Do you find yourself eating food when you’re not even hungry? Then feeling guilty about eating and decide you may as well eat some more?

This is the typical eating loop of someone trapped by their eating habits and feeling unable to lose weight.

Whilst there will always be times when we eat without stopping to assess whether we’re hungry or not, knowing and sensing when you are truly hungry is a key skill in weight management.

Once you have re-developed this skill you can then enjoy food again, eat what you want to and when you want.

When I speak to people who maintain a healthy weight level without any real effort, I find one of the keys for them is they only eat when they’re hungry. If they’re not hungry they don’t eat. This group of people generally find it hard to understand how the rest of us can eat food if we’re not hungry.

What triggers mean it’s time to eat for You?
Often we eat out of habit or because of an external cue that triggers a ‘desire’ to eat. Typically it could be that we see somebody else eating and decide to join in. One of the first steps to identifying these triggers and dealing with them is for you to be aware of the times when you’re hungry and the times when you’re not.

This will take some time and effort to start with, but as with any habit, it becomes easier over time. Soon, you will unconsciously go through the process of determining when you’re really hungry.

First, you need to start thinking consciously about your hunger levels. Perhaps you could create an eating journal and inside that draw a grid of 10 rows down and seven columns across. The seven column headings will be the days of the week. In the column on the far left you will write in your descriptions for your different levels of hunger.

For instance, starting at the bottom

The headings need to suit you and reflect yourself. I suggest that round about cell 6 or 7 is when you really start to feel hungry and therefore it’s appropriate to eat. Cell 1 should be not needing to eat at all and cell 10 needs to be the other extreme, where you’re far too hungry.

For a week use this chart to record when you want to eat food. Take a look at this chart and decide for yourself where you are on it. Then under the appropriate day of the week make a tick against the level of hunger and if you want to add what triggered the idea of wanting to eat.

Don’t Let Yourself Get Too Hungry
I would suggest the best time to eat food is round about cell 6 or 7 when you’re genuinely hungry and need food more than anything else. I would also encourage you not to get to level 9 or 10 before you eat, or the hunger you’re feeling will overwhelm your good sense and you’re likely to overeat in order to feel satisfied.

When you get that hungry, eating reasonable quantities of food seems to go out of the window.

This level of hunger causes your blood sugar levels to drop and affects the ability of your whole body to operate efficiently, especially your brain.

Also, when you reach this stage, you’ll probably grab any food that’s going, rather than making healthy choices. The idea isn’t to get to the top level of hunger quickly and be able to eat what
you want!

When you find yourself thinking about food to eat, use this technique and ask yourself a few questions. What level does my hunger rank? What am I going to do about it? For example, if
you’re not hungry, what else is prompting you to eat?

If you’re at the mid-way point, do you have healthy food available? When you move up a couple of levels can you work out what you most need at this moment?

After a while you will begin to realise how you are feeling better because you can trust yourself to meet your needs and take care of yourself. A realisation that can be very emotional for some.