Today, most of us know where our next meal is coming from, yet our reaction to hunger has not evolved with our convenience-centered world. This is why even the thought of being hungry may send you running to the mini-mart for sustenance.
If you want to lose weight, however, you must tune in to your body's signal to eat. "Hunger is a physical cue that you need energy," says Dawn Jackson Blatner, RD. It can be your best diet ally; if you listen to your body, you'll instinctively feed it the right amount. But fall out of touch, and hunger becomes diet enemy number one: You may eat more than you need or get too hungry and stoke out-of-control cravings.
These six tips teach you to spot hunger and eat to stay satisfied--so you control calories and shed pounds without "dieting."
1. Learn to identify your spot on the hunger scale
Do you really know what hunger feels like? Before you can rein it in, you must learn to recognize the physical cues that signal a true need for nourishment. Prior to eating, use our hunger scale below to help figure out your true food needs:
Starving
An uncomfortable, empty feeling that may be accompanied by light-headedness or jitteriness caused by low blood sugar levels from lack of food. Binge risk: high.
Hungry
Your next meal is on your mind. If you don't eat within the hour, you enter dangerous "starving" territory.
Moderately hungry
Your stomach may be growling, and you're planning how you'll put an end to that nagging feeling. This is optimal eating time.
Satisfied
You're satiated, not full but not hungry either. You're relaxed and comfortable and can wait to nosh.
Full
If you're still eating, it's more out of momentum than actual hunger. Your belly feels slightly bloated, and the food does not taste as good as it did in the first few bites.
You feel uncomfortable and might even have mild heartburn from your stomach acids creeping back up into your esophagus.
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