I just wanted to share what happened to me today. I'm usually a big time snacker and today, I had to go out to a brunch for my father in law's birthday and so I had to limit my food intake. Anyway, the lunch was over around 12:30 p.m. and I usually would have eaten a snack around 3 or 3:30 p.m.. Well, I was sooo tired because we had a lot going on and I went up to my room to rest in bed and I fell asleep. When I woke up, I wasn't even hungry! I ended up eating dinner around 6:00 p.m. and it was actually a small dinner!
Obviously, I can't take a nap every time I get hungry, but it really drove home the point that my hunger is so closely related to emotions. I wonder if my brain is just screwed up when it comes to food? Maybe I THINK I'm hungry when I'm not? I mean, I had all the symptoms of hunger, but if I was really hungry, shouldn't I have awoken from my nap super hungry? Or, maybe I should have at least gotten hungry as time went on. I woke up around 4pm and still waited a few hours to eat.
I ALWAYS used to eat when I was sad/stressed/tired/etc. It's hard to tell sometimes what it is that's making you feel hungry and if it's real hunger or not. I have noticed that it's almost completely gone away though, I don't really get hungry when I'm stressed or sad anymore. I do however sometimes feel like snaking when it's late at night and I'm tired but that's easy to fix, I go to bed.
Anyways, you might have just been hungry. It'd been a long time since you'd eaten so it could have been that.
I call it 'mental hunger.' I was an emotional/overeater, and basically anytime I felt an emotion I ate, even if I wasn't physically hungry. A major part of my weight loss journey has been to learn the difference between physical hunger and mental hunger. The mental hunger is difficult to deal with because it feels so real. I used to overeat was because I was always 'hungry' even after a large meal, I never really felt full. After changing my lifestyle I had to learn to tell the difference between mental hunger and physical hunger, and when to stop eating when I'm full, not only when the plate is empty. The mental hunger is still a challenge now and then, especially when I'm stressed or emotional (like Christmas!). But since I changed my lifestyle it's a lot less frequent and easier to ignore. If I'm mentally hungry I try not to give in to it because of my food issues and try to distract myself until mealtime.
Yeah I am totally a stress eater. That is what got me into this predicament...that and pregnancy. I am definetly a night munchy struggler. Trying to curb it by drinking herbal tea,can't just go to sleep cuz my daughter has sleep issues. But I am getting somewhere...almost met my first mini goal of 20
LuckyMommy, I have often mistaken being tired for hunger. I would, and sometimes still do, eat sugary snacks, to perk myself up. It works in the short term but it is not the answer as we all know. I have been trying to listen to my "hunger" to try to determine if it really is hunger, thirst or just plain old tired. I also try to limit my snacks, especially in the afternoon, my "danger time". My afternoon snacks used to turn into full-blown meals/binges, followed by dinner!
I have been a lifetime stress eater, but something interesting has happened since I have been eating more structured that last 7-8 months. I went through a stessful period last month that lasted @ 3 weeks and I found stress still affects my appetite, but now completely opposite of before. Now I had to force myself to eat. I could never understand those people who lost their appetite when stressed and now I'm one of them!
Seems like eating healthier has changed something in my brain chemistry, because that old stress=hunger obviously was brain, not stomach generated.
To throw another wrinkle out there I don't think we should view being hungry as bad, I think of it as my metabolism going and it's more healthy to eat more often if you eat healthy foods.
As an example a lot of times in the past I've woken up skipped breakfast, then just been crazy busy all day and skipped lunch too. Often on those crazy days I don't even feel hungry or notice I'm hungry until I "stop" for dinner where I then overeat. This is obviously not healthy even though I wasn't hungry most of the day which you would think is good.
I'm trying to realize that to make a lifestyle change it's not about avoiding hunger entirely, it's about how I respond to that hunger properly before it causes me to binge/overeat.
I call it 'mental hunger.' I was an emotional/overeater, and basically anytime I felt an emotion I ate, even if I wasn't physically hungry. A major part of my weight loss journey has been to learn the difference between physical hunger and mental hunger. The mental hunger is difficult to deal with because it feels so real. I used to overeat was because I was always 'hungry' even after a large meal, I never really felt full. After changing my lifestyle I had to learn to tell the difference between mental hunger and physical hunger, and when to stop eating when I'm full, not only when the plate is empty. The mental hunger is still a challenge now and then, especially when I'm stressed or emotional (like Christmas!). But since I changed my lifestyle it's a lot less frequent and easier to ignore. If I'm mentally hungry I try not to give in to it because of my food issues and try to distract myself until mealtime.
Yup, this is exactly like me.
And the FUNNY thing is, that early in my journey, I sometimes was really low on my calories-- just not eating enough-- and I got SO HUNGRY that I felt sort of cranky and shaky and faint.... aka SUPER HUNGRY...
But I didn't even recognize that feeling as hunger-- so I took to my bed thinking I was sick. A couple hours later, I got up, still feeling like crap and ate dinner-- instantly felt better. When i looked over my calorie counts, those were days when I'd only eat about 500 calories by 4 in the afternoon.
I still have some trouble distinguishing the two-- because I feel "head hunger" in my stomach... it's what I think hunger feels like, but it's weird because I often feel that even after a full meal...
But for me, real hunger, the need to snack between meals, is quenched by one apple or one stick of low fat cheese. Whereas head hunger doesn't go away until my stomach is completely distended and I feel like I'm going to barf.
Hunger vs. Stress/emotions
