Well, science now says there’s a reason for that, and it’s not really your fault – though, knowing what’s going on behind the habit, you can do some things to help control it. And that could be a key to helping you control your weight, even when nothing else seems to work…
Are you one of those folks who is ‘always hungry’?
So there you are, at coffee time in the morning, watching the clock, waiting for the second hand on the clock to tick down to exactly 10:30 so you can race to the vending machines (or, during COVIVID-19 lock down, the fridge) to grab a snack. A big snack. Because, even though you had your usual breakfast, you’re starving again, after only a couple of hours.
Researchers wanted to know why so many folks have this ‘always hungry’ thing going on, and they say they think they’ve uncovered the mechanism which causes it.
What they did
Researchers from a consortium of Universities including Harvard, Kings College London, the University of Nottingham and Leeds University in the UK, and Lund University in Sweden wanted to see why some folks over-ate chronically and complained they were hungry all the time.
According to an abstract of the study report: “The research team collected detailed data about blood sugar responses and other markers of health from 1,070 people after eating standardized breakfasts and freely chosen meals over a two-week period, adding up to more than 8,000 breakfasts and 70,000 meals in total. The standard breakfasts were based on muffins containing the same amount of calories but varying in composition in terms of carbohydrates, protein, fat and fibre. Participants also carried out a fasting blood sugar response test (oral glucose tolerance test), to measure how well their body processes sugar.”
What they found
While the team’s data confirmed reports from previous studies that subjects’ blood sugar levels ‘peaked’ one to 2 hours after a meal, they also discovered that there was a second component to the blood sugar level pattern.
The team’s data clearly showed that, some study subjects’ blood sugar levels dipped precariously 2-4 hours following the peak (which all subjects experienced). They called that, the ‘dip0’, and discovered that those who suffered from blood sugar dips were divided roughly into two categories: ‘big dippers’ and ‘little dippers’.
“Big dippers had a 9 percent increase in hunger, and waited around half an hour less, on average, before their next meal than little dippers, even though they ate exactly the same meals. […] Big dippers also ate 75 more calories in the 3-4 hours after breakfast and around 312 calories more over the whole day than little dippers. This kind of pattern could potentially turn into 20 pounds of weight gain over a year.”
And, in the absence of any countervailing measures, was weight that didn’t go away on it’s own. Just kept piling on. Ouch!
The takeaway
Dr. Ana Valdes from the School of Medicine at the University of Nottingham, who led the study team, said: “Many people struggle to lose weight and keep it off, and just a few hundred extra calories every day can add up to several pounds of weight gain over a year. Our discovery that the size of sugar dips after eating has such a big impact on hunger and appetite has great potential for helping people understand and control their weight and long-term health.”
Knowing that you are prone to a blood sugar dip a few hours after a meal, you can arrange to have something relatively harmless on hand to snack on when ‘the hungries’ hit. How about some of those fresh fruits an veggies that your diet is doubtless short on, for example?
My take
Yup. Makes sense. And I always put my confidence in good, old common sense. My personal takeaway from this is, I’m a big dipper most of the time, and the longer I wait (or have to wait, if circumstances conspire against my getting instant gratification for my rebound hunger when it strikes) determines how much I over-eat at ‘snack time’.
As you might have already guessed, the pandemic lock down lifestyle is not conducive to controlling one’s cravings or ‘hungry-all-the-time’ feelings. I’ve gained significant weight over the past year, but I have a plan to get rid of it just as soon as the pandemic is over. This involves walking briskly for an hour (2-3 miles / 3-5 km) every morning following a small-to-medium-sized breakfast heavy on Whole Grains and Fruit. I will also hike down to the end of the street and back every afternoon to check the mailbox, just to stretch my legs after several straight hours at the keyboard.
For some, daily activity (such as walking, swimming or cycling) is considered recreational or just vaguely ‘healthful’. For us big dippers, though, it may mean the difference between a short, sluggish, unhappy, always-hungry life and a longer, happier, healthier one. Who would have thought something so simple could have such a profound effect, by extension, on every aspect of one’s life?
~ Maggie J.