I want to eat at night, reasons and what to do

I want to eat all the time. 13 reasons why you are constantly hungry

If immediately after lunch or dinner you feel hungry again, and hunger pangs can attack you at any moment, then there is a reason for this. The main reasons why you constantly want to eat.

Nervous stress

When you experience stress, your body begins to produce adrenaline, this hormone has the ability to suppress hunger. But at the same time, the stress hormone cortisol begins to be produced, it blocks the action of adrenaline and awakens brutal hunger. As soon as the concentration of cortisol decreases, your appetite will disappear on its own.

Dehydration

Surprisingly, the body often passes off the feeling of thirst as hunger. Food also contains liquid, so the body tries to satisfy its need this way. If you have an unplanned hunger, try drinking water, most likely after this your appetite will disappear, and if it doesn’t disappear, then after drinking water you will not be able to overeat.

Reduced blood sugar

After a snack with fast carbohydrates, the blood sugar level rises, and the body begins to produce the hormone insulin to process glucose. Sweets and other foods containing light carbohydrates provoke increased production of insulin, it quickly breaks down carbohydrates and processes them into energy or reserves, then the sugar level drops and you feel hungry.

Diabetes

The disease is associated with insulin; with this diagnosis, the body does not have time to process all the food into energy, there is not enough insulin. With diabetes, people experience not only hunger, but also thirst, as well as a frequent desire to go to the toilet.

Hypoglycemia

A condition that occurs not only with diabetes, but also due to improper irregular nutrition, high stress and taking medications, it is characterized by a decrease in blood sugar.

If everything is fine with your diet, but your sugar level still drops periodically, then you need to consult a doctor.

Perhaps we are talking about another disease that provokes hunger.

Pregnancy

Increased appetite is one of the signs of pregnancy; it appears very early, long before other signs. A suddenly increased feeling of hunger in women is a reason to take a pregnancy test.

Quick meals

When you eat food too quickly, your body does not have time to realize that it is full. Meals should be eaten slowly to fill your stomach and raise your blood sugar levels. Chew your food thoroughly, and then hunger will not visit you again.

Types and flavors

When we see something tasty or smell food, the body anticipates the pleasure it would receive from these delicacies. Even if you are full, you will feel hungry; it will not be determined by real needs, but by the desires of the body.

Poor nutrition

The same product can be prepared in different ways. If you boil potatoes, the feeling of fullness after eating them will last longer than if you deep-fry them.

Emotional impulses

Hunger occurs not only due to stress; boredom, fatigue, sadness can also become a reason to want to eat. In such a situation, you need to distract yourself with more interesting things, hunger will disappear by itself.

Thyroid dysfunction

If you are constantly hungry and often get upset for no apparent reason, then this is a good reason to visit an endocrinologist. These manifestations are characteristic of an overactive thyroid gland, when it produces too many hormones.

Taking medications

Side effects in the form of hunger can develop while taking antidepressants, antihistamines, corticosteroids, antipsychotics and other drugs. Do not stop treatment under any circumstances, but be sure to report an increase in appetite to the doctor who prescribed the therapy.

Lack of sleep

Lack of sleep creates an imbalance in the production of leptin and ghrelin, the hormones of hunger and satiety. If you always want to eat something sweet and fatty, you may not be getting enough sleep.

Why do you always want to eat even if you are full? Pathological predisposition

A person’s connection with food begins from the moment he is born. Food is associated with mother’s warmth, affection, comfort, attention. Children think that adults feed them out of great love. And when a person becomes a teenager, all associations associated with food remain for life. There may be a feeling that if something is missing in life, then love or care can easily be replaced by delicious food.

Why does a person eat? The most logical thing is to live and stay healthy. But how much food should you eat? This is what a person’s body tells them to do. In the brain, the food department is responsible for this, and when there is not enough energy for normal functioning, it sends a signal of hunger. How to understand that this is not a false signal?

This is evidenced by the following symptoms of hunger:

Weakness and lethargy in the body;
Prostration;
Unpleasant sensations in the stomach and mouth;
Headache and others.

If a person experiences these sensations, he is really hungry. But what to do with the desire to just eat something, regardless of the fact that the main meal was recently. Available and varied products only make the problem worse. People's dependence on constant consumption of food has only intensified in recent years, and middle-aged women are especially affected.

Food is the solution to many of life's problems. There is no happy family, children, stable and successful job, and food becomes the only joy in life. A person finds himself in a vicious circle. If there is no good life, a person eats, and if he eats too much, he becomes overweight and has a number of diseases, and this is also a problem that needs to be addressed. But these are not all the reasons for uncontrolled eating.

The main reasons why you want to eat all the time:

Food quality. If the food is not of high quality, it may not saturate the body with nutrients in sufficient quantities. This doesn't mean you should only eat fatty or high-calorie foods. You need to eat more fiber-rich foods. Food of plant origin takes quite a long time to digest and leaves you feeling full, while the calorie content is low.
A person will want to eat more often if his daily diet consists of sweets and delicacies. They are very tasty and you want to eat such food regardless of the feeling of hunger. It is better not to cook delicacies without a special occasion. By eating only them, you can noticeably and quickly gain weight.
Hunger can be caused by certain diseases or heavy physical labor. Spring vitamin deficiency also contributes to feelings of malnutrition. If the body needs to replenish energy, food products should contain more carbohydrates and vitamins. You can take a vitamin complex for this period.
The body should not be saturated with foods rich in carbohydrates. They increase serotonin levels in the body and are addictive. If you then suddenly stop eating carbohydrates, this will lead to rapid weight gain, because serotonin is involved in the process of controlling appetite. Carbohydrates need to be chosen correctly. You need to eat grains, vegetables, fruits.
Improper metabolism may be the reason for constant snacking. The body may be deficient in various nutrients. Food should be varied. To understand what exactly the body needs, you should listen to it more often.
Eating as a habit that accompanies your other daily activities. For example, you can watch your favorite movie on TV and take something tasty with you. And then watching programs and shows without a plate of food will not be so interesting. Everything repeats itself in the cinema. A person cannot do without sparkling water and popcorn, although he actually does not want to eat.
It is impossible not to succumb to the feeling of hunger if something is being prepared in the kitchen. The smell that comes from a freshly prepared favorite dish makes you reflexively want to eat. The reflex is also triggered when a person eats food in different places in his home (on the bed, near the TV or computer). It is very difficult to control the feeling of hunger and do other activities at this time. The body will not remember the meal, and will want to eat again.
Diseases of the stomach and intestines also exacerbate the desire to eat. A sour taste in the mouth after eating indicates problems with the gastrointestinal tract. You must immediately consult a doctor and undergo all examinations. If there is increased acidity in the stomach, the doctor will prescribe medications, and some of them reduce appetite.

If I want to eat at night, what should I do?

Explore the body's daily rhythm.

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, our digestive system works differently as the position of the sun changes throughout the day. Our body wakes up in the morning, but the appetite is not always there. Therefore, some people do not feel very hungry in the morning. And that's okay. The best digestion, from 12:00 – 14:00.

How our body works.

Modern research confirms the findings of holistic medicine. The best way to observe this is through the functioning of hormones. The body tells us exactly when we should eat. Ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates appetite, reaches its highest levels in the first half of the day. Leptin, the hormone that makes us feel full, reaches its highest levels at the end of the day.

Human hormones follow a circadian rhythm. If we do not eat in accordance with it, we violate what is natural for the body. Simply put, the digestive system sleeps when we sleep. This is his time to regenerate. Eating before bed leads to us getting up very tired in the morning! In addition, according to an article in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, at night the body's cells become resistant to insulin, meaning that the digestion of carbohydrates and proteins slows down.

However, if we eat in the evening, we stimulate the body to absorb more carbohydrates and process less fat, according to an article in Penn Medicine. Which means fat is stored in the body. In addition, food is digested best when our body is in an upright position. If we go to bed with a “full belly,” we can get various complaints from the gastrointestinal tract, such as reflux or flatulence.

We sleep worse with a full belly.

Scientists have found that eating late at night can also affect our dreams. A study examining the effect of eating late on sleep quality involved 400 students. Research has shown that one of the factors that causes strange or disturbing dreams is eating late at night. I want to eat at night and watch nightmares in my sleep. Do you want this? The cause is most likely poor digestion. After such a night, we do not feel rested and take the following components designed to “wake up” us, which, as a rule, are coffee and sugar.

When should your last meal be?

Looking at the rhythm of the day associated with your professional activities. The last meal of the day should be dinner. Ideally it would be around 18:00. However, this is not so simple, since usually at this time we are just returning home from work.

YOU MAY BE INTERESTED
How to live a long life and not get sick.

19:00 is also a good time for dinner. Most experts agree that your last meal should be eaten about 2 hours before bed. Which does not mean that we should eat a lot of complex and difficult to digest foods.

Why do you always want to eat? Eating habits

Of course, a good appetite is great and indicates the absence of health problems. However, when it appears immediately after eating, it causes, at least, surprise. Why do you constantly want to eat and what to do about it? Most often, the reason lies in a person’s eating habits.

Dehydration

If a person is hungry, corresponding signals are sent to his brain. However, during times of thirst, these signals may be false. That is, a feeling of hunger occurs when the body lacks water. Thus, you can eat as much as you like, but the feeling of fullness comes only for a while, and then your appetite returns again. In this case, it is enough to drink water, and hunger will disappear.

On a note! With a prolonged lack of water in the body, dehydration can occur. This condition is very dangerous, so it is important to improve your drinking regime. The average person needs to drink about 2 liters of water per day, which applies to both men and women.

Poor nutrition

If the full range of nutrients required for normal functioning of the body enters the bloodstream, signals of saturation are sent to the brain. Accordingly, when a person eats incorrectly, he wants to eat constantly. A diet is considered balanced if it contains a variety of healthy foods.

Thus, it is necessary to carefully calculate the ratio of proteins, fats and carbohydrates in the food consumed.

Wrong nutrition schedule

With a clear eating schedule, appetite appears immediately at a certain time. If you constantly eat snacks and chew something all day long, this may cause you to constantly want to eat.

It is also not recommended to maintain long intervals between meals. Let’s say that when there are more than 6 hours between lunch and breakfast, the human body begins to produce the hormone ghrelin. It is he who forces you to eat more than normal at the next meal. This, in turn, leads to an increase in stomach volume and even greater appetite.

On a note! Scientists have found that the lack of a nutritious breakfast contributes to spikes in blood sugar throughout the day. As a result, a person constantly wants to eat.

I am constantly hungry: reasons

Even after lunch and a snack, you’re still tempted to make a sausage sandwich and grab another piece of candy. Constant hunger has unexpected reasons.

It will not be possible to answer the question of why you constantly want to eat even after eating. The mechanism of this eating disorder is not yet fully understood.

Eating habits

Dehydration

The hypothalamus contains centers not only for hunger and satiety, but also for thirst. Often there is confusion in signals in this part of the brain. It seems to you that you want to eat, but in fact this is how a lack of water in the body manifests itself. Therefore, no matter how much you eat, your appetite returns again and again. On the one hand, this is a dangerous reason, because it can lead to dehydration and disruption of the water-salt balance. On the other hand, it is easily eliminated.

To eliminate the constant feeling of hunger in such a situation, just drink a glass of plain water, and after 15 minutes there will be no problem. In the future, you just need to establish a drinking regime (the daily norm is at least 2 liters).

Unbalanced diet

The brain receives a signal of saturation when substances necessary for normal life enter the blood. If the diet is poorly balanced (same type or consists exclusively of harmful foods), the hypothalamus will constantly remind you that something is missing in the body. And he does this by stimulating the appetite. It seems like you just ate a whole frying pan of fried pork, but not even an hour has passed, and hunger is already eating away from the inside. The solution is to carefully calculate the ratio of BZHU in your diet.

Wrong nutrition schedule

If you don’t have a clear schedule for eating and you constantly chew something, your stomach quickly gets used to this state of affairs. Therefore, you should not be surprised that he will demand food at any time of the day - it was you who spoiled him so much. If, for example, more than 6 hours pass between breakfast and lunch without any snacks, this also leads to an eating disorder: at this time the body releases the hormone ghrelin, which will force a person to eat 2 times more at the next meal, in reserve, stretching a stomach that will increasingly ask for as much food as possible.

Without a full breakfast, your blood sugar levels will fluctuate throughout the day. The result is a painful and endless feeling of hunger.

Lifestyle

Improper sleep patterns

Do you lead a nocturnal lifestyle, staying up late on gadgets? Do you sleep 5-6 hours on weekdays and 10-11 on weekends? Today you can go to bed at 21.00 because you are very tired, and tomorrow at 03.00 because you need to finish an urgent report? If you answered yes to even one question, don’t be surprised why you are constantly hungry during the day. Improper sleep patterns lead to changes in hormonal levels, which provoke uncontrollable appetite.

Taking medications

If the constant desire to eat coincides with the prescription of some new medication, most likely it is this drug that provokes hunger. A similar side effect is observed with contraceptives, powerful antibiotics, glucocorticosteroids, antidepressants, and hormonal medications.

Bad habits

Diseases

Diabetes mellitus type II

In patients with diabetes, the abundant release of insulin accelerates the conversion of glucose into glycogen, and subsequently into fat. This becomes the main reason for the constant feeling of hunger. What diabetics eat is converted not into energy, but into fat, and the body requires an additional dose of calories.

Hyperthyroidism

The problems of obesity and many eating disorders are often related to the functioning of the thyroid gland. It is responsible for the secretion of hormones and metabolism. Hyperfunction of this organ leads to an acceleration of metabolism, a sharp decrease in body weight and uncontrolled appetite for 24 hours a day.

Polyphagia

In common parlance, this disease is called gluttony (overeating). It is secondary and develops against the background of other pathologies on this list. A person feels the need to absorb huge amounts of food. Such patients most often suffer from obesity, and the only solution for them is surgery to reduce the volume of the stomach.

Hypoglycemia

This is a very dangerous condition that often ends in coma. Diagnosed when blood glucose levels drop to 55 mg/dL, or 3.0 mmol/L. Along with symptoms such as weakness and nausea, an uncontrollable appetite appears, which is not suppressed by anything.

Bulimia

Most often, patients with bulimia suffer from bouts of binge eating, but cases of almost round-the-clock hunger have also been diagnosed

Most often, patients with bulimia suffer from bouts of binge eating, but cases of almost round-the-clock hunger have also been diagnosed. This fact can be explained very simply. A person, wanting to lose weight (even if he is not overweight), limits himself to food, then invariably breaks down and overeats. But immediately after this he feels guilty for his weakness and artificially vomits in order to get rid of food (he can also drink laxatives or do enemas for this purpose). The body is starving - and hence the constant desire to eat.

Akoriya

A rare but serious mental illness that is practically untreatable. Such patients are usually hospitalized. Their hypothalamus function is disrupted, so they simply do not feel full.

Hyperphagia

An even rarer disease than acoria. Due to impaired cerebral circulation, patients feel an irresistible desire to swallow something all the time.

If you don’t find out why you constantly want to eat, it’s useless to fight it. First you need to eliminate the provoking factor, and with it in 90% of cases the uncontrollable appetite goes away.

I want to eat all the time. Why do you always want to eat?

The human body is an intelligent natural system for which food is the main source of energy. A small part of the brain, the hypothalamus, is responsible for controlling energy levels. Every time the brain feels the threat of rapid waste of energy reserves, it turns on a protective mechanism in order to compensate for the false energy deficit: the hypothalamus sends a signal to the body's systems about the need to refresh itself, and in response they synthesize hunger hormones. That’s why we want to eat in various unfavorable conditions for our brain, described further in the text.

Dehydration

The first reason why you constantly want to eat is a simple lack of fluid. The brain's signals about the need to drink are very similar to the feeling of hunger, so often we simply cannot differentiate these two urges to eat food and instead of the required liquid we put the usual solid food in our mouth. The fluid deficit remains unfulfilled: we feel thirsty again, and again we think that we are hungry and once again head to the refrigerator. How to lose weight if you constantly want to eat? Check whether you really want to eat and not drink and learn to understand your body.

Lack of sleep and rest

If you constantly sleep little, the energy balance simply does not have time to be restored, so the brain perceives the next lack of sleep as a signal about the urgent replenishment of energy reserves for the normal functioning of the body and starts the recovery process, the first point of which is gastronomic reinforcement of strength. A false feeling of hunger appears, and we rush to satisfy it with a piece of cake or candy, because what we want most after lack of sleep is sweets. The only correct solution to remove such an obstacle to slimness is to get enough sleep.

Stressful situations

During the next shake-up of the nervous system, an immediate increase in the level of stress hormones occurs in the body, and the brain perceives this as a danger of rapid waste of energy and immediately makes attempts to ensure its maximum production. The person again feels an obsessive appetite and simply begins to eat, forgetting about the desire to lose weight, sweeping away all the food in the house. Constant stress leads to overeating, which in this case is called compulsive and often requires qualified help from a specialist.

The balance of proteins, fats and carbohydrates is disturbed

Another reason why you constantly want to eat is an irrational, unbalanced diet. It is a well-known fact that for a healthy long life and to lose weight you need to eat right, maintaining a balance of substances important for the body - proteins, fats, carbohydrates, but not everyone applies this principle in practice, because they cannot give up their favorite sweet or salty treats in favor of healthy ones porridge, vegetables and fruits. As a result, not only your figure suffers, but also your health. To lose weight, if there is a constant desire to eat, if there is an imbalance of BJU, you should:

Eliminate fast carbohydrates from your usual diet or reduce their amount as much as possible - they contain a lot of calories, but the feeling of fullness passes very quickly.
Include protein in your daily menu in sufficient quantities - it fills you well and relieves you of constant hunger for a long time.
Be sure to include unsaturated fats in your diet - they have a beneficial effect on all body systems, dulling appetite for a long time.
Provide your body with vitamins in order to lose weight efficiently - their lack is also a frequent companion to a constant feeling of hunger.