Always Hungry or Tired? 7 Reasons to Find Out Why!

Are you hungry or tired? Or both? All the time?! Then this one’s for you.

Whether you are at work, at the mall or cleaning up at home, you’re always thinking ‘food’ and ‘sleep’. And, we are pretty sure you have also thought about why you feel these cravings all the time?

Your answer is here. Listed below are the common reasons why people are always hungry and tired:

1) Avoiding Breakfast

One of the biggest mistakes to commit is skipping the first meal of the day – breakfast.

There’s a reason why people say, ‘Eat Breakfast like a King, Lunch like a Prince and Dinner like a Pauper’.

Eating breakfast gives your body the long-term strength to go about a full-day, similar to loading your vehicle’s engine with gas for a full-day run. When you skip the first meal of the day, your body quickly identifies the lack and directs you to eat more than you need to, in your next meal.

2) Lack of Protein

We’ve all read textbooks during primary schooling that stress on the importance of carbohydrate-rich food. But it is equally important to consume proteins and fats.

Most of our morning food is rich in carbohydrates but they’re a great source of energy only if your are indulging in high-intensity activity such as workouts.

But if the next thing you did after eating a carbohydrate-rich breakfast was head to your office, then that is a risky choice you made for the day. Such food results in an imbalance in insulin levels.

Adding protein to your food in the morning gives your muscles the required boost after a long gap between your dinner and the following breakfast. Hence, it is essential to eat a balanced breakfast – a combination of carbohydrates, fats and proteins.

A balanced diet promotes leptin – a hormone that reduces hunger, cravings and promotes long-term insulin control, further resulting in stabilizing long-term weight control and energy levels.

Know Your Health Parameters: Set up a protein goal of 20-30 grams per day along with a good dose of fats and carbohydrates.

3) Insufficient Sleep

Insufficient sleep can be one of the main causes for prolonged tiredness and fatigue.

But did you know that it could also lead to excessive eating?

Yes! Not getting enough sleep can cause your body to produce ghrelin – a hormone which triggers hunger and cravings and reduced leptin.

When you don’t sleep properly, you tend to feel even more hungrier and crave sugar-rich food.

Health Tip: Develop healthy sleep habits, avoid drinking alcohol and eating heavy food before bed.

4) Not Doing Aerobic Exercises

Exercise provides individuals boosts of energy by transporting oxygen and nutrients to tissues in their body. Interestingly, exercise is also effective in suppressing hunger.

According to researchers, 60 minutes of rigorous aerobic exercise reduces ghrelin levels and increases an appetite-suppressing hormone called peptide YY. On the other hand, 90 minutes of anaerobic exercise can only affect ghrelin levels in the body. Therefore, researchers find aerobic exercises effective over anaerobic ones in suppressing hunger.

5) Long Gaps Between Meals

Can’t beat the hunger pangs between lunch and dinner? We know it’s not easy! The long gap between the two meals leads us to feel all the more hungrier around dinner time. This in turn results in eating larger portions of food, especially junk varieties.

Know Your Health Parameters: The minimum number of calories per day required for women is 1,200 and 1,500 for men.

6) Workouts Minus Snacks

Fitness enthusiasts and sportspersons who starve themselves of breakfast lunch or dinner are majorly disrupting their fitness routines. Doing this reduces your body’s workout ability, increases cravings hours after your workout by suppressing ghrelin and leads to a huge calorie deficit resulting in excess cravings for unhealthy food.

7) Diabetes

Have you checked your sugar levels in a long time? Diabetes may also be one of the causes for persistent hunger and tiredness. It effects the way your body utilizes digested food for growth and energy production.

The variations in diabetes can also alter the way energy is distributed across your body. Type 1 diabetes does not allow your body to produce insulin, which transfers glucose to the cells. In type 2 diabetes, the body doesn’t produce the required quantity of insulin or cannot utilize it effectively.

So now that you know what makes you feel constantly hungry or tired, why not regulate and monitor your calorie, protein and carbohydrate intake?

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