Is Emotional Hunger Driving
Your Eating Problem?
Eating for emotional hunger reasons will not make our empty feelings go away…
- “I feel hungry ALL of the time”
- “I can’t seem to stop eating until I am completely stuffed, and then I feel sick”
- “Nothing seems to satisfy me – I feel like I am always looking for something that’s not there”
In problems like binge eating, compulsive overeating or other eating disorders, it can actually be very difficult for the sufferer to be able to tell whether they are genuinely physically hungry, or responding to more of an emotional need.
PHYSICAL HUNGER |
EMOTIONAL HUNGER |
Comes on gradually, gaining in intensity the longer we go without food Is satisfied by eating food Occurs naturally in response to passing of time without food Comes back naturally and regularly |
Often comes on suddenly and feels urgent Unable to be satisfied by food. Can eat and eat and still feel ‘hungry’ Is triggered by emotions, events, situations Should not come back if underlying emotional and psychological issues are resolved |
Our bodies physical hunger system comprises a sensitive network of nerves and chemical messages. But over time, we can over-ride and become completely out of touch with what this complex system is trying to tell us!
This can be especially the case where an emotional eating problem has been going on for a long time. We can become out of tune with our own bodies – like a de-tuned radio when all we get is confusing noise and interference!
So, as well as looking at how to identify and express our emotions in more self-caring and appropriate ways (see our other pages on these subjects), it is important to re-educate ourselves to get back in touch with our true physical hunger and satisfaction signals.
So How Do We Do This?
- Thinking about how we experience hunger – How do you actually KNOW when you are physically hungry? Do you get an empty feeling in your stomach? Hear your tummy rumbling? Feel light-headed? Whereas emotional hunger might feel different - like a vague emptiness or a sudden urgent yearning. Starting to pay more attention to the physical sensations we experience when we are hungry is the start to re-tuning ourselves to our hunger signals.
- Using a Hunger Scale – using a simple scale to literally measure how hungry or full we feel is an excellent way to start really paying attention to our bodies needs again. During the day, especially before, during and after meals, check where you feel you are on the scale. This will bring benefits with practice and can work well when combined with a food/mood journal.
| 10 - uncomfortably full / bloated / sick | Gone too far!! |
| 9 - extremely full / eaten too much | |
| 8 - full | Aim to stop eating here! |
| 7 - satisfied | |
| 6 - comfortable | |
| 5 - slightly hungry / 'peckish' | Time to eat! |
| 4 - hungry | |
| 3 - very hungry | |
| 2 - extremely hungry / 'ravenous' | Don't leave things this long; extreme hunger can trigger a binge |
| 1 - Feeling faint with hunger |
- Using a food and mood diary - Keeping a journal of how you are feeling as well as what and when you eat, can help you notice connections between your feelings and eating patterns, thereby identifying possible emotional hunger triggers.
- 'H.A.L.T' - this technique is well known in compulsive and binge eating disorder selfhelp programmes, and it's well worth mentioning here. It stands for:
Hungry - Am I genuinely physically hungry? If I am, then what type of food would
satisfy me the best?
Angry - or am I angry, or upset in some other way?
Lonely - or sad or unsatisfied in some other way?
Tired - or feeling worn out or bored?
If the answer is YES to anything other than genuinely physically hungry, then we need to think for ourselves what is it that we really need? A good sleep? A hug? Getting out of the house for a bit? Speaking to a good friend?....
- Interrupting Eating - This is a very useful exercise to re-tune ourselves into our physical and emotional hunger signals. If you find that you feel hungry between normal meal times, then go ahead and have a few mouthfuls of food, but then stop. Put the food away, knowing that you can have some more in a moment if needed. Then wait 15 minutes or so and do something else in the meantime. After the time has passed, check on your hunger scale how you are actually feeling now. Think through the H.A.L.T technique as well if it helps. Now if you are genuinely hungry, that's fine – have some more to eat until you are satisfied. If not...decide a better, more self-caring and appropriate way to look after yourself for that moment.
- Regular Eating & Optimising Nutrition - this is important to ensure that we are not allowing our blood sugar levels to fluctuate wildly or get too low - which can impact upon our stress hormone levels - which can lead us to feel anxious and emotional - which will certainly will complicate an emotional eating problem.
- So, with the help of techniques like these, and with time and patience, we can 're-tune' ourselves to be able to recognise our physical hunger signals. We will then be in better position to know whether it is actually something else we need instead.
We can then move on to look at the reasons behind this, and find our own solutions to our emotional hunger needs as well.
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