Why you eat when you’re not hungry – decoding the 4 types of hunger

Do you ever find yourself eating and then thinking afterwards that you weren’t actually hungry, or you might not have needed what you just consumed? 

Understanding the 4 types of hunger is a good place to start if you’re looking to lose weight or improve your relationship with food.

What are the four types of hunger?

• Emotional hunger
• Physical hunger
• Practical hunger
• Taste hunger

What is emotional hunger?

Emotional hunger refers to using food as a comfort to soothe emotions. You may have had a stressful day at work or had some bad news, and you turn to food to make you feel better. It could also be eating due to feeling bored or lonely and wanting joy from food.

You can spot emotional hunger as it:

• Comes on suddenly
• Leads to craving specific foods
• Isn’t satisfied when you’re feeling physically full

If you want some tips on how to manage emotional hunger, my eBook How to Lose Weight for Good goes through it all in detail. You can buy it on Amazon.

What is physical hunger?  

Physical hunger is your body telling you it needs energy. It’s typically if you haven’t eaten for some time or you didn’t eat enough at your last meal. It has signs like stomach rumbling, feeling a lack of energy or being irritable.

You can spot physical hunger as it:

• Comes on gradually 
• Is open to eating anything
• Stops when you’re full

What is practical hunger?

Practical hunger is eating when you’re not physically hungry, but you know it’s your only chance to eat for some time. For example, you’re at work and have a meeting from 10am to 2pm. You know you won’t be able to eat during the meeting, and you’ll likely be hungry at some point during it. So before the meeting you eat something to tide you over until 2pm.

Practical hunger is about:

• Anticipating your needs by planning ahead
• Avoiding being too hungry later
• Being flexible 

What is taste hunger?

Taste hunger is the want to eat based on the taste, texture or enjoyment of the food. There’s a specific food you want even though you’re not physically hungry. It could be wanting dessert after a nice meal, having a biscuit with your tea, or wanting popcorn because you’re at the cinema.

You can spot taste hunger as it:

• Often happens after a meal when you’re not physically hungry
• Is a specific taste or flavour
• Can be triggered by seeing or smelling the food

How to figure out your type of hunger

A useful way to work out if you’re physically hungry is to use the hunger scale.

This scale allows you to check in with yourself and think about if you’re truly hungry or you’re eating for other reasons.

You can score yourself from 1-10 and think about if you need to eat. Ideally you want to limit being at either of the extreme ends of the scale.

I hope you enjoyed this blog post. I cover the types of hunger in more detail in my eBook, How to Lose Weight for Good. You can find it here. 

Bye for now 👋