Listen to “Why Feeling Hungry is Healthy”.
Apart from being addicted to some of the food we eat, why are we so afraid of being hungry? Hunger is not an unnatural feeling but a marker when our body needs nutrition. Eating in the absence of hunger means you are most likely overeating.
When we eat before we feel hungry, we’re piling additional fuel on an already sufficiently filled gas tank. The result is that, although we won’t feel hungry for quite some time, excess calories will be stored as body fat. It’s not a big deal if this happens occasionally but, over more extended periods, this practice will lead to excess body weight.
Did you know that letting yourself get hungry between meals can make you healthier and even help you reach your weight loss goals?
Letting yourself get hungry before you eat doesn’t mean starving yourself. Hunger before meals boosts your growth hormones, which aid in regeneration and keep you looking and feeling younger. They even promote better digestion. Hunger before meals also improves your body’s blood sugar regulation and insulin sensitivity that aid in weight regulation.
Hunger should be a signal that tells you it’s time to eat, just as you receive gentle reminders each day to sleep, drink, and use the restroom. However, if you eat when you’re upset, bored, or for comfort, you may be confused about your hunger cues. This is because you have been using food to numb emotional pain rather than for energy and nourishment. Thankfully, it is possible to restore balance to your body’s hunger signals.
Use hunger as a signal to know when to eat: Hold off on eating until you feel hungry and, when you do feel hungry, eat properly. So much of our disordered eating styles and food anxieties come from reversing our body’s’ natural rhythms. This comes from eating for reasons that have nothing to do with hunger and then trying to make up for it by skipping meals to the point of being famished.
Eating due to time of day, boredom, stress, anxiety, social reasons, and even simply because it’s fun, can all unbalance your body’s rhythm. Instead, you should aim to make hunger your first cue for food.
Pick the times you eat
It is better to eat a large meal when you have time to burn it off than to eat it at the end of the day when you will not be as active.
Do not use food to improve your mood
Stress eating and comfort eating are the two easiest ways to short-circuit the hunger response and put on weight.
Avoid diets
Diets don’t help in the long term. They only lock your body into cycles of deprivation and binging.
Be realistic
Rather than setting yourself up with unrealistic expectations, consider waiting for hunger at a time that works for you and your lifestyle.
If you’re eating regularly but are never really hungry, you’re probably overeating. This can prevent you from losing weight. If weight loss is your goal, try cutting back at mealtimes to see how it feels.
Try waiting four to five hours between meals, so that you feel pleasantly hungry but not starving when mealtime rolls around.
If you’re always hungry, you’re not eating enough, or you’re eating too many carbs and not enough protein and/or good fat. Try adding more protein to your meals and avoid empty carbs such as bread, pasta, wheat and white flour products.
