why am i hungry all the time?
Today’s blog post is here to answer the question that SO many people ask themselves: why am I hungry all the time?
You know the deal. You have breakfast and an hour 2 later you find yourself walking through the kitchen or looking for snacks at work. You have the snack and then again an hour later….hungry again.
It feels like all you do is think about food and when you can eat again. Suddenly you can’t even focus at work or be present with your friends and family because you’re just hungry all the time!
So let’s dive in and figure out: why am I hungry all the time?
There’s two big answers to this question:
You didn’t eat enough of the right foods that help you feel full
You didn’t pay attention to how you were eating
Let’s break it down. Protein and veggies are the two most important foods that need to be on your plate to help you feel full after eating. This blog post goes into lots of detail about exactly how to do this!
But to give you a quick summary, you want to include an efficient protein AND a non starchy veggie at as many meals as possible. And you want to make sure you have enough of each of those foods which means you want your protein taking up 1/3 of your plate and your veggies taking up half (yes, half). Those portions will ensure you have enough protein, volume and fiber so you can go 4-6 hours without thinking about food or getting hungry again.
But it’s not just about WHAT you ate. It’s about how you ate. You know…scrolling Tik Tok, listening to a podcast, watching a show, carpooling your kids around. When was the last time you sat down at a table with no distractions and focused just on the experience eating? Right…I thought so.
One of the big reasons you’re always asking yourself “why am I hungry all the time” is because you are almost NEVER paying attention to what you’re eating. You’re paying attention to a million other things. So then you finish your meal and you don’t even realize it happened because you were so busy doing something else.
And this has a HUGE impact on fullness and satisfaction. Eating is not meant to be an afterthought or something you squeeze in when you have the time. Eating is an act of self care. Which means it needs attention and awareness.
So now you’re probably wondering how exactly do I start paying more attention to how I’m eating? I’m so busy and stressed, JUST eating feels impossible.
I hear you. I won’t tell you it’s easy. But walking around hungry and thinking about food all the time also isn’t easy…so where do you want to be putting your energy?
Like any skill, we need to start small and make it super doable. Here’s what that could look like:
Making sure your food is on a plate/in a bowl vs eating from a bag package
Sitting down at a table to eat vs standing at the counter, eating in front of the pantry or in your car
Putting your phone away for the first 5 minutes of the meal so you can have a singular focus (multi tasking is a myth)
Choose ONE of those skills to start working on and practice it at one meal a day. Get comfortable with that for a week or two, then add on another meal. Go slow! There is no rush or deadline. You want to feel really comfortable and confident with a skill before you move on.
By focusing on eating enough protein and veggies as well as paying attention while you eat, you will finally stop asking yourself “why am I hungry all the time?” And this will be a game changer for your mood, stress levels and quality of life.
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