A lot of the old Americanized dishes were heavy on ingredients like bean sprouts, onions, and celery with a smattering of meat or seafood, and the sauces were just the liquids from cooking thickened with a cornstarch slurry. You could eat your fill but what you ate wasn’t really high in nutrients, hence feeling hungry not so long after. 
(edit - and MSG helps make you feel sated, too.)
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