How not to be hungry: Understanding what drives (& controls) hunger

Key Points

• Hunger is driven by multiple factors, including your food intake, mood, emotions, and more.
• The best way to control your appetite is to understand what influences your personal hunger levels. 
• Staying hydrated, prioritizing protein and fiber, sleeping enough, and managing your stress levels are all powerful ways to level out your hunger.

Managing your hunger levels can be challenging, especially when you're trying to lose weight. You might feel overwhelmed by food cravings and feel confused about how to honor your body while still meeting your goals.

If you're wondering how not to be hungry, it's a common question from those struggling with weight management. Let's talk about how emotions influence eating habits and how to moderate your appetite in a sustainable way.

Emotional eating drives food habits

Emotional eating is eating as a way to suppress or soothe negative emotions, like stress.

Your emotions can become tied to your eating habits and trigger impulsive eating. Food can serve as a distraction or comfort from boredom, stress, anger, fear, sadness, or loneliness.

The effect of emotional eating is often temporary and leads to feelings of guilt, which can then cause the cycle to continue.

How mood influences food intake

It's not uncommon to use food as a way to soothe difficult emotions or situations. In fact, it's important not to demonize this behavior, as that can often further feelings of guilt and perpetuate the cycle.

Relationship conflicts, fatigue, financial stress, health problems, and general stress can all contribute to emotional eating. For some, this even leads to binge eating, where a large amount of food is consumed in a short period of time.

Forming a connection between negative emotions and food is, perhaps, surprisingly easy. If you always reach for a treat, like a sugary drink or baked good, whenever you're stressed or lonely, you may start doing this every time these feelings arise, sometimes without even realizing what you're doing.

A cycle of overeating can sometimes lead to a cycle of restriction, where you try to eat significantly less to "make up" for overeating in your emotional state. These two cycles tend to reinforce one another, where your cravings from restriction overwhelm you, and you end up bingeing again, then you feel guilty, so you restrict, and so on.

How to stop eating when you're not hungry

While it's important to honor your hunger and eat when you're feeling hungry, it's also common not to know how to stop eating when you're full. If you're trying to lose weight, this can be especially difficult. How can you tell when you're full and satisfied? How can you eat your favorite foods while on a balanced diet to achieve a healthy weight?

"If someone feels their hunger might be off, oftentimes we’ll look into what components make up their meal," says Emily Bixler, RD. "Is there a fiber, protein, carb, and fat source in each meal? Are you eating until you feel full and satisfied or stopping too early? Are you eating when you experience hunger or delaying it because it 'hasn’t been long enough to be hungry yet'? Are you skipping meals and snacks?"

Here are some tips to better understand your hunger.

Learn to identify your true hunger

Hunger pangs can come from a lot of different places. There's true hunger, of course, when your body is actually asking for food. But, for example, thirst is often confused for hunger.

In fact, clinical studies have shown that 37% of people mistake thirst for hunger because thirst signals can be weak.

Signs of true hunger include:

• Empty feeling in your stomach
• Stomach gurgling
• Faintness or dizziness
• Headache
• Irritability
• Lack of concentration
• Nausea

Signs of thirst include:

• Dry skin or eyes
• Headache
• Dizziness
• Sense of sluggishness
• Increased heart rate
• Nausea

If you haven't had a full glass of water recently, start with that before deciding it's time for your next meal. You may find that the feelings subside as you satisfy your thirst.

If you've really lost touch with your hunger cues, you may find it difficult to understand when you're genuinely feeling hungry. Changing eating habits can be complex and takes time.

Working with a registered dietitian is one of the best ways to get back in touch with your body and better manage your hunger and overall food intake. Find a registered dietitian covered by your health insurance here.

Consider the craving

You may also find yourself wanting to eat something out of boredom, stress, or other emotions.

When you first think you're hungry, consider the context:

• How are you feeling?
• When did you last eat? Was it a balanced meal with protein, fats, and carbs from whole grains, featuring at least a few fruits and/or vegetables? Or was it low in fiber content and needed more protein?
• Have you had a glass of water recently?
• Are you craving a specific food (like something sweet or salty, or a particular food you know you have on hand), or do you feel like you generally need a meal?

Taking a moment to pause and consider your food cravings is a productive way to get more in touch with your hunger and potentially eat less food overall by avoiding eating just for the sake of it.

When hunger pangs come up, ask yourself if something healthy like an apple sounds good or if you just want the taste of something in your mouth. You may be surprised how often you find that boredom is fueling your cravings!

If the feelings of hunger remain, though, by all means, honor your body and make a meal. It's important to eat when you're feeling hungry to keep your hunger hormones working properly.

Feed your true hunger

Now that you know what you're actually hungry for, consider how to fulfill your food cravings while still meeting your weight management and health goals.

Eating foods with health benefits that still fulfill your cravings is possible!

Instead of thinking of yourself as limited to "healthy" options, consider how to tailor your meals to your personal taste.

• Craving something sweet? A bowl of oatmeal is a great way to get in some whole grains. Top it with some yogurt and nut butter for some healthy fats.
• Want something fried? Air fryers are a great way to get that fried effect without all the oil.
• Want something salty? Instead of potato chips, munch on roasted seaweed or homemade veggie chips.

Consider how to turn your favorite comfort meals into something that fits your health goals. Try pizza with a whole grain crust and light cheese, high-protein pasta with plenty of vegetables, or a burger with a lettuce bun instead of bread.

For added comfort, snuggle up in a blanket or invite a friend over. Recognize the ways you can add comfort to your life that don't revolve around food.

How to manage your appetite

While it's important to eat when you're feeling hungry and ensure you're eating enough to stay healthy, if you're struggling with your weight loss goals or just can't stop eating more food, here are some tips on managing appetite:

Make sure your meals are high in protein and fiber

Both protein and fiber contribute to a sense of fullness and help keep you satisfied for longer.

Stay hydrated

As mentioned, thirst is often mistaken for hunger. Drinking water when you first get hungry is a good stopgap to prevent overeating.

Eat high-volume foods

Many vegetables and plant foods are low in calories even when consumed in large quantities. Focusing on high-volume foods is a good way to promote fullness without eating too many calories.

Reduce your plate size

The expression that "your eyes are bigger than your stomach" does have a ring of truth to it: studies suggest plate size plays a role in both satisfaction and food intake. The larger the plate, the more you eat, yet your satisfaction levels are lower. Try replacing larger plates with smaller ones and see how you feel.

Get enough sleep

Sleep deprivation has long been correlated with weight gain. Research suggests that both sleep duration and sleep quality can impact weight loss. Poor sleep leads to eating more and impaired judgment when making food choices.

Exercise regularly

Working out isn't just good for weight loss – it has beneficial effects on stress, mental health, and sleep, too. It can even act as a natural appetite suppressant.

Focus on healthy fats

While a high-fat diet is often suboptimal for weight loss, fat is still an essential nutrient. Monounsaturated fats like avocado, olive oil, and nuts are important for appetite control and cravings.

Try deep breathing

Breathwork is a powerful way to access your subconscious and change your thoughts. Instead of instantly reaching for a snack when food is on the brain, take a moment to take some deep breaths. Research suggests that deep breathing may help curb cravings and help you stop feeling hungry.

Understand emotional hunger

It's important to take time to understand your cravings. Do you crave certain foods at certain times? Do you have more appetite some days than others? When is it hardest to manage your appetite? Examining this from a place of curiosity rather than judgment can be a powerful way to reframe your relationship with food.

Keep a food diary

Writing down what you eat and when is a useful tool to assess your food intake. If you're trying to diet and lose weight, a food diary can show where you may accidentally be overeating. If you're trying to understand your appetite more, this tracking may reveal trends you weren't previously aware of and help with weight management.

Mindful eating

Mindful eating allows individuals to tap into their internal hunger cues, such as thoughts and physical feelings.

Eating slowly and without distraction can enhance the enjoyment of food and improve meal satisfaction. Paying attention to the textures, flavors, and aromas of food during meals can help with mindful eating. How does your food taste? How does it make you feel? Treating a meal like an experience – even if it's simple food you eat often – is a great way to get more satisfaction out of it.

Eating slower also helps. When you eat too quickly, your digestive system can't keep up with your brain, and you can't feel if you're properly full yet. To help your weight loss efforts, chew your food slowly and try not to rush.

Mindful eating may reduce binge eating and improve food choices.

Moderating appetite while staying healthy

Eating a balanced diet is important for weight management, and understanding your eating habits is a powerful way to be your healthiest self.

However, focusing too much on your appetite and reducing hunger can get into eating disorder territory. Continuously trying to eat as little as possible can cause you to lose touch with your hunger levels. Your hunger and fullness hormones can get imbalanced and you could develop harmful medical conditions, like organ failure or blood pressure issues.

"Hunger is a normal bodily cue that we all have," says Emily Bixler, RD. "While sometimes we can eat for reasons other than hunger, rarely are our hunger cues incorrect."

If you think you may be struggling with an eating disorder, reach out to a trusted healthcare professional. With proper care from a doctor or registered dietitian, you can improve your mental health and receive lifesaving support to recover from an eating disorder.

Get support from a registered dietitian

Whether you are struggling to understand your hunger cues or you feel your appetite is holding you back from your weight loss goals, a registered dietitian can help.

Your RD can assess your current intake and help identify patterns that may be leading to your weight loss struggles or disordered eating. You can then work together to find sustainable solutions that help you work with, not against, your appetite.

Your RD will educate you on hunger hormones, scientific research behind reducing appetite, and stress management for weight loss. They are there to support your weight loss efforts, help you understand the why behind how your body works, and cheer you on every step of the way.

Finding a trusted weight loss dietitian is easy with Fay. Choose from a database of highly qualified RDs and get your care covered by health insurance.

Start working with a registered dietitian today.

The views expressed by authors and contributors of such content are not endorsed or approved by Fay and are intended for informational purposes only. The content is reviewed by Fay only to confirm educational value and audience interest. You are encouraged to discuss any questions that you may have about your health with a healthcare provider.