Why am I always so tired after I eat or what causes extreme fatigue after eating? Many people complain of getting tired after eating or overwhelming tired after eating. What are the factors behind this tiredness?
Feeling tired and drowsy after meals have become a common phenomenon. To some people, this sounds normal. The argument is; you can’t fall asleep when your stomach is empty.
Why do I get extremely fatigued after eating?
Is feeling tired after meal becoming a global catastrophe? Maybe it is. You will agree with me that one feels extremely tired and develops a strong urge to take a nap shortly after meals. This article, therefore, explores some of the possible reasons why you feel exhausted after eating.
According to healthline.com, feeling exhausted after meals is normal. Therefore, stop wondering whether you are sick. Generally, there are many biochemical processes and changes and processes that take place after eating. These changes occur during digestion.
Your body is just overworked. Feeling tired after meals mean that your body is trying to cope up with the digestion process.
On top scientific reasons why you get tired after eating, selfhacked.com notes that extreme fatigue after eating is scientifically understandable. In fact, there are many reasons behind it.
Some of the common reasons for feeling tired after munching include:
You are familiar with what metabolism is as far as digestion is concerned. When you eat food, the body breaks it down and converts it into energy which is later utilized by the body. This chemical process is known as metabolism.
What if you are having an issue with your metabolism? What if energy is not being utilized in the body as it ought to? Then you are likely to feel exhausted after eating. If your body does not use up the energy produced, then it will be stored. This could be a reason why you may feel tired soon after eating.
What if the body utilizes more energy than the one consumed? You will also be having a metabolic problem. In an attempt to meet the deficiency, the body feels exhausted.
You shouldn’t feel exhausted after eating. The food you eat should leave you energized. The food should awaken your moods. Feeling otherwise, therefore, it could be a metabolic issue.
The body contains cytokines that are inflammatory. Cytokines are small proteins that play an essential role in cell signaling. When they are released, they affect the behavior of cells surrounding them.
Generally, cytokines play three distinct roles namely:
However, some cytokines suppress orexin, which is a protein that regulates appetite. When orexin is suppressed by some cytokines, such as TNF and IL-1B, people tend to have abnormal sensitivities after eating.
As a result of these sensitivities, the body gets inflammation after consuming some food types. As a result, one gets overwhelming tiredness after eating. To deal with it, one should get rid of suppressing cytokines.
Like earlier noted, orexin significantly regulates food intake and absorption. The functioning of orexin depends on the body pH. Any change in pH is likely to affect how food is absorbed in the body.
Food intake and wakefulness depend on the functioning of orexin. When blood acidity gets altered, the operation of orexin gets inhibited. In short, there is suppression of orexin. Consequently, one experiences tiredness after eating.
Why does increase in pH in the blood occur after eating? Once you have eaten, some acidic is required to enhance digestion in the stomach. Therefore, this means part of the hydrochloric acid used comes from the blood. As a result, the blood pH goes up, thus suppressing Orexin.
You all know what ATP energy is. The Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) is released after eating. Food consumed is broken down, and the end product is ATP energy. As earlier noted, the functioning of orexin is easily affected by many factors.
One of the factors that affect the functioning of orexin is glucose. However, when there is enough production of ATP by mitochondria, then orexin is not easily suppressed. What would happen, therefore, for people whose mitochondrion is working correctly?
There is only one probability; the body will be overworked while trying to handle the digestion process. In the process, one feels tired after eating.
This hormone is made by adipose cells and works in regulating energy balance. The level of leptin in the body goes up when one has eaten. What are the effects of Leptin? It is believed that Leptin causes inflammation in the body through spiking. These spikes, from leptin, are responsible for fatigue experienced after you have taken some food.
Therefore, the type of food you eat would determine whether you will feel tired or not. Some foods, such as carbohydrates, produce more leptin than proteins. Therefore, it is normal to feel tired after munching foods rich in carbohydrates.
Like earlier noted, food digestion in the stomach requires much energy. After eating, the blood vessels around the stomach lining and intestines dilate. Much oxygen is supplied to the stomach too.
This surplus supply of blood makes the blood vessels supplying blood to the brain to constrict. This constriction reduces the amount of blood going to the brain. As a result, one feels really tired after munching.
Human beings have parasympathetic and sympathetic systems. The parasympathetic system in the body is involved with resting and digesting, thus the name rest and digest system. This system gets mainly activated after eating.
When parasympathetic system is activated, the sympathetic system gets deactivated. The sympathetic system is for fight and flight. It is activated when one is busy or when endangered.
After eating, one feels relaxed and drowsy. The exhaustion and fatigue are as a result of the parasympathetic system activation.
Do you feel tired after lunch? If the answer is yes, then ask yourself why you don’t feel the same after taking breakfast? This is due to circadian rhythms. Taking lunch in the afternoon makes you feel extreme tiredness. Exhaustion is because 1-3 pm is considered to be the afternoon dip.
At this time, the body experiences the rhythms of wakefulness. These waves form the Circadian rhythm that comes along with extreme fatigue.
If you eat foods rich in fats, then you are likely to feel tired afterward. The tiredness is because foods rich in fats stimulate the gut to produce a lot of cholecystokinins, a hormone that causes fatigue.
When there is excessive production of cholecystokinin, one does feel not only tired but also sleepy. Cholecystokinin is also known to stimulate the production of orexin, thus encouraging more fatigue and wakefulness.
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