Recogniseemotional hunger vs physical hunger
The journey begins by learning to differentiate emotional hunger from physical hunger. Emotional hunger is a reactive urge to eat, driven more by feelings than by a true physiological need. It’s often likened to an itch that urgently needs to be scratched. This kind of hunger is usually immediate and intense, leading to cravings for specific comfort foods such as sweets, fatty foods, or those that we typically try to limit.
Emotional eating can also take a more calculated, obsessive form, where considerable time is spent fixating on foods, often accompanied by feelings of guilt and shame. Yet, when finally indulging in these foods, the eating experience often becomes dissociative, lacking conscious engagement in the eating process.
In contrast, physical hunger develops gradually, changing and intensifying over time. It presents clear physical signals like a rumbling stomach or
