Hunger vs. appetite

healthy491
healthy491 Posts: 384 Member
edited December 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
How can you tell when you are feeling hungry and not just having an appetite? Im gonna stop counting calories but cant tell when im really hungry since i have always relied on logging.

Replies

  • oolou
    oolou Posts: 765 Member
    I've been able to differentiate between appetite/cravings and hunger by doing intermittent fasting. I can physically feel the hunger in my stomach. I also find that hunger comes in waves and is actually easier to ignore than cravings/appetite.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    I know when I'm really hungry (usually means I haven't had enough protein) I get headachy/light headed - that is true hunger for me, plus I lose start to lose energy in my legs, when it feels like an effort to lift each leg.
    I treat food as fuel mostly, and don't eat unless I'm properly hungry - for me that's a good habit.
    I don't log my meals, haven't done for over 8 months and I'm maintaining easily (almost 4 yrs at maintenance)
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    edited August 2016
    I know that I'm not hungry when I've just eaten :# Yes, I sometimes feel "more hungry" as I end a meal, but I figured out it's not that crazy after all, it's just that my appetite has been stimulated and digestion has started. Cravings are centered in my mouth, whereas hunger presents itself as contractions in my stomach and an overall bodily urge to eat. I may get headachy and nauseus, lose concentration, focus hones in on "food. eat". I am also motivated to prepare and eat a real meal including vegetables; cravings aren't necessarily for any specific foods, but always for something easy, supertasty and calorific.

    I prefer to wait for a real meal, but sometimes I have a treat. I don't stress with eating anymore.

    I too have stopped tracking (a year ago; I still plan/log), and today I've been in maintenance for 22 months.
  • hmltwin
    hmltwin Posts: 116 Member
    It's such a foreign idea for me that someone might not recognize when they're hungry... For me, hunger is part mental and part physical. I have trouble focusing on one topic. I have trouble doing just one thing - my mind flits around like a butterfly. I can also get rather short tempered. Physically, my stomach will rumble. That's the main physical symptom. If I ignore the rumbling (for whatever reason), I might get a headache or feel light-headed or shaky. (Not liking the light-headed, shaky feeling, I generally eat before it gets that bad.)

    Appetite/Cravings are just this vague feeling of, "I could really go for... something." Sometimes I know exactly what it is, other times not so much. Either way, the feeling won't go away - even if I eat something. It's totally different from normal hunger for me.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    I feel the hunger...for example right now...I am getting hungry but it's 11:30am here so almost lunch time..

    appetite there is no drive to eat but a desire to eat...
  • trigden1991
    trigden1991 Posts: 4,658 Member
    If you have eaten within the last 72 hours, then you are not starving. "hunger" experienced is normally an emotional response or caused by boredom. Rarely do people actually feel real hunger.
  • SophieSmall95
    SophieSmall95 Posts: 233 Member
    edited August 2016
    Hunger to me is the physical feeling of being hungry.

    Appetite is wanting to eat food whether hunger is there or not.

    Not necessarily mutually exclusive.
  • lthames0810
    lthames0810 Posts: 722 Member
    oolou wrote: »
    I've been able to differentiate between appetite/cravings and hunger by doing intermittent fasting. I can physically feel the hunger in my stomach. I also find that hunger comes in waves and is actually easier to ignore than cravings/appetite.

    Me too. All of the above.

    IF also changed my reaction to hunger. I used to feel an urgent need to eat as soon as my stomach rumbled and it would distract me from the task at hand. Now I just note it and resume the task until it becomes more convenient to stop and eat. I note, though, that some can't and shouldn't try to do this for medical reasons.

    Appetite, to me, has more to do with the pleasure aspect of eating. Sometimes I just want to experience the taste of something.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    hmltwin wrote: »
    It's such a foreign idea for me that someone might not recognize when they're hungry...
    Not to me. Many of us have grown up as members of "the clean plate club", and then being "taught" by nutritionists what, when and how much to eat. Not very easy to pick up personal cues after that :# I had to learn. I actually started out as the OP - asked strangers on a forum. Googled, found the hunger scale, weighed and tracked, tested and evaluated. Now I'm happy to call myself an intutitive eater, as well as a mindful eater.
    SezxyStef wrote: »
    appetite there is no drive to eat but a desire to eat...
    This is spot on for me!
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    healthy491 wrote: »
    How can you tell when you are feeling hungry and not just having an appetite? Im gonna stop counting calories but cant tell when im really hungry since i have always relied on logging.

    I tend to eat to schedule/portion even when I'm not logging, not "appetite" or perceived hunger. Lots of times if you stop eating you will realize you had plenty. From having logged I have a pretty good idea of what appropriate amounts are for me, given what else I'm eating, and eat mindfully.

    If you really want to try some form of eating to hunger (would never ever work for me), maybe try to see if you'd be happy eating something you like fine but don't tend to crave, like carrots. If you feel like you could demolish them, hunger. If they don't seem appealing but you are starving for something else, it's probably not hunger.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    trigden1991 wrote: »
    If you have eaten within the last 72 hours, then you are not starving. "hunger" experienced is normally an emotional response or caused by boredom. Rarely do people actually feel real hunger.

    This is consistent with my experience. I don't ever go long enough without food (I eat three main meals, normally) to be truly hungry, so instead I tend to feel the desire to eat when I am used to eating (and sometimes at other times, which I typically ignore). The exception is if my physical activity has been quite high (long day of biking, long run) and I think it is truly that my calories are lower than they probably should be for the day, and then I will add in food. I won't feel hunger that I take seriously on an average day, though.
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    Hunger = need to refuel (brain fog, headache waited to long to eat on time), my body is hangry or angry with me in general at this point.

    appetite = just a desire eat something or this is 100% hunger driven by smelling food, seeing food, or I missed my meal time.

    Logging usually keeps me faithful to keeping all cues from surface sing in the forms of pain! LOL

  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    edited August 2016
    hmltwin wrote: »
    It's such a foreign idea for me that someone might not recognize when they're hungry...
    kommodevaran wrote: »
    Not to me. Many of us have grown up as members of "the clean plate club", and then being "taught" by nutritionists what, when and how much to eat. Not very easy to pick up personal cues after that :# I had to learn. I actually started out as the OP - asked strangers on a forum. Googled, found the hunger scale, weighed and tracked, tested and evaluated. Now I'm happy to call myself an intutitive eater, as well as a mindful eater.

    Another ex member of the clean plate club here. However, this didn't mess up my hunger-before-a-meal cues, but my I'm-full-stop-eating cues.


  • hmltwin
    hmltwin Posts: 116 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    hmltwin wrote: »
    It's such a foreign idea for me that someone might not recognize when they're hungry...
    kommodevaran wrote: »
    Not to me. Many of us have grown up as members of "the clean plate club", and then being "taught" by nutritionists what, when and how much to eat. Not very easy to pick up personal cues after that :# I had to learn. I actually started out as the OP - asked strangers on a forum. Googled, found the hunger scale, weighed and tracked, tested and evaluated. Now I'm happy to call myself an intutitive eater, as well as a mindful eater.

    Another ex member of the clean plate club here. However, this didn't mess up my hunger-before-a-meal cues, but my I'm-full-stop-eating cues.


    This was more my problem. I always knew when I was hungry and I needed to have food. It's only more recently that I've begun recognizing the other side and knowing when I was full.

    For me, eating more slowly was a big help there. At school, we have 15 minutes for lunch. At college, I sometimes had just half an hour for dinner. It meant I tended to eat very quickly. Once I started eating more slowly, I began to understand how it felt when I'd reached actually satiety - rather than over-full.
  • jhmomofmany
    jhmomofmany Posts: 571 Member
    I ask myself if I would eat an apple. If yes, I'm probably hungry. If no, I want "something", it's usually a craving. When it's just feeling an appetite there's usually something specific- some taste or texture that I want. When I'm truly hungry, anything will do. Also, true hunger usually builds over time, while a craving can come on suddenly and be triggered by seeing, smelling, or thinking about a specific food.

    That's just my experience, though. :)
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