The Hunger Hormone - Ghrelin Explained

In this video, I discuss the hormone known as Ghrelin and provide help on how to use it to your advantage to aid in fat loss.

Music used:
Solitude by Rook1e

In today’s video I’ll be discussing Ghrelin, which is known as the main hunger hormone. And what it is, why it gets produced, where it gets produced and if it can aid in fat loss.

What is Ghrelin and why does it get produced? Since it is the main hunger to cause hunger, it stimulates appetite for you to intake food when your stomach is empty or close to it. Ghrelin also plays a role in the control of insulin release and the release of human growth hormone. It also gets produced around the times at which you eat, so say for example, if you usually eat at; 9am, 2pm and 6pm, your body will be expecting food , so your levels of Ghrelin will spike at around those times.

Where does it get produced? Ghrelin is produced in the stomach when you’re hungry, which then goes into your bloodstream and circulates in the blood until eat something. And as it circulates, it will act on the brain, specifically on the hypothalamus which is an area of the brain responsible for the control of appetite. And when the Ghrelin from the bloodstream act on the brain, it will make you hungry.

So can it aid in fat loss? So Ghrelin cannot actually aid in fat loss, but understanding it but using it to your advantage most definitely can. First off, Ghrelin levels may be altered to an unusual amount due to some factors. These factors include:

Not keeping at a normal body weight. A lot of people think that individuals who are higher in body fat percentage have more Ghrelin circulating in their bloodstream when they get hungry, but the fact seems to be that they tend to be more sensitive to Ghrelin, rather than having more of it. And on the other end, individuals who have a really low body fat percentage tend to have higher levels of Ghrelin, which is the bodies attempt to make up for the lost fat and to bring the body back to normal body fat levels. So the main point is to stay at a normal body weight and not gain so much fat that you become very sensitive to Ghrelin and not lose too much fat so that you don’t have chronically high levels of Ghrelin.

Not having good sleep quality. Sleep is very important in the body for it to function adequately as in the quality, length and consistency of sleep. There have been several studies done on the effects on the body due to short sleep duration. I have picked out one study that claimed that short sleep duration is associated with reduced leptin, elevated Ghrelin and increased BMI. These claims can also be proved by their findings, this first graph shows the correlation between the participants’ BMI and the amount of sleep they got. You can see that the group that sleeps six hours on average had the highest BMI on average. And although correlation doesn’t imply causation, these next two graphs show that the groups that slept the least, had the highest levels of Ghrelin and the lowest levels of Leptin, which is the satiety hormone. And the study concluded that participants with short sleep had reduced leptin and elevated Ghrelin. These differences in Leptin and Ghrelin are likely to increase appetite, possibly explain in the increased BMI observed with short sleep duration. In western societies where Chronic sleep restriction is common and food is widely available, changes in appetite regulatory hormones with sleep cruelty curtailment may contribute to obesity.

Eating better to suppress hunger So as you eat, your Ghrelin levels will decrease but some foods will decrease it more than others. It’s a known fact that proteins and carbs are more satiating than fats and processed foods. I’ve picked out a study that shows the food satiety index of some common foods, the study was done by serving 38 foods, Separated into six categories, which are foods, bakery products, snack foods, carbohydrate rich foods, protein rich foods and breakfast cereals. These foods were fed to groups of 11 to 13 subjects. Satiety readings were obtained every 15 minutes over a two hour period after which subjects were free to eat ad libitum from a standard range of food and drinks. And these are the results that they got in the end, and we can see the difference in satiety from the food groups when also being compared to white bread at the bottom. The bakery products being the least filling, and the proteins and carbs being the most filling. Specifically potatoes being the most satiating carb source and lean fish being the most satiating protein source. Eating at consistent times: Like I said earlier, Ghrelin Levels tend to rise around the times you normally eat at, So if you stay consistent and eat around the same time every day, you shouldn’t get random cravings out of nowhere. So for an example say if you eat at; 9 am, 2 pm and 6 pm these are the times they your Ghrelin levels Will be the highest.

#Fitness #Fatloss #hunger