The difference between hunger and wanting to eat

Ferrous_Female_Dog

How can you tell? How have you learned to tell the difference? Any techniques?

I'm not quite there yet. I eat out of boredom, anxiety, stress, because I *need* to finish the plate. Mindless compulsive eating. I need to learn to distinguish legitimate hunger from just wanting to eat.

Any tips?

Jkn921

Deal with stress without emotional eating.

Exercise helps me deal with the stress build up personally, after doing some each day from where I was before - my stress levels are reduced significantly.

kateuzairi

I always feel the need to finish my meals so for the past few weeks I have been eating off the same size plates as my kids it really reduces portion sizes and you feel strangely full clearing the plate good luck :-)

rockmama72

Hunger is physical.

Note that some people prefer to never be hungry, so they eat lots of small meals, and it works well for them.

To train yourself to get hungry, try regulating your meals for a little while. Three squares, no snacks. You'll be hungry.

SezxyStef

appetite vs hunger...

appetitie for me means I want something specific....ie Toaster strudel vs greek yogurt.
Hunger means anything will do....plain couscous so I don't fall over and faint.

Eating out of boredom, anxiety or stress is different from even "wanting" to eat it's a coping mechanism..find something else...get a hobby, go for a walk, brush your teeth....

Hunger is a biological mechanism that requires you to get food into your body to fuel it or else suffer the consquences...which could be as little as being tired to an extreme of fainting...it sends cues...just wait for those cues..and if you aren't sure what they are for you...stop eating because you want to just for a day...you'll figure them out.

sarahg148

I know that if I'm truly hungry...then I want actual food...not cakes, cookies, candy...all of that. An apple looks good and I want something that will make my stomach stop grumbling. Also, I find I get distracted and start thinking about food when I'm physically hungry and I start getting irritable. I guess others can feel light headed or faint. Also, be sure to keep hydrated. From what I understand, hunger can be mistaken for thirst so drink water first to make sure it isn't thirst.

mhankosk

I find that sometimes I eat out of boredom or my body thinks its hungry when I am really just thirsty

My solution: A water bottle. I always have one at my desk and at home. Usually when I want to snack or eat when I know I am not supposed to be hungry, I drink about half a bottle of water. If I am still hungry after that, then I'll have a snack. But most times I just need to re-hydrate and I am good to go. I've had it there so long that I don't mindlessly go to the snacks anymore, but to the water bottle.

Good luck!

Dandman1990

I know that when I get the urge to eat, I eat full packets of things. So I found some healthier option foods. For example when I was craving crisps (or chips in America) I randomly found that poppadoms are reasonably healthy and satisfy the craving (and I used to eat family sized packs easily at a time).

LRoslin

If you measure your portions and keep them within your macros, you won't worry about cleaning your plate, it will be fine if you do. That's solved my clean plate club problem. I even measure and weigh my snacks.

As for true hunger versus wanting to eat, I try to listen to my body. Is my stomach growling? Do I actually feel it in my gut, or am I just imagining how good a particular food will taste? True hunger is in the stomach, and any food will do, emotional hunger is in the mouth and wants a very specific kind of food.

I also plan out my entire day--I pre log, as they call it--and build in snacks.

As Jkn921 said, exercise helps a lot. I find after I exercise at the proper intensity for me, my appetite is pretty much gone for a while.

Identify the times when you're most likely to eat due to boredom or anxiety and find ways to keep so busy then that you don't have time to eat.

WBB55

This is just me: I am never hungry, but I always want to eat.

I make sure I'm in general never hungry by planning my meals and snacks and eating on a schedule. So if it's 2 pm and a snack sounds good. I look in my bag. Have I eaten my afternoon snack? No? Then I eat it. If I have already eaten my afternoon snack, then I know I'm not hungry, and it's just my brain lying to me.

That being said, I have a once-weekly heavy work out event. About a half hour to an hour after that, I get EXCEEDINGLY hungry. RAVENOUSLY NEED TO EAT ALL THE THINGS. But it's also something that I plan for ahead of time, since I know it's coming.

ElusivePete

I really struggle to tell the difference as well. Even if I know it's fake hunger, I'll often give in anyway, so it's important to tackle the problem from other angles too.

One of my battles has been trying to avoid or mitigate the triggers. For example, I know that feeling stressed makes me want to eat. Instead of trying to force myself to ignore that desire when it comes (which is very hard if I'm already stressed), I try to avoid getting stressed in the first place. That means the discipline is largely about my thought patterns and working habits, long before the desire for food comes along.

Another area I've had to work-on has been changing my day-to-day eating choices. I'm cooking for myself a lot more than I have done for a long time, and throwing loads and loads of vegetables in. Sometimes I also use low-carb noodles (e.g. Zero Noodles) to bulk the meal without adding many calories. The result is that I can let my hunger run rampant, eating a massive and fairly healthy plateful of food, and it's only 300-400 calories (as opposed to 1500 if I had a pizza or something).

craftywitch_63

How can you tell? How have you learned to tell the difference? Any techniques?

I'm not quite there yet. I eat out of boredom, anxiety, stress, because I *need* to finish the plate. Mindless compulsive eating. I need to learn to distinguish legitimate hunger from just wanting to eat.

Any tips?

When I fix my own meals I weigh and measure and I'm okay but in my work I'm required to eat in restaurant several times a week and feel like I have to finish the whole thing even if I know I'm going to be miserable afterwards. I've even tried asking for a to go box when they bring the food but that doesn't work either. Asking for a salad doesn't work either because restaurant salads are very high calorie (I have no idea why).

To answer the topic question, I don't let myself get hungry because that triggers a binge for me. I actually eat 5 times a day and eat "by the clock." I eat breakfast around 4 am, a snack between 9-10 am, lunch at 11:30, a snack at 3 pm then dinner around 6-7 pm. After dinner (I usually include a small dessert with that) I stop eating until the next morning.

For me, the worst time is when I'm cooking dinner. I'm standing in the kitchen surrounded by my favorite things (food) and can't eat any of it until dinner is cooked. Sometimes it's so bad I have to leave the kitchen.

Maybe if we feel a binge coming on, we should login to the MFP community board.

WalkingAlong

There are books on intuitive eating.

I think one good tip is ask yourself if vegetables sound good. If you're hungry, they should.

Also, don't be afraid to let yourself get hungry and see how your body tells you it's hungry. The cues are a little different.

Francl27

I'd consider doing something like intermittent fasting... Don't eat anything from 8pm to noon the next day. It should give you a good opportunity to see what hunger is.

I'm lucky I don't have that problem. I still eat when I'm not hungry a lot, but at least I can tell the difference. I agree that typically, if you're very hungry, anything will sound good.