Dealing with Hunger and Food Cravings

An endocrinologist in Houston actually has a really interesting article about [url=http://www.a
remwellness.c
om/weight-los
s/hot-topics/
food-addictio
n-can-be-a-re
al-problem-in
-overweight-and-obese-people/]Food cravings[/url]. He says that they can become food addictions and behave exactly like a drug or alcohol addiciton. - 5/14/2013 12:56:05 PM

The 1-10 chart is actually helping me! Love it! - 3/14/2013 10:26:49 PM

To crave spinach or carrots is one thing. That's your body signaling it would like some more of a particular nutrient. But if you crave cookies, chocolate, chips or pasta at some point each day, then that's emotional eating behavior. The only way to stop emotional eating behavior is to deal with the underlying emotions that are generating it. I found energy psycholgy was the best way for me. I took a look at what need comfort foods were serving, and what role food took in my life growing up and used EFT to relase the emotions that were causing the problem. I'm down 55 lbs and I no longer have daily cravings. I actually find myself getting hunger pangs sometimes now and having to stop what I'm doing to eat. It feels great to stop obsessing over food. I'm so much happier now. But I can totally relate to what it feels like to crave particular foods. - 12/23/2012 12:27:46 PM

Keeping meals and snacks on a regular schedule is essential because it trains our bodies and minds in the art of hunger. It also means that, knowing what is needed at 3 p.m. or for the next morning's breakfast, we can be prepared and not think as much about all the other options.

When we're hungry outside of our schedule, we need first to distract ourselves, then remind ourselves that no one ever died of hunger between scheduled meals, and then to consider why.

I was first senior research fellow in NIH Office of Complementary Medicine. Using food addiction as template, THE HUNGER FIX addiction plan integrates personal empowerment, spirituality, along with whole food nutrition and restorative physical activity. - 12/23/2012 9:59:41 AM

If I waited until I was hungry to eat, then I would be at a 1 all the time. I have to eat on a regular continual basis or I will probably hit the 1 a lot of the time. - 7/29/2012 5:40:58 PM

For me it just sort of sneaks up on me. Sometimes I can go and go without realizing how hungry I am and if I am having a bad day, the last thing I want to do is make something; I want something that comforts me. And by the time I get to the 1 on the chart, I just need something and anything to eat. - 7/29/2012 5:37:13 PM

I like the idea of in the beginning making one simple rule. That sounds really doable. - 7/29/2012 4:11:55 PM

This is a good tool but many of us start our journey to a healthier life with hunger and cravings being all mixed up and eating being out of control. At the beginning I made simple rules and followed them without fail. NO second helpings. NONE!!! I allowed small carefully selected snacks but NO extra nibbling. That has become mostly automatic and I am now better able to assess my hunger and eat what is needed with a bit less rigidity, but I still need to go back to my rules at times. I need to organize my "food life" so that I don't have to make too many decisions. I can, for example have a chocolate bar in the drawer and eat two squares a day but I decided against buying a bag of kettle corn the other day. That would be too many decisions for me. I could have managed to eat one serving initially but what about the other seven in the bag? That would have been too much for me. I would encourage anyone to start by making one simple rule. - 7/29/2012 12:59:51 PM

The scale is very handy. I worked for about a year in order to get the hang of eating-when-hungr
y and I think it's very useful to begin to realize that there are degrees of hunger. Weight coach Marna Thall offered me a lot of useful information about these levels and how to handle them. For example eating a little so I can 'preserve' my hunger for the evening meal.

Still, now that I'm experimenting with low carb eating and not having wheat, I think that what I used to call 'hunger' really is a craving for carbs / wheat. So I tend to be with CGVegas: it's probably carbs that make us feel hungry.

I don't think it is 'good' to be hungry, to let myself be too hungry - if it is real hunger and not an emotional desire to eat. It doesn't mean I'm losing weight; it means that my body is being deprived of what it needs. We need to eat to live and thrive! - 7/29/2012 5:44:27 AM

I've suffered from the anorexia and bulimia (mainly bulimia) for 40 years and I'm now in the best recovery I've ever been in, but I'm only just beginning to know what hunger feels like, so I found this a very helpful description and guide. Thankyou! - 7/29/2012 2:18:07 AM

This does not go with my personal experience at all, nor with all the experience Ihave heard shared by other compulsive overeaters. To me this "expert"is talking about normals eaters - it´s like telling alcoholics that they should try to find the difference between thirst and craving for a drink. - 4/21/2012 1:38:01 AM

I think the chart gives you something to focus on when you start thinking about food. You can ask yourself "Am I even hungry?" and then whip out the little chart. Just having that concentration will help you make wiser food choices.

I find that any time I stop to question my hunger, I make WAY better food choices. Even if I am starving, , if I am focused, I will wait until I can get my hands on something healthy as opposed to shoving anything in my mouth.

Great article! - 10/26/2011 2:19:51 PM

This only works if you have normal digestive physiology. If I were to wait until my body told me I was hungry I would be sick, weak and dizzy. Since having had a gastric bypass I no longer experience hunger pains. Although I was told these would return after 6 months they never have, so I never eat when my body tells me I'm hungry because it simply doesn't do that. I just plan ahead and eat at regular intervals, usually 2-300 calories for breakfast, 3-400 for lunch and 4-500 for dinner. which leaves me 2-300 for a couple of pieces of fruit between meals and a yogurt for supper so I can take my anti-inflammatory pills. - 8/12/2011 8:27:14 PM

Ahh SP, on the one hand, the article says "If you’ve fallen into the habit of ignoring hunger cues (eating when the clock says it's "lunch time" or eating when you are not even hungry), tune back in to your body." but then on the other hand there is quite a lot of advice in articles sprinkled around the site to "pre-empt the hunger signals by eating more frequently at regular times (and in theory stop the need to overeat) even when you're not hungry"... - 7/26/2011 12:37:46 AM

I thought that the detailed description of the difference between "hunger" and "appetite" definitely made sense and helped me to understand how we have programmed ourselves to eat at the wrong foods at the wrong times and places. Great article! - 9/16/2010 1:47:37 PM