Should I only eat when I am hungry?
One common belief that many people with eating disorders have is that they ‘should’ only eat when they are physically hungry.
This often stems from an underlying worry that honouring ALL hunger (both physical and mental) will lead to weight gain and a sense of ‘losing control’. If you can relate with this, I want you to start by asking yourself “Am I truly in control or Is the eating disorder in control?”
A key part of eating disorder recovery it is to start to challenge this belief & understand that honouring your hunger and establishing regular eating patterns is the best way to gain true control over your eating problem. In this post, we will delve into the mechanics of hunger, why it's important to eat regularly & how honouring mental hunger supports your eating disorder recovery.
Most people intuitively believe that hunger is influenced by the state of our stomach; when it is empty there will be contractions that are experienced as hunger, and when distended, we “should” be able to stop. However hunger and satiety is driven by a complex interplay between physical and emotional determinants. Food isn't strictly fuel.
Understanding Hunger
Hunger is your body's natural response to the need for nourishment. It is a complex sensation influenced by various physiological and psychological factors. The physical aspects of hunger involve the release of hormones that stimulate appetite and signal the brain when it's time to eat. This is essential to provide your body with the nutrients it needs to thrive. Psychological factors that influence hunger include emotions, palpability, desirability, pleasure, beliefs & external factors.
It's important to understand and acknowledge the various signs of hunger to maintain a healthy relationship with food.
The Mechanisms of Hunger:
Biological Hunger: Hunger is primarily regulated by the hypothalamus in the brain, which receives signals from the digestive system, blood sugar levels, and hormones. When the body's energy stores are depleted, it triggers hunger sensations to ensure you replenish those reserves.
Psychological Hunger: Emotional factors, stress, and environmental cues can all influence hunger levels. For clients with eating disorders, these factors can complicate their relationship with food, leading to restrictive eating patterns or overeating.
The role of regular eating
Regular eating is the most powerful tool you can develop to reduce your disordered eating and regain control of your eating behaviours.
Mechanical eating means developing a regular eating pattern that will not leave you physiologically hungry. Distributing energy intake over the course of the day is the healthiest way to eat for all human beings, not just individuals recovering from an eating disorder. It is essential in early recovery to learn to “eat mechanically” rather than in response to hunger signals as these will be dysregulated and unreliable. Only through consistent and regular eating and providing your body with adequate nourishment will appetite signals become reliable and function normally again.
A good guide for regular eating is:
3 meals and 2-3 snacks spread throughout the day
No longer than 4 hours without having something to eat
Eating a variety of foods, moving away from strict dietary rules about good and bad foods
Eating enough to maintain a healthy weight or gain.
Missing meals and snacks in the day often triggers loss of control of eating in the evenings. After 4 hours, the blood sugars in your body will fall too low and when you start to eat you are far more likely to eat faster, eat more, and possibly even lose control. This reinforces the belief that you cannot be trusted around food.
What is mental hunger?
Mental hunger is the emotional and psychological desire for food, beyond physical sensations. Put simply mental hunger is thinking about food. It can be thinking about specific foods &/or foods that you don’t allow yourself, thoughts about your next meal or planning your day around or meals to ensure you don’t eat more than usual. It can also be thinking about activities that are used to justify your eating like exercise or purging.
When your body is undernourished and your energy intake is insufficient to meet your daily needs, it responds by adjusting metabolism. This adjustment involves prioritizing vital functions while reducing energy expenditure on non-essential processes. In situations where the brain perceives a scarcity of food, it conserves energy by suppressing physical hunger signals and instead increases thoughts about food, which is less energy taxing.
With time and a consistent eating pattern, physical hunger signals will gradually return. In the meantime, your brain utilizes mental hunger to communicate the need for increased food intake. Mental hunger serves as a reminder that your body requires nourishment.
Overcoming the fear
Recovering from an eating disorder involves challenging and dismantling harmful beliefs around food and hunger. Embracing hunger by adopting a regular eating patterns may initially induce anxiety, but will help your body with the nourishment it needs to heal. Trusting the process and gradually re introducing regular meals can help you regain control over your relationship with food, find food peace & move towards living a life of purpose.
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Love Harriett