Have you ever gotten up to catch an early flight and when you get to the airport, you realize you’re absolutely ravenous?
You wouldn’t be alone, science suggests.
According to an intriguing set of tests, our finely tuned appetite clock goes haywire when it starts unusually early, causing us to turn to caloric snacks.
In fact, some scientists have suggested that this phenomenon could go some way to explaining obesity in people with frequently erratic schedules, including those who travel frequently.
A highly influential paper published in 2013 found that participants’ appetite hit its lowest point at 8 a.m., suggesting that waking up even an hour earlier could cause a slight increase in feelings of hunger.
Harvard researchers determined that appetite is lowest when you wake up and peaks around nighttime.
If you notice that you are ravenously hungry throughout the day, it may bode well for you to consider your sleeping habits and make sure you are eating balanced meals.
In it studyAccording to experts at Harvard University, 12 volunteers were placed under strict surveillance for 13 days in a laboratory with little light and no clocks, so they had no notion of time.
The researchers tracked their meals, sleeping and waking hours and monitored changes in their appetite.
They found a “robust” hunger rhythm each day, with participants’ appetite reaching its lowest point when they woke up, around 8 a.m., and its highest point at night, around 8 p.m.
However, Professor Steven A. Shea, director of the Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences, who was part of the study, told DailyMail.com: “The 8am time in our study represents the average wake time based on the volunteers’ internal circadian rhythms.
In general, according to their findings, people will be less hungry just after their normal wake-up time. So if you normally wake up at 7 a.m., you’ll probably be less hungry at that time every day.
It’s not exactly clear what causes this 24-hour cycle, but it probably has something to do with our hormones.
Hormones such as leptin, which helps control appetite, ghrelin, which helps control fat storage, and insulin, which regulates blood sugar, all fluctuate in the body throughout a day.
All of this forms a kind of complex chemical cocktail that reacts to the foods we eat throughout the day to give us energy and tell us when to eat more.
A 2019 study from Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Massachusetts found that people’s ghrelin levels and appetite increased during the night, similar to the Harvard study.
Other investigations of University of Geneva suggested that people who are resistant to the effects of leptin on their body might have more trouble regulating their appetite and be more likely to become obese.
Of course, there are other factors outside of your body rhythm that can influence how hungry you may feel when you wake up.
The number of hours you sleep is particularly important.
If you sleep less than six hours, your body may be out of sync with its natural hunger rhythms and you may feel more hungry throughout the day, according to research. from Berkeley University found.
The research found that sleep-deprived people craved more high-calorie foods than those who slept through the night.
They suggested this was because lack of sleep made the part of the brain that controls appetite less active, making people want to eat more.
Strong cravings can also cause you to choose less complete foods, and the quality of the foods you eat is another important factor in your appetite, according to Michelle Routhenstein, a preventive cardiology dietitian and founder of Entirely Nourished Routhenstein.
If, for example, you’re sleep-deprived and wake up hungry, you can eat something quick with few nutrients, like a plain bagel, she said.
This doesn’t have many complex nutrients for your body to process, meaning you’ll burn them off relatively quickly and probably be hungrier for the rest of the day, Routhenstein said.
Eating a balanced breakfast, including protein, healthy fats and complex carbohydrates, will keep you feeling fuller longer, she said.
Doing this in addition to consistently sleeping is likely to keep your appetite constant.
To get the most out of your day and prevent your appetite from going out of balance, Professor Shae recommends pacing yourself.
“The most important thing people should do is sleep eight hours, on a regular schedule, and eat regular meals,” he said.