While there are several different physiological effects that contribute to what we call 'hunger', what I suspect you are describing is mostly related to different blood sugar profiles.
When you eat foods which are simple-carb based (i.e. sugars, or other small, easily-digestible carbs) your body can very quickly and easily utilise them, resulting in a fairly rapid spike of blood sugar. Importantly, because they're easily-digestible, their sugar will be released over a short period of time. In response to the sugar spike, your body will release insulin and drive the sugar out of your blood stream, but because the flow of new sugars from your gut has slowed or ceased, this can result in quite a low blood sugar state. When you hit this state, you not only feel very hungry, but also crave foods which will give you quickly-available blood sugar, to resolve the situation quickly. One other point is that while your body has the ability to release sugar (or other substances which similarly give you energy) from stored reserves, these processes are fairly slow - so don't really respond quickly enough to account for this sort of sudden low sugar state.
In contrast, if you eat a more balanced diet (with complex rather than simple carbs, some protein, some fat, more fibre) you change both parts of the previous effect: the spike of sugar into your blood stream is less pronounced, because the food you've eaten is less suited to provide it, and also the release of sugars occurs over a longer period. So you don't get the sugar spike, or the big hit of insulin in response, or the low afterwards which makes you crave fast sugars. And also, because this is all slower, thanks to eating foods which provide a slower release of nutrition, your body's systems have an opportunity to work alongside your food, and as (for example) the release of nutrition from your gut slows, offer nutrition from your body's stores to sustain you for longer.