Expert answer:
Feeling very hungry may be a sign that you not eating properly or may be with some hormonal change, some eating disorder or psychological. Besides that, pregnancy and the use of some medicines also cause hunger.
The main causes of excessive hunger, difficult to quench, are:
- To stay long without eating;
- Have a nutrient or calorie-poor diet;
- Pregnancy;
- Stress, anxiety, depression, nervousness, frustrations;
- PMS (premenstrual tension);
- Use of medications such as corticosteroids, ciproeptadine and antidepressants;
- Bulimia (an eating disorder that causes a person to overeat and then induce vomiting or take laxatives not to gain weight);
- Hyperthyroidism;
- Hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) - may be the result of prolonged fasting or intense physical exercise, for example;
- Diabetes - people with diabetes have no or very little insulin production, a hormone that transports sugar into cells to be transformed into energy; without drugs or insulin applications, sugar remains in the diabetic's bloodstream and the body's cells "starve," which causes the brain to continue to send the signal of hunger;
- Worms - both may increase or decrease appetite.
Do I feel very hungry or do I feel like eating?
THE physical hunger, the appetite itself, has the following characteristics:
- Increases gradually;
- Appears more than 3 hours after the last meal;
- Anything serves to quench it;
- It disappears when the person eats enough and causes satisfaction.
Already the hungry, the so-called "psychological hunger", is characterized by:
- It suddenly appears;
- It is specific, the person feels like eating certain foods;
- Occurs at any time;
- It may persist even after eating plenty of food;
- Food brings satisfaction, but soon there comes a sense of guilt.
If you can not figure out exactly why you are so hungry, see a GP, family doctor, or endocrinologist.
