How to Control Hunger Hormones

One of the most difficult aspects of diets is the feeling of hunger. We all have a built-in system that involves multiple parts that tell our bodies when we’re hungry and signals when we’re full.

The system that regulates body weight is complex and involves the several organs. Hunger hormones are hormones that interact with these different parts of the body and have a significant impact on body weight and appetite in response to energy balance.

WHAT ARE HUNGER HORMONES?

The two most well-studied hunger hormones are ghrelin and leptin. Both have a long-term influence on appetite and are related to energy balance.

Ghrelin - This hormone tells you when you’re hungry and is produced in the stomach and signals to your brain that your body’s food and sugar storage is low so you need to go find and eat food to replenish your stores.

Leptin – This hormone does the opposite and tells you when you’re full. Leptin is mainly produced by fat tissue and is an anti-hunger hormone. When released it signals to the brain that the body has enough fuel for now and you don’t need to go find food.

Ideally, both leptin and ghrelin work together in balance to ensure your body has the fuel it needs to survive. In a healthy individual, leptin and ghrelin work together to maintain energy balance and weight. However, the balanced relationship between ghrelin and leptin begins to unravel in people dealing with obesity or diabetes. Similar to how individuals with obesity and/or diabetes develop hormone resistance, they can also develop leptin resistance.

HOW TO KEEP YOUR HUNGER HORMONES BALANCED FOR WEIGHT LOSS

There are numerous ways that you can help manage your hunger hormones from simple lifestyle changes to mental tips.

Here are some expert-recommended ways you can control hunger hormones to lose weight fast recommended by Dr Hannah Kittrell, MS, RD, a registered dietitian at Mount Sinai’s PhysioLab.

Eat on a schedule or reduce your eating window with Intermittent Fasting.

This can help prevent large swings in levels of circulating hunger hormones, which can cause extreme hunger and over-eating. A recent study from the Louisiana State University’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center found that meal timing strategies such as intermittent fasting or eating earlier in the day appear to help people lose weight by lowering appetite, rather than burning more calories.

Get more sleep

Some research indicates that ghrelin helps to promote sleep. Lack of sleep, in particular, less than 6 hours of sleep a night, increases ghrelin and decreases leptin. This suggests that to help manage weight, we need to consistently get at least 7-8 hours of sleep/night, which is also the normal recommended amount of sleep that many people fail to get.

Eat a protein-packed breakfast

A high protein breakfast may be best at suppressing the naturally higher ghrelin levels your body experiences after fasting overnight.

Eat plenty of fibre and protein

In general, a diet high in fibre and protein suppresses ghrelin and as expected, the desire to eat. Science has recommended for years that choosing to follow a high fibre diet is best for weight management and now we are understanding it is best for gut health too.

Eat more prebiotic and probiotics foods

Prebiotics are foods such as onions, almonds, chicory, garlic, and chickpeas that feed healthy gut bacteria. Probiotics, sources of good gut bacteria are naturally found in fermented foods (pickled beets, sauerkraut, etc), yogurt and kefir.

Cut down on or cut out processed foods

Eating highly processed foods that contain additives and preservatives will decrease diversity of the microbiome and promote inflammation, negatively impacting hunger and overall health. Artificial sweeteners and antibiotics and hormones used in dairy and meat products can all negatively impact the gut microbiome.

Avoid purchasing unhealthy foods that are tempting

If you buy them and keep them in your house then you’re more likely to eat them. Clear out your cupboards and fridges of all unhealthy foods and stock them full of healthy, varied foods that benefit your healthier lifestyle.