Relearning what hunger feels like...

Options
trustymutsi
trustymutsi Posts: 174 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've been trying to not eat unless I'm actually hungry, but I'm starting to wonder if I even KNOW what hunger feels like anymore. I believe that all the years of eating when I'm tired, depressed, or bored have deadened my awareness of true hunger. I'm not sure if I even know what it feels like. Outside of my stomach rumbling, am I hungry when I feel irritated, stressed, or light headed, or do those feelings stem from lack of sleep, a bad day, not enough water, etc?

I tried listening to my body yesterday, and it was tricky. I knew for sure later at night that I WAS just tired, so that was a win, but most of the day it was a challenge. Sometimes it helped for me to literally ask myself "Are you really hungry?", but I didn't always know the answer.

Maybe this is why I need to just count calories. Maybe waiting to feel hungry just doesn't work when you're eating a deficit, because honestly, you're going to feel SOME amount of hunger in this state of you diet, right?

Anybody else struggle with this, or have any tips on hearing your body better?
«1

Replies

  • lewispwest
    lewispwest Posts: 498 Member
    Options
    I absolutely know what you're talking about :( I would grab anything to alleviate feelings of sadness, boredom or whatever. Half the time I wouldn't even need a reason, just went for stuff to make myself feel better.

    It's making my diet extremely hard as I get the sensation of hunger constantly all day, even after I've eaten. I find that I'm forcing myself to bed in the evenings so that if I happened to go to sleep then I wouldn't feel hunger anymore.

    But like you say, is it genuine hunger or is it a longing sensation?
  • jillcally
    jillcally Posts: 20 Member
    Options
    I know exactly what u mean, I have just posted about struggling in the evenings when I am home alone. The sensible part of my brain KNOWS I am not hungry and I am just eye burningly sleepy from a massive workout and a full day at work. My fat greedy tum unfortunately disagrees and usually pushes me back to the fridge!

    We should try going an hour past each meal time and just seeing if we are actually hungry, sometimes my tummy rumbles just cos I look at the clock, I dont think half the time I'm actually hungry!!
  • lizb214
    lizb214 Posts: 10 Member
    Options
    I'm right there with you. I eat every 3ish hours, hungry or not, although I usually am hungry. I've found that feeling hungry gives me anxiety- which I don't understand because I've never been in a position where food wasn't available to me.
  • TXRanchGirl
    TXRanchGirl Posts: 303
    Options
    I have the same problem..

    I am starting to find..when Im needing to eat Im usually kinda groggy and feel like, excuse the drama, going to pass out. I hate that I have to let it get to that point..but I also am scared to "eat when Im not hungry"
  • gavinstef14
    gavinstef14 Posts: 4
    Options
    Yes, I am having trouble with this also. I noticed I would be ravanious between the hours of 11am to 3pm. Wanting to eat everything in sight. I have started eating apples and drinking lemon water with splenda to boost the amount of water I drink a day and it seems to help with the hunger pains but not always. I'm also looking for ways to curve my hunger and get more motivated. It's hard when my boyfriend want to take me out to lunch every day. I am like you, it seems as though the hunger is more in my HEAD than my STOMACH.
  • Jeneba
    Jeneba Posts: 699 Member
    Options
    Thanks so much for posting this topic! I am wondering - does anyone else tend to be confused between hunger vs. fatigue? I get this little voice in my head that says "I'm exhausted! Some food would help!!!!" But I am not aware of feeling gut-hunger when that happens, I just feel weak.
  • glwerth
    glwerth Posts: 335 Member
    Options
    I'm working on this too and it is really hard. I'm actually trying to learn to recognize WHAT I actually want to eat and when I'm thirsty but it feels like being hungry.

    It is a struggle from day to day.

    I watch my youngest child, who will sometimes go almost all day without eating, then the next day he'll eat all the foodz. He knows when he's hungry and when he's not.

    I need to eat like my five year old.
    I've been trying to not eat unless I'm actually hungry, but I'm starting to wonder if I even KNOW what hunger feels like anymore. I believe that all the years of eating when I'm tired, depressed, or bored have deadened my awareness of true hunger. I'm not sure if I even know what it feels like. Outside of my stomach rumbling, am I hungry when I feel irritated, stressed, or light headed, or do those feelings stem from lack of sleep, a bad day, not enough water, etc?

    I tried listening to my body yesterday, and it was tricky. I knew for sure later at night that I WAS just tired, so that was a win, but most of the day it was a challenge. Sometimes it helped for me to literally ask myself "Are you really hungry?", but I didn't always know the answer.

    Maybe this is why I need to just count calories. Maybe waiting to feel hungry just doesn't work when you're eating a deficit, because honestly, you're going to feel SOME amount of hunger in this state of you diet, right?

    Anybody else struggle with this, or have any tips on hearing your body better?
  • MscGray
    MscGray Posts: 304 Member
    Options
    I cant remember where I read it, but a suggestion to see if its truly hunger is to drink a glass of water, wait 15-20 minutes and it the feeling is still there, then its hunger....maybe that will help :wink:
  • MamaJ1974
    MamaJ1974 Posts: 443 Member
    Options
    Brilliant question and one I'm struggling with as well. I've been waiting for my stomach to rumble to know for sure. Now that I've gotten to the point where it's usually rumbling about the same time every morning, I'm trying to be mindful of how I feel about a half hour or an hour prior to that time, so I know what the pre-rumbling hunger feels like.
  • ProjectYummyMummy
    ProjectYummyMummy Posts: 98 Member
    Options
    I cant remember where I read it, but a suggestion to see if its truly hunger is to drink a glass of water, wait 15-20 minutes and it the feeling is still there, then its hunger....maybe that will help :wink:

    I was just going to suggest that. For me, I confused hunger & thirst in the past. (Not so much tired or irritability. I'm often okay with that.) So if I think I'm hungry, I first drink some water. Then wait; then eat, if truly necessary.

    Logging on MFP has also helped me quite a bit. Now I can preempt when I think I'll be hungry and have a healthy snack available. Like, I know if I eat before 7am, then by 10am, I'll be hungry again. And often, I have a piece of fruit ready. However, if I've just eaten at 9 and am still hungry at 10, then I know I'm just eating out of habit.

    Good luck in learning more about yourself.
  • Jillian130
    Jillian130 Posts: 174 Member
    Options
    "I believe that all the years of eating when I'm tired, depressed, or bored have deadened my awareness of true hunger. I'm not sure if I even know what it feels like."

    I think it's exactly this. Its now mostly habit, not because of hunger. You're used to emotional eating and made a habit out of it, and now you're not really aware of the true signs of hunger. I would maybe suggest that when you think you feel hunger grab a glass of water and drink it. Wait about 20 minutes or so, and if the "feeling" or urge to eat doesn't go away then have a snack. It's going to take some trial and error and re-programming your mind, not just your tummy.
  • HerbertNenenger
    HerbertNenenger Posts: 453 Member
    Options
    Most of us fortunate enough to live in a developed country have overridden our hunger signals as told to us by crash diets, or by eating every hour and a half even when we're not hungry.
    Sometimes it's also just dehydration.
    I recommend "Thinside out - having your cake and your skinny jeans too". It teaches you how to get back your intuitive eating skills, how to recognize true hunger and actual ways to implement putting it into play. It's been helping me quite a bit.
  • ktsmom430
    ktsmom430 Posts: 1,100 Member
    Options
    Honestly, I am so old, and was so overweight for so many decades, that until I began losing weight here, I did not know what it was like to feel hunger.

    Now I keep raw veggies prepped in the refrigerator so I can munch on low calorie food when I do feel hunger.
  • trustymutsi
    trustymutsi Posts: 174 Member
    Options
    I've been waiting for my stomach to rumble to know for sure. Now that I've gotten to the point where it's usually rumbling about the same time every morning, I'm trying to be mindful of how I feel about a half hour or an hour prior to that time, so I know what the pre-rumbling hunger feels like.
    I cant remember where I read it, but a suggestion to see if its truly hunger is to drink a glass of water, wait 15-20 minutes and it the feeling is still there, then its hunger....maybe that will help

    These are GREAT ideas!
    I watch my youngest child, who will sometimes go almost all day without eating, then the next day he'll eat all the foodz. He knows when he's hungry and when he's not.

    I need to eat like my five year old.

    That's funny. Just a few days ago I was going to only eat when my 6 year old son eats :) I gave up on it, but maybe I should try it again!
  • lthames0810
    lthames0810 Posts: 722 Member
    Options
    Hunger pains always used to trigger all kinds of axiety depending on when/where it occured. What I thought was really going to happen to me if I didn't eat right then is a little vague. (Exception: bicyling...fear the bonk.)

    I sometimes think the advice to eat six small meals every day is only contributing to us eating wether or not we are hungry.

    I did a blasphemous thing and went a whole day and didn't eat untill dinner time. Nothing bad happended. I had some cut up vegetables handy just incase of ...I don't know what. But when my stomach rumbled and I thought about the celery, all of a sudden the need to eat wasn't that bad. What I wanted to eat was something yummy, not celery. Any time that day, when I thought I was hungry, I just dismissed it and got busy with something to take my mind off of it. The experience showed me what hunger feels like and that you don't need to eat something (anything) right away when you feel it.

    And I was super productive at work that day.
  • freemystery
    freemystery Posts: 184 Member
    Options
    In!
    :sad: this is me.

    So tell myself, however many times a day it takes...

    No more eating when we're bored.
    Or think we should eat.
    Or know that we shouldn't eat.
    Or eat because the food is there.
    Or eat because it's convenient.
    Or eat because somebody else is hungry.
    Or eat because it's your favourite.
    Or eat because is socially expected.
    Or eat because everybody is eating.
    Or eat because you were told to.
    Or eat because nobody is looking

    This is my worst one- or because you like the taste. Eat when you're hungry, eat what you like the taste of, sure.
    But not just because chocolate and wine and chips are delicious.
    That's not a good enough reason to get type 2 diabetes/ obese/ heart disease
  • kcasey155
    kcasey155 Posts: 968 Member
    Options
    Yes, I eat when I'm tired, thinking it will boost me up. I also eat things to stop them going to waste, like if one of the kids only eats half an apple/banana or leaves their dinner. I'm like a hoover or waste disposal for food. I just hate waste. I'm getting over that now though by composting everything and adding it back into our garden and food that way.
  • thavoice
    thavoice Posts: 1,326 Member
    Options
    I've been trying to not eat unless I'm actually hungry, but I'm starting to wonder if I even KNOW what hunger feels like anymore. I believe that all the years of eating when I'm tired, depressed, or bored have deadened my awareness of true hunger. I'm not sure if I even know what it feels like. Outside of my stomach rumbling, am I hungry when I feel irritated, stressed, or light headed, or do those feelings stem from lack of sleep, a bad day, not enough water, etc?

    I tried listening to my body yesterday, and it was tricky. I knew for sure later at night that I WAS just tired, so that was a win, but most of the day it was a challenge. Sometimes it helped for me to literally ask myself "Are you really hungry?", but I didn't always know the answer.

    Maybe this is why I need to just count calories. Maybe waiting to feel hungry just doesn't work when you're eating a deficit, because honestly, you're going to feel SOME amount of hunger in this state of you diet, right?

    Anybody else struggle with this, or have any tips on hearing your body better?
    Exactly.
    Many times we eat not because we are hungry, but because we are bored, food is in front of us, or society/clocks tells us that it is time to eat.

    I have 2-3 big glasses of H20 the first thing every morning and that subsides the early hunger pings and give my body a better guage as to when I am actually hungry
  • weird_me2
    weird_me2 Posts: 716 Member
    Options
    I've done some cognitive behavioral therapy in regards to my weight / eating / binge eating and there's an exercise in hunger.

    You eat your normal breakfast, then don't eat again until your normal scheduled dinner time. This exercise is to teach you to 1) feel true hunger and 2) hunger is not an emergency. I found the exercise enlightening.

    Now, I do intermittent fasting. Some days it's an exercise in hunger because I am hungry before noon, my normal eating time. I'm hungry right now, but I will wait until noon. If I was REALLY hungry, I'd go ahead and eat, but I recognize the slight hunger and recognize that an hour is no big deal. Learning to recognize my hunger and accept that hunger is not an emergency makes for much easier traveling, too. No more, I have to pack 500 snacks because I might get hungry. I'll eat when I get a chance.

    Now, if I could just accept that "if the problem isn't hunger, food isn't the answer", I'd be good to go!
  • BackInTheSaddle13
    BackInTheSaddle13 Posts: 47 Member
    Options
    I am going through the same thing right now.

    I trying to find a good balance right now. Before, and occasionally still, I would just eat to eat. No real hunger. So at the slightest sense of not being full I would FREAK OUT!

    I am retraining my brain right now to really know what hunger is. Not starving myself but reminding myself that I will NOT die because I'm hungry. Not to sound crazy but I basically talk to myself. When it starts up I tell myself that I will not starve, I have had my correct balance of macros/micros, and when I'm really tempted I tell myself (if I'm out of calories for the day) that I can have it tomorrow.

    Another thing that seems to calm my brain is to tell it that I do NOT have to give up anything. If I want a certain food I am NOT totally giving it up, just spacing it out. That tends to quiet the mind beast!

    I know that a great workout can really physically push you but I think the hardest part of real weight loss is mental!

    All the best!!

    I edited because I wanted to add -

    I also try to keep busy. If I have something to focus on the hunger doesn't seem to be as strong. I am in school so the reading for class helps a lot. I also do a lot of gardening, crochet, cleaning... Just things that require a bit of thought because it distracts from the hunger. I will tell you it gets easier. It just take some times to learn what true hunger is!

Categories