4 Types of Hunger

January 8, 2024

Did you know there are different types of hunger? A growling belly isn’t the only indication that it’s time to eat! Even if you’re not physically hungry, you can still be hungry in a different way. Read on to find out more and how to use the types of hunger to guide your food choices to become an intuitive eater.

One of the most shocking things I can say in a session with a client is “it’s OK to eat when you’re not physically hungry.”

One of the biggest mistakes of trying to become an intuitive eater on your own after years of dieting is that you turn intuitive eating into a diet. And that diet is typically the Hunger/Fullness Diet. You give yourself permission to eat when you’re hungry, but you must stop when you’re full.

But there’s a lot more nuance to intuitive eating than that.

There are 4 different types of hunger that indicate it’s a good time for you to eat. (And only one of them is physical hunger – or the physiological/biological drive to eat).

When you’re learning to become an intuitive eater, it’s important to listen to all 4 types of hunger to make decisions that best support your body.

Here are the 4 Types of Hunger:

Physical Hunger
Taste Hunger
Practical Hunger
Emotional Hunger

Let’s break down the 4 types of hunger so you can pay attention to what your body is telling you.

1 . Physical Hunger

Physical hunger is the type of hunger that you’re most accustomed to. It’s the physiological drive to eat. It’s your most primal and basic form of hunger.

The most popular sign of physical hunger is a growling belly, but there are many other signs of physical hunger too. Some other signs include:

Gnawing at the back of your throat
Increased thoughts of food
Waning energy
Feelings of emptiness
Difficulty focusing
Lightheadedness/dizziness (although this may be a later sign of hunger & an indication you waited too long to eat)
Headaches

This blog post goes into all the details about how to determine if you’re physically hungry. This is a great first step to become a more intuitive eater.

2. Taste Hunger

The second type of hunger is taste hunger. Taste hunger refers to eating something just because it tastes good.

When you’re able to honor your taste hunger – outside of physical hunger – you’re on your way to becoming an intuitive eater.

Food should taste good. And you are allowed to enjoy food (despite what diet culture tells you).

Here’s an example of how you can honor your taste hunger:

You’re out to dinner, ate a delicious meal, and feel comfortably full. Dessert wasn’t even really on your mind, but the rest of the table orders dessert. Your partner offers you a taste. You enjoy it fully. They then offer to share the dessert with you.

You have permission to say no because you want to respect your fullness to feel your best. Or you can make the conscious decision to eat past your comfortable fullness because the dessert tastes that good and you really want a few more bites.

Nothing will happen if you do this!

Of course, more often than not, you want to honor your physical fullness. But if you’re in a situation like this, there’s nothing wrong with a few bites of dessert to feel fully satisfied and honor your taste hunger.

Because if you don’t, you may end up ruminating about the dessert for days to come, which can precipitate a binge even.

Taste hunger is related to satisfaction. It’s essential to be fully satisfied to stop eating and turn off your thoughts about food.

3. Practical Hunger

Practical hunger is eating when it makes sense to eat to avoid getting over-hungry and ravenous later. This is an essential type of hunger to honor if you’re prone to binging and/or nonstop nighttime snacking.

Practical hunger is my favorite type of hunger. When you’re able to honor your practical hunger, you’re truly on your way to becoming an intuitive eater.

Here’s an example of practical hunger:

You’re not really hungry for breakfast when your kids eat breakfast in the morning, but you have to get the kids and yourself ready for school/work, drop the kids at school, and then head into the office. It will be another 2 hours before you have time to sit down and eat. You know by 10am you’re going to be absolutely ravenous.

Instead of pushing off your hunger (which will increase cravings and the likelihood of overeating later), you eat ahead of your hunger because now is the practical time to do so.

Essentially what you’re doing is thinking about how your future self will feel. Instead of letting yourself get irritable, over-hungry, crabby, and low energy, you’re planning in advance to best help yourself.

4. Emotional Hunger

In my professional and personal opinion, emotional hunger is the hardest type of hunger to conquer and understand.

Emotional hunger is eating from a place of emotions, AKA emotional eating.

Emotional eating happens for two main reasons:

A lack of other coping mechanisms
Habit

Many of us grow up being taught to push emotions under the rug or to self-soothe with food. This can then lead to emotional eating as an adult.

If you struggle with emotional eating, I walk you through the process below in much more depth in my Guidebook, Binge to Balanced.

The first step to combat emotional eating is to become aware that you’re eating emotionally.

Bringing mindfulness tools into your eating experience can help…

Don’t eat in front of technology
Try to limit distractions while eating
Pause before eating to check-in with yourself – are you actually (physically) hungry?

Next, it’s a good idea to get in touch with the emotion you’re feeling. Are you stressed? Bored? Anxious? Happy? Sad?

Believe it or not, many adults are not as aware of their emotions as you’d think!

After you identify the emotion(s) you’re feeling, it’s time to ask yourself: What do I actually NEED right now?

If you’re stressed do you need to take a walk around the block or make a to-do list?
If you’re overwhelmed, does making a plan to tackle your to-do list help?
Sad? Calling a friend or parent may help.

This doesn’t mean you can’t also eat something that will temporarily help you feel better. You 100% can. But you’re ALSO taking the steps to address your emotional needs too and bringing awareness to this process.

If you’re struggling with emotional eating on your own, professional support can help. I have 2 ways to help you:

Check out the Binge to Balanced Guidebook, which walks you through how to go from mindless snacker who often overeats & feels out of control around food to a confident and balanced eater, without dieting.
Book a free discovery call to work together!