What’s Your Hunger Type?
Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Professor of Psychology, and Author of You Are WHY You Eat: Change Your Food Attitude, Change Your Life
It may sound a bit like asking
someone, “What’s your sign?” But, knowing your hunger type could actually help
you become a little more mindful of your eating patterns so you can avoid the
mindless calories that lead to extra pounds.
Most of us fall into one
hunger type associated with our eating mistakes. However, everyone is
different, and you may find yourself exhibiting characteristics of more than
one hunger type. This may make it harder, but you can apply the solutions
offered for each category to help you break from your established eating
patterns.
Take a look at these hunger
types and see where you land:
The Sensory Type
Does the smell, sight, or sound of
food set you off and make you want to eat? Does this happen even if you just
ate or are not hungry? People that fall into the Sensory Hunger Type crave food
when their senses are awakened. In general, people don’t get turned on by
broccoli, but certain foods with more typically alluring aromas – like
hamburgers – can get you going. The tough thing about this hunger type is that
it is so primitive and hard-wired – smelling food and having a growly tummy is
an involuntary response. But, the Sensory Hunger Type is often affected by
high-calorie foods that are hard to stop eating once you start (e.g.
fresh-baked cookies).
Here are some other questions
to ask yourself to determine if you are a Sensory Hunger Type. Think about your
response to food smells and tastes: Do you audibly moan after eating certain
foods (or even smelling them)? Do you get significantly distracted when you see
or smell certain foods?
What are the risks of this hunger
type? When you are in places or situations where you are facing the smells,
sounds, and sights of your favorite foods, it can be hard to say no. This can
be true of Sensory Hunger Types even when they are full. They use cues outside
of their bodies to dictate whether or not to eat instead of listening to what’s
going on inside of their bodies.
Tips for the Sensory Hunger Type
If sensory hunger is your
thing, then you are more vulnerable to sights, smells and sounds – in short,
your senses – so the best thing is to cut them off at the pass. A few
suggestions:
- Carry around a small bottle of grapefruit oil. Research suggests that breathing it in may help redirect those cravings or at least distract you from other “trigger” food odors.
- Pre-load with protein. Sometimes, when you go into a “high-sensory environment,” such as a food court, the combination of being a Sensory Hunger Type and being hungry can be a perfect storm. At least take off the edge by consuming a small protein snack. Mix it up – edamame, a small skim latte – these things have protein too. It may be just enough to keep you from falling too hard for the sensory triggers.
The Emotional Type
This may be the most common hunger
type – eating in response to a feeling instead of to hunger. Before you reach
for food, think about the acronym FLAB: Frustrated, Lonely, Angry, Bored. These are
amongst some of the most common reasons that people eat when they are not
hungry.
The Emotional Hunger Type can
have some real problems with regulating how they eat because they are eating
for reasons that are unrelated to hunger and using food for something it is not
designed to do – to soothe, calm or numb themselves. This is also a tough
hunger type because it can turn into a pattern. In the Emotional Hunger Type,
we often see that the person feels hungry all of a sudden, and will use the
food to distract from the unpleasant feeling. This hunger type is also
associated with wanting a “quick fix” and an immediate way of beating back a
feeling.
Here are some questions to ask
yourself to determine if you are an emotional eater: Do you eat when you feel
bad? When you feel happy? What kinds of foods do you tend to go for when you
are unhappy? Do you use food to numb your emotions?
What are the risks for the Emotional
Hunger Type? This type can put on weight fast, and it can be hard to manage
weight. Food is being used to manage emotions, instead of learning more useful
coping skills and doing the heavy lifting required to work through those
emotions. Life is full of challenges – and Emotional Hunger Types may stop
listening to their biological hunger cues and let their emotions win at the
dinner table.
Tips for the Emotional Hunger
Type
- One suggestion I frequently take myself and offer to clients is the magic of tea, especially a fragrant tea like Roobios. The warmth and the slight sweetness can soothe and take the edge off – without all of the calories.
- Distract yourself with a more appropriate tool. Make a list of distractor tasks that fill those emotional needs, such as frustration or boredom. You can try exercise, reading, calling a friend, watching TV, writing in your journal, etc. These techniques may be better for scratching that emotional itch, and certainly have fewer calories.
The Habitual Hunger Type
This hunger type is all about
routine and schedule. You don’t listen to whether or not your body wants to
eat, but rather, you eat because it is time to eat. The Habitual Hunger Type is
challenging because you often override your body’s sense of hunger and of
fullness in the name of your schedule or the schedule demands of others.
The Habitual Hunger Type can
be influenced by early environments – parents who insisted on meal times. It can
also be controlled by current environments – such as a set lunch hour at work.
This can lead you to think you are “hungry” when you hear the dinner bell ring,
even though you really aren’t.
Here are some questions to ask
yourself to determine whether you are a Habitual Hunger Type: Do you eat at set
times every day, whether or not you are hungry? Do you eat when other people
insist on it
The risk for this hunger type is in outsourcing your sense
of knowing your own hunger (or fullness) to variables outside of you. These
habits can lead to eating those extra calories even when you don’t need
them.
Tips for the Habitual Hunger
Type
- It’s a battle – you vs. the schedule and the people who want you to eat when they want you to eat. Try a “clock fast” – for a few days, listen to your body and eat when it wants to eat, instead of when others or schedules tell you to do so. Monitor it and see if you start eating less.
The Apple Test for All Hunger Types
Whether you’re a Sensory, Emotional
or Habitual Hunger Type, much of the difficulty here is the question of whether
or not you are really hungry. Lots of people struggle with this – and
I’ve got the perfect trick to get to the bottom of it.
Pick fruits and vegetables you
like – apple, carrots, tomatoes, cherries – whatever floats your boat. The next
time you are thinking you are hungry – ask yourself, “Will an apple
handle my hunger right now?” If you are really hungry – even if an apple isn’t exactly
what you want – it will seem as good an option as any and you will welcome
it.
If however, you are eating for
some other reason, then you will turn your nose up at that apple or carrot and
say, “I am hungry for a burger…” In such cases, you are probably not really
hungry but eating for some other reason. The apple test is a quick and dirty
way for folks who struggle with these different hunger types to respond to
hunger instead of something else.
Once you figure out your
hunger type and whether or not you are hungry, you are in a better
position to be mindful whenever you have to face mealtimes and food. Good luck!
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