Intuitive Eating- A series: Part 3: Honour your Hunger

Welcome Back. If you have already read the first 2 posts in this series thank you for continuing and if you haven’t read them yet you can find Part 1 here and Part 2 here. Today we are talking about the second principle of Intuitive Eating- Honouring your hunger!!

Hunger. What comes up for you when you hear that word? Something you need to control? Something you fear? Something that shows up multiple times a day to signal your body needs food? What do you do when you feel hunger? Do you eat or try to suppress your hunger? We live in a society that has taught us not to listen to our hunger. That we are supposed to fear it. Hunger can be scary for a multitude of reasons. It could be from learning not to trust your body. It could be from living with food insecurity and not having access to food. It could be from medications that you take. Fearing hunger can show up for a multitude of reasons. Exploring those reasons can be helpful in learning how to trust your hunger and honour it.

When I was in university, 20 years ago, the common refrain was “If you think you are hungry drink some water, you might actually be thirsty”. Huh….hunger and thirst are different sensations in the body but for some reason this was the thing to do when you were hungry. I have heard many dietitians say this over the years, without anyone questioning the difference between thirst and hunger. There are many other things that people do when they experience hunger to try to make their hunger go “away” however the only thing that will work is eating. That is the point of the hunger- to tell your body that it needs nourishment. I think that most of us listen to our other body cues, like going pee for example. How often do you get up in the morning and decide “I am not going to pee all morning no matter what, I will then only pee this afternoon but only half and then a tiny bit before bed”. It sounds kind of odd to do that. Yes we all have to hold it from time to time- we do not always have access to pee- but we eventually seek out a location to do this, or try to pee before getting in the car for a long drive (I will say as a parent I have never seen this work). All this is the same as hunger. Many wake up and either listen to external forces about what and when to eat (meal trackers, diet plans, random “what I eat in a day” social media posts) or are so scared of their hunger that they do anything to suppress it. This principle of Intuitive Eating helps you learn to honour that hunger by providing your body the food it needs.

Many times in my career I have heard people say “I was so good all day then lost control of my eating at night” Let’s break that down. When we override our hunger and feed our body less that it needs it will kick into survival mode. Bodies are amazing and they work really hard to keep you alive. So if your body senses that there is no food available- which it must be because your body does not think you would not give it what it needs by choice- it will increase your sense of smell, your taste buds get heightened, your body will drive you to eat. Your body will crave foods that provide energy, like carbohydrate rich foods. If your body isn’t getting the energy it needs it will slow down all your metabolic processes and break down your muscle tissue for energy. This is a pretty common yet also simplistic view of what happens in your body. There are many factors that can play into this and if you are wanting to dive deeper I would recommend seeing an RD who is also an Intuitive Eating Counsellor.

So, what is hunger exactly?? Well, we all have different feelings of hunger. I think many people are able to tap into extreme hunger. You know when you are “hangry”, feeling sick or have a headache. There are many degrees of hunger prior to that point that you could acknowledge and feed yourself. If you think of your hunger as a scale- some people like a straight line scale 0-5 or 0-10, other people like to think of it in the shape of a semi-circle, like a fuel gauge in a car. However you like to visualize it think about the too extremes. Not hungry or satisfied all the way to extreme hunger. Now divide your scale. Think about what you would put in different sections of your hunger scale. Think about your mood (low, cranky), energy (sleepy, sluggish), head (unfocused, dizzy), stomach ( gurgling, empty), body (weak, salivating) and add to the different sections. Do you feel unfocused when you are in gentle hunger or over hungry. What do you feel like in extreme hunger? Spend a few days checking in with your body. What does it feel like a hour after eating, 3 hours after eating. Are you noticing that you are in gentle hunger at 2pm and extreme hunger by 5pm. That tells me you need a snack at 2pm if possible, and if that is not possible can you add a bit to your meal earlier in the day?

You are probably wondering why all this talk about hunger but nothing on fullness…I promise that is coming, Feeling your Fullness is principle 6.

In the Intuitive Eating for Every Day book, Evelyn Tribole has included an activity or mantra for every day. I love the one on Day 68 which talks about hunger. “ I eat authentically by honouring my hunger and the satisfaction needs of my unique body”. Try journaling your hunger, non-judgementally. Check and see if you are allowing yourself to be hungry and if you are satisfying the hunger with food.

I would also like to acknowledge that there are many circumstances in life that affect hunger cues; medication, disease states and eating disorders. You might also struggle to find your hunger cues if you have been dieting on and off for years. Be gentle with yourself. Remember there is no way to fail at this.

Until next time be Unapologetically you while I be Unapologetically Me RD