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Essentials: How to Control Hunger, Eating & Satiety

Feb 27, 2025 39m 55s 16 insights
In this Huberman Lab Essentials episode, I explain how hormones regulate hunger, appetite and feelings of satiety (fullness), along with strategies to help control appetite. I describe how the body senses nutrient levels and how the brain processes these signals to stimulate hunger or suppress appetite. I also discuss how certain foods can help curb hunger, while processed foods and emulsifiers can interfere with satiety signals, leading to overeating. Additionally, I cover how lifestyle factors such as exercise and meal timing regulate blood glucose levels, which in turn impact hunger and appetite. Read the full episode show notes at hubermanlab.com. Huberman Lab Essentials are short episodes focused on essential science and protocol takeaways from past full-length Huberman Lab episodes. Watch or listen to the full-length episode at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠hubermanlab.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.
Actionable Insights

1. Avoid Highly Processed Foods

Avoid highly processed foods because they contain emulsifiers that strip away the gut’s mucosal lining and cause neurons to retract, preventing satiety signals like CCK from being deployed, leading to overeating and cravings. This damage can be repaired by staying away from them for some time.

2. Manage Blood Glucose Levels

Manage blood glucose to keep it in the euglycemic range (about 70-100 nanograms per deciliter) to prevent damage to neurons and other tissues, which can occur with excessively high glucose levels.

3. Ensure Proper Hydration & Electrolytes

Drink an electrolyte mix (like Element, with sodium, magnesium, potassium, no sugar) upon waking and during exercise to ensure proper hydration and adequate electrolytes, critical for optimal brain and body function and preventing diminished cognitive and physical performance.

4. Perform Zone Two Cardio

Do Zone Two cardio for 30-60 minutes, three to four times a week, to make blood sugar really stable and improve insulin sensitivity, allowing for better management of glucose spikes from high-sugar foods.

5. Engage in Resistance or HIIT

Perform high-intensity interval training or resistance training (weight training) to stimulate mechanisms that promote repackaging of glucose into glycogen in muscle tissue and liver, and to cause long-standing increases in basal metabolic rate.

6. Eat Fibrous Foods First

To achieve a more modest and steady increase in blood glucose and earlier satiety, eat fibrous foods first, then protein, and finally carbohydrates, rather than eating them all at once or carbohydrates first.

7. Move After Meals

Take a calm, easy walk or engage in other movement after a meal to adjust blood sugar regulation for the better.

8. Exercise Before Eating

Engage in any kind of intense exercise or even just walking, jogging, or cycling before eating to dampen blood glucose levels.

9. Maintain Regular Meal Times

Eat at regular mealtimes to regulate ghrelin secretion, which acts as a food anticipatory signal, making you hungry at consistent intervals and potentially avoiding intense hunger spikes when skipping meals.

10. Consume Omega-3s and CLAs

Ingest Omega-3 fatty acids and Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) from food or supplements to stimulate CCK release, which reduces or blunts appetite, helping to prevent overeating.

11. Consume Proper Amino Acids

Eat proper amino acids at proper levels to stimulate CCK release, which helps to blunt appetite and keep it clamped within healthy ranges.

12. Consider Ketogenic Diet

The ketogenic diet has strong support for regulating blood sugar (glucose) by consuming very little or zero foods that promote big spikes in insulin and glucose, but be aware of potential thyroid and carbohydrate management issues if returning to carbs after prolonged ketosis.

13. Delay Caffeine Intake

Delay caffeine intake (e.g., mate) by about two hours after waking up to maintain a nice arc of alertness and focus throughout the day.

14. Drink Yerba Mate

Consume yerba mate (like Matina) as a preferred caffeine source to regulate blood sugar, provide high antioxidant content, improve digestion, offer neuroprotective effects, and increase GLP-1 and leptin levels, which act as appetite suppressants.

15. Supplement Foundational Nutrition

Take a vitamin-mineral probiotic drink (like AG1) to cover foundational nutritional needs, especially if it’s difficult to get enough fruits, vegetables, vitamins, minerals, micronutrients, and adaptogens from food alone.

16. Consume High-Quality Protein

Eat high-quality protein sources (like David bars, 28g protein, 150 calories, 0 sugar) when in a rush, away from home, or for a quick snack to easily hit protein goals (1g per pound body weight) without taking in excess calories.