Does Fasting cause (or cure) Hunger?

Fasting affects the hunger hormone ghrelin

Ghrelin is the so-called hunger hormone, first purified from rat stomach in 1999 and subsequently cloned. It binds to growth hormone (GH) secretagogue receptor, which strongly stimulates GH. So, eating, by itself does not makes you gain lean tissue (like muscle and bone), despite what all the makers of supplements like whey protein and creatine claim. Rather, hunger may be a strong growth stimulus.

Nothing turns off Growth Hormone like eating and you need GH to grow functional tissue. Of course, food provides the nutrients needed to grow, so in fact, you need both feeding and fasting cycles to properly grow. Not all feeding, and not all fasting. Life lies in the balance of the two. The cycle of life is feast and fast. But in today’s world, many people would have you believe that fasting is detrimental to your health, and that you should eat all the time.

The biggest worry about fasting is dealing with hunger. People assume that hunger will get worse and worse until you cannot help yourself and start an IV donut slurry in your garage. Oooh… donuts…. Ghrelin, the hunger hormone, increases appetite and weight gain. It also antagonizes the effect of leptin (in rats at least). Leptin is a hormone produced by fat cells which turns off appetite and makes us stop eating.

Ghrelin turns on appetite. So, if you want to lose weight on a long term basis, you need to tune down ghrelin. If you don’t eat (fast), don’t…