4 Types of Hunger and How to Beat Them

So, there are 4 different things that we may describe as hunger. I’m going to teach you how to deal with them so they don’t stop you from losing weight.

Now, let’s be clear, I don’t teach starvation. I eat food and I recommend you do, too. But most what I am going to describe below is actually false hunger that we let stop us from losing weight because we think they are emergencies we need to deal with by eating immediately.

1. Low blood sugar.
For most people, this is a light-headedness and a sort of hangry “feed me now” violent sort of emotion.
What you are actually feeling is NOT hunger. It is the symptoms of withdrawal from your drug of choice, sugar.

There are some people who truly do suffer from medical low blood sugar, but if you don’t have a diagnosis from a doctor, what you are actually feeling is what we expect any addict to live through when they quit their drug of choice. If you quit using sugar (and flour, which breaks down into sugar) and break your addiction, this feeling will permanently go away.

2. Cravings.

A craving is an intense mental urge, either for a specific food or a category of foods. It usually is more mental than physical. If you pay attention to your mind, you will likely start to hear the thought that goes with this. It may be a thought like “I’d like just a little something sweet” or “two mint Milano cookies won’t hurt anything.” The best way to deal with this is to shine the light of awareness on these thoughts and realize where they are leading you – to a continuation of your weight problem. Then treat them like an urge (check out my other videos on how to deal with urges).

3. Emotional discomfort.

Again, we’ll need to get a little more introspective to pick up on this one. Most of us have been trained (or trained ourselves) that if we are feeling an unpleasant emotion, the solution is food. A great time to observe this is when we are sitting on the couch in front of the TV after dinner and have the desire to go get a snack. What emotion are we also feeling? Is it boredom? Restlessness? Loneliness? Let yourself actually feel that feeling instead of covering over it with a snack.

4. Physical hunger.

Physical hunger is a sensation that starts in the body and then lets your mind know something is going on. It can be a growling stomach or other feeling, perhaps in the throat or mouth. This is the most legitimate of the 4, because it is at least a physical sensation, so it makes the most sense to give that a physical solution, like food.

One thing to note, here, is that physical hunger, while it is legitimate, is like a warning light coming on the dashboard. It’s like needing to pee. It’s not healthy to completely ignore it, but you can wait a little while until you get to a safe place to address it.

It’s also important to note that sometimes physical hunger is programmed. If you eat at noon every day, you may start to get hungry at noon every day. It doesn’t actually mean that you will die if you don’t eat right that minute. It just means your body is reminding you “hey, we usually eat now.” It’s the same way the dog knows when it’s time for him to be fed. So while you may choose to pay attention to it, if you are 40 pounds over weight, you are unlikely to die within the first 5 minutes of feeling hunger. You do have a reserve source of fuel on your body that you stored for a moment just like this that can be utilized.