Different Types of Hunger

Many times, the Intuitive Eating principle Honor Your Hunger gets mistaken as “only eat when hungry”. This becomes an issue because it can leave you feeling like you’ve broken a “rule” or failed at intuitive eating if you eat when you’re not physically hungry or eat for a reason other than hunger. When you feel like you’ve broken a rule or “messed up” at intuitive eating, it can lead you right back into the diet mentality.

Learning to become an intuitive eater is not just recognizing those physical signs of hunger and only allowing yourself to eat when hungry (remember- you have unconditional permission to eat at all times). It’s also worth mentioning that no one eats when they’re at the “perfect” level of hunger all the time; we’re humans, not robots! Intuitive eating is about cultivating an awareness of what you’re experiencing in your body. With intuitive eating, it’s never black and white or right or wrong. There are actually 4 different types of hunger outlined in the Intuitive Eating book, and learning to honor your hunger involves honoring each of these different types.

What’s even more interesting is that hunger can be triggered by any and all of our physical senses (sight, smell, taste, mouthfeel, and sound of the food) as well as all of our cognitive senses (mind, thoughts, feelings, memories, and sense of self). This explains why we might feel an urge to eat even without physical hunger. All of these types of hunger, not just physical, are important to listen to and to honor. 

1. Physical/Biological hunger

This is your body’s way of telling you that it needs fuel. Physical hunger stems from the biological need for energy from food. Just like when your mouth feels dry and you feel thirsty, or you feel the urge to pee, physical hunger means we need food. The first step in honoring biological hunger is learning to recognize it. Hunger can present differently for everyone, so your signs of hunger might not be the same as someone else’s. Here are some common signs of physical hunger:

• Mild gurgling or gnawing feeling in stomach

• Stomach growling

• Lightheadedness

• Trouble concentrating

• Irritability, feeling “hangry”

• Feeling faint, shaky, or weak

• Headache

• Increased thoughts about food

The only way to take care of physical hunger is to eat!

2. Taste hunger

Sometimes we eat because we’re at a birthday party and they have delicious fluffy white birthday cake, or because we just want to crunch on something salty like potato chips, or because our mom made our favorite chocolate chip cookies. Sometimes we eat just because food sounds good! You are allowed to eat when you’re not physically hungry just because a food sounds good to you. It’s also worth noting that when you have unconditional permission to eat and you know you have many tasty food experiences in your future, you likely won’t feel the need to fulfill every taste hunger you experience. It can take practice to find the balance between honoring taste hunger and respecting fullness. Usually, food tastes best and is most enjoyable when physical hunger and taste hunger coincide.

3. Practical “hunger” (planning ahead)

With intuitive eating and responding to hunger, it’s important to be flexible and not rigid with when you eat. Sometimes life calls for planning ahead. Some examples might be having lunch early if you know you have a long work meeting right at your usual lunch time, so you don’t sit through the meeting starving. Or having an extra afternoon snack to tide you over if you know dinner will be later than usual. With this type of hunger, it’s about making sure our bodies are still receiving consistent nourishment throughout the day, even if our schedules don’t align perfectly with hunger.

4. Emotional hunger

To quote the Intuitive Eating book, “once you are truly able to identify and distinguish biological hunger, it becomes easier to clarify why you want to eat”. Emotional hunger involves eating to cope with uncomfortable feelings, such as loneliness, boredom, or anger. We experience emotional hunger when there’s an unmet emotional need that we’re trying to fill with food. It is absolutely ok to emotionally eat from time to time- everyone has done it at one point or another. It’s natual and normal as part of the human experience for food and emotions to be intertwined. But, it’s important to remember that food can’t meet our emotional needs. So if food is your only go-to in response to uncomfortable feelings, it might be very helpful to work with a therapist or provider on building up your coping skills toolbox.

Here are some ways to distinguish between physical and emotional hunger:

Eating is an appropriate response to any of these types of hunger, not just physical hunger. Emotional and taste hunger are both very real types of hunger, even if they aren’t experienced in the same way as physical hunger. It’s helpful to know which type of hunger you’re experiencing so that you can have some ideas on how best to respond to it. For example, what you choose to eat might be different if you have a taste hunger for cookies vs. being physically hungry enough for a hearty meal. Or, you might be experiencing emotional hunger out of boredom and choose to have a snack and then address the boredom with an activity.

Practice responding with food when your body asks for food, and come from a place of kindness and awareness. Hunger is just another way our body tells us what’s going on!