Getting in touch with hunger cues

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oat_bran
oat_bran Posts: 370 Member
edited November 2018 in Health and Weight Loss
So I thought about starting a thread about getting in touch with your hunger cues. It might be useful for any one who is recovering from an eating disorder, or has a history of binge eating/compulsive oveating, yo-yo dieting, or struggles with cravings/excessive appetite/hunger despite eating enough or has been in caloric deficit for a very long time and simply feels out of touch with their hunger cues.

Please share your tips on getting in touch with your hunger cues, how to know when one is hungry or full, or how to distinguish hunger from cravings etc.

PLEASE NOTE: this thread is not about how to eat in a caloric deficit. Not that one can never be in a deficit if one listens to their hunger cues. But consistently eating in a caloric deficit usually means not fully following them. Our bodies were designed to strive for energy homeostasis, a balance between energy intave and energy expenditure. This mechanism may not always work perfectly. It can be upset by illness, hyperability or hyperpelatable foods, stress, years of bad habits etc. But even if one is overweight, one usually needs to work against that mechanism to stay in a deficit consistantly. I am not saying being in a deficit is bad. But simply that this is not what this thread is about. So please, don't conflate staying in a caloric deficit and getting in touch with your body. Also, please don't assume that everyone here is overweight or currently tries to lose weight or struggles with overeating. For many people who deal with issues listed above, it can be the opposite. Some of us are also constantly thrown between extremes and are either overeating or undereating. It's about re-learning the balance.

Replies

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,020 Member
    edited November 2018
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    After years of being at Maintenance, I can pretty much go by feel as to how much to eat BUT I don't do that because I've learned over time that my portions WILL creep higher and I will start having extra treats or putting a bit more cream in my coffee or whatever it may be.

    Once I increase amounts, my appetite increases to keep in step. That's not a good place, because appetite and hunger are different yet lead to the same place which is eating too much.

    I still need to stay accountable to the numbers.

    Some days I'm inexplicably hungrier than others and I'll eat over my allotted amount. I still log it.
  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,230 Member
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    Part of my recovery from BED was a period when I ate reasonably similarly sized/composed meals every 4 hours - whether or not I thought I was hungry. While counterintuitive to eat when I didn’t think I was hungry, it seemed to help “reset” my hunger cues and I’m now able to interpret when I am actually hungry (or not) and eat accordingly.

  • thisPGHlife
    thisPGHlife Posts: 440 Member
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    One of the important things for me to learn was patience. Learning to eat a reasonable amount of food, drink a glass or two if water and have patience knowing that the full feeling would hit and that I didn't need to overeat to get there.

    Also learning to sit with and be ok with hunger. A certain amount of hunger is ok. I used to, and still sometimes do, eat out of fear of hunger. But, a little bit of hunger won't kill me. In fact, it makes me appreciate my next meal. Sometimes I go to bed a little hungry to help fight that evening mindless fear eating.

    These two things have helped me be about to evaluate whether or not it's actual hunger or if I would be eating out of Borden or fear or something else.

    Also, drink all the water!! Sometimes dehydration presents as hunger. And even if it is actually hunger, there is nothing wrong with making sure you're hydrated first. Plus it can help you not get hangry until you can get to some food.
  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,134 Member
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    I understand the difference between being physically and mentally hungry, but my lizard hind brain does not. Food tasting good doesn't help either.
  • mgookin
    mgookin Posts: 92 Member
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    I'm still learning. Before I eat anything I drink something first and wait about 30 minutes to see if the hunger is still there.

    During meals I eat half of my plate, wait about 5 minutes ( use that time to log my meal, check emails, etc) and continue eating if I am still hungry afterwards. If I'm not hungry I just wrap up the remaining portion and save it for later when I am hungry.
  • New_Heavens_Earth
    New_Heavens_Earth Posts: 610 Member
    edited November 2018
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    I agree with IF helping one to realize hunger cues instead of eating on schedule. I understand the necessity of a deficit, but sometimes when I see numbers in the green I think "great, eat more" whether I need it or not, or I'm hungry or not. For example I ate 466 calories of Indian Samosas, while ignoring 2 tangerines, because I had the calories, not necessarily hungry, just snacky. I could have saved those calories for a decent dinner.
  • oat_bran
    oat_bran Posts: 370 Member
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    sijomial wrote: »
    oat_bran wrote: »
    Our bodies were designed to strive for energy homeostasis, a balance between energy intake and energy expenditure.

    I don't agree with that at all - animals (including us) strive to survive primarily.
    If there's an abundance of food we eat in excess to store away energy for the lean times. Trouble is in developed countries there's an abundance of food and no lean times.

    I knew someone was going to say something like that. The thing is, if we were designed to eat in excess whenever there's an abundance of food, the majority of people in the developing countries that don't actively and constantly restrict their intake would be overweight and would continue to gain weight. I assume you live in the US? Americans tend to project things onto other countries. I don't know maybe most people there are either overweight or dieting but it's not like that everywhere. If you travel a little bit, you'll see that in many developed and in many developing countries where people have enough to eat, the majority of people are not necessarily overweight. I come from a Northern European country - no problem with the availability of food there and the majority of people are of normal weight and not dieting all the time. Currently I live in France, There are racial and class differences here in terms of weight but I would say that 80-85% of people around me are of normal weight. For middle class people it's closer to 90%. And many keep this weight stable throughout the years and don't restrict their intake. Take my roommates for instance. I see what they eat and how much they exercise. All four of them are thin and all eat intuitively. They eat normally, not necessarily super healthy. They may eat pizza or fast food several times a week but they still don't get weight because they don't overeat on calories. They just know when to stop. Same with my girlfriend. And the majority of my friends. And colleagues.

    When we are dieting, yes the body fights back against caloric restriction and increases hunger and makes us crave high calorie foods, but when food is not in shortage, I don't see the majority of people around me overeat. So I'm sorry but I don't believe that we were meant to gain weight whenever there's food available.


  • neugebauer52
    neugebauer52 Posts: 1,120 Member
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    Trying to lose weight, a lot of weight. Nowadays when I feel "hungry" I always try to find out: am I "hungry" or "thirsty" ? Usually I didn't drink enough during the day, so a cup of whatever in between my usual meals is all it takes.
  • oat_bran
    oat_bran Posts: 370 Member
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    sijomial wrote: »
    oat_bran wrote: »
    sijomial wrote: »
    oat_bran wrote: »
    Our bodies were designed to strive for energy homeostasis, a balance between energy intake and energy expenditure.

    I don't agree with that at all - animals (including us) strive to survive primarily.
    If there's an abundance of food we eat in excess to store away energy for the lean times. Trouble is in developed countries there's an abundance of food and no lean times.

    I knew someone was going to say something like that. The thing is, if we were designed to eat in excess whenever there's an abundance of food, the majority of people in the developing countries that don't actively and constantly restrict their intake would be overweight and would continue to gain weight. I assume you live in the US? Americans tend to project things onto other countries. I don't know maybe most people there are either overweight or dieting but it's not like that everywhere. If you travel a little bit, you'll see that in many developed and in many developing countries where people have enough to eat, the majority of people are not necessarily overweight. I come from a Northern European country - no problem with the availability of food there and the majority of people are of normal weight and not dieting all the time. Currently I live in France, There are racial and class differences here in terms of weight but I would say that 80-85% of people around me are of normal weight. For middle class people it's closer to 90%. And many keep this weight stable throughout the years and don't restrict their intake. Take my roommates for instance. I see what they eat and how much they exercise. All four of them are thin and all eat intuitively. They eat normally, not necessarily super healthy. They may eat pizza or fast food several times a week but they still don't get weight because they don't overeat on calories. They just know when to stop. Same with my girlfriend. And the majority of my friends. And colleagues.

    When we are dieting, yes the body fights back against caloric restriction and increases hunger and makes us crave high calorie foods, but when food is not in shortage, I don't see the majority of people around me overeat. So I'm sorry but I don't believe that we were meant to gain weight whenever there's food available.

    Wow - possibly one of the silliest set of assumptions I've seen for a long time.

    Because I disagree with you I must be American? And if I'm American I must be ignorant about other cultures and project the American society onto others?

    Sorry to spoil your prejudice but no I'm not American, no I don't live in America, no I haven't travelled a little - I have travelled a lot including France frequently.

    We weren't "designed" - survival and passing on your genes is the primary driver of all animals.
    Good luck with your beliefs and generalisations.

    You are derailing the conversation. You didn't explain how - if we're supposed to gain weight in the abundance of food - the majority of people in all the countries where food is widely available are not overweight.
  • AudreyJDuke
    AudreyJDuke Posts: 1,092 Member
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    Interesting discussion!!!!
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    edited November 2018
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    oat_bran wrote: »
    sijomial wrote: »
    oat_bran wrote: »
    sijomial wrote: »
    oat_bran wrote: »
    Our bodies were designed to strive for energy homeostasis, a balance between energy intake and energy expenditure.

    I don't agree with that at all - animals (including us) strive to survive primarily.
    If there's an abundance of food we eat in excess to store away energy for the lean times. Trouble is in developed countries there's an abundance of food and no lean times.

    I knew someone was going to say something like that. The thing is, if we were designed to eat in excess whenever there's an abundance of food, the majority of people in the developing countries that don't actively and constantly restrict their intake would be overweight and would continue to gain weight. I assume you live in the US? Americans tend to project things onto other countries. I don't know maybe most people there are either overweight or dieting but it's not like that everywhere. If you travel a little bit, you'll see that in many developed and in many developing countries where people have enough to eat, the majority of people are not necessarily overweight. I come from a Northern European country - no problem with the availability of food there and the majority of people are of normal weight and not dieting all the time. Currently I live in France, There are racial and class differences here in terms of weight but I would say that 80-85% of people around me are of normal weight. For middle class people it's closer to 90%. And many keep this weight stable throughout the years and don't restrict their intake. Take my roommates for instance. I see what they eat and how much they exercise. All four of them are thin and all eat intuitively. They eat normally, not necessarily super healthy. They may eat pizza or fast food several times a week but they still don't get weight because they don't overeat on calories. They just know when to stop. Same with my girlfriend. And the majority of my friends. And colleagues.

    When we are dieting, yes the body fights back against caloric restriction and increases hunger and makes us crave high calorie foods, but when food is not in shortage, I don't see the majority of people around me overeat. So I'm sorry but I don't believe that we were meant to gain weight whenever there's food available.

    Wow - possibly one of the silliest set of assumptions I've seen for a long time.

    Because I disagree with you I must be American? And if I'm American I must be ignorant about other cultures and project the American society onto others?

    Sorry to spoil your prejudice but no I'm not American, no I don't live in America, no I haven't travelled a little - I have travelled a lot including France frequently.

    We weren't "designed" - survival and passing on your genes is the primary driver of all animals.
    Good luck with your beliefs and generalisations.

    You are derailing the conversation. You didn't explain how - if we're supposed to gain weight in the abundance of food - the majority of people in all the countries where food is widely available are not overweight.

    Because humans traditionally have had cultural norms around food that limit what we consume when food is plentiful, and because preparing food typically takes time and/or money. And other countries become more like the US as those cultural norms weaken and food is as available with no limits. It's not that Americans don't understand hunger signals and other peoples do -- that makes way less sense than it being about environment.

    Back to the hunger cues question, I agree with those who mentioned logging and being able to see what you ate.

    When logging and when not logging, and specifically for maintenance, I tend to eat based on habit and custom, which I think is pretty similar to how people have traditionally eaten. In my culture 3 meals is common and I like that pattern, so I have chosen it (I think any meal pattern that works for you personally can work, some feel better on one vs. another). I eat at mealtimes and tend to assume that absent some huge amount of physical exertion beyond what I'd normally have that there's no reason I'd be hungry (for real) in between meals. If I think I am, I might think about (or write about) what's really going on, which over time makes me more sensitive to the difference between mental and real hunger. I also learn that it's no big deal to wait a bit before eating when I have a reasonable amount of food planned in the day. But the vast majority of the time my hunger cues follow the regular pattern and I perceive hunger around the time I normally eat. To the extent there's some variation I may eat a bit less some days and more on others, but generally follow the same patterns and watch how much (and what) I eat. High cal, highly palatable foods tend to stimulate hunger even if you aren't really hungry (see, for example, someone being full after dinner and yet eating and wanting dessert), so I am mindful of that, although I don't cut out those foods, I just limit them and am conscious of that.

    I agree with sijomial that humans naturally will want to consume food when available even if that's to excess (this was a survival mechanism for most of our history, so those able to consume when food was available were more likely to reproduce successfully), and with cmriverside that while I can be in a set of habits and regular pattern that allows me to eat at a certain level for a while it's easy to have this creep up, and if you just add in a little more you quickly become used to that and will be hungry for it.

    So for me any consideration of hunger also requires being mindful of what a reasonable amount for me to eat is and what I've eaten (which does not mean it has to include logging, although I also agree with those who have mentioned logging and IF as tools, although they may be unadvised for people with EDs and I would say those people should work with a professional).

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