Why Are Obese People Get Hungry?

[success23]

Hello.
As we all know oveweight people ( like myself) have huge reserves of stored energy.
I assume we tap into that energy when we eat in a caloric deficit. Why do people get hungry if we are using our own energy reserves?

STILL GETTING**********

 

[redsun]

Hello.
As we all know oveweight people ( like myself) have huge reserves of stored energy.
I assume we tap into that energy when we eat in a caloric deficit. Why do people get hungry if we are using our own energy reserves?

STILL GETTING**********

Almost everyone is going to get hungry through out the day. Those who are skinny still have plenty of body fat to survive off for weeks yet they get hungry a few times a day. The body is not going to only turn on hunger signals when you are close to death but will try to maintain current energy balance regardless if you are well overweight or not.

Issue is those who are overweight and obese already have excessive hunger due to issues in the brain's ability to make you feel satiated so hunger is amplified when they need to lose weight and even when they are not losing weight (they have stronger hunger normally).

 

[orewashin]

Almost everyone is going to get hungry through out the day. Those who are skinny still have plenty of body fat to survive off for weeks yet they get hungry a few times a day. The body is not going to only turn on hunger signals when you are close to death but will try to maintain current energy balance regardless if you are well overweight or not.

Issue is those who are overweight and obese already have excessive hunger due to issues in the brain's ability to make you feel satiated so hunger is amplified when they need to lose weight and even when they are not losing weight (they have stronger hunger normally).

Does obesity cause excessive hunger or does excessive hunger cause obesity?

 

[YourUniverse]

I think its a combination of estrogen-related excitotoxicity, and hypothyroidism wasting calories and slowing metabolism

 

[tankasnowgod]

As we all know oveweight people ( like myself) have huge reserves of stored energy.

Maybe this part is false.

 

[redsun]

Does obesity cause excessive hunger or does excessive hunger cause obesity?

Overeating causes obesity, and this is due to excessive hunger making you want to eat more calories than you need. You could also overeat due to emotional eating or something similar.

Eventually these people become overweight and this new weight is maintained because the satiety problem was never fixed. Some have a higher set point and stay there and may get a higher weight with time while some just slowly keep gaining and gaining.

 

[Seekinghealth]

I can not remember where I've exactly seen the following. Hence, if someone manages to recall the exact link. Please post this.

It is because of elevated insulin levels. Which, is a storage hormone. This means that the energy, hence as the term storage hormone implies, is not burned or used to fuel metabolic processes. For instance if the energy required for metabolic function is say 2500 calories. If from these 2500 calories, 500 calories are stored the body still senses a defecit of 500.

Fuel for thought.

 

[Hans]

Excess hunger can be due to boredom, stress, low vit D, low protein intake, poor sleep, micronutrient deficiencies, etc.

Fixing those can help a lot.
For example, if someone ate lots of protein with each meal, walked after a meal, destressed during the day and got sun exposure for at least 30 minutes daily, hunger would be greatly reduced. If you're outside and feeling hot, appetite is greatly reduced.

 

[orewashin]

I can not remember where I've exactly seen the following. Hence, if someone manages to recall the exact link. Please post this.

It is because of elevated insulin levels. Which, is a storage hormone. This means that the energy, hence as the term storage hormone implies, is not burned or used to fuel metabolic processes. For instance if the energy required for metabolic function is say 2500 calories. If from these 2500 calories, 500 calories are stored the body still senses a defecit of 500.

Fuel for thought.

It also has to do with leptin resistance, which causes excessive appetite.

 

[Zigzag]

Excess hunger can be due to boredom, stress, low vit D, low protein intake, poor sleep, micronutrient deficiencies, etc.

I definitely agree. Especially on the boredom (low dopamine?), that's how I got overweight.

 

[Hans]

I definitely agree. Especially on the boredom (low dopamine?), that's how I got overweight.

Possibly. Food can increase dopamine and the lack of exploration and doing something exciting lowers dopamine. So food can help to compensate for that.
If people rather snack on high protein foods, weight gain will also be greatly reduced. The problem is that high sugar high fat things taste so great and that's why it's being overconsumed.

 

[Iraber]

Hunger signals are healthy. The elderly and sick don’t get hungry. Obese people become obese due to shitty advice and unscientific reasons that are offered in this thread. it probably compounds over generations. They are metabolically efficient and can easily store fat because they starve themselves on and off due to what the cult of scientism and online gymcels that eat 1500 calories a day preach. i wonder if Ray Peat has figured this common sense out yet.

 

[redsun]

Hunger signals are healthy. The elderly and sick don’t get hungry. Obese people become obese due to shitty advice and unscientific reasons that are offered in this thread. it probably compounds over generations. They are metabolically efficient and can easily store fat because they starve themselves on and off due to what the cult of scientism and online gymcels that eat 1500 calories a day preach. i wonder if Ray Peat has figured this common sense out yet.

Excessive hunger which promotes overeating and thus obesity and many other metabolic problems is not healthy and indicates an underlying problem. There is plenty of real science behind it and ways to reduce excessive hunger.

 

[tankasnowgod]

Excessive hunger which promotes overeating and thus obesity and many other metabolic problems is not healthy and indicates an underlying problem. There is plenty of real science behind it and ways to reduce excessive hunger.

The problem is, most of this science has been done in the past 70 or so years, when agents which help to cause obesity (specifically, iron fortification and poly unsaturated fats) had inundated the food supply. As well as all sorts of other things, from endocrine disruptors in things like plastic, all sorts of toxic drugs, and modern electronic devices like television. Obesity and overweight simply wasn't a problem before these agents were introduced. And it's not like people didn't have sedentary occupations before then, either. Writers and the like used to be too thin, mainly from inactivity. Being sedentary for extended periods would cause them to lose their appetite. They were encouraged to exercise to increase appetite, and get back to a healthy weight.

 

[Runenight201]

“Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are” - Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

When the stomach is satiated hunger is not an issue. Lifestyle and environmental factors influence food consumption decisions, which in turn have a cascade of results. Unhealthy eating habits caused by maladaptive behaviors drive overconsumption of food and eventual disease.

Address the choice of food. Address the manner in which the food is consumed. Address the lifestyle surrounding the food that is consumed.

From a less general note, and into more specific dietary recommendations to increase satiety while providing nourishment to the body, I would agree with @Hans that protein intake is crucial. Be careful with foods that disrupt digestion and in turn cause stress.

What and how do you eat?

 

[Jam]

Not everyone who is overweight/obese has excessive hunger or excessive calorie intake. In fact, the opposite can be true in many cases. Someone close to me, for example, has never been a big eater and has always eaten less calories than she should. Yet, she has been overweight, close to obese but not quite, for the past 10 years. This happens when low metabolic rate and higher than normal insulin makes them store most of the calories they eat, instead of using them for energy, hence the constant fatigue and depression.

 

[Astolfo]

Not everyone who is overweight/obese has excessive hunger or excessive calorie intake. In fact, the opposite can be true in many cases. Someone close to me, for example, has never been a big eater and has always eaten less calories than she should. Yet, she has been overweight, close to obese but not quite, for the past 10 years. This happens when low metabolic rate and higher than normal insulin makes them store most of the calories they eat, instead of using them for energy, hence the constant fatigue and depression.

I agree. I have been suffering from hunger pain since i got pssd from fluoxetine 2 years ago. I don't mean I have 'excess' appetite, in fact, I have no appetite. But whenever i do a mental task or something, my stomach hurts from the hunger. I think my case is more related to the sympathetic/parasympathetic system. Taking BCAA eliminates this problem, it fixes some of my bowel problems as well.

 

[success23]

Thank you all for the great answers.

I was just wondering why would someone get hungry if we start burning our fat stores when we eat in a calorie deficit ( we still get energy from our fat stores)

But i guess that's the natures way that keeps us from dying.