48. Physical vs Emotional Hunger

Physical hunger vs emotional hunger Hi, i’m Hayley Sohn, Nutritionist and Brain Training Weight Loss coach. My clients lose 10lbs in their first 30 days with me without dieting by wiring their brain to eat less. Come work with me: basicallyitmeals.com Do you watch Seinfeld? There is an episode where his girlfriend refuses to eat pie when he offers it. I am that woman Distinguishing the difference between physical hunger and emotional hunger is a key part of weight loss. Why? Because physical hunger is your body telling you it is ready to break down food for fuel, when you are not being signaled to consume by physical hunger than your body is currently breaking down fuel you already have stored in your liver, your muscles and in fat! Therefore eating when you are not hungry, eating because you're emotionally hungry is eating outside of your bodies needs which means…stored fat! This is a basic principle that most diets arent using….no one is talking about eating for hunger and learning how to eliminate eating for emotional hunger…for two reasons. Many of us are scared of physical hunger! We learn throughout our life it is something to fear…we could pass out, it will hurt. Something bad will happen (school lunchtime bell) and so it is just avoided. Right now you might even be thinking you don’t ever want to experience physical hunger. The idea that you have to starve in order to lose weight, there is a lot of emotion around it I hadn’t experienced physical hunmger in years when i started losing weight. I was always eating because it was time, because i was anxious, because everyone else was, because the food was healthy….i forgot the purpose of eating Second, diets do not deal with emotional hunger, most experts out there don’t deal with it because they don’t know how. It is outside of the scope of dieting…we have to take the work a lot deeper in order to unlearn emotional eating. So it is either not addressed or we are told to 1. distract/pretend its not there or 2. Substitutions. But neither of these helps to eliminate it from our lives!! It either causes our desire to grow when we ignore it or reinforces that if our brain tells us to eat something it gets food How to know the difference The big key differences Physical hunger Your body is physically letting you know it is ready for fuel Anything sounds good not specific Comes and goes in waves that get stronger and longer over time Is never an emergency In the background Physical sensation in our stomach area that shows up as growling (physical movement), emptiness, cold sensation, dull sharp sensation Emotional hunger The part of your brain that is wired for pleasure and to avoid pain is asking for a reward now because it is expecting pleasure or trying to avoid pain, it has nothing to do with a physical need It feels like an emergency Very specific Usually around similar emotions or times: anytime you feel stressed or always at 3pm as you transition out of work and into mom mode Comes on strong and doesn’t waiver All consuming Physical sensation might be pressure in head, tingling in jaw, antzy- wanting to move around What to do about physical hunger Role in weight loss It has a purpose in weight loss You don’t have to “starve”, you simply need this signal before you eat Allowing yourself to get there Calming your emotions around experiencing physical hunger Cleaning up your thoughts around it What’s the worst that could happen? Will you actually pass out? Not wanting to experience it Putting it in perspective: how our bodies were designed is to be hungry for long periods of time Planning for it How hungry will you get What will you eat What to do about emotional hunger Making a plan/plan for it to come Awareness- know what triggers it for you Welcoming it vs resisting it Breathe through it No substitutions You can unlearn it