Is It Physical Hunger or Emotional Craving? Understand the Difference!
Podcast Partner: Episode 16, What is Physical Hunger?
Cravings can feel powerful, can’t they?
And menopause seems to bring about strong cravings, AND an increased appetite. That appetite wants anything from chocolate to cheese to potato chips to … ?
When a desire to eat hits, we may have a hard time figuring out if we are truly hungry, or if we just want to eat to feel better.
Just to be clear, most of us have used food to feel better, at times.
Mindful Eating helps you enjoy that food, when you do eat it, for emotional reasons. It also helps you make different choices because you learn to tune in to your physical hunger cues.
When you listen to your body, and not diets, you have CHOICE.
So what is physical hunger?
Seems like an easy one to answer.
Physical hunger, the kind where your stomach feels empty, or rumbly, and you’re feeling like you need energy, seems to be a simple thing to identify. Doesn’t it?
Your stomach makes a gurgling sound, you feel light headed, or a little bit irritated, or you just get HANGRY.
If it is so simple, why do so many of you struggle with knowing if you ARE hungry? Or why do you have trouble telling the difference between true hunger and a craving.
This struggle is a common thing, don’t worry!
Let’s see if I can help you with it!
Learning your body cues, like your own physical hunger, is one aspect of practicing Mindful Eating.
This may seem like a simple thing.
But physical hunger CAN get confused with emotional hunger(s).
If you have been dieting for an extended amount of time, or have been repeatedly on and off diets through your life, you may not feel when you are hungry UNTIL YOU ARE REALLY, REALLY, HUNGRY.
And then, you might want to eat a table leg.
For many of you in the cycle of eat-diet-eat, (simplified, because this cycle has way more components to it), this is where food guilt can set in.
You let yourself get really hungry trying to “be good today”.
Being “good” may mean: not eating, calorie counting, fasting, skipping meals, just eating veggies, or many other different things to you.
Coaching Prompt: What does “being good” mean to you?
Take a moment to tune in to the significance of “being good” when it comes to food. What comes up for you?If you like to journal, this is a great prompt!
(Notice: “being good” happens on Mondays a LOT. Can you relate? Why do you think this happens?)
Understanding your hunger signals can be an important step to deciding whether or not you are truly hungry.
Maybe you are:
experiencing a craving (it’s ok to honor a craving, by the way)
having some tough emotions
bored or lonely
feeling something else
You can use the hunger scale below to start to see:
how much you deny your hunger
whether or not you let yourself get hungry
identify what hunger feels like in YOUR body
The hunger scale is meant to be used with your own Inner and Outer Wisdom.
Inner Wisdom comes from your personal experiences with hunger. Knowing what hunger looks like for you, or your own cues to eat, are forms of Inner Wisdom. Understanding whether you are hungry or anxious is also inner wisdom.
Outer wisdom comes from things like: knowing the physiology of hunger, or how caloric energy works in the body. It can also be led by a diagnosed health condition you have, that will guide some of your food choices.
There are many forms of both.
The hunger scale is here to help you get to know how your body feels at different stages of hunger.