Am I Hungry? Maybe the Hunger Awareness Scale Can Help You Decide!

After writing about emotional and biological hunger (two types of hunger), I thought I would share with you one of the tools I use with clients to identify biological hunger. It is called the hunger awareness scale.

 

Am I Hungry?

Remember when you were a child and you ate when you were hungry? That is what the hunger awareness scale helps us do. Over the years many of us have lost contact with our bodies and what true biological hunger is. Biological hunger occurs when most of the food you ate from the last meal has been used. Your body tells you through its signals (i.e. gurgling in the stomach) it is time to eat. Subsequently, it is important to listen to our body. One way of doing that is by using the hunger awareness scale to check-in to see where our hunger levels are.

 

The Hunger Awareness Scale

How To Use the Hunger Awareness Scale

When you are getting ready to eat a meal and ask the following questions –

  1. “How do I know I am hungry?”
  2. “What are the physical / biological sensations that tells me I am hungry?”
  3. Identify where you are in relation to the scale between 0 and 10 (i.e. give yourself a rating),
  4. Pause and take notice of the different biological sensations you are experiencing for the rating you gave yourself,
  5. Decide if you are going to eat or not.

You can use this scale to check-in with your body signals throughout the meal to see if you are still hungry. The scale can also be used throughout the day to check-in to see if you are hungry or not.

Remember, the hunger awareness scale is a tool to help you start to tune in to your body and identify if your are biologically hungry or not. By using this tool over time it can help you to identify if your cue to eat is from emotional hunger, biological hunger or sometimes both or even something else.

 

Over to You…

Are there any questions in relation to the hunger awareness scale? If so, feel free to share them below in the comments! Remember, this is just one tool for your toolkit to help with identifying biological hunger 🙂

If you would like more information on how to change your relationship with food and your body, so you can truly nourish your health and wellbeing, please comment below, look at our nutritional coaching programs or contact us 🙂

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