Finding Peace in Hunger
Many people (myself included) are taught that when you are hungry, you should eat. In general, that's a pretty good rule. We all need fuel, and the hunger mechanism is nature's way of making sure we're aware that we need fuel - it's like the fuel light that goes off in our car when we're running low on gas.
That said, some of us have faulty gas lights... er, hunger mechanisms, because of the eating habits we developed over the years. Our hunger mechanisms aren't a set-in-stone thing. You can influence them with your actions. Our bodies are amazingly adaptive, so if do start treating it a certain way over and over again, it will come to expect that. By overfeeding myself for years (which is how I came to be overweight), I threw my hunger mechanism out of whack. Sometimes my body tells me I'm hungry even when I'm not. Add that to the fact that I'm uncomfortable with any feeling of hunger and you have a recipe for disaster. To keep with the car metaphor - right now, my gas light goes off when the tank is only half empty. My body is telling me to refuel more often than I really need to! It would be okay if I just had a light snack at that half-way point, but more often than not I eat till I feel "stuffed".
I've come to the conclusion that I have to learn to make peace with my hunger**. It's OKAY to feel a little hungry. There's no reason why I should feel full every second of the day. I also need to learn that when I do eat, I shouldn't walk away feeling stuffed. If I do, then I ate too much.
I'm pretty sure I can fix my hunger mechanism - but that's going to take a good long period of consistent healthy eating. And in the meantime, that's going to cause some discomfort... but that's okay.
**Please note, I'm obviously not referring to the hunger experienced by people who are legitimately starving, nor am I trying to make light of their circumstances. This post is about the fact that sometimes I'll come home from work and think to myself "I'm hungry" and proceed to immediately remedy that (eating more than I should - enough to feel full), even though I had a snack a few hours prior and know that dinner will be ready in another hour or so.
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One more thought: Some people have the opposite problem - they've eating too few calories for so long that their bodies don't feel hungry as often as they *should*. If you're one of those people who says that you can never eat as many calories as MFP tells you to because you're just not hungry, then this would be you. It's just as important for you to fix your hunger mechanism as it is for me to fix mine. You wouldn't want your gas light waiting until there's 1/2 a mile of fuel left, would you? Well, it's equally not good for our bodies to not give us the hunger cues that push us to eat a healthy amount of calories for our activity levels.
To remedy this, you have to gradually increase your calorie levels - add a little here, a little there - 50 more calories at breakfast, 100 more at lunch. Over time, your body will adjust to the adequate calorie intake and you'll find that your body starts to expect it - it will get hungry if you drop your intake again. This won't happen immediately - but if you're consistent, it will eventually.
That said, some of us have faulty gas lights... er, hunger mechanisms, because of the eating habits we developed over the years. Our hunger mechanisms aren't a set-in-stone thing. You can influence them with your actions. Our bodies are amazingly adaptive, so if do start treating it a certain way over and over again, it will come to expect that. By overfeeding myself for years (which is how I came to be overweight), I threw my hunger mechanism out of whack. Sometimes my body tells me I'm hungry even when I'm not. Add that to the fact that I'm uncomfortable with any feeling of hunger and you have a recipe for disaster. To keep with the car metaphor - right now, my gas light goes off when the tank is only half empty. My body is telling me to refuel more often than I really need to! It would be okay if I just had a light snack at that half-way point, but more often than not I eat till I feel "stuffed".
I've come to the conclusion that I have to learn to make peace with my hunger**. It's OKAY to feel a little hungry. There's no reason why I should feel full every second of the day. I also need to learn that when I do eat, I shouldn't walk away feeling stuffed. If I do, then I ate too much.
I'm pretty sure I can fix my hunger mechanism - but that's going to take a good long period of consistent healthy eating. And in the meantime, that's going to cause some discomfort... but that's okay.
**Please note, I'm obviously not referring to the hunger experienced by people who are legitimately starving, nor am I trying to make light of their circumstances. This post is about the fact that sometimes I'll come home from work and think to myself "I'm hungry" and proceed to immediately remedy that (eating more than I should - enough to feel full), even though I had a snack a few hours prior and know that dinner will be ready in another hour or so.
---------------
One more thought: Some people have the opposite problem - they've eating too few calories for so long that their bodies don't feel hungry as often as they *should*. If you're one of those people who says that you can never eat as many calories as MFP tells you to because you're just not hungry, then this would be you. It's just as important for you to fix your hunger mechanism as it is for me to fix mine. You wouldn't want your gas light waiting until there's 1/2 a mile of fuel left, would you? Well, it's equally not good for our bodies to not give us the hunger cues that push us to eat a healthy amount of calories for our activity levels.
To remedy this, you have to gradually increase your calorie levels - add a little here, a little there - 50 more calories at breakfast, 100 more at lunch. Over time, your body will adjust to the adequate calorie intake and you'll find that your body starts to expect it - it will get hungry if you drop your intake again. This won't happen immediately - but if you're consistent, it will eventually.
"listen to your body" as if your body were smarter than your mind. In my experience 99% of us who are unhappy with weight and health, it is because we HAVE listened to our body. I'm also right there on the same page about hunger. I, too, am always hungry and it is real hunger, not emotional. The happiest days of my life (this next part is sad) is when I was in the hospital and I couldn't eat and I just CRIED because I was so hungry. Because of the surgery, I couldn't eat anything and they kept giving me morphine to calm me down. Eventually they hooked me up with a feed drip and I was so happy not to be hungry. I had that on for about a week and never even thought of food or missed it. Because I was gettin **constant** nutrition I was not feeling any hunger. Normally, the minute my tank is not on Full, I get hunger signals and I just HATE to be hungry. That has been my struggle, too. To not always answer that call. I have to admit though, changing WHAT I eat, WHEN I eat, and getting enough exercise has really helped me more than just learning to ignore the flashing light. Here's hoping you can find a solution that works for you too.
This is interesting. I was just thinking about something similar.... more related to portion sizes and stopping when full. In this context, who ever keeps pouring gas into their car when the tank is full? No one! I realized that probably a lot of us have a habit of finishing what's on the plate or in the serving, ESPECIALLY if it tastes really good, because that's all we're going to get of it this time. Talk about greedy! (I'm talking about myself here.). So what if I only get to eat two pieces of the whole pizza because everyone else eats the rest before I want to eat that way again? Big effin' deal. It makes no sense to shove 4 pieces down now so I "get my share" when all I need is one. Sorry to be rambling, but I realized that I have a tendency to make serving sizes of things, like ice cream, bigger (and i count it) purely because I like it, when I can easily be satisfied with less. If I'm aware enough to do so. All this to say, good post on fuel management. :)
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