Has anyone used hunger scale to lose or maintain weight?

spiriteagle99

Years ago I read a book called, "Thin for Life", by Anne Fletcher that talked about this and about eating more mindfully generally. I tend to eat automatically, because the clock says it's meal time or because I'm around food, and not necessarily because I'm hungry or because I want to eat what I'm putting in my mouth. The book made me much more aware of what I was doing. I learned about the hunger scale, and learned that being a little hungry isn't a bad thing. I learned to ask myself if I really wanted to eat what was in front of me or if I was doing it for no good reason. I learned to pay attention to my meal, instead of eating in a rush while doing other things and then feeling as if I hadn't eaten. Being more mindful helped keep my weight stable for a long time. After a while, I stopped paying as much attention to my hunger cues or to what I was doing when I ate, and the weight crept back. Now that I'm trying to lose a few pounds again, I am attempting to use hunger more to determine what I eat and when. When your calories are limited, it helps to ask, "Do I really want bread with my hamburger, or am I just doing it because that's what I usually do?" I've also had a few days when I wanted to eat over my calories and I ask myself, "Do I want to eat because I'm tired or because I'm really hungry?" If I'm truly hungry, I will eat something and not feel at all guilty.

AliceDark

I have a tendency to ignore hunger signals until I'm at a 0 and am feeling shaky, nauseated and headache-y, at which point I'm then in danger of over-eating. The concept of the hunger scale has been very helpful in helping me re-learn what a 3-4 hunger level feels like so I can eat before it's too late.

Cbestinme

Interesting responses and approaches.

Paschen81

The hunger scale I was taught was a little different. It went from 1 to 4. Level 1 was not hungry at all, level 2 was starting to get hungry but not hungry enough to eat a real meal (this is where if you are tempted to eat it would be more snack based foods) level 3 is true hunger. This is when you are supposed to eat where snack foods just won't be enough you want real substantial foods. Level 4 is hamster hungry and means you waited too long and are more likely to overeat.

That's the hunger scale I learned anyway.

Cbestinme

thanks for sharing the scale you know. I was able to find the blog from mfp. from your post maybe you had not seen it

here is the link to the mfp blog that talked about a hunger scale, hope you find it useful as i did

http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/the-simple-tool-that-can-help-prevent-overeating/

Verity1111

I think the issue here is being able to resist the food. Some of us are like addicts. If I am exposed to certain foods I can't resist or I literally freak out inside like an addict. I feel liked I MUST have it or it's a disaster, even if I know I'm not hungry.

Cbestinme

Verity1111 wrote: »

I think the issue here is being able to resist the food.

True words!! I'm not always able to stop eating even once I start recognizing it's probably no longer for hunger. I guess many of us on mfp have similar struggles