Why is there no appetite in the morning, but in the evening I really want to eat

The answer to the question “why don’t you want to eat in the morning, but want to eat in the evening?” will lie in the field of hypotheses. Despite all the discoveries and research, physiological tasks continue to be hypothetical, unlike anatomy. Therefore, it will not be possible to state anything unequivocally.

Lack of appetite in the morning and lack of appetite in the afternoon is quite common and is most common in people who are overweight or obese.

Causes of “evening zhora”

1. Blood sugar

It would seem, what does the presence or absence of hunger have to do with it? But there is a connection. One of the mechanisms of saturation is sugar level: while it is normal or has a slightly increased value, the body (and specifically the brain) is “full”. As soon as the value decreases, the brain sends a signal and we start to feel hungry.

Why doesn’t blood sugar drop after a night of long periods without food? For example, because stress hormones are high in the morning. The rest is like a textbook: gluconeogenesis maintains blood sugar levels when we are not eating.

Another theory: the body prepares for the next day full of worries, and begins to make reserves that will help to cope with it. Including takes care of glucose, throwing it a little more into the blood. This is a kind of “preparation for the campaign.”

By evening, the situation is completely different. Living all day like a squirrel in a wheel and not caring about maintaining a balanced diet and drinking regime, by dinner we come to a crescendo of all food mechanisms of hunger. A powerful chord sounds: blood sugar has dropped, the stomach is empty / half-empty, ghrelin is high, we are psychologically exhausted and are looking for a “reward”.

2. “The longer we do not eat, the less we want”

The second reason is again hormonal: ghrelin and leptin are hormones-antagonists in their action on hunger / satiety. Ghrelin is responsible for hunger, and satiety coordinates leptin. It would seem that the person did not eat for some time before going to sleep, then had dinner and went without food in a dream, it is logical that in the morning the hunger hormone should signal that it is time to eat. But the longer we do not eat (those who practice intermittent fasting will prove), the less we want. True, any mini-snack activates powerful hunger, so in overweight people, it can trigger an uncontrolled desire to chew endlessly. Lack of food suppresses ghrelin, and we do not feel hungry. In turn, the level of leptin (the hormone of satiety) will be slightly increased in the morning. It is logical that in such a situation we do not want to have breakfast.

It is important to understand: we do not have a signal of satiety, but there is a signal of the absence of hunger – these are two different things.

3. Habit

Our repetitive eating behavior is shaped by lifestyle, family food culture, and the need to eat at work or school. As a result of daily actions, a certain pattern has arisen and the body begins to adapt to external conditions to preserve itself as a species. If our actions (skipping breakfast in the morning and a hearty dinner in the evening) were repeated for a long time, then the body creates a new mode of functioning of all physiological processes. That is, by our own behavior, we have adapted the body to the fact that it does not ask for food in the morning and requires food in the evening.

Should I force myself to have breakfast if I don’t feel like it?

“Research is coming out regularly, proving that not eating breakfast is detrimental to health and life expectancy. However, I believe that a healthy person should only eat when he is hungry. Do not eat for the future, out of habit, because this is what experts advise or popular wisdom says. Listen to yourself. It is another matter when it comes to ill health and a specific medical diagnosis, but this is a separate topic for conversation, “- said Wday.ru expert Tatyana Demyanenko.