How to tell hunger from food cravings

Do you ever find yourself wanting food and eating something, only to realize that you haven't fulfilled the need? Sometimes it can be hard to tell if we're eating because we're hungry or if there's something else making us crave food.

I spoke to Dr Aileen Alexander, a women's health and weight loss expert, TEDx speaker and medical doctor about how to tune into your body's hunger cues, and how to tell real hunger from food cravings.

"Tuning into hunger signals is a really hard thing to do and none of us get this right straight away," says Alexander. "Diets don't teach people how to listen to their body signals or respond to what their body needs. In fact, they teach us to ignore these signals."

Identifying a food craving

"I would get people to think about what they are craving or wanting in that moment," says Alexander. "For example, if they're saying I really want a chocolate bar, I'd get them to ask themselves, could they eat an apple at that moment? And they might want to swear at me, and say 'Absolutely not. I do not want an apple'. That's totally fine, but then we know it's not hunger. That's a craving. There's something else driving that desire that isn't about nutrition. This is some kind of emotional need, or a stress, that we think food might fix, but that food isn't actually going to fix."

"If the answer is yes, I could eat an apple, then have an apple, because that has more nutrients, it's got more vitamins, more minerals, more fiber, it's going to make you feel fuller," says Alexander. "I think it's important to be curious about the food that our bodies are calling us towards and notice that. Does that mean I could have any food? Oh, no, it's specifically that food. Ok, that's interesting."

What else isn't a hunger signal?

Other physical sensations can get confused for hunger. "One is thirst," says Alexander. "Some of my clients hadn't realized a lot of the time they were just thirsty. Another one is caused by caffeine." That jittery feeling can make you feel like your blood sugar level is low and you need to eat.

How to tune in to your body's hunger cues

Alexander is an advocate of intuitive eating, which aims to reconnect you with hunger and satiety signals. In other words, learning to tell when you're truly hungry and then knowing when to stop, rather than, for instance, relying on portion sizes to tell us when to stop eating.

Learning to eat intuitively is not always a straightforward process. It will involve some trial and error as you feel your way and tune back into your body. "Intuitive eating is super scary," says Alexander. "A lady I've worked with said that asking her to eat intuitively was like asking her to trust a cheating boyfriend."

Alexander offers a 12-week program for women interested in this method, beginning with a complimentary consultation.

To find out more about intuitive eating, try this book on the subject by the two dietitians who coined the term.