'Why do I feel hungry?' UK Study finds negative impact on eating behaviour during COVID

COVID has affected the lifestyles of people and specifically the eating behaviour along with restricting physical activity. To further shed light on this change of behaviour, researchers from the University of Liverpool surveyed 2002 adults in the UK to study their change in eating habits. However, the answer to the question, "Why do I feel hungry all the time?", is a bit simpler than most people think.

The study was "Obesity, Eating Behaviour and Physical Activity During COVID-19 Lockdown: A Study of UK Adults" and was published in the journal Appetite. The researchers found out that 56% of the participants had reported negative changes in their eating behaviour and physical activity. Moreover, at least half of them reported that they snack more frequently now than when there were no lockdowns. As per the Washington News Today, some people say that this hunger is due to a feeling of not eating enough, but it could be deeper for some people.

Researchers said that this trend of snacking often was more evident in people with higher BMI. Due to this, they do not feel motivated to increase their physical activity and since there was the lockdown anyway, it made it even more difficult for people to get out of this cycle. The causes of hunger have a large spectrum and could be situational or physiological.

Kristen Smith from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics says that medications and nutritional factors could increase hunger. Dr Jinan Banna said that the mood of the person depends on the kind of food they eat. Banna further said while talking to Newsweek, having an unbalanced diet of white bread, rice, sweets will not make a person feel full for a long time as these are simple carbohydrates, which are digested quickly. A balanced diet of protein, fibres and fat is recommended as they take longer to digest and the person does not feel the urge to constantly eat.

Skipped meals could lead to increased hunger?

Dietician Maya Feller says that skipping meals can also add to increased hunger as one’s body must have regular meals. Some people try to skip meals or eat very little to control their weight, however, any breakdown of focus from the diet could lead them to eat a lot more than they should or they were planning to eat. Hence, being one a diet should be very subtle and not done to the extreme. The dietitians also say that environmental changes could cause increased hunger. That means a change in lifestyle or activity levels that may cause stress or lack of sleep makes people hungrier, like during COVID-19 lockdowns.