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Find Out Why You Want to Eat Even If You Are Not Hungry

Do you feel like you were always hungry?

By Kymani FinnPublished 4 years ago 3 min read
Find Out Why You Want to Eat Even If You Are Not Hungry
Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

Do you often eat when you are not hungry or when you are already in the village? Do you eat more when you are stressed or in a bad mood? Do you feel that you can't control yourself in front of food, even if you have decided not to eat when you are not hungry or nervous? Do you eat to feel better, or to reward yourself?

If you answered "YES" to at least one of the above questions, it means that you are eating not necessarily to satisfy your stomach needs but to satisfy certain emotional needs.

There is nothing wrong with rewarding yourself with a cake, for example, from time to time, but when you feel the urge to open the fridge every time you feel depressed, lonely, stressed, tired, bored, you enter a vicious circle. unhealthy. At the moment you may feel better, but after that, you will feel guilty because of the unnecessary calories consumed. Does that sound familiar to you? This is how the picture of eating looks emotional.

Before you know it, you're good to eat between physical and real hunger and emotional hunger.

  • Emotional hunger occurs suddenly, it appears as an overwhelming and urgent feeling that you MUST eat something, while physical hunger occurs gradually, you can refrain from eating without problems concentrating.
  • When you are really hungry, any kind of food or food to satisfy, whether we are talking about a salad, fruit or cooked food. But when you're hungry for emotional reasons, you crave specific foods, often "something sweet", pizza or other unhealthy foods, but which quickly provide you with energy.
  • Emotional eating means eating without being aware of the act of feeding. Often, you don't even realize how you managed to finish a whole box of ice cream or a big bag of chips, without paying attention to the act of feeding or enjoying the act of eating.
  • When you're really hungry, you stop when you're full. Eating emotionally is not satisfied with that. You want more and more until you feel uncomfortable.
  • Physical hunger comes from the stomach, while emotional hunger comes from the head. You feel attracted to certain textures, smells, aromas. For example, we feel the need for sweets when there is a certain lack of affection in our lives.
  • If your hunger is real, you will not feel guilty after eating, because you know you have given your body the nutrients it needs. Emotional hunger creates a deep sense of guilt, regret, and shame.

Causes of emotional eating

  • Stress - triggers emotional hunger. And it's not just something on a mental level, you feel it even physically, due to the increase in the level of cortisol, the stress hormone. High levels of cortisol lead to various cravings, from savory snacks to sweets and other processed foods, foods that generate a false sense of energy and pleasure.
  • Childhood habits - Were you used to be rewarded with sweets, cakes, or other forms of reward in the form of food when you were a child and did a good thing or got a high grade at school? These habits can continue unconsciously in adulthood, and you end up rewarding yourself for every success or for every moment you feel depressed. You may also be accustomed to certain tastes at home, which you long for and which you try to bring back into your life.
  • Social influences - Do you eat more when you're with friends at a meal? Or when you go on vacation to an all-inclusive? Overeating simply occurs because the food is there, at your disposal, because others are eating, or because it may be a way of repression for you. If you are a calculated person, who refuses any food pampering and who tries to lead a healthy lifestyle, such an opportunity is a reason for repression.
  • Insufficient sleep or insomnia - when we do not get enough sleep, cortisol levels increase, which causes a false feeling of hunger on a nervous background.

If you feel that the stress in your life or the lack of quality sleep are the main causes for which you eat emotionally, we recommend 2 products that will help you in this regard.

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