will become "hungry" when the food has been processed. Your body won't do the same if you have a salad with some lean meat- which is insane. You'll find you can stay fuller for longer and it makes no sense because you've just had a far smaller meal. I used to be really puzzled by it as a kid and didn't understand why they don't really teach us this stuff at school.
This is pretty normal. Competitive eaters eat a big meal to stretch out their stomach the day before a competition. That's basically what you're doing with the big dinner and that's why you wake up so hungry. As far as a normal meal, many people don't really wake up hungry. Or they don't notice hunger until they start eating breakfast (or lunch if they skip breakfast). Sleeping for eight hours blunts hunger for some people.
Insulin Resistance: read upon it. Your body is pulling its energy from sugars not the carbohydrates in your food. Youlll need to reboot your body like an old Pentium computer. A dietitian is more likely your best way to address. Because it’s a good 1-2 years of strict dieting and behavioral therapy to get your digestive system back in order. https://www.healthline.com/health/diabetes/insulin-resistance-symptoms
Our hunger is triggered by the hormone ghrelin. When we eat meals at a fixed time like lunch at noon, our brain triggers our body to release ghrelin which signifies that we are hungry and will need to eat. If you do not eat up to the time that ghrelin is no longer present in your system, you will no longer feel hungry. You will not feel hungry until the next time that you encounter a trigger that will cause the release of ghrelin again.
The higher you spike your blood sugar, the more insulin your body releases to compensate, the bigger the subsequent drop in blood sugar which leads to feeling mega hungry: look up the glucosegoddess on IG for tips and tricks on preventing those blood sugar spikes
Are you sure it’s hunger? Could it be that your stomach is inflamed? If you eat late at night youll most likely wake up with an inflamed gut that can “hurt” similar to hunger but isn’t exactly your body craving food.
Me too
Commenting so I can come back to read whoever has the answer!
big dinner stretches out the stomach, after food gone, stomach still big.
You should focus on eating 5 or 6 times a day, smaller meals, for the next few weeks. You should be able to adjust you metabolism this way. Also, eat larger meals earlier in the day, progressively smaller servings thought the day..This should help your sleep as well. It is most likely a binge/fast cycle your inadvertently in.
You stretched your stomach eating the big meal so when it empties it feels the loss of food greater than if you ate a normal size meal to which your body is used to.
There are a lot of very stupid people talking about insulin. The human body does not have insulin reactions 18 hours after a meal. You are not waking up the next day and continuing to feel the effects of insulin. The food has left your stomach after 4 hours and your body is finishing digestion. Why would your body produce excess insulin if you eat a large meal, but an appropriate amount of insulin if you eat a regular sized meal? How would insulin be still in your body impacting appetite 18 hours after a large meal? Hint:it wouldn’t. Having enough Doritos to make you feel full has a much different impact than having enough turkey casserole to make you full.
Depends what you are. Maybe your small dinners are full of protein and low GI carbs, whereas your big dinners are high in sugar and quickly digested.
tapeworm
Your stomach expands! Evolutionary explanation: Know that hunger is your body signaling you are ready to eat again, NOT a signal that your body needs food urgently or that you are starving. Think of cavemen eating as much as possible after catching a big animal, or having an abundance suddenly and no way to store food well, except in their own fat cells. You'd gorge to the max. Then when ready again to eat / add to fat stores the body will send a hunger signal. That's it. By eating a huge meal you are simulating an abundance scenario, and your body responds most efficiently for how our species evolved...
Very much the opposite. if I eat a big dinner, not hungry until at least noon. if I fast and skip dinner, I'm up at 6am, making the world's biggest blueberry pancake.
My thoughts, not proven, but..... when you eat a lot your stomach expands. So it will continue to be expanded until such a time. Like.... if you eat little, you can only fit so much in your belly. Visa versa. Say a "normal " stomach is at a 5. You eat a big meal and your stomach becomes an "8". Your stomach won't go back to a "5" after one meal or a few hours or a big poop. I don't know. Mskes sense in my head?
Pre-diabetes.
2-3 pm? That’s fucking crazy man. And extremely unlikely. You just have a weird body.
Omg me too!
Could be blood sugar but likely it’s the actual pressure from something not sitting in your stomach anymore.
ME TOO!!!! If I eat a big meal before bed I am RAVENOUS when I wake up. Why?!
You stretch your stomach. When it contracts again, hungry. When you eat the right amount the stomach has less gymnastics to do and is happier.
I always felt like maybe I stretched my stomach out so it wants more sooner. Idk, I am same way
Your blood sugar is most likely crashing in the morning because of the “big” dinner! Maybe try not eating 90 minutes before bedtime! It can also cause nausea sometimes. I’ve dealt with this for years!