Healthy Eating: Recognizing Your Hunger Signals

Understand your habits

Learning to recognize hunger signals can help you get to a healthy weight and stay there. You can start by figuring out the signals you now are following when you eat.

• Use a food journal to find out where you are now.

  Keep a food journal for 2 weeks, or longer if you need to. Write down not only when and what you eat but also what you were doing and feeling before you started to eat.

• Use a hunger scale.

  In your food journal, write down how you felt before you ate and how you felt afterward. You might use a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 means you are very hungry and weak, and 10 means you are so full that you feel sick.

• Look for patterns in your eating.

  When you look back at your food journal, you may see some eating patterns. For example, you might find that:

  • You almost always eat dinner in front of the TV.
  • You always eat an evening snack, even when you're not hungry.
  • You often snack when you "feel" like you want to eat (because of boredom, stress, or some other emotion), but you're not truly hungry.

Use a hunger scale

A hunger scale can help you learn how to tell the difference between true, physical hunger and hunger that's really just in your head (psychological hunger). Psychological hunger is a desire to eat that is caused by emotions, like stress, boredom, sadness, or happiness.

• Check your cravings.

  If you're feeling hungry even though you recently ate, check to see if what you're feeling is really a craving brought on by something other than hunger.

• Rate your hunger.

  When you start to feel like you want something to eat, rate your hunger on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being extremely hungry and 10 being so full you feel sick. A rating of 5 or 6 means you're comfortable—neither too hungry nor too full.

  • 1—Extremely hungry, weak, dizzy
  • 2—Very hungry, cranky, low energy, lots of stomach growling
  • 3—Pretty hungry, stomach is growling a little
  • 4—Starting to feel a little hungry
  • 5—Satisfied, neither hungry nor full
  • 6—A little full, pleasantly full
  • 7—A little uncomfortable
  • 8—Feeling stuffed
  • 9—Very uncomfortable, stomach hurts
  • 10—So full you feel sick
• Eat naturally.

  To eat naturally, eat when your hunger is at 3 or 4. Don't wait until your hunger gets down to 1 or 2. Getting too hungry can lead to overeating.

When you sit down to a scheduled meal, stop and think about how hungry you are. If you feel less hungry than usual, make a conscious effort to eat less food than usual. Stop eating when you reach 5 or 6 on the scale.

Make healthy choices

Healthy eating is about balance, variety, and moderation. It starts with adding more fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains and cutting back on foods that have a lot of fat, salt, and sugar. It means making changes you can live with and enjoy for the rest of your life.

Aim for balance.

Most days, eat from each food group—grains, protein foods, vegetables and fruits, and dairy. Listen to your body. Eat when you're hungry. Stop when you feel satisfied.

Look for variety.

Be adventurous. Choose different foods in each food group. For example, don't reach for an apple every time you choose a fruit. Eating a variety of foods each day will help you get all the nutrients you need.

Practice moderation.

Don't have too much or too little of one thing. All foods, if you eat them in moderation, can be part of healthy eating.