Can the Hunger Zone help you know when to eat?
At Eatiful, we’ve developed the concept of the Hunger Zone to enable people to better understand how hunger makes them feel, and when is the best time (hunger wise) to eat.
What is the Hunger Zone Theory?
The Hunger Zone theory goes as follows:
There’s a ‘right’ level of hunger during which you should eat. You should never get too hungry, nor should you get too full. It’s all about balance - hence there’s a ‘zone’ of hunger during which you should eat. You should not let yourself get outside of that zone. The theory is that if you get overly hungry or overly full, you will experience negative effects.
The effects of getting too hungry are:
You may experience ‘hanger’ - where you feel irritable or angry because you’re hungry
You may experience a drop in blood sugar, which could leave you feeling weak, perhaps even a little light-headed
You may feel deprived and miserable about it (many people find restrictive diets hard to stick to because of this feeling)
When you do eat, you may eat more than you actually need because you feel a need to eat quickly
You may choose less nutritious foods when you do finally eat because you're so hungry
The effects of getting too full are:
You’ve eaten more than you need so excess calories will be stored as fat
You could feel uncomfortable, physically
You may feel tired as your body works harder to digest larger amounts of food
You may feel a sense of regret, as you know you've overeaten
On the other hand, if you learn to eat in the Hunger Zone, you will see several benefits, so the theory goes. If you eat whenever you’re hungry but only to the point before you’re full:
Your body won't store excess calories as fat
You’re less likely to suffer blood sugar dips
You won’t feel any regrets about overeating
You will feel more in control
You won't suffer any ill effects of hunger
Your body will be continually nourished
What exactly is the Hunger Zone?
The actual zone during which you should eat, is the point at which you start to feel real hunger This may not be the point at which you first experience the first twinge of hunger but after you have identified it is true hunger and not emotional hunger. It is from that point up until you start to feel full.
What are the Hunger Zone rules?
The Hunger Zone ‘rules’, or rather, guidelines, are as follows.
If you’re not hungry, don’t eat.
Sounds silly, right, why eat when you’re not hungry? Truth is, many of us eat when we’re not actually hungry. If you find yourself compelled to eat because you’re bored, because others are eating or because you’re seeking comfort, see if you can stop and wait until your hunger increases.
If you’re a little hungry, wait.
Eating when you’re not hungry or only a little hungry can stop you from losing weight and can lead to weight gain. When you take in food you don’t need your body stores the energy as fat.
When you’re hungry, eat.
Eating when you’re hungry is vital for anyone, including for people who want to lose weight. When you’re hungry, your body will digest the food you eat and use the energy it needs. Eating when you’re hungry tells your body that there’s food available. As your body learns there’s food available whenever it’s hungry it will not develop a need to store energy as fat for later. Eating when you’re hungry, therefore, actually helps you to lose weight.
Don’t wait until you’re very hungry.
If you get very hungry you should, of course, eat. Eating when we’re very hungry however, can mean we rush to eat, are perhaps more likely to make poor food choices, eat very quickly, and overeat. If you get very hungry before eating, when you do eat, try to slow down your eating so as not to overeat.
Don’t let yourself get ravenous.
If you leave eating until you feel ravenous or ‘starving hungry’ your body may go not starvation mode. When you do eat, it will be more likely to store food as fat and as a result, you’ll put on weight. A little hunger is ok, too much hunger can hinder your weight loss efforts.
The Hunger Zone is simply about identifying when to eat. It's super useful in helping people to identify if they’re not actually hungry but emotionally hungry. What it doesn't do is tell you when to stop eating, The rules however are implicit. If you’re not hungry, don't eat. This means that as soon as you stop feeling hungry, you shouldn't eat, because to eat at that point would be to overeat.
Eatiful is a mindful and intuitive eating method designed to aid weight loss; it leverages this concept of eating when you’re hungry alongside stopping when you’re full and learning to really listen to what your body needs.
Is the Hunger Zone is at odds with fasting?
Yes, it’s absolutely true that this is at odds with a fasting method. You can't remain in the Hunger Zone and fast at the same time; the two methods are just incompatible. In our experience, we’ve seen both methods work for different people.
What will work best for you?
It’s a personal preference and what works for you will be based on a number of factors: your physiology, your food preferences, your lifestyle and habits and your mindset. If you understand that weight loss is very much about mindset, leveraging the Hunger Zone could be very helpful to you to put in place a process and build new habits about when you choose to eat. Plus, it's a very gentle way to get you to start thinking about how you eat. Most people only think about what they eat when it comes to weight loss, but HOW you eat, and how you think about eating can play a huge part.
