Learning the difference between 'real' and 'unhelpful' hunger

kitsilana
kitsilana Posts: 50 Member
edited November 12 in Food and Nutrition
so, I'm noticing a trend - I have a noticeable 'bump' in my caloric intake for 4-5 days each month, which I've just worked out coincide with the middle of my cycle (i.e when I'm ovulating).

My activity level is pretty constant, and, like everyone, I have a few scattered days here and there where I pop over my daily calorie goal (usually because i'm eating out with friends), but this 'bump' is different.
I'm just hungrier!
I usually have little difficulty eating within my caloric goal, but during these few days I need more food. And I'm eating it.

It's made me think about the different kinds of hunger and how to tell them apart.
So, over these last few days I've had what I'm calling 'healthy' hunger. I'm hungry for real food- meat, yoghurt, etc. and often in the evenings, before I go to bed, so about 4 hours after my dinner.

I've been 'testing' whether this is 'good', 'real' hunger by making myself wait, drink a glass of water or tea, and really pay attention to what this type of hunger feels like.
As long as it's real, I'm eating something (healthy) and I don't care what the MFP bars have to say about it :smiley:

I've come up with 4 types of hunger that I seem to experience (though I'm sure there are more).

1. boredom hunger (unhelpful) - I'm bored, I want something, not sure what, i'll look in the fridge 3 times, might end up eating something, probably something unhealthy.

2. hormonal hunger (unhelpful) - sometimes in the 2 days before my TOM, I start craving chocolate. And wine. But more chocolate, really. Also maybe cake.

3. thirst (unhelpful, needs attention though)- I'm not very good at drinking enough. I often get dehydrated. Sometimes when I feel 'hungry' I'm probably thirsty. A glass of water will show this up fast.

4. real hunger (helpful)- I'm looking for actual food. Not sweet stuff, not little junky snacky things. I want food.


As I'm usually a pretty healthy eater and am not very far from my goal weight, I'm focusing my time logging on MFP more on figuring out how to adjust my eating longterm, so these pounds don't creep back on.
I don't have problems with binge eating, or emotional eating, or many of the things I see people here struggling with.


Now, my question is- what's your experience of this?
Are you listening to these cues? Ignoring them?
Can you trust them?
What tests or criteria do you use to decide?

Replies

  • kitsilana
    kitsilana Posts: 50 Member
    Interesting.
    How do tell 'phantom' hunger from 'genuine' hunger?

    Is it just what time of day it is?
  • TheEats
    TheEats Posts: 49 Member
    The hormonal hunger is a killer for me. It throws out weeks of good work, because I am desperate for sugar and generally rich foods. I am trying to plan how to deal with it, but knowing how my mood fluctuates at the same time, I know it will be difficult. This month I did more exercise and generally kept myself active, while allowing for -some- more food. It seemed to work a bit better.

    The other hunger listings are on point as well, but I find them easy to deal with. I remind myself that if water does not help, I will not die from waiting another hour or two until my next meal. It just feels slightly uncomfortable.

    I have an additional problem due to reactive hypoglycemia, where my blood sugar drops rapidly and can end in fainting and shakes. Often this feeling is paired with a loss of appetite, rather than increased (very helpful, body...), and I may not even notice what is happening until it is too late. I am working on controlling this.
  • tomatoey
    tomatoey Posts: 5,446 Member
    "Hormonal" hunger is real hunger because you burn more the week before
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17684511

  • kitsilana
    kitsilana Posts: 50 Member
    Interesting points.

    I guess for me 'hormonal' hunger is more defined as unhelpful cravings.
    My body might be burning more calories during my TOM, which is awesome, but it's making me want empty calories and chocolate, which isn't helpful. I'll endulge up to a point, but I'm not going to fool myself into thinking this is genuine hunger.
    Just cause I might be burning a few extra calories I don't 'neeeed' chocolate and wine.
  • kitsilana
    kitsilana Posts: 50 Member
    TheEats wrote: »
    The hormonal hunger is a killer for me. It throws out weeks of good work, because I am desperate for sugar and generally rich foods. I am trying to plan how to deal with it, but knowing how my mood fluctuates at the same time, I know it will be difficult. This month I did more exercise and generally kept myself active, while allowing for -some- more food. It seemed to work a bit better.

    ...

    I have an additional problem due to reactive hypoglycemia, where my blood sugar drops rapidly and can end in fainting and shakes.

    I found that increasing my protein intake (especially for breakfast and lunch) really helps with the hormonal cravings. Actually, with all cravings in general.

    Being active, like you mentioned, helps too.

    I also used to suffer from blood sugar crashes. I'd get the shakes and my legs would feel weird. So awful!
    Again, more protein and cutting down on
    (And just being aware of!) high GI foods totally resolved this for me.
    Thinking about it now, I don't think I've had one of these in probably 5 years! Yay!
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited February 2015
    Great list. That's one of my challenges too (other than the thirst part--I've always naturally tended to drink plenty of water), except for me it gets tied up with stress and emotional eating too (which gets perceived as hunger typically for me). Or I should say that most of these get perceived as a desire to eat.

    How I tell them apart is just being mindful. Journaling, taking notes, forcing myself to think about it before I decide to eat outside of my usual meal times, having a snack on hand that I'd be happy to include in my day (if I'm truly hungry I will want it, if not I might not), being aware of whether I'm stressed or bored or trying to postpone something I don't want to do. If I'm stressed and can get in a workout that usually makes it go away.

    Increasing protein and fat at breakfast and making sure that all my meals have a balance, if possible, has helped a ton with general wanting to eat all the time during the day or wanting to eat because I'm tired or low energy.

    Also just telling myself that it's not a mealtime and I can wait.
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