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If you've ever felt powerless around food, it's not because you're lacking discipline. It's because your hunger hormones are in the driver's seat.

Behind the scenes, hunger hormones like ghrelin, leptin, cortisol, and insulin are constantly working to regulate your appetite and energy. But when things like poor sleep, skipped meals, or a diet heavy in processed foods throw those hormones off balance, it can feel like your cravings are calling the shots.

That's exactly why I created the FREE 3-Day Hunger Hormone Reset Mini Video Series: to help you stop blaming yourself and start working with your hormones instead of against them.

Inside the 3-Day Hunger Hormone Reset

Over the past decade of working with patients, I've seen the same patterns over and over again. People think they're broken, but really, their hunger hormones are just hijacked. So I took everything I know—all the strategies that have worked for thousands of patients—and condensed it into three powerful 10-minute videos (plus a comprehensive PDF guide).

Here's what you'll get:

Day 1: Ghrelin & Insulin - Why you're always hungry and what to do about it 

Day 2: Leptin & Cortisol - You're eating all the right things but still hungry? Here's why 

Day 3: The Sneaky Hormone Hijacker - How ultra-processed foods mess with your hunger signals (and practical swaps that aren't diet culture-y)

The best part? You get immediate access to everything, so if you're like me and want to binge-watch it all at once, everything is available to watch right now.

In this blog post, we're diving deep into one key player from Day 1: ghrelin, your body's internal food radar. We'll explore why it ramps up cravings, how to calm it naturally, and how one simple breakfast swap helped my patient bring their pre-diabetic A1C back into a healthy range.

Meet Ghrelin: Your Internal Food Radar

Ghrelin is the hunger hormone that says, ‘You're hungry, start eating!’, but what most people don’t know about ghrelin is that it doesn't just make you hungry… it increases your spatial awareness of food.

The reason this matters so much is that when ghrelin levels are up, not only are you hungry, you also have more food seeking behavior.

Have you ever noticed that, when you're really hungry, you suddenly remember exactly where everything is in your kitchen? The leftover holiday candy in the pantry, those ice cream sandwiches in the freezer, the snacks tucked away in random cupboards? 

Earlier in the day after breakfast, you probably weren't having those thoughts at all because ghrelin wasn't elevated yet.

What Makes Ghrelin Spike (And Why It Matters)

Understanding what triggers ghrelin is key for managing your hunger. Here are the three main culprits:

1. Going Too Long Between Meals

This one makes intuitive sense. The longer you go without eating, the more ghrelin rises. Your body is essentially saying, "Hey, I need nutrition!" and cranking up the hunger signal to motivate you to eat.

2. Weight Loss

Here's the frustrating part: as your weight set point goes down, ghrelin levels go up. I know this can feel discouraging, but I bring it up because you need to have compassion for yourself.

The strategies that work in month one typically don't work in month six, twelve, or eighteen. You need to adapt your approach, just like a baby grows and needs different things at different stages. The good news is, I do see ghrelin levels often stabilize the longer you maintain at a weight.

3. Sleep Deprivation

Lack of sleep is one of the most powerful ghrelin triggers. When you're sleep-deprived, ghrelin shoots up, making you hungrier and more focused on food. It's frustrating because you're already feeling crummy from poor sleep, and then on top of it, you're dealing with intense cravings.

But here's what I want you to remember: when we understand the science behind it, we can stop making it personal. It's not that you're weak or always do this—you're sleep-deprived and your body is acting normally, trying to compensate by giving you more fuel through increased hunger.

How to Keep Ghrelin in Check: Two Key Strategies

Strategy #1: Start Your Day with Protein (And Get It at Every Meal)

While carbohydrates bring ghrelin down quickly, protein keeps it suppressed for the longest time. This is especially important in the morning when we're naturally more insulin resistant.

For example, I once had a patient in primary care who was incredibly fit—running every morning, doing amazing workouts. Weight wasn't an issue at all. But they were pre-diabetic, and I couldn't figure out why. 

Their breakfast was plain oatmeal every morning.

But eating oatmeal on its own is almost the same as eating a candy bar in terms of blood sugar impact. We made one simple change by switching to two eggs instead of the oatmeal and, like magic, their A1C normalized. 

This isn't about demonizing oatmeal, but it shows how powerful that morning protein can be, especially if you're dealing with insulin resistance, PCOS, or pre-diabetes.

Strategy #2: Eat at Early Hunger, Not Late Hunger

This is a skill that takes practice, but it's incredibly powerful. You need to learn the difference between early hunger signals and late hunger.

Early hunger feels like:

• You're starting to get distracted
• You feel a little weak
• Your stomach begins to feel different
• You're beginning to notice food more

Late hunger is when:

• You're about to lose your mind
• You're "hangry"
• You have no reasoning left
• You're ready to hit the drive-through

The key is catching hunger at the early stage, before ghrelin peaks. This might mean you need to be more prepared by carrying a protein bar and some raw veggies, or starting meal prep before you're actually hungry.

Work With Your Biology, Not Against It

Your hunger isn't a character flaw—it's biology. When you understand how ghrelin works and implement strategies to work with it instead of against it, everything changes.

Remember, if you typically can't make it at least 3-4 hours between meals without getting ravenous, that's a sign your meal wasn't nourishing enough. We need to work on that balance of protein, fiber, and healthy fats to keep you satisfied.

If you’re ready to stop fighting your biology and start understanding it, make sure you grab my FREE 3-Day Hunger Hormone Reset Mini Video Series, where I walk you through strategies for all four key hunger hormones—ghrelin, leptin, cortisol, and insulin. It's everything I've learned in over a decade of practice, condensed into 30 minutes that could change how you think about hunger forever.

TRANSCRIPT:

Disclaimer: The transcript below is provided for your convenience and may contain typos, errors, or grammatical inconsistencies, as it has not been professionally edited or proofread. Please enjoy it as-is and read at your own discretion.

Please note: The content shared in this podcast and blog post is for informational and educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Always consult your healthcare provider for personalized medical guidance. 

 Welcome back to another episode of the podcast. How's everybody doing today? I'm finding that summer. It used to not be one of my favorite times of the year, but I truly love it because I think that there are so many amazing things that you can do outside, and that's something that I find to be really nice and I do find, at least for me, when I go in the heat, I kind of melt in the sense of like, you don't really think that great, but you almost want that we have a bouncy house and so we'll put that up and honestly I just suntan in it, so I'll do that.

Or I really love, right now we pretty much, I try either on a Saturday or Sunday. As a family, we go to the beach. There is one that's closer to us they're all like national state parks, right? But I like to go to one that's about an hour away. There's actually several. And we'll just load the car up with, all the little floaty devices that the kids love.

Snacks, drinks for everyone. We get some ice on the way, and it's just such a good time. So I'm loving this summer. I hope that you are doing things that are active and you're enjoying yourself. Maybe you're getting some rest if you need that. Today I wanna talk a little bit about, I have made a super amazing new mini course that's free.

I really wanted to do something. I am seeing what all of you have questions about all day long, and I'm gonna tell you what I called it. It's called Hack Your Hunger Hormones in three days. And I'll tell you what I talk about in it, I condensed down. I kid you not what I have done with for over a decade with patients and I thought, okay, if I had to watch three quick videos, 10 minutes or less, this is, it's a 30 minute overall what you're gonna watch and there's a PDF that goes with it. Everything like that. I literally thought if I had to hear it all at once, what would it be? And I stuck it there. Okay. It's phenomenal. I love it. I literally thought to myself, this is everything distilled down.

So if that's something you're interested in, again, we'll have the link in the show notes today. I just wanna focus on the first part of what I talked about. This is what I talk about in the first video. So again, you'll have an understanding of what's coming at you. So I talk about when we say hunger hormones, what do we even mean? Hunger hormones are, different hormones in our body that are regulating when we're hungry and not. So we have some hormones that say you're hungry, start eating, and we have some that say, you're satiated, you're good. It's okay to stop eating. These levels can get really messed with whether we're having processed food, whether we're sleep deprived, whether we haven't eaten food in a long time.

There's many things that are. Very easy to know that it either ups this or decreases something else. And a lot of these things are well understood at this point. The first thing that I talk day one is about why you're always hungry and what to do about it.

I talk a lot about the two hormones, ghrelin and insulin. And I talk about, okay, when is ghrelin up? What can you do to bring it down? And I also talk about insulin. Just really simple tips and tricks. And then the second day, I talk about. Okay, so you've had food and you're doing all these things, but you're still hungry. I talk more in that video about leptin and cortisol. And so these are, leptins should really be a satiety hormone, cortisol we think of with stress, right? And how this plays in. So there's this second level, that I see where you're doing all the things and you're still not having the results.

You're likely super stressed out. And stress is not just thinking cognitively stress, it's also you might be overdoing it in a lot of capacities, and then the last day. It's really about, I really think that the sneaky hormone hijacker, it's really ultra processed food. And talk a little bit about it.

What are some super practical things that you can do that are not diet culture? Okay. I don't subscribe to this. Everything goes it. It's too diet culture. It's too activating. Most people that work with me, you have a history with trauma, with food where you were probably restricted in some capacity or either.

Let's just focus today solely on ghrelin. Okay, so I'm just gonna talk about one of the hormones.

Again, if you wanna learn all the rest of this, I would really encourage you to do this, hack your hunger hormones in three days. And again, you do get all of it at once. So if you're someone like me where, I mean, we will, we'll send you an email for three days just to remind you in case you haven't, but. I wanna binge 'em right away.

Don't worry if you're someone that you like to binge things all at once, that's a hundred percent how I am.

So you do have, when you sign up, there's right away there's the PDF, and then you can watch all of it all in a row. If you wanna do that, you just wanna blaze through them. Today we're just gonna talk about ghrelin, but do that freebie if you wanna listen to the rest of it. Okay, so ghrelin is the hunger hormone that says you're hungry, start eating, and something that.

Super fascinates me about ghrelin is that it increases your spatial awareness of food. The reason that this matters so much is that when ghrelin levels are up, not only are you hungry, okay, that makes sense, but you have more food seeking behavior, you know where everything is in the pantry, right?

You're like. You're thinking to yourself, oh, I remember the leftover candy from a holiday. And, oh, in the freezer we just got ice cream sandwiches and you know where everything is. And if you would think earlier in the day at breakfast, you were not having those thoughts.

And it's because ghrelin probably wasn't up as much after you had breakfast. Verse maybe it's two, three o'clock and you haven't had food. Ghrelin will increase that spatial awareness. Things that are gonna spike ghrelin, it's gonna make sense. One thing is that you are going really long between meals, so the longer you have ant eaten, ghrelin rises, this makes intuitive sense, that your body's like, I need nutrition.

Up ghrelin to motivate you to eat. Okay, so that makes sense. Now, the other one that's, it's discouraging, but it's true that as our weight set point goes down, ghrelin levels go up. And so this is, it's annoying, right? Because you're sitting there thinking, I can't control that, but I bring it up because you need to have compassion for yourself because typically I see the road get harder and harder, and not that it has to.

Feel harder, but typically the strategies need to keep changing as you're going forward. The thing that works right in the beginning, it typically doesn't work. Month six, month 12, month 18, you typically need to change things just like a baby grows. You need to grow with what you're doing, right?

Just have compassion for that. And I do see it level out the more that you stabilize at a weight. So sometimes it's really not a bad thing when I see people for a few months at the same weight. Number one, it's incredibly hard to maintain weight we talk about this a lot. But then number two, sometimes that ghrelin level can come down and you're not constantly hungry.

Some people are more or less sensitive to this, and this is why too, people will say, no, I'm eating the exact same amount and I'm gaining back weight. And what we know from studies is that. The ghrelin level's up. And you think you're just eating when hungry and stopping at enough, but really because ghrelin is up, you're eating more.

And so that's, again, that's just an aside. Alright. So you know that it goes up if you're going long time between meals, if you're losing weight in general. And then the third one that I really like to focus on is sleep deprivation. Now, I know we talk about this a lot, but lack of sleep, it's gonna do you in you, there's so many things that lack of sleep effects, but it will directly impact your ghrelin levels.

Ghrelin goes up and then you're more hungry. And this is so frustrating, right? Like you're already feeling crummy from not getting sleep. And then on top of it, you're more hungry and you have urges and cravings and you're thinking about all the food in the house. But again, I find when we know the science behind it, we take it away from, oh see this is me and I'm just.

I always do this and I'm the problem, and it's just no, you're sleep deprived and your body's acting normally, and it's trying to compensate by giving you more fuel in other ways by upping ghrelin. Okay. So knowing that. What are some really practical things you can do to combat this? And again, I go through all of these, it's all written out in the resource if you wanna go through it.

The first thing that I would do is I would start your day with some protein and I'd get protein at every single meal or snack. And the reason I say this is that. Protein is gonna bring down ghrelin levels and keep it down the longest. Carbohydrates bring it down the quickest, but if you actually want it to stay down, you need enough protein.

Obviously when we eat, we wanna be able to make it a few hours without getting hungry again I don't know about you, but I hate if I eat a meal and then like within two hours I'm ravenous. It's like, did that even matter? Right now I'm not in the rules, but typically. With my patients, if they can't make it at least three to four hours between meals, then that meal's not nourishing enough.

We need to work on that. Right? But the point is, you've got to get some protein in, and specifically in the morning, we're very insulin resistant. It tends to be a time when it's really great to get protein in and not to make it. A hundred percent a carbohydrate meal. For example, if you're dealing with insulin resistance, let's say that, your weight set point's been up and you've been told this, you have PCOS, you have pre-diabetes, diabetes, things like that.

Let's say that the morning time you might say, oh, I'm gonna have oatmeal. Okay, oatmeal on its own. It, it's almost the same as having a candy bar. Now, it might be different if you first have some protein and you balance it or you make it with other things, that's a different matter, but. Straight oatmeal.

I'll never forget, I had a patient that this was in the past in primary care and this person was so fit, okay? They were running every morning and doing all these incredible things. Weight was not a challenge. Zero. That was not why they were seeing me, and they were pre-diabetic. And I was thinking, how is this even possible?

We made that one change and the A1C normalized, that was the only thing we changed. I said, Hey, can you just do, two eggs and whatever else we said compared to the oatmeal and literally their A1C normalized magic. All right, so getting your protein. Not only in the morning because you're insulin resistant then, but also, and again, if you're, I say this as a general thing, like if you're someone that there, remember there's a certain percentage of the population that has a genetic variant where you're not hungry in the morning.

That's fine. My point being. Get protein in and typically at the first meal, it's really gonna matter. And also that your protein matters not only to keep your muscles and for strength and all that kind of stuff, but it matters to keep ghrelin levels down. The second thing that I think is the most helpful, and I'm gonna stop with the second tip, and again, the rest will be in the course.

You need to eat at early hunger and not late hunger. And again, the more I clued into this, how much ghrelin affects your spatial awareness of food. I just realized when people eat, when hunger's starting, you're beginning to notice, you're more distracted, you are feeling a little bit weak.

Your stomach starts to feel different. Sensations like you have to clue into what's early hunger. Verse late hunger is when you were about to lose your darn mind. You're at quote unquote hangry, right? You're like, let's whip through the drive through. You're just ready to lose it, right?

You do not have reasoning anymore. You've lost it at that point. Eating at early hunger, I think is really a skill. And part of that might be that you, to eat at early hunger, you might need to be more prepared. Sometimes you might need to carry a little bag of. Raw veggies and a protein bar, or you might need to carry something with you so that if you get hungry and let's say you're on a Saturday and you're out shopping, doing all these things that you can eat that, that you can support yourself.

So there might be some work in that because you do need to often maybe already have the meal ready or know what you're gonna do or start the meal before you're hungry, like if you're prepping it. And so this does take some work, but. We wanna try to eat at early hunger and not late hunger because then we avoid that ghrelin peak and that can be incredibly helpful.

Alright, and then I will leave the rest of these, I'll just bring this up real quick, but I get into this more in the again, in day one of the hack your hunger hormones in three days. Number three would be use to use food pairing. So you're gonna start out first with the things that have fiber, like the greens, then the protein, then the carb.

This is gonna keep your, blood sugar levels down, keep insulin levels down, and that's incredibly helpful to prevent more fat storage. And then number four is gonna be give your carbs a friend. You're always gonna pair fiber and protein with your carbohydrate. And number five is gonna be, we're gonna add, don't subtract.

So we're gonna crowd out ultra processed food. Again, I get into this all in more detail in that course. I know I've said a lot of times it's phenomenal. It's free. I would highly recommend it. We'll have the link for that. I hope you enjoy, this was such a labor of love. You're gonna see if you do the videos that progressively as I'm recording the videos, I'm getting more and more psyched about the topic.

It's so funny. See if you notice that as you go through, you're like, oh my gosh, she's getting more and more and more excited. So make sure that you watch it all the way through. 'cause I think that these might be some of the. Most impactful 30 minutes that you're gonna have in a long time. Alright, if you have topics that you ever want us to do, anything like that, again, feel free to use.

There's that fan mail down below that is, you can send us a message anonymously. Remember, if you ever want an answer, you've gotta put your email so that we can contact you back. Otherwise, it's anonymous. You writing to us, by the way, does not in the fan mail, does not subscribe you to our email list. I hope you have an amazing rest of the week. Keep those ghrelin levels down, people. It's gonna help so much and you're gonna feel like a different person. And also, isn't it?

Fun to learn like 900 reasons that eating protein is good. We, we need to do an episode on that. The 900th reason that eating protein is amazing for you. Everyone always thinks of muscle and things like that, but I mean, I think that ghrelin is honestly one of the top reasons to get that protein in.

Alright, have an amazing rest of the week.