#151 - Is It Hunger, Food Noise, or Hormones?

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Hi everyone , welcome to this week's episode of the Midlife Feast . So this idea for this episode actually came from a listener question , so I want to start by reading the question so you can get a sense of why I wanted to tackle these three things hunger , food , noise and menopause or hormones together . Hi , jen , I have a question about hormones and hunger .

In the past year , I feel like I'm hungry all the time and can't feel full the way that I used to . I asked my doctor about it and she said that it was something called food noise and suggested it could help . I said no for now , as I don't think that I need it , but I'd love to hear your take on this . Thanks for this question , ellen .

Now , if you're listening to this podcast , chances are you have some kind of complicated relationship with food , either in the past or now , or maybe midlife has kind of stirred things up again . Ellen's question is one that I get , not infrequently , but I often hear things like I'm hungry all the time , what's wrong with me ?

Or I used to be able to go all day without thinking about food and now I feel like I just want to eat all the time . Or I'm scared to trust my hunger because I'm worried about gaining weight and often I can't tell if I'm hungry or just tired or emotional or hormonal or whatever it is .

So I want to make sure that we're talking about all of those things and giving you a little bit of context about how menopause may or may not be related to what's going on . So first I want to just spend a couple of minutes talking about the different types of hunger . So we have physical hunger , emotional hunger and taste hunger .

I'm not going to go into these in like great detail , but emotional hunger is the one that I've probably talked about the most and if you want to learn more about that and cravings , episode 117 , I think , is the one that you want to go back to . But physical hunger is probably the most straightforward right .

This is like your tummy is rumbling , your body is telling you that it needs fuel , nourishment , it wants you to eat , and physical hunger can show up differently depending on you know , personality , genetic makeup , needs , medication , sleep , all those kinds of things .

But in general , it's this like slow burn of I'm more and more interested in eating and I'm getting these signals from my body that I need to refuel . Emotional hunger is a little bit different . It can happen with physical hunger at the same time , so you can absolutely be emotionally hungry and physically hungry .

Usually , when we're talking about emotional hunger , what we actually mean is an intense desire to eat for reasons other than physical hunger . So some people might call this emotional eating , for example , but really it's just that strong desire to eat for reasons other than physical hunger . We're going to come back to that , don't worry . And taste hunger is the .

I want to eat it because I know that it tastes good . I know that I'm going to love how it feels in my mouth as I'm eating it . You know the whole experience of it . So some people might call that , you know , tricky hunger or reactive eating , but really taste hunger I like to think of as a barometer to satisfaction .

So if you're trying to figure out like what do I enjoy eating Because satisfaction is the secret sauce Taste hunger can be a really helpful tool , but you have to trust it and you have to trust your body that it knows what it's doing . Now I want to talk a little bit about appetite and food noise .

So , food noise is a newer term , and so food noise is something that we hear a lot about in the media and the news . With people who are using GLP-1 medications , so things like Ozempic , like Wagovi , those kinds of medications One of the things that we often hear from people is that they have less food noise . But what exactly is food noise ?

So , food noise being a relatively new term , there were some researchers that have actually started looking at how can we define this , how can we start to conceptualize ? So just two years ago in 2023 , there was a proposed kind of conceptual model .

So early days is what we're all saying here and they defined it as a heightened or persistent manifestations of food cue reactivity we're going to come back to that too in a second often leading to food related intrusive or obsessive thoughts . In other words , you're just thinking about food all the time . Now .

Reactive eating and food cue reactivity is not a new concept . And intuitive eating we talk about reactive eating quite a bit and we even have you know exercises and worksheets on practice not reacting . So recognizing what your reactive eating cues are and learning to respond to them differently .

That doesn't mean saying no , it doesn't mean saying yes , but it just means trying to press pause and observe , like , what is happening when I experience this reactive moment , this cue , when this cue shows up in my life and I really want to eat all the things , what is happening ? Now , what about appetite ? What is appetite ?

So appetite is the interest in eating that we have , and so a lot of people think that maybe appetite and food noise are essentially the same thing . But food noise is maybe happening on , you know , is happening on a bigger scale , so it's maybe happening more often , but essentially appetite is what makes us interested in eating .

Now I was recently quite sick and I was experiencing some very mild physical hunger , but I was experiencing zero appetite . So that's a great kind of real life example of how appetite is the interest in eating .

And so when you're sick and you're eating just because you know that your body needs nourishment , it's not satisfying and you really aren't putting a whole lot of thought into what you're eating because you're just trying to kind of fill that bucket , fill that hole . Now there can be times when you are not hungry but you have a lot of appetite for something .

So these might be foods that you really enjoy , these might be foods that you're looking forward to . This can also be increased appetite or emotional hunger for eating because of , maybe , some feelings that you're feeling .

So this is just my opinion , but the way that I see it , I think that food , noise and appetite are versions of the same coin , and it makes sense that medications that slow down digestion , absorption of food would decrease appetite in the same way that I experienced it when I was sick .

So I think we're early days into understanding , kind of , how this all plays out . But what I really want to talk about today is what is the relationship with menopause , what is the relationship with hormones ? And if you're experiencing a lot of food noise or increases in appetite or emotional hunger , whatever you want to call it , what can you do about it ?

So let's talk about what causes these increases in appetite . So not eating enough is probably the most common one , because that means that you're physically hungry . If you are physically hungry , as you've probably experienced , you want to eat more .

You're more interested in eating , and the here's a scenario that I often see People will be trying to kind of watch what they eat . So maybe they're skipping carbs at breakfast , they're just having an egg white omelet or they're having a couple of eggs , but they're not kind of building that balance on their plate . So their physical hunger goes down .

So they're not , you know , as hungry as they were before they ate , but they don't really reach that level of like comfortable fullness and satisfaction . So their appetite continues . They're still interested in eating , even though they may not be feeling hunger in the same way that they were .

Another really common one is lack of regular opportunities for pleasure and enjoyment with food . If you are always trying to eat perfectly , if you're trying to kind of build these perfectly balanced plates and you're playing food Tetris like a champ and you have all of your macros worked out but you're not thinking about do I want this ? Do I enjoy this ?

Is this something that I'm looking forward to ? And if you don't experience the satisfaction and pleasure of eating , you may find yourself pleasure seeking with an increased appetite . So a really common scenario for this one is evening snacking .

Nothing wrong with an evening snack , but what a lot of people will tell me is that they'll say I'm eating really well , I'm eating all my meals , I'm eating regularly . I'm putting you know I'm not restricting anything , but I still can't get out of the cupboard at eight o'clock at night . I'm constantly looking for that satisfaction .

And when we back it up a little bit and we start looking at well , what were your meals like in terms of pleasure and satisfaction ? Did you enjoy them ? Were you looking forward to them ? Did you stop what you were doing long enough to kind of notice that you were eating them ?

And often we're not building in that pleasure and satisfaction into our day regularly and so , as a result , our appetite for pleasure is still there . So that's a really kind of great way to think about . What can I add in ? So , using intuitive eating's add-in philosophy , what can I add in for pleasure and satisfaction ?

One of the things that we talked about in the Feaster community not too long ago was like trying to plan for that satisfaction earlier in the week , so planning to have foods that you enjoy on Monday , planning to go to lunch with your best friend on Tuesday instead of waiting until Friday . So build in pleasure and satisfaction earlier in your week .

Emotional hunger and emotional eating are very closely tied to appetite and what we might be calling food noise , because we have this pathway to avoid pain and seek pleasure . And eating is pleasurable Because we have this pathway to avoid pain and seek pleasure .

And eating is pleasurable , especially when we allow ourselves to have pleasurable foods only maybe when we feel like we've earned it or when we're experiencing a negative emotion .

So when you're experiencing that emotional hunger around or with a really strong feeling , then it makes sense that if those strong feelings are hanging around more often , for whatever reason , you may be thinking about those foods more often . Another thing that can impact both appetite and hunger is our sleep changes and stress .

So we know that our brain is a hungry part of our body and about a fifth of our body's energy needs are used up by our brain , and our brain needs well over 100 grams of carbohydrates a day just to kind of function .

And so if you're not sleeping enough to kind of recharge everything , you are more likely to have both physical hunger and appetite increased the following day because your brain is hungrier , it didn't get enough rest .

And because your brain is hungrier , it didn't get enough rest , and because your brain is smart , it's also going to kind of you're going to crave those quicker , easier sources of energy because your brain knows that that's going to be a quick fix for feeling tired .

This also plays into brain fog and so people who are experiencing kind of this brain fog of midlife , this mild subjective cognitive impairment that usually gets better this is not the time to be cutting down on carbs .

So I've said that probably a thousand times on this podcast , but I'll take every opportunity I can to say it again Now stress is generally a negative emotion . Yes , we can have positive stress , we can have good stressors , but negative stressors are ones that increase our stress hormones and those stress hormones can also get in the way of appetite regulation .

And one of the big reasons why is that ? If your body and brain perceive that you are under stress . So if your body is looking out for the tiger , it wants you to eat more so that it has the energy to run away .

And so when you're under a lot of stress and sometimes we can't control it so this is often where acceptance and self-compassion come into this conversation If you're under a lot of stress and especially if you're experiencing that stress response and let's just say that it's also interfering with your sleep and it's also interfering with your self-care it's easy to see

how food , noise , appetite and emotional hunger would all be impacted by that . Now , what about the hormones themselves ? So in perimenopause we have these fluctuations in estrogen and progesterone . In postmenopause we're kind of in a low new normal state , but we do know that estrogen and progesterone have an impact on hunger . Regulating hormones .

The two most common ones are ghrelin and leptin . So ghrelin is like a gremlin that will growl when you're hungry , and leptin is kind of the signal to your brain and body that your stores have been recharged , your battery's been recharged . It's your fullness hormone .

Now we're still learning about ghrelin and leptin , but we do know that it seems like estrogen fluctuations in particular may have an effect on how hungry we feel and , more importantly , how full we feel .

So , kind of going back to Ellen's question , which was I feel like I never feel full , there's a good chance but we don't know exactly to what extent there's a good chance that estrogen is playing a role in that , and so , like leptin , estrogen may help to kind of not dampen but just regulate appetite , especially around fullness .

So we also know that these mood changes that are happening , these neurotransmitter changes that are happening , are going to have an impact on emotional hunger .

So serotonin , you know , generally associated with , like happiness , and dopamine is also associated with pleasure , but also learning , and so we have these hormone changes that are up and down on a roller coaster and , as a result , we may be pleasure seeking more often , we may be looking for moments of pleasure , and that is where the emotional hunger comes in ,

because if you're seeking a moment of pleasure and our brains are extraordinarily smart and good at remembering things that have felt good and that we have enjoyed , it is going to have no problem saying , hey , just take the shortcut right into the kitchen .

And so we need to acknowledge , kind of , there are some biological , physiological , hormonal changes that may be contributing .

But it doesn't mean that it's going to happen always on autopilot or that you can't be part of that process , which is where the practice not reacting is such a helpful exercise in intuitive eating , because we can actually observe what's happening without judgment , and we can start to notice the patterns , the thoughts , the feelings and then really just kind of start

to say like , is this still working ? Is this feeling good ? Is this something that I want to keep doing or is this something that I want to change ? And emotional hunger , especially in midlife and menopause , is also impacted by just how busy life is , so we have fewer opportunities for self-care and downtime .

Life is busy , and maybe sitting down with your favorite snack at eight o'clock at night is literally the first time that you've had two minutes to yourself , and so your brain is very invested in maximizing all of the pleasure and satisfaction that it can get out of that time .

So to kind of just recap a little bit about the hunger and the hormones yes , we do know that estrogen and progesterone are related to how we experience hunger and fullness , and so there's a good chance that when you're going through perimenopause and until postmenopause , when things settle down , you may notice that you feel hungry on a different schedule or you feel

full on a different schedule . I've shared that . Until I was postmenopausal , I was somebody who you know I ate within five minutes of my feet hitting the floor coffee and food . That was like my number one mission because I would wake up hungry . That has been a big change for me in the last few years .

I sometimes still wake up hungry , but maybe a 10th of what I used to , and the intensity of my morning hunger has definitely changed . I don't think it's really ultimately changed how I eat't think it's really ultimately changed how I eat the rest of the day , but that has been the biggest change that I've noticed .

So I want to just kind of normalize that if you're in midlife and menopause and you've thought , oh my goodness , what is going on , you're probably right . There probably is something going on .

And if you feel like this idea of food noise is something that you relate to , maybe it's something that you're worried about , maybe it's something that you'd like to do something about . There are lots of ways that we can address this from a behavior perspective .

So , while keeping in mind all of the stuff that's happening in the background with hormones , we can look at this from a behavior change perspective , and that is where I think people can feel really empowered , that they understand their behavior , that they understand what's happening and not just that they're kind of victim to it . So where do you go from here ?

I'd like to leave you with this one kind of thought , and that hunger of any kind is not drama , it is data . Hunger is data . It is not drama . You don't need to fear it , you don't need to feel like it needs to be put into a corner . If you are physically hungry , eat .

If you feel like you're not experiencing enough fullness , you can play around with adding things to your plate like protein , fats , fiber , variety . That will increase pleasure , satisfaction , fullness . And if you're emotionally hungry , if you feel like you've got so much going on , you're feeling all the feelings , and food is always what your brain is defaulting to .

Just know that . There are lots of ways that you can kind of learn to feel a little bit more empowered and control of that and less worried that it is something that is happening outside of your control . So I hope that this episode on hunger and fullness is helpful . I really love this question . So , ellen , thanks for sending it in In the show notes .

I'm also going to link to a Google form where you can drop your question and I can answer your question on a future podcast , but for now , I hope you all have a great day . Thanks for tuning in to this week's episode of the Midlife Feast .

For more non-diet , health , hormone and general midlife support , click the link in the show notes to learn how you can work and learn from me . And if you enjoyed this episode and found it helpful , please consider leaving a review or subscribing , because it helps other women just like you find us and feel supported in midlife .