How To Tell If You Are Actually Really Hungry? Part 1 of 2

You walk through the door after a long day at the office and make a beeline to the fridge because hunger strikes again… or are you trying to de-stress? Or maybe you’re confusing hunger with thirst? Ah, it’s all so hard to decipher when you’re truly hungry, especially if you’re trying to make healthier choices and lose weight.

Listening to your body and understanding hunger cues is becoming an increasingly popular tactic for those who want to trim down. It sounds super basic, but it’s actually quite complex because somewhere along the way we’ve disconnected from the innate ability to determine hunger. We’ve lost our mojo.

Think about it. When you were a baby, you would eat when you were hungry. If a baby isn’t hungry, she will turn her face from the milk source. Don’t we all wish we could do that?

As we get older, we are tempted to eat by smell, taste, experience, social pressure, emotional connection, time of day, social media, and the list goes on. While that “emptiness” feeling in the pit in the stomach is a good reason to eat, there are other reasons we turn to food. Give it some thought: What are your cues to chow down?

So… How Do You Know if You’re Really Hungry?

Well, let’s get a little specific. Imagine that you have a pretend scale that ranges from 0 to 10, with 0 being hangry (that angry hunger because you waited too long to eat) and 10 being glutted (you ate so much that you need to unbutton you pants). Real physical hunger builds gradually and will eventually cause your stomach to growl; if you don’t eat when you’re truly hungry, your body will nag you until you do. Eating should happen when you’re truly hungry; that means your body should feel anywhere from hangry (0) to gentle hunger (4).

The next time you feel the urge to eat something, here’s how to know if your hunger is genuine:

1.     The desire to eat got stronger over a little bit of time.

2.   Your stomach starts to growl.

3.   Ask yourself: Will eating anything — but ideally something nutritious — satisfy you? Or will you not be happy unless you bite into that greasy or sweet snack? If it’s the latter, you’re not really physically hungry.

4.   Wait about 10 minutes before you eat. If you’re just craving something, the desire will hopefully pass. Drink a glass of water, then wait a couple more minutes to see if you’re still hungry.

Check in with yourself before you start to eat, or, even better, when you begin to think about food. Ask yourself, “How hungry am I?” If you’re feeling peckish (5–6), you’re not really hungry… you’re just eating because it tastes darn good, that “can’t stop, won’t stop” feeling. We can get real honest and call that greedy eating. Any of you who grew up in a big family knows what I’m talking about. That gotta get-a-second-helping-of-mashed-potatoes pronto before that brother of yours packs it in first. That’s straight up greedy eating.

See what I mean? We’ve lost our true hunger cues. If only we could turn back time.

But the good news is, you can get your mojo back — that intuitive self who knows when to eat and when to stop. It will likely take some practice, but you know what they say about practice. And while there is no such thing as a perfect eater, you can be pretty darn close when you start to listen to your body, not your Facebook feed. Those Tasty videos get me every time.

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