People sometimes eat because they are upset, stressed, bored or happy. However, eating for emotional reasons could cause you to overeat, leading to weight gain. Learning to differentiate between emotional hunger and true hunger and deal with your emotions in other ways besides eating can help you lose weight or maintain your weight.
Real hunger is brought on by a true need for food and develops gradually over time. You can wait to eat if you need to, and once you have eaten until your stomach is full you can stop eating. With real hunger, you feel a need to eat, but not necessarily any one particular food. Any food that you like that is available will satisfy your hunger, and you won't feel guilty after you finish eating.
Emotional hunger is in response to a feeling, either good or bad, and usually involves craving a specific food or type of food. These foods are often high in fat and sugar, and even if you are full you will sometimes keep eating until the food is gone. This type of hunger occurs suddenly, and you feel a need to eat right away. However, once you finish eating you often feel guilty or ashamed.
Using the hunger scale can help you determine whether you are eating out of real hunger or emotional hunger. On a scale of one to 10, one means you are starving and 10 means you are overly full and couldn't eat another bite. Before you eat something, place your level of hunger on this scale. If it is a five or higher, you are most likely eating for emotional reasons rather than true hunger. You should eat when you are at about a three or four on the scale and not wait until you are at a one, otherwise you may overeat. Stop eating when you reach a seven on the hunger scale.
Ways to Deal with Emotional Hunger
Keeping a food diary can help you figure out when you tend to eat out of emotional hunger and what foods you crave during these times. When you experience emotional hunger, have a plan for what you are going to do instead of eating, such as calling a friend, going for a walk or reading a book. Don't keep comfort foods available at your house, and wait for five minutes before you eat once you start to feel hungry so you can figure out if you are truly hungry or just reaching for food out of habit or for emotional reasons.
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