179- Understanding the Four Types of Hunger

Hi, you guys. Welcome back to another episode. I've gotten the question quite a bit over the years, how can I tell if it's physical hunger or emotional hunger? And I'm going to answer that in today's episode. But what most people don't realize is there's actually four different types of hunger. And when you know how to recognize what type of hunger you are feeling, you are then able to respond more appropriately.

So understanding the different types of hunger allows you to make more mindful eating decisions. It also helps improve your relationship with food by helping you know how to respond to your body's needs more accurately. And then as a result, anxiety and stress around eating goes down and you start to regain more of a sense of peace and balance and control with food. I'm telling you, the more you know, all right, let's get into it.

Welcome to the Dear Body Podcast. I'm your host, Jessi Jean, and this show is dedicated to goal-driven women and mothers who want to feel in flow and in momentum in their life instead of perpetually feeling behind. Now, if you don't have a healthy relationship with food, fitness, or your body, we're going to have a lot of discussion around some pretty unique and effective strategies for healing, but we're also going to go way beyond that here.

We're going to have conversations around creating clarity in your life, setting goals, and mastering habits, all while reducing overwhelm, being present and prioritizing the things that matter most.

So I used to be afraid of the feeling of hunger. I feared feeling hunger. I would try to ignore my hunger as long as possible until I would get to this point where I would be so overly hungry, I would be ravenous, and then I would snap and I would end up binge eating or overeating. And that happens as a result of blood sugar levels dropping, and then you start to crave more highly palatable foods.

And when you get to the place of being overly hungry, just all intentions to eat balanced and to moderate go out the window because you can't even think anymore. You're starving. And so when I went on my journey to heal my relationship with food, something that was so powerful in that journey was to feed myself at regular intervals throughout the day so I could maintain my hormone levels. I can maintain energy levels. I can maintain my blood sugar levels.

And as a result of not getting to the point of being overly hungry and keeping myself well-fueled, I felt less impulsive and less urges to binge and overeat and to do these things with food that ultimately didn't make me feel good in the end. But when I was going through my process and when I was understanding more about my own psychology around eating, and I was really trying to get a grip on my relationship with food, I didn't understand that there was different types of hunger.

And I want to share it all with you today because I think understanding this will help you understand yourself and your body's needs so that you can then respond more appropriately to what it is that you're feeling and what type of hunger that you're actually dealing with in any given moment. So let's start off with the question that a lot of people have, what's the difference between physical hunger and emotional hunger?

And then we'll get into the two other types of hunger that nobody ever talks about, but are really important to understand as well. So physical hunger is, our body's natural signal that it needs more energy. It needs more nutrients. It comes up because we have a physiological need. There's a biological response to the depletion of energy stores. So how do we identify physical hunger? Its onset is usually gradual.

It grows over time. It develops slowly over time as we run out of energy stores, as our body depletes the energy You will usually feel it in your stomach. It's often a growling, a rumbling, or maybe a hollow sensation, a hollow feeling. You might also have an inability to focus when you start to get hungry. Maybe you feel a little bit shaky. You might also be a little bit lightheaded. You might have low energy.

That's physical hunger. There's a physical need for energy. And when we're experiencing physical hunger, we're usually more open to a variety of foods. And there's a variety of foods that will satisfy that hunger. And physical hunger should be occurring regularly. It's typically going to appear after several hours of not eating. It will come on. Physical hunger is normal. It's natural. It's important that we understand its signs and its signals and that we honor

it. And we don't want to wait until we're to the point of ravenous or overly hungry, because again, when you try to eat balanced, when you're ravenous, it's really hard. And so honoring some of those first signs of physical hunger can be a really good strategy to working well. To have a more balanced and peaceful relationship with food.

Now, let's talk about emotional hunger. Emotional hunger is driven by or triggered by some type of an emotional need or an emotional response rather than an actual physical biological need for energy. It occurs as some type of a response to some feeling that you are feeling. That could be stress. It could be boredom. It It could be sadness. It could be loneliness. It could even be happiness. You're in a celebratory mood and you want to eat.

But more often than not, there's some desire there to pacify uncomfortable emotions. So if you're wondering, am I feeling physical hunger or emotional hunger? Here are some ways to tell. So again, with physical hunger, it kind of develops gradually over time. It builds. Whereas with emotional hunger, the onset can be really sudden and it almost feels urgent. And again, it's triggered by some type of an emotion that you're experiencing.

And whereas with physical hunger, you might be feeling it in your stomach, emotional hunger, it's usually felt in the head. We become fixated on certain thoughts or fixated on certain foods. With physical hunger, we tend to be more open to a variety of foods, like I said, whereas with emotional hunger, you might start to have cravings for a very specific type of food. And with physical hunger, the satisfaction that we get comes from eating a balanced meal or more of a balanced snack.

That helps satisfy the hunger. Whereas with emotional hunger, when you eat, you might not even be satisfied after eating because the underlying emotion that you're experiencing, it's still unaddressed. And so some of the feelings that you might have during and after. Physical hunger is, you know, eating actually brings a sense of satisfaction.

It brings a sense of pleasant completeness and a sense of well-being, whereas the feelings you might have during and after emotional hunger is eating might lead to feelings of guilt or it might lead to feelings of shame or regret, especially if the food that was eaten was in response to negative emotions. With physical hunger, we're usually making more deliberate and conscious choices, whereas with emotional hunger, we might be eating more mindlessly.

Food might be consumed more quickly and without much thought. It's kind of that autopilot eating. With physical hunger, you might find it way more simple, a lot easier to stop when you're full. And again, emotional hunger, it's hard to satisfy because you are not addressing the underlying emotion. Now, this is really important to highlight. Emotional eating isn't always a bad thing. We often see it only in a negative light, but it isn't inherently bad.

In some contexts, emotional eating can be totally normal and even part of a really positive and healthy relationship with food. For example. You might be eating to celebrate some type of a special occasion. That might be a birthday or a holiday or a wedding. Or like my family and I last night, we walked with our friends to the park. There were food trucks. And because it was there, we got it. And it was just in that moment.

Food is also a connector of people. It's social. And we don't have to feel guilt or shame or disappointment in ourself for sharing food during time with other people or during a celebration. It can absolutely enhance feelings of joy and connection with others. And that is such a beautiful thing. And sometimes I think we demonize that and we're afraid to eat out of anything but physical hunger. And some of us, I even went through a phase in my life where I was afraid of

physical hunger. I tried to ignore it. In moderation, eating certain comfort foods to soothe emotions can be totally fine, especially if it's done more mindfully and it's not your sole coping mechanism. So for example, having your favorite treat after a tough day of work that maybe provides you some sense of comfort and helps you unwind, that isn't something that you have to go into a full-blown spiral and feel like you're a terrible person and feel like you blew it with food.

There are some days it's hot as balls here in the middle of the summer and I get off work and it just sounds like a good time to walk to our little downtown area that's within walking distance and go get ice cream with my husband to help unwind. And there's nothing, there's no need to feel guilt and shame around that. Creating positive memories with food that have emotions involved is incredible. Food is an amazing thing that we should celebrate. And it's, like I said, it's cultural.

It's social. It can strengthen social bonds. It can enhance our feelings of belonging. It plays such a central role in so many social gatherings and traditions. And I think we need to kind of shift our perspective on emotional eating always being a bad thing. Now, if it is the only tool we have in our toolbox of emotional coping skills, that's when there's a problem and that's when we need to address it. However, let's talk about the two other types of hunger that often get forgotten.

Before we jump back into our conversation, I wanted to share something that I have been working on that I think you might really enjoy. It's called Weekly Wisdom for a Well-Lived Life. And it's kind of my passion project right now. It's a free newsletter that I send out every week where I share three little and sometimes not so little things I wish someone would have shared with me earlier that have made my life better, sometimes significantly better.

These are little nuggets of wisdom, practical tips, self-growth prompts, affirmations I have on repeat, and a whole lot more. And as a part of the newsletter crew, you'll also be the first to know when a new episode of the podcast drops. I would love to have you there. You can subscribe at jessigean.com slash newsletter. That's J-E-S-S-I-J-E-A-N.com slash newsletter or find the link in the show notes.

All right, back to the episode. The first one that I want to talk about that often gets forgotten is what's known as practical hunger. And this involves eating based on the knowledge that you might not have the opportunity to eat later. So it can be driven by a schedule that you have or some type of practical consideration rather than immediate physical hunger.

So for example, you might be eating because of time constraints, or like I said, an anticipated schedule, or you're eating preemptively to avoid hunger later. So maybe I work with a lot of nurses. I don't know why I attract so many nurses inside of the Food Freedom Online program. If you're a nurse, I love you guys. You're amazing. And maybe that's because we talk so much about the science of healing your relationship with food and mental reprogramming.

And I think nurses and medical professionals and medical students, I think you guys really appreciate that, which is amazing. I love working with you guys. But. A lot of the nurses that I work with have these 12-hour shifts or 10-hour shifts, and sometimes they will have their lunch at a time they're not necessarily physically hungry, but if they don't eat then, they know that they're going to go back into their shift and they're not going to get another break for maybe six hours.

They eat preemptively to avoid getting to this point of being overly hungry or ravenous by the time they get off, and that's a really wise thing to do. That is a mindful thing to do. That is an indicator of a healthy relationship with food. You are caring for your body's needs, even though you're not able to eat at the exact moment where you feel a ton of physical hunger. It's all about planning meals around activities or work commitments.

Sometimes we can't just stop right when we're feeling physical hunger. We have to think through it. We have schedules. We have busy lives. It's really all about anticipating and preventing getting to this point of being overly hungry or ravenous. It's about eating at convenient times when you're able to, even if you're not necessarily feeling a ton of physical hunger. Now, does it feel great to eat a bunch when you're not physically hungry?

Maybe not. And so you might not eat a ton because you had just eaten a few hours prior and this is your only time to eat and you're not exactly that hungry. But, you know, if you don't eat, you're going to get to the point of ravenous. And then that's what ends up leading to overeating or sometimes binge eating. So practical hunger, just as it sounds, is all about eating for practical reasons.

Reasons. Now let's talk about the fourth type of hunger. It is known as taste hunger. And basically it is when you have a craving for a specific taste or texture, and it can occur alongside physical hunger, or it can be independent of it. And the way it differs from emotional hunger, where you start to get fixated on a specific type of food is taste hunger. When you have a craving or a taste for something, that craving or taste for something is not triggered by an emotion.

So that's how it differentiates itself from emotional hunger. So taste hunger can happen when you have a desire for enjoyment or to get pleasure from food. And it might look like, again, you're craving specific flavors. You're in the mood for salty or sweet or sour. You're wanting to eat for the pleasure or the taste of something.

So for example, you're at the Cheesecake Factory and you finish your meal and you know those portions there, they are large and in charge and it was just too good and you ate to the point where you are maybe pretty darn full at this point. But you know how they do it there. The waiter comes up, they slip you a little, not so little actually, cheesecake menu and you start looking at the cheesecake menu and you're like, wow.

All of a sudden I have a taste for, I have a desire to have a piece of cheesecake because it looks good or something smells good. You walk into the mall and you smell Cinnabon and you're like, wow, I could really go for a cinnamon roll right now. And taste hunger can lead to eating for satisfaction of just your senses rather than necessarily nutritional energy needs. And what's really important to understand about taste hunger is it's nothing that we need to demonize.

It is totally natural to crave certain things and to have a desire to eat for the purpose of pleasure and not just physical hunger. So understanding when to honor taste hunger and when to set some healthy boundaries can really help you. Enjoy food more and maintain balance and a healthy relationship with eating and with food. So you might want to honor your taste hunger during special occasions and celebrations like birthdays and holidays and social gatherings because food enhances the

enjoyment. It enhances social connections. And the way you're going to do this is you're going to approach it mindfully. You're going to savor the experience. You're not going to feel guilt and shame. Maybe you want to to honor taste hunger when you want to mindfully indulge. So you're genuinely craving a specific taste or a specific texture. You check in with yourself and that craving is not being driven from a desire to pacify some uncomfortable emotion.

So it's not emotional hunger that should be addressed in a different way. And so if you want to mindfully indulge, it's all about doing so with presence. We want to be present. We really want to enjoy the food and not go into this kind of checked out place where we're eating in a mindless fashion. We're eating as fast as we can. We're not paying attention and we're doing so to kind of stuff or again, pacify uncomfortable emotions. So with mindful indulgence, you might choose a portion.

You might sit down, you're going to be present with it. You're going to focus on the flavors and textures, and you're really going going to allow yourself to extract satisfaction from that eating experience. Satisfaction is so important, you guys. And I think this is something that I wish I knew earlier was the importance of enjoyment and pleasure in the eating experience. Diet culture has us believing that food is just fuel. That is so not true.

In order to have a healthy, balanced, untriggered, and impulsive relationship with food, we need to enjoy food. There's nothing wrong with really sinking into enjoyment and pleasure with food. Now, when else should you honor taste hunger?

When it's part of a balanced diet, you're eating nutritious meals and you're making sure that you're getting all of your macronutrients in and you're not just eating highly palatable foods, but you're making sure that you have your vegetables and grains and fats and proteins and carbs and all the things that make up a well-balanced diet, that's when we can honor also our taste hunger and our cravings.

And we can incorporate these taste-driven foods into meals that are otherwise balanced and nutritious. And so instead of thinking about what you need to not be eating, like I need to cut out these carbs or I need to not eat muffins or pastries. Think about an. Approach to food where you add things in. So instead of saying, I can't have the muffin for breakfast or the cinnamon roll for breakfast, instead, it's like, what can I add to that?

I'm having a taste for the cinnamon roll, but what can I add to it to make it a more well-balanced and nutritious breakfast? Oh, I could add some eggs. I could add some avocado. I could add some sausage or some turkey or some spinach or whatever to make it a more well-balanced meal. That mindset of adding things rather than subtracting or taking away things can be super beneficial. Now, when should you maybe not honor taste hunger? When should you have some boundaries?

Well, I think if you are feeling stressed or anxious or sad or bored, and that craving, that taste for something is actually emotional hunger, and we need to address the underlying emotion. We need to feel through the emotion so it can metabolize in our system, it can transform, and we can meet ourselves with compassion and pay attention to our emotions. We can get to know our emotional states if we're not ignoring them and stuffing with food.

So I think it's important to understand, is this craving, is this taste for something coming? Because I just have a genuine craving for it and it's not being triggered out of some emotional response. I think that's the difference. And I think that's when we need to have some boundaries with taste hunger and go, So, okay, I'm craving this because it's been, you know, I'm stressed and I'm anxious and this will help me not feel that way in the moment.

What if I can do some nervous system regulation practices? Again, this is something I teach inside of the Food Freedom Online program with my clients is how to regulate our nervous system so we can process our emotions in healthful ways. So our emotional states aren't constantly triggering us to want to eat.

To pacify. So I also think it's really important that if that we have some boundaries around taste, hunger and cravings, if those cravings are for things that aren't nutritious, and we haven't had a nutritionally balanced day. So if you've been eating a lot of highly palatable foods or fun play foods, and there hasn't been a lot of nutrients in your meals throughout the day, I think that's important.

That's a moment where we go, okay, we can kind of step into a role where we parent ourself a little bit and we go, all right, you know what? I haven't had a well balanced meal in quite a few meals. And I know if I continue to just honor my cravings and don't pay attention to my physical health needs, I might feel lethargic or I might feel bloated. I'm not going to feel well energized. And so I think that's a moment where we might have some boundaries around taste hunger.

So hopefully that was helpful.

Again, four different types of hunger, physical hunger, taste hunger, emotional hunger, practical hunger. And none of these types of hunger need to be demonized. They are all valid in their own right. And understanding what you are feeling in the moment can be super powerful in helping you get reconnected to your body and understand how to more accurately support yourself and to support your body's needs.

So again, hopefully this episode was helpful. If you're finding the podcast to be helpful, share it with a friend. And if you have a second to rate and review on whatever platform you listen on, that would mean so much. I read every single review and it helps the show grow. All right. I think that is all for now. I will catch you next time.