Hunger Level Scale – Is It Hunger or Habit?

It is important that you learn to distinguish between physical hunger and the psychological inclination to eat. Physical hunger is generally accompanied by symptoms such as abdominal pain or discomfort, dizziness, light headedness, headaches or a feeling of emptiness in your stomach. Your body needs nutrition every 3-4 hours, hence some of these symptoms should occur 3-4 hours after your last meal. Physical hunger is a useful and appropriate eating cue.

Psychological inclination to eat is when you are influenced to eat or drink in the absence of physical hunger. It can stem from cues such as social situations, your surrounding environment or from within you. An example of psychological inclination to eat is craving chocolate because you were given a box and you know that it is in the pantry. Your body does not actually need the specific nutrients in chocolate – it cannot tell you what type of nutrition it needs; it can only exhibit general physical symptoms when it needs nutrients. This craving is purely psychological.

It is important that you learn to distinguish between physical hunger and the psychological inclination to eat. The following scale can help you determine your level of physiological hunger, start and stop eating at an appropriate time and differentiate between physiological hunger and psychological inclination to eat:

Using the Scale
The best way to use the scale is to follow three steps:

1. Before eating, rate your level of hunger using the scale
2. Five minutes after you have started eating, rate your level of hunger again
3. Rate your hunger when you have finished eating.

Try using this scale the next time you eat a meal. People who are successful at weight loss generally wait until they are at a rating of 2 or 3 before they eat, and then they only eat to a rating of 6.