Are You REALLY Hungry?

Getting to the bottom of why we’re hungry for food is a very important step when considering any weight loss plan.  If you can learn to distinguish between emotional hunger and physical hunger, you will be miles ahead of others that think that weight loss is all about the “diet”. 

 

Let’s take a look back to the way our ancestors survived.  If there was sufficient food, they ate when they were hungry.  There was plenty of physical labor for them just to sustain themselves and they generally had set meal times and ate what they had.  They considered themselves lucky just to have food to eat.

 

Fast forward to today, we eat for a variety of reasons which can include:

• Anger
• Boredom
• Stress
• Depression
• Frustration
• Family activities
• Loneliness

 

To recognize emotional eating in yourself you must first pay attention to your body.  Learn to recognize the triggers that cause you to eat because of your emotions and not because you are physically hungry.  75% of overeating is caused by emotional eating.  If you can recognize what triggers your emotional eating, you will be far ahead of the masses that are looking for a solution to their weight problem.

 

If you deal with your emotions by using food, you may have actually lost the ability to feel hungry.  In order to feel hungry, you must first allow yourself to actually become hungry.

 

So how can you tell the difference between emotional and physical hunger?  The way to differentiate between emotional hunger and physical hunger is to recognize that emotional hunger comes on suddenly and wants to be satisfied immediately.  Physical hunger is felt below the neck such as a growling stomach and is more gradual and does not come on suddenly.

 

So the next time you feel hungry, before you reach for that quick fix, stop for a minute and ask yourself what you are feeling.  Are you feeling an emotion that wants to be satisfied or are you actually hungry?  

 

The way to identify physical hunger for you is to delay eating past your normal mealtime schedule.  (If you have medical conditions that do not allow you to do this, then follow the advice of your doctors.)  Once you experience how hunger feels to you, it will be much easier for you to determine if you are emotionally hungry or physically hungry.

 

Dealing with your emotions and allowing yourself to feel the emotions can help you start to make changes in your life which can result in your eventual freedom from food.  Just by learning how your body reacts to hunger and only eating when your body is physically hungry may be all you need to finally release the weight you’ve been struggling to lose for some time.

 

One important tool for you to use to learn the difference between emotional and physical hunger is a food journal.  Ask yourself why you are eating?  Write down what you’re feeling.  Once you begin to identify your emotional eating triggers and learn to experience physical hunger, the real hunger will dictate when and how much you eat. 

By following these simple steps in identifying why you are hungry, you are well on your way to freedom from the food addiction that plagues so many people today.  You will no longer feel guilty after eating.  You will simply enjoy your meals for what they were intended to be….a time to refuel your body so that it can function properly again.    

Tagged as: become healthy, diet, emotional eating, emotional hunger, food journal, hunger, physical hunger, relationship to food, stress, weight loss