Some days you eat what’s on your plate and move on, while others day it’s like your stomach is an empty pit suffering from hunger.
Yet, sometimes you lose touch with why you are so hungry. That’s because you’re grappling with your hunger and your appetite.
However, not all hunger pangs are the result of actually needing to eat food.
So, to help you decide what your body and brain are really saying, you’ve got to learn different types of hunger.
Real Hunger
Well, you might have understood by the word itself. Real hunger is the most important type of hunger.
It indicates you when you must eat. Real hunger makes you feel physical sings like shakiness from low blood sugar, a headache, low energy, or grumbling stomach.
It seems simple enough, but often we wait to eat until our hunger emerges and we scarf whatever is in sight.
However, sometimes we get so involved in our work that we forget about our hunger for a while.
Doing this will only make you weaker and loss of your concentration. Therefore, keep snacks in your bags or your desk always.
Don’t ever make your stomach feel empty because it will ultimately affect your whole body.
TV Hunger
What goes better with The Bachelor than a bag of something to munch on?
Too bad you’ll be elbow deep before you realize it. Call it eating amnesia.
A recent study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that eating when distracted promotes people to consume more calories in the moment.
Therefore, it is better to think how much hungry you are before you turn on the TV. You can consume as much food as you want before watching TV.
And as you watch, you can busy your hands doing something else like knitting. In addition, you can also skipping food commercials so that it doesn’t make you hungry.
Bored Hunger
What do you do when you are bored? Well, you probably don’t go for exercise.
You will either watch TV or you will grab some food. Boredom eating is something we all do.
The only thing you have to work on is being able to better tolerate boredom instead of a knee-jerk reaction to try to fill our time with something.
You can always reframe your boredom into relaxation time. Just visit different places, talk with your friends or family members.
When boredom strikes, make a list of things you want to do rather than eating food. This will help you a lot to lose some calories and stay healthy.
Afternoon Hunger
3 p.m. should be renamed “vending machine” hour because it’s the time when you start getting hungry.
Your energy’s dipping and you’re anticipating the end of the work day at afternoon, hence you get hungry even if you have ate recently.
Not to mention you may actually be a little bit hungry if it’s been a few hours since your lunch. But, afternoon hunger occurs most often.
Therefore, the best thing you can do is plan your lunch. Make a snack drawer at work filled with protein-packed choices.
It will help you get tide over longer period until dinner and reduce the amount you eat at your meal next time.
Stress Hunger
Most often people are less picky about eating when they are stressed. So, most probably they’ll dip into sometimes with more calories than healthy ones.
So, if you stop and focus on the future health benefits of your chosen snack, you will try to get more and more conscious.
In addition, that will help your brain override its natural urge to make smart choices when in a bad mood.
Exercising also can be a smart move if you are finding a different go-to stress reduction technique rather than eating.
A study in 2013 found that stress eaters may eat more when times are tense, but they naturally tend to eat less when things are good.
PMS Hunger
Your resolve to follow a healthy diet gets knocked on its head when you are going through your PMS.
A time a few days before your period where hormone changes may ramp up appetitive and craving.
However, you don’t have to deprive yourself from eating when you have PMS. It makes perfect sense that you may want more to eat.
Pay attention to hunger cues and eat a bit more if they’re actually there.
Eye Hunger
You walk around the street and you see delicious cookies on a shop. You might as well prefer to take one, right?
The key thing to do at this point is pause before you do anything. This short-circuits the automatic habit where you take a treat and eat it without thinking or enjoying.
If you do take one of those cookies, give yourself permission to enjoy it because you may be hungry.
However, just because something smells good or looks good doesn’t mean you have to eat it.
