How to Know If You're Really Hungry

It's second nature for many of us to eat over our emotions. Angry, disappointed, stressed out or bored - we reach for food for comfort. After a while, it's easy to forget what real hunger feels like. To make matters worse, having excess belly fat increases the amount of leptin in our system, which is a hormone that regulates hunger. So how do we know when we're really hungry?

Instructions

1. 

   Get in touch with how hunger physically feels in your body. If we're honest, we know the difference between our body's need for food - actual pangs in our stomach accompanied by dizziness, growling stomach, stomach pains and crankiness - versus being in the mood to eat a snack.

2. 

   If you're eating every day for emotional reasons, identify what those are. Do you grab some food as soon as you come home from a job you hate? After visiting with relatives who drive you crazy? Pin-point the source of your emotional eating, either through journaling or visiting a therapist.

3. 

   For many people, there's a "hole" inside them - something missing - that they're filling up with food. For others, there are things they want to say but feel they can't for some reason - so they eat food to "stuff down" those feelings. Realize that if you eat when you're not hungry, then you've got the same problem you had before, plus you've added one more problem to your life.

4. 

   In order to get back in touch with how actual hunger feels, you must stop grazing and binge eating long enough to find out how long your body can go between meals. Monitor your hunger and keep an eye on the time. Everyone's metabolism is different, but after about four or five hours, you'll probably start to feel genuine hunger and your body will need to eat food for fuel.

5. 

   Use this information to plan your meals from this day going forward. Don't let yourself go too long without eating. If you'll be stuck in a car or a business meeting four or five hours after you've last eaten, you're sure to binge eat when you finally get access to some food.

6. 

   Get the junk food out of your home. Fill your cabinets with items that fuel your body - whole foods that can be found in the food pyramid. Drink lots of water throughout the day. Dehydration symptoms are often confused for hunger. Let yourself get (only slightly) physically hungry before you eat, and you'll be eating for the right reason.

Tips & Warnings

• If you're unable to stop eating emotionally, you may have developed an addictive relationship with food. This eating disorder can be treated, but it will take more than resolve and self-awareness. Look in your phone book (or online) for a local chapter of Overeaters Anonymous. They can help you.