Workouts
Wednesday: Matt and I went for a 4-mile run. It was precious, besides the fact that I felt like I weighed 500 lbs.
Last night: Pumped some iron while watching some trashy quality TV.
Today: Treadmill-ing it up most likely with my Mix It Up workout.
Do you ever feel hungry after eating a banana?
I’ve never realized it until recently but…what the heck? Weirdest thing ever.
I decided to do a bit of research to figure out this nonsense. On Livestrong’s website, I found the answer to my question. Here’s what I got from it…
That’s right…I made a graphic for this post.
Bananas are full of potassium, simple sugars, and amino acids, which is why they make such great recovery foods after a hard workout or run. HOWEVER, all these simple sugars spike your insulin levels, resulting in a crash in your blood sugar. Alas! You are now hungry.
For the average banana, there are 3g of fiber, which should actually suppress your appetite. Unfortunately, the boat loads of carbs go right through you, and the sugars confuse the heck out of your body. You just ate, but now you are hungry.
Simple enough, eh?
If you’re curious, here’s the nutrition facts for the average banana:
[Source]
And now you just learned something. Either that or everyone knows this, and I live under a rock.
Questions for you:
Do you feel hungry after eating bananas? What about other fruit?
What’s your favorite way to eat bananas? Straight up? In oatmeal? On your pizza? I’m all about the Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal.
What exciting things are you doing for your father on Sunday for Father’s Day? (You’re welcome for reminding you.)
Thanks for doing this research! Bananas are big part of my long pre-run meal,but almost always combine them with peanut butter. Nice post.
Thanks! And you can’t go wrong with peanut butter and bananas. Best combo ever!
I guess I don’t typically feel hungry after eating bananas, but that’s because I never eat them alone. I had one today in some honey nut cheerios. I always use frozen bananas as a base in my smoothies, but I add so much stuff to them, that I think the banana part is just fluff at that point. I honestly can’t stand the consistency of bananas alone or I would probably eat them alone more often.
Ya, sometimes bananas gross me out. I don’t know what it is. I don’t always notice them making me hungry because I usually eat them with something as well. It’s been a weird discovery recently.
I haven’t noticed being hungry after eating a banana, but now that you brought it to my attention, I’m sure I’m going to notice it more often, now! I usually eat my bananas with peanut butter, so that holds me over. However, I have noticed that I get hungry very often when I make smoothies with bananas in them.
Really!? That’s so weird! Smoothies usually hold me over for awhile, but anytime I eat a banana without a friend (like peanut butter) I usually get hungry.
That happens to me as well Katie, especially if I eat bananas and dates together, I end up getting more hungry and my appetite never shuts off or feel satiated
I always eat a banana after my workout session. It gives me lots of energy.
Great article 🙂
I have wondered about this for years. It doesn’t make sense, though, why a banana would make me so hungry, but drinking a soda (with way more sugar) does not. I’m thinking there is a more complex explanation for this.
That’s a good point! This is just a super simplified explanation. What you said makes total sense though.
I think it depends on the kind of sugar as diet soda with artificial sugar is known to spike blood sugar level and make you hungry. That’s why there’s a popular belief that diet coke doe not help if you want to lose weight. But i’ll try and look into this.
thx! I needed to know this since I eat my whole fridge out by lunch whenever I just have a solo banana for breakfast. The hunger kicks in right away like within the hour for me and I usually get bad cravings for junk food too. You don’t even wanna know what all I ate last weekend after having a ‘lite’ breakfast of a single banana. Lets just say I emptied out my hubbys snack box. No more plain bananas for me.
I have been eating a lot of bananas lately and yes I did notice I will be hungry or craving fish after it. I decided to do a google search on this and landed on your page. But I will be honest and say your explanation was actually my guess before I hit your page. The reason why is because I remember doing the Atkins years ago and banana was a fruit that was on the very high blood sugar spike list. So I kind of knew this was the reason. I just needed the assurance. Another good food on the high sugar spike list is Carrots. So I guess eating a lot of that too will spike my blood sugar. I have an Atkins booklet that list various foods and how they can spike your blood level so I guess I have to go find it.
I feel hungry after eating bananas for breakfast !! I only noticed it today and was searching for an answer.
Everyone always told me to have a banana when i was hungry ( suffering from ibs : gastritis type symptoms all my life)
No one understood that the banana just made me hungrier!
Your explanation makes sense. I why this doesn’t happen to most people though? Does it mean you may have a sugar imbalance or insulin or glucose problems in the future?
I am sooo hungry after eat bananas, , then I start to search juck food after eat bananas. Who knows why ? Realy want to know why,.Thanks