The Four Types of Hunger
Did you know that our perception of hunger can be impacted by a number of factors?
Introducing the four types of hunger…
1. Physical Hunger
Physical hunger is true biological hunger. This is your body telling you that it’s time to refuel, and it’s likely been a little while since your last meal.
Key features:
Often accompanied by a physical sensation in the body, for example an empty feeling in the stomach, stomach pangs, fatigue, sometimes feeling lightheaded
Gradual onset, builds up slowly and tends to come in waves
Most foods would typically be appealing in times of physical hunger
How to respond:
Eat a balanced meal (or snack) and be sure to include some protein
Continue listening and responding to your hunger and fullness cues
2. Emotional Hunger
Emotional hunger is driven by an emotional need rather than a physical need for food. In this case we have often been conditioned to use food as a coping mechanism for emotions such as stress, overwhelm, boredom, sadness or joy.
Key features:
Triggered by emotions
Often specific cravings - for example something sweet or salty. Unlike physical hunger, emotional hunger is not typically satisfied by just any food
Comes on suddenly and often feels urgent and insistent
How to respond:
Recognise patterns and identify emotional triggers
Develop alternative coping mechanisms and more effective strategies to manage emotions (I will be teaching this in upcoming workshop: From Cravings to Confidence)
3. Sensory Hunger
A desire for food which is stimulated by the senses, for example: sight, smell, taste, and the texture of food.
Key features:
Environmental influence, prompted by seeing, smelling or tasting appealing food even when not physically hungry
Visually appealing food can heighten cravings
May include cravings for a specific taste or texture
How to respond:
When combined with physical hunger, this can be a constructive way to honour cravings, for example - you may be craving a crunchy texture with lunch so you may incorporate some nuts or seeds into a salad. Or you may feel like something sweet so you have a piece of baking alongside your meal
Eat mindfully to help engage your senses and promote mental satisfaction while you’re eating
4. Practical Hunger
Practical or Planned Hunger involves eating around your schedule or activities, taking into account practical considerations such as meal timing and food availability. This could involve eating lunch early because you’ve got work meetings from 12-3pm.
Key features:
Scheduled eating - eating at specific times which align with your daily routine because in some cases this is more practical than waiting for physical hunger signals
Sometimes eating early in anticipation of a long period without food or having a pre-workout snack to provide fuel for exercise
Eating to avoid future discomfort
How to respond:
Plan ahead to recognise how you may need to adjust your typical meal times
Be mindful of your food choices to provide yourself with more sustained energy when needed
Be flexible and adapt your eating habits to suit your daily needs while maintaining an awareness of your body’s physical hunger levels
Summary & Key Takeaways
Being able to recognise the different type(s) of hunger you are experiencing helps you to make more informed and satisfying food choices. There can often be an overlap between the hunger types and it’s great if we can be intentional with our food choices to honour our different types of hunger.
I also think it’s important to emphasise that it’s perfectly fine to eat when we’re not physically hungry sometimes. Practical hunger is a great example of this, but at times it’s fine to purely satisfy sensory or emotional hunger too.
It’s only when food becomes our predominant strategy to manage our emotions that this can be problematic. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by emotional hunger and would like to learn my 5 step formula to work through this - I’d love to invite you to join our upcoming online workshop: From Cravings to Confidence.
You can find out more & register here.
With love,
Nicole