Hunger is a complex physiological process that is deeply ingrained in us. In the culture of diets, it is often seen as an undesirable impulse that undermines our will and ultimately makes us fail when it comes to losing weight.
But hunger should not be seen as something bad but as a natural physiological process that is designed to make us survive and encourage us to seek food. Another thing is that today, due to food technology, it is difficult for us to differentiate between physiological and emotional hunger, but that is another matter.
Another issue is that there are many diets around the world that seek temporary starvation to make us lose weight and whose success is based solely and exclusively on our willpower when dealing with hunger.
Be that as it may, in this article we want to give you a more benevolent image of hunger and not so toxic. We explain what hunger is and why it increases when we practice physical exercise.
What is hunger?
Hunger is an uncontrollable and innate impulse that pushes us to seek and eat food.. It may have played a much more important role a few millennia ago in this task of keeping us alive, but that does not mean that it does not continue to play a role today, especially when we pulse the body when it comes to losing weight.
Hunger is part of a complex biochemical circuit that links, through hormones and neurotransmitters, areas of the brain associated with feelings of pleasure and reward with areas of our digestive system.
But this is not all since a very important factor when it comes to feeling hungry is something as simple as suffering a drop in blood glucose, that is, blood sugar. This drop in blood sugar immediately causes a response from our hypothalamus and mechanisms that push us to eat are initiated.
On the other hand, Substances such as fatty acids or serotonin can cause opposite sensations, that is, satiety.
Why does exercise increase our appetite?
As we have mentioned, hunger is part of a complex physiological process that can be triggered by different stimuli. One of them is the decrease in blood glucose, although another may be partial decrease in our muscle glycogen or even beta-oxidation of fatty acidsthat is, the process through which we “burn” fat for energy.
This partial or total loss of energy is, in the eyes of our body, reason enough to initiate the mechanisms that cause hunger. It may seem to you that today our body is a drama but it is that a handful of centuries ago staying fed could be a matter of life or death if you were unlucky enough that winter came upon you, your lord did not paid or the weather would not have produced good crops.
If we compare strength training and cardiovascular training, the latter seems to influence hunger more significantly. It is logical since the caloric expenditure is much higher, per unit of time, in cardiovascular activities.
However, it must be said that yes, it is true that, in general terms, exercise makes you hungry due to hormones such as ghrelin that are secreted when doing sports, but others are also secreted, such as peptide YY, which causes the opposite effect, that is, say, satiety.
What has to be clear to us is that the issue is complex and that in regard to physical exercise, the management that our body does is efficient and in the long term ends up being positive, that is, it helps us to normalize our hunger control .
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