Self Help Recovery Tools
There are many reasons for non-hungry eating and any one of them can lead to a binge. Most people are not even aware how much non-hungry eating they actually do. Use this tool to find out to help spot your non-hungry eating
Below is a list of the most common reasions for non-hungry eating
This can happen when we go on diet or and ignore our hunger signals, or when we get caught up in work, tasks and other things that leave us no choice to push the hunger signals to one side.
What will happen is you will end up eating past full because you are eating far too quickly when food eventually comes your way.
The 'look' or smell of food can cause an immediate reaction that you want something, for example a large piece of chocolate gateaux that you see in the bakery as you walk past the window may tell you to have the mouth watering delight.
However you might not 'really' feel like it, it is just the visual presence that looks great.
If you are already full the cake will probably not taste as good as it looks, it’s just that the visual pleasure is stimulating a reaction to eat.
Many forget what feelings of fullness and satisfaction feel like, here are a few examples, although remember everyone is different.
A combination of fullness and satisfaction can be:
-A comfortable feeling in your stomach
-The feeling of being content and a feeling you no longer want to eat
-You are no longer hungry, and all hunger feelings are gone
-You have a nice sensation in your stomach, you no longer feel like eating and you no longer think about food.
It is also important to recognize feeling of fullness and feelings of being satisfied with what you have eaten.
Feelings of fullness and satisfaction may have been dulled dramatically over years of not listening to your body signal.
It is difficult to fully know (excuse the pun) how full you are immediately after you have eaten because it apparently takes 20 minutes after we have eaten for your brain to receive this 'full' message. This is why it can help if you eat slowly and not allow your hunger level to fall to low.
If you are on a continual diet then your 'satisfaction' feelings are probably not being met or you may have forgotten what it feels like to be satisfied after eating.
You can feel full by eating, however if you still feel like you need something else when you are full then perhaps you are not truly 'satisfied'. Sometimes this satisfied feeling is not be achieved because you are doing 'emotional eating' instead of 'natural eating'
‘Emotional eating can cancel out satisfaction'.
It is difficult to get satisfied when eating for emotional fulfillment; your natural hunger system is turned off because you are not physically hungry so it is difficult for your brain to accept messages or fullness and satisfaction. It is like feeding a void the only feeling will be a physical ‘overstuffed’ one.
Another reason for eating but not getting satisfied is because you are not listening to what your body is calling out for.
For example, if your daily lunch consisted of a salad including lettuce, tomato and cucumber each day and surprisingly you are reaching ‘full’ each day however not truly satisfied. Perhaps your body might be sending out messages for something else. With some awareness you might realize what your body actually wants.
You may already be aware that other foods beside your salad look more tempting, this could be one sign.
If you are aware you are being filled but not truly satisfied with your salad yet you continue to ignore feeling, you might end up binging at another time.
This is common, especially if you are out of touch with your body. You might react to thirst by eating. Just like with food your body sends a powerful message for water, It is a common mistake to confuse these two messages.
It is best to wait around half a minute to ask what you really feel like, are you hungry for some thing or just thirsty for some water.
A hunger fear can develop due to feelings of depression; deprivation and stress are associated with hunger.
Many people, especially those who have been on continual diets eat when they are not hungry incase they get hungry later.
By continually eating when you are not hungry purely for incase you do get hungry can led you to become out of touch with your hunger tracker.
Emotional eating is a hunger that is generated in your mind when you are seeking comfort and nurture. This is different from natural hunger which is signs that your body needs fuel.
It is easy to incorporate our emotions and food when we eat, we all have emotional hunger it has developed since childhood and is associated with love and comfort. Its quite natural to use emotional eating at times when you need a quick fix of love or comfort.
However if used too often it can become habit and you can reverse the effects of this quick fix if you start to use food to run away from life’s problems.
The feeling of boredom may make you eat because you can’t think of anything else to do. If this is the case, be glad you have discovered the reason and try and tackle the boredom, a good way is to try and turn boredom into fun.
Your body may be calling out to you for rest or sleep. If you are continually ignoring this message and eating purely for the reason to awaken your system you will eventually tire yourself and burn out. You need to therefore sort out the tiredness issue, perhaps finding an extra 15 minutes in your day to relax or sleep will help.
When you have Bulimia and after you have recovered, eating around others can cause strain, you may become paranoid and believe that people know your dark secret or you feel pressured into appearing normal in front of your family and friends. This can led to eating just to please others.
The same thing might happen when you feel obliged to eat if someone has bought or prepared a meal for you.
See our helpful maintenance mode for tips and hints on lifetime eating to help you deal with these issues when they happen.
Many people believe they are only finished a meal when the plate is cleared. Perhaps like many of us you were continually told by your parents that there are starving children in Africa, in turn created some guilt if the plate was not cleared.
If you are still doing this it is good to be aware that you are eating ‘past fullness’ on some occasions just to clear the plate. If you feel full and satisfied it is ok to leave food on your plate.
Unfortunately your leftovers do absolutely nothing to help starving children in Africa, neither will your feelings of guilt towards leaving food for waste. There are other constructive ways to help out there.
Food can be closely associated with happy memories perhaps from childhood. Perhaps your Granny used to bake the most fantastic scones when you visited during the summer break. You can remember the soft crumbling buttery texture melting in your mouth, and associate this with happiness and warmth of your family and summertime. You may simply eat when you are not hungry to try and get this memory vividly back
This can be ok once in a while, however used to often can suggest that perhaps another way of getting this memory back will be more beneficial. You could try visualization techniques, or try and pin the memory and think of another way to absorb yourself with it, perhaps just smelling melted butter or visiting a childhood place will relive the memory again.
This may happen when something is at arms reach, like a big bowl of crisps and you eat simply because its there and not because you are hungry.
Everyone does this from time to time, this is normal. However if you are doing this all of the time it might be worth while becoming aware of the situation when it happens.
By asking yourself if you are really hungry and assessing if you are really enjoying the crisps may create a realization that you are simply eating because it happens to be there and sparks the thought that you actually don’t want the crisps anymore.
There are conflicting beliefs about the difficulty around breaking habits. All you have to do is look at people who can drive on the opposite side of the road abroad after 20 years of driving continuously in their own country.
This is a habit just like other life habits. There are millions of people who stop smoking after 30 years puffing away, some with greater difficulty than others. When it comes to food you might simply be eating out of habit and oblivious to doing so because you are unaware.
Many people have habits that have no useful purpose so better changed.
Outside influences surrounding food have an amazing ability to seduce you into buying and eating particular types. Clever marketing strategies are in place to tempt you and make you believe that you must have this delicious food immediately. They make food seductive.
‘Seductive’ foods may sometimes get in the way with your intuitive thoughts.
Perhaps you body really wants a roast dinner, you may have had that thought in your head, you can smell the steamy thick gravy, mashed potatoes and slender meat, the inner thoughts swim in your head.
However you can be suddenly seduced when you walk past KFC, the big chicken bucket on that billboard is luring you in; you end up buying and eating it.
Perhaps using your awareness you might actually realize that the taste and satisfaction from the big chicken bucket would never meet the same satisfaction from what was originally in your head, your body was calling for a roast dinner for a rason.
Remember it is possible to enjoy looking and smelling food, you may react with the visual pleasure and be tricked into wanting something, however just take half a minute before you follow through with the reaction to ask yourself ;
‘Am I being seduced here’ or ‘is this what my body is really calling for’.
It is very common for parents to reward children with food when they have achieved something. You may have got a big bag of sweets when you tidied your bedroom, or a bag of chocolate buttons for managing to tie your own shoe laces when you were four years old and perhaps continued throughout your childhood
This is fine; however, if you find yourself continuing to reward yourself with food when you are not hungry, perhaps having rewards for every daily task you do, you may disturb your natural eating system.
You could try to consider rewarding yourself with something else and be aware that you are not hungry at the moment but you can have it when you are hungry and really feel like it.
There is a difference to eating something purely because it tastes good or eating something because you are hungry.
It is quite normal to eat something just for the taste, however if you are doing this often and doing it when you are not hungry then you need create an awareness and ask yourself do you really want it, you can know you can still have it later, but do you really feel like it now?
Children are a good example for this, if you take a child into a candy shop after they have had a large dinner they may start begging for candy purely for the taste of it.
However, when the candy is out of sight the child tends to forget about it, this is because the child is not hungry, the child was only reacting to the visual.