Emotional Hunger: How To Avoid It?

You’ve certainly experienced the sudden urge to eat, knowing specifically what you wanted and feeling an urge to do so. But soon you felt frustration because the food didn’t satiate you, and you even felt guilty for eating without really feeling hungry. That’s emotional hunger.

In other cases we start slowly and progressively to become hungry, and we can satisfy it with what we have at our fingertips without thinking too much, including healthy foods such as  vegetables or fruits. Right after we finish eating we feel satisfied and can continue with our activities. This is real or physical hunger.

 What factors can trigger emotional hunger?

 As the name suggests, emotional hunger is related to our emotions.

A bad day with worry, stress, anxiety, and, in women, PMS days are examples of the main triggers. Also, another very important factor is pregnancy.

However, emotional hunger can show up at times of joy and happiness, such as during an anniversary or wedding celebration.

Therefore, we must learn to control the situation so that we can face these moments without being subject to what our emotions demand.

Now that we know the factors that can trigger an emotional hunger crisis, we are in a position to consider other options so as not to harm our figure without a real need to eat.

What are the options to avoid emotional eating

There are many options we have in this type of situation. If we feel the urgent need to eat, we should choose the healthiest.

That is, instead of eating a packet of chips, a candy bar, fast food (the favorite food of emotions) we should choose fruits, a juice. Even a glass of water would help, as long as it was drunk slowly and calmly.

Another option would be to go out and get some fresh air or take a walk to clear your mind as well as calm the anxiety we naturally feel. If we prefer, we can  come into contact with animals , thus helping to reduce levels of anxiety and stress.

Calling a friend or friend if we are in difficult situations, with whom we can talk about our problems and feel relieved (them) is another valid option. Also, read a book we like, listen to music, meditate.

We can take a few moments to breathe calmly and slowly. It only depends on us choosing the option that helps us to overcome the crisis, after all, we will feel stronger for the next relapse because we will already know how to recognize the problem and we will know how to overcome it, keeping our health and weight intact.

an important question

 During the course of the day, how often do we eat because of our emotions and how often do we eat because of real hunger? By answering this question honestly, we can improve our relationship with food.

In life, we all go through times when we feel disconcerted, diminished, with no way out and we can try to fill the emptiness we feel with food. Emotional hunger not only contributes to weight gain, it can result in a variety of health problems in the long run.

Finally, we recommend that in case you cannot overcome or do not have the will to fight in these types of situations, you seek  a psychologist who can guide you on how to channel and redirect these emotions to have a fuller and happier life.