The Science of Hunger: How to

Control It and Fight Cravings

by Sara G. Miller, Staff Writer | April 01, 2016 07:27am ET

Whether you're trying to lose weight, maintain weight loss or just stay healthy, at
some point, you're going to get hungry. But simply eating whenever the urge strikes
isn't always the healthiest response and that's because hunger isn't as
straightforward as you may think.
A complex web of signals throughout the brain and body drives how and when we
feel hungry. And even the question of why we feel hungry is not always simple to
answer. The drive to eat comes not only from the body's need for energy, but also a
variety of cues in our environment and a pursuit of pleasure.
To help you better understand and control your hunger, Live Science talked to the
researchers who have looked at hunger every which way, from the molecular
signals that drive it to the psychology of cravings. Indeed, we dug into the studies
that have poked and prodded hungry people to find out exactly what's going on
within their bodies. We found that fighting off that hungry feeling goes beyond
eating filling foods (though those certainly help!). It also involves understanding
your cravings and how to fight them, and how other lifestyle choices such as
sleep, exercise and stress play a role in how the body experiences hunger.
Here is what we found about the science of hunger and how to fight it.
What is hunger? Homeostatic vs. hedonic
Before we begin, it's important to understand exactly what hunger is what's
going on inside your brain and body that makes you say, "I'm hungry"?
As it turns out, feeling hungry can mean at least two things, and they are pretty
different, said Michael Lowe, a professor of psychology at Drexel University in
Philadelphia.

Of course, there's the traditional concept of hunger: when you haven't eaten in
several hours, your stomach is starting to grumble and you're feeling those usual
bodily sensations associated with hunger, Lowe said. This feeling of hunger stems
from your body's need for calories; the need for energy prompts the signal that it's
time to eat, he said.
Researchers refer to this type of hunger as "homeostatic hunger," Lowe told Live
Science.
Homeostatic hunger is driven by a complex series of signals throughout the body
and brain that tell us we need food for fuel, said Dr. Amy Rothberg, director of the
Weight Management Clinic and an assistant professor of internal medicine in the
University of Michigan Health System's Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology and
Diabetes.
Hormones in the body signal when energy stores are running low. When this
occurs, levels of ghrelin (sometimes referred to as the "hunger hormone") start to
rise, but then become suppressed as soon as a person starts eating, Rothberg said.
In addition, as food travels through the body, a series of satiety responses (which
signal fullness) are fired off, starting in the mouth and continuing down through the
stomach and the small intestine, she said. These signals tell the brain, "Hey, we're
getting food down here!"
And up in the brain, another series of signals is at work, Rothberg said. These are
the sets of opposing signals: the hunger-stimulating ("orexigenic") peptides, and the
hunger-suppressing ("anorexigenic") peptides, she said. These peptides are
hormones that are responsible for telling the brain that a person needs to eat or
that a person feels full.

What filling foods should you choose?

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Unsurprisingly, the best way to get rid of homeostatic hunger is to eat. And your
best bet to maintain that full feeling for a healthy amount of time is to eat
nutritious foods that, well, fill you up, Rothberg told Live Science. [Diet and Weight
Loss: The Best Ways to Eat]

A diet that contains fiber and lean protein is very filling, Rothberg said. And protein
is the most filling of the macronutrients, she said. Indeed, a recent metaanalysis study in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics concluded
that eating larger amounts of protein does increase feelings of fullness compared
to eating smaller amounts of protein. [Which Types of Foods Are The Most Filling?]
But it's also important to be careful about certain foods. Zero-calorie sweeteners,
for example, can confuse fullness signals and trick your brain into thinking you
haven't eaten much when you actually have, thus leading you to eat more,
Rothberg said. (There is much debate among health experts about the effects of
these sweeteners in the body. For example, although they may help people control
their blood sugar levels, evidence is mixed on whether they help people lower their
calorie intake or lose weight. In our interview with her, Rothberg was referring
specifically to how zero-calorie sweeteners may impact feelings of hunger and
fullness.)
Another food group to be careful about is ultraprocessed foods, which are loaded
with fat and sugar. People don't just eat for calories, they eat for pleasure, but
foods like these can drive the brain to want more of them, essentially overpowering
the normal fullness signals firing in the brain, Rothberg said.(Ultraprocessed foods
are those that, in addition to sugar, salt, oils and fats, include additives
like emulsifiers, flavors and colors think potato chips or frozen pizza.)

It's probably best to pass on these...

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Of course, if people only ate because their bodies needed calories, things would be
simple. But that's not the case.
People "don't eat necessarily because of the signals that govern our energy stores,"
Rothberg said. Rather, sometimes, you just want food.
This type of hunger is called "hedonic hunger." But hedonic hunger wanting to
eat, dwelling on food or maybe craving something isn't nearly as well understood
as homeostatic hunger, Lowe said. The term "hedonic hunger" was coined in 2007
in a review led by Lowe and published in the journal Physiology & Behavior.

The most widely accepted theory about hedonic hunger is that thehuman
predisposition to highly palatable foods, which humans developed long ago, has
run amok in the modern environment, with the wide availability of really delicious
foods, Lowe said. People want to eat even when they don't need to, he said. And
the more often people eat highly palatable foods, the more their brains learn to
expect and want them, he said. You can call that hunger, but the reason for that
"hungry" feeling appears to have much more to do with seeking pleasure than with
needing calories, he said.
But it's important for people to realize that pleasure plays a role in all types of
eating, Lowe said. Pleasure is relevant to both homeostatic and hedonic eating,
whereas the need for calories only comes into play during homeostatic eating, he
said. For example, when someone is homeostatically hungry, that person is
motivated by both the calories and the pleasure that eating brings, he said.
Someone who is hedonically hungry, on the other hand, is motivated only by
pleasure, he said.
The two types of hunger are not completely distinct but rather represent two ends
of a continuum, Lowe said. Certainly, there are cases of hunger that fall at each end
of the spectrum: A person who hasn't eaten in 12 or more hours is experiencing
homeostatic hunger, whereas a person who wants dessert after finishing a filling
meal is experiencing hedonic hunger. But there isn't a specific point where
someone could say their hunger has switched from being motivated by calories to
being motivated purely by pleasure, he said.