During a working day I have no problem avoiding going to the kitchen and opening the fridge, but it’s finishing work and sitting on the sofa and it seems that it calls me. A little walk that ends in a piece of cheese. Then another with a pan de leche. Another with some bread with chocolate. Another with an apple.
If I intend to lose weight, those moments of snacking are the ones that always cost me the most. And it’s not about hunger, it’s boredom. That’s why When it comes to losing weight, it is so important that we distinguish emotional hunger from physical hunger..
What is emotional hunger
Stress, anxiety or sadness are emotions that encourage us to eat, but boredom too. When we talk about emotional hunger, we do so according to experts in a situation in which it is the emotions we feel, and not the need to nourish ourselves, that drive us to eat.
As explained by the psychologist and editor in chief of Trendencias, Iria Reguera, “emotional hunger it’s based on the need to eat in response to negative emotions and stress that we are unable to handle otherwise. When we are under the influence of negative emotions or in a moment of great stress, these can undermine our self-control when it comes to diet or food.”
This hunger that appears out of nowhere is controllable, but there are times when we can go from a light snack to Binge that serve as an escape route for negative emotions that we do not know how to control. When eating, we feel a slight relief, always momentary, and it can be followed by a feeling of guilt that increases the negative emotions from which we were fleeing. In some cases, that emotional hunger is associated with an emotional or psychological imbalance that causes us to fall into a vicious circle: we are sad, we eat, we feel better but soon we feel even worse.
emotional hunger may be due to poor interoceptive awareness according to scienceas a response to physical somatizations or a poor emotional regulation technique.
Other investigations point to bad parental practices that “cause poor emotional and psychological development of the child, creating inappropriate responses as an emotional regulation strategy. How to eat for emotional hunger. Bad food education that leads us to make bad decisions when it comes to satisfying that emotional hunger. When we think “I’m hungry” our little head does not respond “there is fruit” but “eat that piece of cake, you deserve it”.
If we talk about stressful situations, for example, according to research the body responds to stress with hyperactivation of the hypothalamus and the pituitary does it with hypoactivation, causing hunger. There is also research that suggests that some people use food as technique to change the focus of your attention. If I listen to my hunger, my negative emotions fade into the background.
What is physical hunger
Now let’s talk about the true hunger that our body feels to get the nutrients necessary for life. Physical hunger is the instinct that we share with all animals that leads us to eat in order to survive. and it is what we would call “normal” hunger.
As science explains to us, there are different hormones in our body, such as ghrelin, which are responsible for developing the feeling of hunger and are activated when the body needs to ingest nutrients. It is the hunger that we will feel in the stomach.
How to distinguish emotional hunger from physical hunger
The way they appear
An easy way to distinguish between the two is to know that physical hunger appears little by little. Instead, emotional hunger suddenly appears and it is usually associated with an imperious desire to eat something specific, usually something that comforts us.
The reasons for its appearance
Physical hunger appears because we need nutrients to survive. However, emotional hunger arises either because we do not know how to differentiate the sensations of our body or because we do not have an adequate strategy to regulate our negative emotions and our stress levels.
The ease to quench it
When we talk about physical hunger, it is easily satisfied. Any food takes away our hunger, especially if it has a high satiating power such as high protein foods or with a high fiber content.
Instead, emotional hunger arrives, encourages us to eat high-calorie foods and soon reappears, causing us the same sensation. Emotional hunger is not easy to satisfy in the medium term.
The feeling that they leave us
When we are physically hungry and eat, we usually have a feeling of satisfaction. which is nothing like what we have with emotional hunger. Depending on emotional hunger, how negative the emotions that cause it are, and the amount of food we eat, we may be facing a binge and the consequent feeling of guilt, anxiety, and repercussions on self-esteem.
How to control emotional hunger
Although there are cases in which we have to go to a specialist, especially in eating disorders, depression and other types of diseases that can affect our eating behaviors, if the problem is less serious there are certain Tricks to control that emotional hunger.
It is important when we feel hungry think about what kind of hunger it is to act accordingly. If we know it’s emotional hunger, we’ll be taking the first step to control it. If so, try to identify what causes it. Boredom, sadness… So, if we know it in advance we can have healthier alternatives to try to satisfy it.
Take care of our diet, and make a healthy purchase it is vital to control emotional hunger. Make sure you eat all the nutrients you need and fill your fridge and pantry with healthy food to lessen your desire to eat without hunger. If emotional hunger still comes, don’t boycott yourself. Avoid buying unhealthy foods and if you do, keep it in small packages to avoid getting out of control.
Photos | Siegfried Poepperl, Obi – @pixel7propix , sigmund and artem labunsky in Unsplash
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