only eating when you are hungry

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mamakitty
mamakitty Posts: 249
in Motivation and Support
I have a huge problem of eating when I am not hungry and also emotional eating. Does anyone have any advice on how to transition to knowing when you are really hungry and not just craving. I know what really really hungry feels like, but day to day normal hunger (does that make sense?)

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  • mamakitty
    mamakitty Posts: 249
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    I have a huge problem of eating when I am not hungry and also emotional eating. Does anyone have any advice on how to transition to knowing when you are really hungry and not just craving. I know what really really hungry feels like, but day to day normal hunger (does that make sense?)
  • vegasmellie
    vegasmellie Posts: 118 Member
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    setting schedules works for me. eating every few hours. and when I fall into the dangerous boredom eating zone, I pop in some gum!

    good luck!
  • alf1163
    alf1163 Posts: 3,143 Member
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    setting schedules works for me. eating every few hours. and when I fall into the dangerous boredom eating zone, I pop in some gum!

    good luck!

    I agree. If you plan to eat every 2-4 hrs any "hunger" in between is not real hunger but cravings or emotional hunger. Also it is important have a good ratio of carbs/prot/fat in every meal including snacks. If you eat a good breakfast let's say at 7am and eat just a piece of fruit at 9:30 you will definitely be too hungry by 11am or earlier. But if you eat a piece of fruit with some nuts or cheese stick etc then that should be enough. You also want to try to split your calories throughout and not eat too little and have too many calories left over for dinner. I hope this helps. :flowerforyou:
  • walnut
    walnut Posts: 216 Member
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    Drink lots of water! I've read in many places that people often mistake thirst for hunger.

    Also, pay attention to how your stomach feels after you eat a decent-sized meal versus how it feels in the morning when you wake up and it's empty. See if you can assign a number on a scale of 1 to 5 for how hungry/full you are and write it down for different times of the day.
  • jenninsocal
    jenninsocal Posts: 419
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    plan your meals ahead and eat at specific times, a few hours between each meal.

    Every day I eat at 8, 10, 12, 3, and dinner usually around 6. Since I have been here, which has only been a week, I have been planning my meals the morning of, so I dont go over in calories by the time dinner comes around.
  • lotusfromthemud
    lotusfromthemud Posts: 5,335 Member
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    http://www.findingbalance.com/libraries/eatwell/keys/hunger.asp

    Here's a link to a page that has helped me figure out when I'm actually hungry. I often have "other" emotional hungers, not actual hungers. This link helped me to identify them. :flowerforyou:
  • mamakitty
    mamakitty Posts: 249
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    Have you read the book by the lady that started that website (www.findingbalance.com)? It is a very good and helpful book.
  • dubess
    dubess Posts: 14
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    me too. and i can't figure it out either - i'm i really hungry, bored, upset? i have tried to drink a glass of green tea, or an apple - but i'm still hungry. i was just hungry and ate some spinach. but i have HUGE cravings for sugar. I have to be sooooo careful. A couple of weeks ago, and I know this was emotional eating, I bought a cake mix and frosting, and ate about 1/3 of the cake myself. My 7 yr old daughter had a few pcs and then it was out to the trash.

    does anyone else have sugar cravings? why? it drives me nuts.
  • kathyjo
    kathyjo Posts: 24 Member
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    me too. and i can't figure it out either - i'm i really hungry, bored, upset? i have tried to drink a glass of green tea, or an apple - but i'm still hungry. i was just hungry and ate some spinach. but i have HUGE cravings for sugar. I have to be sooooo careful. A couple of weeks ago, and I know this was emotional eating, I bought a cake mix and frosting, and ate about 1/3 of the cake myself. My 7 yr old daughter had a few pcs and then it was out to the trash.

    does anyone else have sugar cravings? why? it drives me nuts.

    I have sugar cravings all the time! I had a huge one today while I was in the grocery store, so I started looking at the calories in various boxes of cookies....3 Oreos for 160 calories!?! And if I bought them I knew I couldn't eat just 3 of them. I wanted them soooo badly, but I just didn't let myself buy them. I try to replace high-calorie sweets with low-calorie ones, such as a sweet yogurt (Target makes a Strawberry Cheesecake yogurt that is really yummy!), sugar-free jello (like 10 calories per serving?) or today, for example, instead of buying the cookies, I bought a diet sweet tea, with 0 calories, but it was sweet so it took away the craving for me! I think its just a matter of finding what works for you, and definately not letting yourself buy things or have them in the house that you know you will be tempted by and indulge in!

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