What Your Hunger Cues are Trying to Tell You

If you’re learning about intuitive eating, you’ve probably heard the big focus on listening to your hunger cues - especially if you’ve experienced lots of dieting over the years. Learning to ignore your hunger cues is often a tactic used by popular diets to restrict your food choices and enforce following strict guidelines around food volume and timing. Dismantling this idea can take a long time, and even once you have the basics down, hunger can still feel so strange!

Understanding hunger cues is more nuanced than simply recognizing the growling of your stomach. Your body communicates in various ways when it’s hungry, and interpreting these signals correctly can lead to a better relationship with food and more confidence when it comes to your food choices.

The most common hunger cue is the physical sensation of hunger - a growling stomach, a hollow feeling in your abdomen, and when significant or severe enough, even lightheadedness. These signals are usually straightforward indicators that your body needs fuel. However, if we’re distracted, stressed or food isn’t accessible, we might not start eating at this point and might end up delaying or skipping eating entirely.

Hunger doesn’t only affect your stomach; it can impact your mood significantly. You might feel irritable, anxious, or even depressed when you're hungry. The “hangry” monster isn’t just a myth, folks! Fluctuations in blood sugar can impact mood regulation in the brain, hence why you start tuning out around lunch time at work or feel more on edge before your dinner meal. If physical cues are hard to notice, checking in on your emotional patterns through the day may provide valuable insight around your body’s hunger cues!

Sometimes, hunger presents itself as a craving for specific types of food, such as sweets, salty snacks, or even a particular cuisine. Cravings are an important way that we explore our food environment and engage our senses! If you notice cravings have patterns to them, consider if these foods are available enough to be enjoyed, if that flavour is missing from your other meals and snacks, or if you’re eating adequately during the day to provide the energy you need.

Your mental focus and energy levels can also be indicators of hunger. If you find yourself struggling to concentrate or feeling fatigued, it might be a sign that it’s time to eat. This same drop in energy can happen if you’re limiting carbohydrate intake below your needs - the brain loves carbs for basic functions! Consider how you can pair carb foods with sources of proteins and fats for stable blood sugars and a variety of nutrients and flavours to boost energy levels.

Sometimes, hunger can present itself through gastrointestinal distress, such as nausea or bloating. Most often, these symptoms pop up if eating has been delayed for too long when hunger cues start. While it’s tempting to try and wait these symptoms out before eating, a small amount of quick-digesting food like crackers, applesauce or juice can put a burst of energy into the body and act as an emergency resource for crashes in blood sugar. If you struggle with nausea and bloating often, it’s important to talk to a provider to determine if your overall eating patterns are regular enough and if there are specific trigger foods.

Not all hunger cues are physical - we eat for emotional and mental health! When we eat, our brain gathers information about the world around us, including textures and temperatures. Eating is a fast way to address our mood, with a rush of dopamine when we consume our favourite foods. Food is one of many different self-care tools, and much like different pairs of shoes for different activities, it doesn’t always work. Instead of feeling the pressure to avoid eating for your emotions, consider other activities that can complement eating! You might find some work better than others for different moods.

Listening to your body’s hunger cues is crucial for maintaining overall well-being and building confidence in your intuitive eating skills. By paying attention to physical sensations, mood changes, specific cravings, energy levels, and emotional eating patterns, you can better understand what your body is telling you and respond in a way that supports your health.

Remember, hunger is your body telling you something! You deserve to nurture these needs and to have a harmonious relationship with food, across the lifespan.