Sometimes I wonder if we really and truly know what hunger is. A lot of us say we are hungry all the time and I find that impossible to believe. I know that I eat too much mostly when I am bored but I know that I am not actually hungry. I find myself in the kitchen looking the cupboards and fridge knowing I am not hungry but wanting to eat regardless. Sometimes I am hungry for food, true hunger, but I don't always eat. Maybe that is a bad thing, I know for some people getting too hungry leads to binging. I'm not one of those people. Once in awhile I"ll be a bit hungry before I go to bed but usually I won't eat anything. Why you might wonder? Well for crying out loud I am 100 lbs overweight and I'm certain that if my body needs calories that badly it will find some to use for energy. There is nothing wrong with being a bit hungry as long as it doesn't lead to binging. Maybe just maybe my body will finally recognize that as a basically sedentary person I don't need 3,000 calories a day to exist and stop saying that I am hungry when I am not.
What about the term comfort food? It says to me that my life has to be 100% comfortable all the time and if it isn't in some respect than at least I've got comfort food to fall back on. Who said I have to be comfortable and perfect and happy all the time that I have to eat to achieve these things? This state of comfort or happiness is not achieved by macaroni and cheese or a hot fudge sundae. In the long run these types of foods on a regular basis are certainly not going to help my state of mind when I see the scale inching up and my clothes getting tighter and tighter.
I think real hunger has to with our metabolisms. My husband, who definetely has a fast metabolism, is hungry more often and can eat much more in general. Which is fine, because his body burns it off quickly.
I am rarely hungry, but eat anyway because a set schedule has been put in my head (breakfast, lunch and dinner) and then I eat even off schedule due to boredom, emotions, cravings, etc. And because I have a slow metabolism, my eating habits make me fat.
I don't eat nearly as often as my husband or nearly as bad (he loves fast food) but because of our metabolic differences, he's skinny and I'm not. His bad eating habits will catch up with him in the form of colon troubles, cancer, etc. in the future but not in weight, thanks to that metabolism. I'm really trying to work with him on the fast food.
I am trying to only eat now, when I'm actually hungry. Our bodies tell us what we need, it's up to us to listen.
Since weight loss comes down to the basic equation of calories in vs. calories out, it only makes sense to think that in order to lose weight, we need to be hungry.
I think the feeling of overwhelming hunger when we are trying to lose weight happens because our bodies are used to a certain amount of calories coming in and basically panics when that amount is lowered. I'm not talking about starvation mode, I'm just talking about changing one's diet from say 2500 cal/day to 1800 cal/day.
Our bodies are our own worst enemy.... it wants us to remain fat and maintain the same caloric intake, it doesn't like stress, and certainly any other medical condition on top of being fat doesn't make it any easier...
So anyway, I think that if I am feeling hungry while trying to lose weight, then that must be a good thing... it must mean that my body needs to use up my fat stores... and as long as I don't go binge, being hungry is fine by me.
I respectfully (and regretfully!) disagree about hunger necessarily being our bodies' way of telling us we need food. I think for many of us obese and formerly obese people, our metabolisms and hunger signals have become so screwy that we may never be able to tell what's "real" hunger and what isn't.
I think I got a sobering wake-up call on this one when Mel, one of the long time maintainers on this forum admitted that she's almost always hungry. I guess because she was overweight for so long, her body has gotten wired in a screwy way, and the signals just don't work anymore.
I will admit that I'm frequently hungry, too, despite the fact that I try to eat a lot of low calorie, nutrient-dense foods. I have just learned that I can't rely on my faulty hunger instinct. But as long as I'm logging my food and know I'm getting adequate nutrition from the 1500-or-so calories I'm getting a day, I know all is well with my body.
I hope this isn't true of everyone, but I know it's true for me!
Also wanted to add that certain things we eat make us hungrier. Carbs for one, and even some sugar-substitute "diet" ingredients. Protein is a good hunger quencher.
I agree that a lot of people, like Jennifer and Mel, may never be able to trust their bodys' signals anymore. I don't know what causes those wires to cross - how overweight the person was, for how long, the number of weight loss attempt before success - it could be any or all of them. Thankfully, I have been spared the screwy wiring.
I also agree that hunger isn't necessarily our body telling us that we need food. Having inaccurate signals is one reason this might not be the case. But often I think it boils down to how a person defines hunger. For at least 6 months after I began losing weight I felt as if I were hungry all of the time. And then something clicked and I realized that I wasn't hungry, I just wasn't full. For so many years I didn't consider myself satisfied unless I was full. And if I wasn't full I considered myself to be hungry. Heaven forbid if my stomach should growl because at that point I was starving and at risk of drying up and blowing away.
There is a middle ground that, I think, takes a while for most of us to find. And even once we find it we have to condition ourselves to accept it. For the better part of the day I do not feel full or hungry. There was literally one day that I realized this feeling of "nothing" and thought to myself, "THIS is what normal feels like." That something clicked and, all of a sudden, I was able to recognize TRUE hunger. And I have to say, it was a real eye opener.
I don't think I ever knew what hunger was until I started exercising. After a hard workout, and then the bus home, I am ready to eat small children!!! And when I wake in the morning, I could eat the cat!! She knows to let momma put the oatmeal on before she comes near me!!!
But buy and large, I can't trust my hunger instinct. I could eat my days calories after exercise if I don't plan carefully, and keep well hydrated.
And my screwy wiring still confuses stress with hunger. When I am seriously stressed I still want to reach for food first. I've learnt strategies to cope with that but the *feeling* remains.
I am sure it varies with the individual but for me being hungry does lead to binging. In dealing with the issue I depend of certain basic biological facts. For example it take about 3-4 hours for food to exit the stomach and head to the small intestine. It varies with the food you have eaten how fast gastric emptying will take place. Carb so through faster than fats and protein. I make it a rule the majority of the time to not eat until at least four hour after my last meal. I have a snack only if my stomach is growling. I find if I am feeling hungry a lot of the time it is usually due to "mouth hunger" rather than to real stomach hunger. I have been working to train myself to listen for when I am full and then to stop. That involves eating slowly and going to the point of being satiated rather than full. I also make it a point to have a mix of carbs, fats and protein at each meal to slow gastric emptying.
For me feeling hungry is not good and it just gets me into trouble. I find my hunger signals are just fine as long as I listen for it and do not allow other signals to dictate when to eat. If you keep a close watch on your calories intake and keep it at a reasonable level real hunger should not be an issue. I think most of our hunger is misinterpreting the signal rather then the signal itself. Pavlov could get dogs to salivate on demand and we are much the same. Many of us have very poor eating habits and our hunger signal is tied to the external environment which is something we need to relearn.
A lot of good points in this thread, I agree with the whole issue of not recognizing your body signals. I am still learning what it means to be truly hungry. I think that absolutely metabolism has a lot to do with, as when I was a child and then later a teenager, I was a competitive swimmer. I was hungry all the time, because my body was burning fuel at a much faster rate (calories in=calories out ). Later, as I grew older and became less and less active, I failed to recognize when I was truly hungry and kept eating at the same pace. I know personally, that right now, I can not trust my body's signals. I do all the tricks, distracting myself, drinking water to see if I am really hungry, sometimes it works, sometimes not. I do know, that if I let myself feel hungry for too long, more than 5 of 6 hours, that leads to binging. I have had that "nothing" feeling that Lucky describes, but not often enough at the moment to trust what it says. I think as I get more and more used to my new eating habits, I feel that "nothing" feeling more and more.
Hunger for me is confusing as well. Sometimes I know I have mistaken thirst for hunger. I've wanted something, and gone for ice cream and then while eating it, realized that what I really wanted was ice WATER. I wanted that cold refreshing feeling in my throat, not the sugar and cream of the ice cream.
But it is confusing in other ways too. Especially when I'm dieting. Sometimes I can't even tell if I'm hungry. I feel like I should be, but hours go by and I'm not. It always leaves me worried that I am slowing my metabolism down even further. Other times I'm ravenous and I KNOW I'm hungry then.
I wish I could just let my body decide and stop worrying about it.
I found--once, on one of many missions to overcome my weight issues--that I was able to RELISH feeling hungry--that I recognized that feeling that tugging in my belly and resisiting it was allowing my bod to in fact find its energy needs elsewhere (as someone above suggested). I took some real pride in coming to terms with that sensation as a signal that what I was doing--eating right, resisting eating just because I felt I needed to, moving my bod--was working. I'm trying really hard to rediscover that sense that hunger is my friend again, and I think it would be valuable for others to try to experience that sensation in that different way--seeing it as a friend, not foe, as an emblem of control and ability rather than weakness and inability.
My way of eating is to have 3 meals and 3 snacks, the Jenny Craig plan. I rarely get ravenously hungry, though I can have low blood sugar if I go to the gym before lunch. I almost never skip a meal or snack. If I have a day off program, then I feel hungier the next day when I'm back on program. I feel hungrier when it gets colder. I feel hungrier at different times during my cycle.
I heard Bob Greene say that that sense of hunger -- not so hungry that you feel weak or need to eat -- but hunger after you've eaten decently, means that your body is using your fat stores, you're losing weight in those moments, so it's better not to eat then. That really helped my way of thinking about hunger.
There is a genetic disorder, Prader-Willi syndrome, where a person can't experience the sense of fullness. So along with a genetics, there's metabolism, emotional eating, hormones, and who knows what. You figure that for most people through history, it wasn't a question of eating when you were hungry, but eating when you actually had some food to eat! ha.
My problem is that "I'm not really hungry, but I could eat a little something" feeling. I always get that feeling in the late evening (exactly when I'm not supposed to eat!) If I could just learn to be comfortable with that feeling, and avoid eating the comfort food, I would avoid the extra calories and not sabotage my weight loss efforts.
Like previous posters have said, it's really hard to recognize true hunger when I'm so used to over eating. It's definitely a battle.
I find that when I drink enough water, and I make sure I'm getting protein every three-four hours, my grumbly-stomach hunger pangs have almost completely gone away.
That being said, I have had to learn to be more cognizant of my body's OTHER signals. A slight edge to my voice, a gentle tension in my head, a feeling of annoyance at anything my husband or child or boss says, the feeling that if I slept for an hour everything would be much better... these are all signals for me that I need to eat soon -- and I've learned they're more reliable than actual hunger pangs or stomach growls. If I let it go that far, it's too far.
I also suffer from the "I'm not really hungry, but I could eat a little something" feeling. If I find myself hanging around the kitchen, mentally going over things to eat, I have to catch myself. A hot cup of tea, or a diet soda, often does the trick. Or a spoonful of cottage cheese or a mozzarella cheese stick, which both pack a lot of protein for less than 100 calories. That will usually tide me over until dinner.
What's wrong with being hungry?
). Later, as I grew older and became less and less active, I failed to recognize when I was truly hungry and kept eating at the same pace. I know personally, that right now, I can not trust my body's signals. I do all the tricks, distracting myself, drinking water to see if I am really hungry, sometimes it works, sometimes not. I do know, that if I let myself feel hungry for too long, more than 5 of 6 hours, that leads to binging. I have had that "nothing" feeling that Lucky describes, but not often enough at the moment to trust what it says. I think as I get more and more used to my new eating habits, I feel that "nothing" feeling more and more.
