Appetite - The Stubborn Obstacle to Weight Loss
Main points:
Appetite is our desire to eat. Hunger is the physical need to eat. They are both closely related, but are not the same.
Appetite can cause us to eat even when we’re not hungry.
Many things can trigger our appetites, including: sight, smell, hearing, feel and taste, thoughts, emotions, physical environment, and people.
The nervous, digestive, and endocrine systems are all involved in producing the body’s appetite, hunger and satiety signals.
Appetite regulation is a more important matter now than ever before, because of:
➡️ Widespread availability of high calorie processed foods
➡️ Demanding work and life schedules
➡️ Sedentary recreation and leisure, often centered around food
➡️ Worsening relationship with food due to social media
Practical ways to regulate appetite include:
➡️ Understand that your appetite does not mean hunger
➡️ Be mindful of your actions, emotions, and environment
➡️ Eat minimally processed, whole foods for most of your meals
➡️ Get enough sleep
➡️ Engage in physical activity and exercise
The struggle
Picture this: You’ve just finished a healthy meal.
Two juicy, golden brown, oven roasted chicken thighs, seasoned with salt, garlic powder, paprika, with a drizzle of lemon juice and some thyme, on top of a bed of fresh, colorful crisp greens, along with a side of quinoa.
Doesn’t that sound nice?
Super nutritious and low in calories. You’re feeling pretty good about yourself. You’re on point, and you’re another step closer to your weight loss goal.
Why not make this an even better day, and go out for a walk? It’s autumn and the leaves are changing colors…let’s go for it! So you put on your shoes and go outside. About two minutes into your walk, you see the ice cream shop.
On its windows are large posters of its seasonal pumpkin spiced ice cream sundae. It’s got vanilla wafer crisps and cinnamon as toppings. It’s super zoomed in so that you can see the creamy and crunchy textures.
About a couple steps later, you walk past a pizzeria, and its windows are open. That rush of aroma hits you – melted mozzarella cheese, crispy pepperoni, and freshly baked lasagna. It’s almost as if they left the windows open…on purpose?!
All of a sudden, you want to eat again! Sigh…I guess that walk turned out to be a bad idea!
I’m sure that wasn’t too hard of a picture to imagine, because you’ve experienced it. We all have…many times! It may seem like your body is acting on its own, stirring up a huge appetite out of nowhere, and actively working against you.
Maybe your appetite is your biggest obstacle to weight loss. It’s extremely frustrating to have to power through the urges, wants, and cravings.
Sometimes you cave in without even knowing it. Unfortunately that can lead to a false impression that you’re doing the right things, but your appetite may have sneakily led you to eat more than you intended to.
Appetite can be such a large hurdle to overcome, that our most powerful medical interventions like bariatric surgery and weight loss injections like Ozempic, Wegovy (both are semaglutide), and Zepbound (tirzepatide), work to suppress it.
With all that being said, regulating your appetite can be a struggle, but it’s 100% possible. I’ll talk about practical tips on how to do that towards the end of the article (feel free to skip ahead) but first let’s talk about what appetite is, and how it works in your body.
What is appetite?
Appetite is simply your desire to eat.
It is closely related to hunger, but it’s different. Hunger is the physical need to eat.
When you’re truly hungry, you’re willing to eat anything…even the leftovers from your most recent cooking fail.
When you eat when you’re not hungry, you’re primarily being influenced by your appetite. And chances are you’re not eating salad and baby carrots. Instead you’re snacking on cookies and chips.
That’s because your appetite is more drawn towards stimulating tastes and flavors that you enjoy. These flavors and tastes are only one of many triggers that can spark your appetite. All of your senses – sight, smell, taste, feel, and hearing – can all get you wanting to eat!
Sight:
How a food looks – its colors, garnishes, toppings- has a powerful impact on your appetite.
Window signage, social media ads, billboards all understand how to blend the perfect mix of colors, perceived textures, and appealing presentation that just pops! That’s why food commercials are so effective!
I don’t know about you, but anytime a pizza commercial comes on, I can already taste it, smell it, and my stomach starts speaking to me.
Smell:
Your olfactory function is closely tied to your ability to taste. What you smell, you’re actually tasting. So when you smell delicious food, you’re already halfway to putting it in your mouth.
Smell can also bring back old memories very clearly. The smell of the McDonalds can remind you of fond childhood memories, and make you want to order a Big Mac immediately.
Hearing:
Not as common a trigger as sight and smell, but you can definitely be swayed by the language used to describe foods. If your mouth started watering from reading the intro to this article, you see what I mean.
Phrases such as “crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside” and “delectable chocolate dipped” or “melty gooey cheese” probably make you feel some type of way right now.
Feel and Taste:
Certain textures and mouth-feels can increase your appetite. The right amount of crunch, creaminess, softness, juiciness can make you eat endlessly! Combine that with a sweet and/or savory taste, and it’s game over.
I’m sure you’ve had the experience of continually snacking on chips, or determined to complete a bucket of fried chicken even when you’re full. “Once you pop, you can’t stop!”
By the way, those are just your physical senses.
Wait..there are more triggers??
Yes! Your thoughts, emotions, physical environment, and the people around you also play an important role in your appetite.
Thoughts:
Just thinking about food (or any memories that involve food) can make you want to eat. Cravings happen when you are entirely focused on a specific food.
You’re playing a food commercial in your own mind, except it’s more immersive since your thoughts are drawing from your actual memories and experience. Ads have infiltrated our brains, but actually…we’re the advertisers – how sinister!
Emotions:
Stress, boredom, tiredness, joy, celebration, anxiety, sadness – all are seemingly different feelings, but they can all be powerful in affecting your appetite.
Food can be used as a tool for emotional regulation. Our desire to use it as such may have been conditioned into our habits at a younger stage of life.
Physiologically, you can feel the effects of food consumption immediately – stress relieved, boredom alleviated, joy intensified, etc. – making the use of food as an emotional regulator that much more of an entrenched behavior.
Physical Environment:
Anytime I think of food environment, I must reference Berardi’s First Law, which states: “If a food is in your house or possession, either you, someone you love, or someone you marginally tolerate, will eventually eat it.”
Proximity and access to delicious high calorie food can seriously provide unnecessary challenges. If the potato chips are in front of you, in your line of sight, and within arm’s reach, your chances of eating them are pretty high.
People:
Family, friends, coworkers can pressure you to have what they’re having. You’re not in control of how they behave, what they do for fun, where they choose to host meals, what food they prepare, how they arrange their house, etc.
The people you’re around are a big wild card when it comes to your appetite, because you can have your book in order, but someone else may introduce some chaos into your plan!
The complex physiology of hunger and satiety
Wow so you mean to tell me that I’m working against all of these appetite triggers – both in my external and internal world – and they tell me to eat even when I’m not hungry?!
Unfortunately, that appears to be the case, and really underpins the gravity of the metabolic dysfunction occurring among the populations of modern economies.
Going back before modern times, hunger was the primary driver of whether we ate or not. Premodern societies didn’t have the luxury of food abundance. In fact, food scarcity was probably closer to the norm!
Due to this scarcity, our bodies gradually developed a survival tactic that allowed us to store excess energy to brave through the times of famine. Therefore, our appetites can induce feasting beyond the point of fullness.
Let’s dive deeper into what’s going on beneath the surface. There are three organ systems that drive your appetite:
🔷 The nervous system (brain, spinal cord, and nerves),
🔷 The digestive system (stomach, small and large intestines – the “gut”), and
🔷 The endocrine system (pancreas, glands, and adipose tissue).
All three of these systems interact with one another to tell you when to eat.
Nervous System:
The main “control center” of appetite is located inside your brain – specifically the limbic system and prefrontal cortex.
The limbic system is the inner central region of the brain that manages your emotions, behaviors, motivations, and memories. There are four components of the limbic system: the hypothalamus, amygdala, thalamus, and hippocampus.
When it comes to hunger and appetite, the hypothalamus is in charge. It receives signals from the digestive and endocrine systems, and then dictates how the nervous system will respond.
The prefrontal cortex resides in the front outer region of your brain. This region is responsible for making decisions about what to do.
The prefrontal cortex is essential for regulating food seeking behavior, long term decision making, and judgment. Handicaps to this part of the brain can seriously hamper your ability to make good goal oriented decisions, negatively impacting your weight loss outcomes.
Within the limbic system and prefrontal cortex are your reward centers, which play a crucial role in creating and reinforcing habits. These reward pathways are stimulated by food consumption and other pleasurable experiences.
In severe situations with certain stimuli (sex, drugs, etc.), these reward centers can also fuel dependency and addiction. Dopamine is a key player within the reward response, motivating you to continually seek these rewards.
All of these brain components work together to send out the signals to influence appetite.
Digestive System:
Several organs in your digestive tract (the “gut”) play a role in your hunger and satiety: the stomach, small intestine, and large intestine (colon).
When the stomach is empty, it produces a hormone that increases hunger called ghrelin. Ghrelin signals to the hypothalamus to increase appetite. Then the prefrontal cortex is like “What are we having? No, no, you choose this time!”
After you eat and the food enters the stomach, it stops producing ghrelin, and you become less hungry. This describes a normal physiological hunger response, which is the true signal we want to respond to.
Paying attention and recognizing this “true” hunger is what can help separate our “need” to eat and our “want” to eat.
The small and large intestines produce a lot of different hormones as nutrients pass through, get broken down, and absorbed. Some notable ones include the following:
Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) – Helps stimulate insulin production in the pancreas to lower blood sugar. It also slows down gastric emptying, leaving food in the stomach for longer, extending the duration of fullness after a meal.
GLP-1 also directly interacts with the hypothalamus, further reducing appetite. The popular and powerful weight loss and diabetes medications Ozempic and Wegovy mimic this hormone for its blood sugar and appetite suppressing effects.
Gastric inhibitory polypeptide (GIP) – This is in the same class of molecules as GLP-1. It also helps with insulin secretion like GLP-1 does. GIP inhibits gastric acid secretion. It also helps signal satiety to the brain.
Cholecystokinin (CKK) – Induces satiety in the brain and slows stomach emptying. Helps with digestion by telling the pancreas to release enzymes that help break down carbs, fats and proteins. It also stimulates the gallbladder to contract bile into the intestine for fat digestion.
Peptide YY 3-36 (PYY) – This is secreted along with GLP-1 in the small intestine, and it directly works on the brain to decrease appetite and make you feel full.
Like GLP-1, it also slows gastric emptying and the motility of food in the gut. There appears to be a link between low PYY levels and obesity, the onset of type 2 diabetes, and weight gain.
All of these seem to promote satiety, either by directly interacting with the brain, or by slowing down stomach emptying, or both at the same time. That’s good news that your gut has a variety of tools to help regulate appetite. However, it’s not all one-sided.
The gut is a “second brain” in your body, and houses something called the enteric nervous system (ENS) – a system of neurons that regulates your gut function.
Some neurotransmitters can increase appetite when interacting with the ENS, such as endocannabinoids. I know what you’re thinking, and yes…that’s why weed makes you feel hungry.
Another notable neurotransmitter is Neuropeptide Y (NPY), which interacts with the brain, increasing food intake (with a preference for carbs) while decreasing physical activity. Say what?!
There’s so much happening here in the digestive system, and we’re not done yet!
Endocrine System:
This system of organs and glands is responsible for producing hormones (chemical messengers) that tell different parts of the body what to do and when to do them.
There is one organ in this system responsible for secreting a hormone crucial to curbing our appetites. Can you guess what it is? It’s a real shocker: adipose tissue, err…body fat!
Yes, adipose tissue is actually recognized as an endocrine organ because of its ability to send out its own chemical messengers, like hormones and inflammatory cytokines.
It creates an important hormone called leptin, which makes you feel full and satiated. The amount of leptin circulating in the body is proportional to the amount of body fat present.
Leptin tells the brain how much energy the body has in reserve. This dictates if the body needs to “fill up the tank” with more energy, similar to the gas light on your car. The more body fat, the more leptin, the less the brain needs to seek for more food.
A person who is dieting and losing body fat will experience a drop in leptin, making meals seem less filling. That’s one of the reasons why weight loss gets harder the further you go.
Aside from adipose tissue, the pancreas is also an important endocrine organ for appetite. It produces insulin, a hormone which allows cells to take in glucose from the bloodstream, lowering blood sugar levels after eating.
Insulin also has appetite suppressing effects, and may have a role in increasing leptin levels. Lastly, I want to bring up the adrenal glands. They produce your stress hormones, notably cortisol.
Cortisol can increase appetite, hence the term “stress eating.” However, the adrenals can also release norepinephrine, which reduces appetite. That may explain why you sometimes lose your appetite during stressful situations.
So with all of that being said, it’s pretty evident just how much is going on beneath the surface when it comes to appetite, hunger, and satiety.
Are you as confused as I am? Good! There’s a lot more to learn and discover because we need to create more solutions to the growing metabolic dysfunction worldwide.
Why appetite is a bigger problem now than ever before
Even though your physiology is intricately designed to balance hunger and satiety, we eventually found the “loopholes” in this biological system.
Our modern environments and lifestyles are rife with the conditions that cause a rift between appetite (the “want”) and true hunger (the “need).
So in this section, I’m going to attempt to break down the conditions that seem to be having the biggest impacts.
Widespread availability of high calorie processed foods:
These foods are typically very high in sugar, fat, and salt…combined with satisfying textures (crunchy, creamy, soft) and aromas. That’s the perfect mixture to hijack your reward centers and override your natural hunger and satiety signals.
Processed foods are usually manufactured by businesses that want their consumers to keep buying their product, so it’s in their interest to make it as appetizing as possible, and as widely available as possible.
That’s one of the reasons you see fast food, restaurants, and drive-thrus on every block in every major city. And the serving sizes are massive to fully whet an already abnormal appetite! We’re talking about 2,000 calorie milkshakes here!
Not only do you see these establishments in your neighborhood, but their ads are littered across your TV programming, streaming shows, social media feeds, and billboards across the streets and highways!
Like I said earlier, these ads appeal to your senses, triggering the brain to start the gears on your appetite. Add to that the vast amount of delivery options available, one tap ordering on your phone, and there is no longer any friction to getting the food you want.
You can get your food at your front door within 30 minutes of seeing a food ad. All of this convenience ensures immediate gratification of your impulses, before you even have the time to think about the decisions you’re making!
Demanding work and life schedules:
Do you feel like you’re just getting busier and busier? Dang it capitalism! Work, family duties, chores, friends, Netflix shows, Tik Tok scrolling – there’s not enough time to get it all done!
The stress and anxiety from these demands increase your desire for comfort, and that usually involves a one way ticket to delicious high calorie processed foods. Comfort food “eh”? (I see you Canada!)
Comfort also means couch or bed…screw the gym! A prolonged state of stress can elevate cortisol levels, which can boost appetite and increase cravings for tasty treats.
Many people find more time in their days by sacrificing their sleep. If this becomes a habit, the accumulation of this sleep deprivation can reduce leptin (less satiety), and increase ghrelin (more hunger).
The lack of sleep can also slow down the production of thyroid hormones, which may lead to a dip in metabolic rate. So basically high stress and little sleep = eat more and burn less calories.
Sigh…it just seems like modern life is really working against us eh?
Sedentary recreation and leisure, often centered around food:
Think about the last time you met up with your friends or family.
Was it for a meal? Or was it for a challenging uphill hike?
Was it to watch a movie and eat afterward? Or was it to walk in the park and talk?
Probably the less active/more food option! Recreation, leisure, and eating go hand in hand. Of course this all depends on the people you hang out with.
As mentioned in an earlier section, the people you socialize with can be a potent trigger for appetite. However, if they happen to be fitness and nutrition geeks like yours truly, there’s the slight chance that they’ll bring a glass tupperware of rabbit food for you.
And when you’re enjoying time by yourself (where my introverts at?), there’s plenty of highly addictive electronic forms of entertainment that keep your butt on the couch.
Streaming services with endless hours of shows and movies, video games, social media, and my vice of choice: YouTube. And of course, all these forms of entertainment can contain food ads, references to food, or cause heightened emotions – all potential triggers for increased appetite!
Worsening relationship with food due to social media:
There are so many health and wellness influencers today, and they’ve all got their own perspectives on what’s good and bad.
Sugar in fruit is bad…counting calories doesn’t work…fast for 16 hours daily…red meat makes you age quicker…don’t eat after 6pm…add vinegar to your meals to prevent diabetes, etc…
All of this can be really confusing, and make you think anything and everything you’re eating is somehow destroying your insides!
I’m sure many of these people have good intentions and are trying to help, but too much information, complexity, and rules can make you way more worried about food than you actually need to be.
And I haven’t even talked about the body image issues that arise from social media use yet! Obviously, not liking the way you look in comparison to somebody on social media can be the start to a rocky relationship with food.
But why does this matter for appetite though?
Well, a poor relationship with food tends to create a lot of restrictions in the way you eat. By that I mean banishing your favorite foods that you’ve grown accustomed to eating…because TikTok said you’ll get cancer.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t work out well in the long run, because restriction tends to lead to enormous cravings for the foods you’re cutting out.
Restrictive eaters usually have issues with appetite regulation. When they eventually give in to the craving, they can potentially overdo it and binge eat for multiple meals.
This can turn into a discouraging cycle of restricting, then binging, then restricting again to make up for the binge. It can be hard to feel and honor your natural hunger and fullness signals within this restrict-binge cycle, because you’re likely working against them.
Here’s what you can do
It’s no doubt that all of us face an uphill battle for our health since all the trappings of modern life seem to actively work against us.
It takes a lot of effort to be mindful of your internal and external environments and how they affect your appetite and behavior. Learning the skills of appetite regulation can be a long process, but it’s not impossible!
Here are a few practical action steps you can get started on today.
Understand that your appetite does not mean hunger:
Sounds simple enough with everything we discussed so far. However, you know how hard it may be to think clearly while in the throes of a big appetite. So the first step is to just remind yourself: my appetite does not mean hunger!
You can also ask yourself the following questions:
🔷 Am I actually hungry?
🔷 How long ago did I last eat?
🔷 Is this necessary?
🔷 How will I feel after eating this?
This self talk allows you to be more mindful in the moment, and make a more informed decision on how to proceed.
If you’re used to satisfying your urge to eat most of the time, learning to be mindful and abstain even one time is a big victory! Doing it once means you can do it again, and again, and then make it into a habit.
Here’s another way to distinguish between appetite and real hunger. I want you to think of a healthy food or dish that you can tolerate, but isn’t exactly your favorite thing to eat. For example: plain fat free cottage cheese.
Whatever it is for you, remember it! Write it down on a piece of paper. Find a picture of it online, and save that picture on your phone. The next time you find yourself wanting to eat something, take out that piece of paper, or the picture.
Ask yourself if you’re willing to eat it at the moment. If not, you’re probably not hungry. If you are, then you’re hungry…cause you’ll eat anything when you’re truly hungry!
Be mindful of your actions, emotions, and environment:
The best way to spot instinctual, impulsive, or mindless behavior is to keep track of it. Using a log, either a physical notebook or a digital app, can really help you become more aware of what your habits are.
Tracking what you eat, the time of day you ate, the circumstances surrounding that meal, how hungry you actually are (on a scale of 1-10), and the emotions you were feeling at the time can really highlight some interesting triggers that spawned your appetite.
It’s important to do this in a non-judgmental way. You’re simply observing, with the objective of finding out what’s really happening. Once you have logged 2-3 weeks of activity, review and spot any trends that pop up. Ideally you’ll see some common challenging situations, triggered by similar situations.
Perhaps it’s after dinner, you’re watching TV, and somehow find yourself snacking on something conveniently placed on the coffee table. Armed with this awareness, you can clear your coffee table of food before watching TV next time.
Or maybe it’s after work, you’re famished, and your usual route back home has an In-n-Out drive thru that you conveniently stop by. Next time you can take a different route, or bring healthy filling meals and snacks to the office so you’re not super hungry afterward.
Find out what these challenging situations are, and then set clear and achievable guidelines that help you stay on track. You may have to try many different approaches before finding something that’s appropriate for you. Don’t be afraid of being flexible. The last thing you want to do is become overly restrictive!
Eat minimally processed, whole foods for most of your meals:
These are foods that most resemble their natural state, and contain minimal to no added ingredients. We’re talking about fresh vegetables, fruits, fresh cuts of meat and fish, whole eggs, beans, legumes, nuts, seeds, and more.
Minimally processed, whole foods tend to be more filling because of their protein and fiber content. Meals that are rich in protein and fiber may limit your need for snacks in between.
You will be much more in tune with your hunger and satiety signals after eating mostly whole foods. That’s because they don’t contain all the flavor enhancing additives that drive your appetite crazy – no added sugars, salts, fats, and artificial flavorings! You’re less likely to indulge on a bunch of bananas compared to a tray of cookies.
Focus on including more whole foods in your diet, instead of immediately cutting out foods you love. Start out with easy food swaps first (ex. eating a piece of fruit instead of a candy bar), and make more swaps as you become more comfortable. Gradually these whole foods will take up more real estate in your stomach, leaving less room for the processed foods.
Get enough sleep:
As mentioned earlier, sleep deprivation is linked to lower leptin (less satiety) and higher ghrelin (more hunger) levels. Also, more time awake in the day means more time to eat, especially at night time.
Less sleep also means less energy to do physical activity, more irritability, and an increased chance of making rash emotional decisions. You can see how an hour or two of missed sleep a night can potentially handicap your weight loss success.
To prevent that from happening, ensure your sleep environment is conducive for optimal rest. It should be dark, quiet, cool, with limited electronics and distractions.
If possible, make your bed as comfortable as possible, with a good quality mattress and pillows and clean sheets. Don’t do anything too stimulating before bedtime, and try to go to bed and wake up around the same times consistently.
Prioritize your sleep, so that you’re more able to make good conscious decisions while you’re awake!
Engage in physical activity and exercise:
I saved this one for last because this may differ among people – some may experience a decrease in appetite after exercise, while others may get an increase. This may be traced to either a release of ghrelin (more hunger) or PYY (more satiety).
However, over the long run, exercise will help your body use nutrients better, shuttling them towards muscles for immediate use, instead of instantly storing them as fat.
We also can’t ignore the psychological effects of consistent exercise: increased motivation, increased energy and alertness, sense of accomplishment, sense of wellbeing, and more.
These effects are likely to start a virtuous cycle, where you’re going to want to eat healthier, sleep better, and continue to do good things for yourself!
I really hope that you gained value out of this article, and have a few extra tools to use when trying to wrangle in that appetite (or prevent it from getting wild in the first place!).
If you have any questions or comments about anything I’ve written, or maybe there’s something I missed, or perhaps I wrote something inaccurately, you can reach out to me: newton@newtonkwong.net.
I appreciate you for reading all the way until the end. Here are two quotes that I came across during my research for this article that I think sums up this article nicely:
“Hunger is not an emergency.” — Judith Beck
“Real hunger is satiated with a healthy, moderate amount of food. Head hunger is insatiable.” – Allen Zadoff
Not bad eh?! 😉
Whoa you made it to the end!! Thanks for reading 🙂
If you found this article helpful, please check out my other ones!
Also, if you need help with any of the following:
⭐️ Losing weight ⭐️
⭐️ Gaining muscle ⭐️
⭐️ Managing your stress ⭐️
⭐️ Improving your nutrition ⭐️
⭐️ Increasing your daily energy levels ⭐️