Originally Posted by
OBoile
I have nothing but anecdotal stories from various people to back this up, but I suspect there is a strong genetic/epigenetic component to hunger and satiety.
I always try to be cautious about evolutionary explanations for things, but I could see how the ability to eat huge amounts when food was abundant could have been quite adaptive in certain climates as a hedge against periodic scarcity.
Epigenetics is a relatively new field, and it's already showing some interesting findings. I've mentioned this on BF before, but the recent study of type 2 diabetes in India indicates that the nutritional status of your grandmother when your mother was in the womb(!) has a big impact on the your body fat percentage. If grandma was undernourished while she was gestating mom, you're likely to maintain a very high percentage of body fat compared to other people with your BMI.