Strange Appetite
 

Lately I have been having a very strange appetite. I find myself eating my normal meals (2 a day with an occasional breakfast). My meals are typically good in size like a 16 oz steak and baked potato. My problem is for the last few weeks about 45 minutes after eating i'm hungry again. I feel like i'm in a perpetual state of hunger. This reminds me of going through growth spurts. But here is the problem with that, i'm almost 24 years old so it can't be a growth spurt. I'm wondering if i'm not getting enough of the right food groups. I tend to eat lots of protien. Though I always have some carbs with it also. I'm wondering if anyone else has any idea why I am hungry so soon after eating. I have a slim build but i'm worried that if I keep eating like I am that will change quickly.

Uh
you're not getting enough food, period.
2 meals a day?
thats a recipe for disaster

I eat..probably like 6-7 meals a day

2 large meals, i tend to have snacks in between. I am not a large person 5'9 130.

Besides even if I wern't getting enough food. That wouldn't explain why when my stomach is full i'm still hungry. It is as if as soon as I my body starts digesting food my body gets hunger pains.

When I was first born, my dad went through a growth spurt of almost 2 inches. He was almost 30 at the time. While growth spurts are rare after adolescence, they are not unheard of. Eat a breakfast that includes fruit and protien. Don't skip breakfast. Also drink at least 100 oz. of water a day. Other then that, eat until full, then eat again in 2-3 hours.

you're not eating ..often, enough.. The human body is much more complex then most people think. Eating 1 or 2 gigantic meals will NOT have the same effect on your body as 6-7 smaller meals with the same amount of total food.

this is almost definitley where your problem is.
if you want to come up with excuses for why thats not the problem, then go ahead, it doesn't effect me.

however, if you want a solution, then start chopping up your meals and eating more frequently.

Here, here! Eating 6 meals a day will not cause you to lose weight (if that's what you're worried about). The reason people on diets eat 6 meals a day is because it is the healthiest and best way for your body to digest food. If you are over or under weight, you need to help your system to regulate and heal itself. 2 big meals a day is just short of an eating disorder. Seriously. You should eat AT LEAST 3 meals a day.

Let's say your body is a car. If you drive your car really fast and hard (speeding, taking turns fast, slams on brakes) once every morning, and once every night. Your car won't last very long. If you drive it conservatively (obeying speed laws, braking slowly, etc.), it will last for quite a bit longer. Even if you put 4 times as many miles on it. Your digestive system is that same way.

I don't have time to cook 6 squares a day. The reason I eat 2 main meals is after waking up i'm never hungry, after a few hours i'm hungry so i eat around noon, then have supper around 5-6. Then usually i'll have a snack before I go to bed. When meals 15 min to an hour to prepare i wouldn't have time for everything else in my life. Also I despise fast food and eat it very rarely so that is out.

You asked for a solution, we gave it to you.
What you do doesn't effect OUR bodies, it effects YOURS.

Nobody has time to cook 6 square meals a day. Thats why you eat sandwhiches, and nuts, and fruit, etc etc. Pack a couple lunches the night before.

You don't have to cook cereal (takes approx. 2 minutes to prep at the most). You don't have to cook an apple, an orange, grapes, or an apricot (just pick them up and eat them). You don't have to cook a sandwich (takes maybe 5 minutes).

I must admit that I'm a little surprised that you aren't considering all meal options. A baked potato and a steak isn't the only meal out there. My entire meal plan is layed out in http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?t=79256 . Since I switched over from 3 meals a day, I have lost no time in my day. Check it out. Making a sandwich takes 5 minutes, eating it takes another 5. That's 2/3 the time it takes you to make your regular dinner. Time really shouldn't be a factor. The only thing you have to worry about is how good you'll feel. :thumbsup:

i had that turned out i had a gut problem that needed a course of antibiotics to deal with it. Not saying its what you got but if your worried a trip to the docs may help

If you guys consider things like a bowl of cereal, an apple, ect a meal then i'm already having 6 meals a day. I consider a bowl of cereal, an apple, a small sandwhich and such a snack.

yeah same here

no, we don't consider a bowl of cereal, or an apple, a meal.

Throw a bowl of cereal with an apple and some milk and you've got a small meal.

Look, your solution is right in front of you. Take it or leave it.

last post from me trying to help you

A sandwich with tuna/lean beef/lean pork/turkey/chicken, whole grain bread, dark green lettuce/spinach/bell peppers/tomatoes/onion, using a light olive oil or no more than 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise, a fruit (apple, orange, peach, etc.), and a glass of water (8-16 oz.) every few hours should be enough to keep you full. If it isn't, you need to go to the doctor asap.

Cowman i'm sorry if I offended you i'm not trying to be confrontational here just want to make sure I accuratly describe my eating habbits. Specifically the fact that there has been a major change in eating habbits these last 2 weeks.

Getting a little defensive Cowman, he didn't say anything to offend you.

Anyways, they are both right, rather than stuffing yourself over two meals a day, spread it to around 5-6 meals and eat in moderation. You don't have to have a PERFECT diet if you're not on some strict workout and diet program, but if you're getting hungry; just eat less at a time and more through out the day. If you want to have a couple of fruits by themselves, fine, you don't have to prepare a perfect sandwich meal for each time you want to eat. Eat healthy light meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner and have fruits and vegetables in between, or if you want cereal, eat cereal, or a can of tuna, as long as you try and keep it clean, no big deal. Also, have a lot of water in between too, try and get at the very least half a gallon a day, preferable a gallon though. Like I said, if you don't have any hardcore weight goals, you're fine.

It just gets a little tiring year after year answering peoples questions about health and hearing that they really don't want to do any work to change how their body works, they want some magical solution.

Cowman, that's America in a nutshell. We want "Get Rich Quick!" and "Enlarge your penis!" and "Lose weight fast and easy!". Well, as those among us who are lerned know, these are fantasy. Getting rich quick is a great way to go broke quicker. Enlarging your penis is for midlfe crisis. Losing weight fast and easy is a myth. Ever see someone get a tummy tuck? It takes months to heal. In those same months, one could have easily done a simple exercise program. So why didn't they? We want everything NOW! and we don't want to have to work for it. Americans, my friend, are spoiled out of our minds. We see commercials for Hydroxycut showing before and after pictures and we think "Well, taking a pill isn't so hard!" completly ignoring that it reccomends that you use hydroxycut WITH diet and exercise. When Roma falls again, they'll be slaughtered by the perverbial Germanic Tribes. We, of course, will simply live on.

Sorry, I love getting off topic.

Rekna, maybe this would be better if you were more specific about what you eat and how often you exercised. What have you eaten in the past 3 days, not excluding anything (i.e. breakfast, snacks, water, lunch, dinner, etc.)? Maybe this does lye in your diet yet.

Well, not to repeat word for word what everyone else has said - and I agree with most, here are a few other facts to consider:

- you may need to drink more water....quite often hunger pangs are really thirst
- look at the food groups thing....the 5 or 9 servings a day. A small bag of the small carrots, a banana, an apple...each one of these can be a serving, regardless of the number of meals you eat. For example, I eat a bowl of oatmeal that takes less than 10 minutes to cook, adding in frozen blueberries or raisins and hoeny. Two hours later I may have a banana, two hours later lunch. Two hours later perhaps an apple or the raw carrots, then a snack of some sort and dinner following with at least one veggie. That comes to at least 5 servings of fruits/veggies and that's eating six times.

There are a couple of things I thought I should add to the discussion on the exact numberr of meals one should eat in a day and their composition. There are several medical conditions that will make you always feel hungry. The first is diabetes. Now, I know you are saying "I'm young; I don't eat a lot of sugar" and what not. Young people (ie. in their twenties) can get diabetes even if they didn't have it when they were a kid. FWIW, I saw a 20 year old diagnosed with diabetes about a week ago. The second medical problem is thyroid problems. Now one probably could rule out those problems with a careful medical history and appropriate questions, but it's probably not appropriate for the web. If it is something that continues, I'd recommend seeing your favorite doctor.

This is interesting alpo, both my dad and my grandma have diabetes.

Consider WHAT you eat as well. Is the meal well balanced? If your body isn't getting some of the nutriants it needs then you tend to feel hungry again sooner.

Rekna, if I were a betting man, I wouldn't bet that you had diabetes. The kind of diabetes that your father and grandmother have is not likely going to be the same type that you would have, so that family history is not likely to be all that relevent. Are you always thirsty? Do you have to urinate all the time?

If you are worried about it, see your doctor! The tens/hundreds/thousands of doctors thaty you"see" on the web are not sufficient.

Just a little personal insight...

I find that I get hungry in between meals when my carb intake is too high. The more protien based meals and digestable carbs I eat (wheat pasta, brown rice, oatmeal) the more energy I have and I don't crave food AT ALL!

My parents are both diabetic and they have to eat the same way... 6 smaller meals through the day to keep their blood sugar at an even level and more protien to process the fat and sugars naturally. You blood sugar regulates your metabolism so if you're not getting enough calories frequently enough your metabolism will shut down and your body will always want to be fed! :D