Increasingly, for most people, eating is more about enjoyment than about the need to maintain the normal functioning of the body. Maybe it’s just emotional hunger.
That is, we eat not because we are hungry, but because we want to indulge in another “yummy”. However, in many cases, the love of snacking leads to extra pounds.
How to determine for what reason you want to eat: because of real hunger or emotional?
First of all, if you want to try something tasty after the main meal, then be sure that this is a manifestation of emotional hunger. Real hunger occurs only after the food has been digested by the stomach. This is about two or four hours after the meal.
As a rule, emotional hunger manifests itself unexpectedly and at different times of the day. But the real physiological – at a strictly defined time. This usually happens at the hours you are used to eating.
With real hunger, it will not be so important for you what to eat. You will choose those dishes that you think will be more satisfying than the rest. You will not demand any culinary delights, but will be content with what is available.
Close up image of a young woman with eating disorder, having a midnight snack – eating donuts, in front of the refrigerator.
Often emotional hunger is associated with addiction to a particular product.
In most cases, emotional hunger is provoked by smell and vision. This is used in most supermarkets. For example, the familiar smell of grilled chicken can make you want to buy it in order to get enough of it at home.
Seeing a beautiful cake, you think that there can be nothing tastier in the world. Having succumbed to emotional hunger, you will definitely once again indulge in yummy. In such cases, psychologists recommend mentally offering yourself other food alternatives.
If you do not want to eat an alternative snack, most likely you are having an emotional hunger attack. Practice this for as long as possible so that you can easily distinguish between real hunger and emotional hunger.
Genuine physiological hunger does not lead to overeating
With real hunger, it is hardly possible to “persuade” the stomach to refuse to eat. He will demand food until he gets it. Physiological hunger does not lead to overeating, and therefore to a set of extra pounds. But emotional hunger just becomes the cause of excess weight
You should also pay attention to how you feel about what and how you eat. If, after eating, you begin to scold yourself for eating a delicacy that turned out to be superfluous, then it was an emotional hunger.
Try to spend no more than ten minutes at the dinner table. This is the time that the body needs to understand that it is full. When the feast drags on, you are prone to emotional hunger.
