Intuitive eating isn’t for everyone all the time. Let’s learn why it’s okay to eat when you’re not hungry and why practical hunger is something we should listen to instead.

What is practical hunger:
Practical huger is when you’re not hungry in the moment, but you need to eat in response to anticipated physical hunger that you may not be able to satisfy because food may not be available.

Say, for example, your lunch break at work is from 11am to 12pm. However, when your lunch break rolls around, you really aren’t hungry yet. Practical hunger understands that it’s best to eat when you have the chance rather than potentially becoming ravenously hungry and potentially overeating later on.

Why it’s okay to eat when you’re not hungry:

Some people worry that if they’re eating outside of hunger, they are eating ‘too much’. Hunger and fullness cues guide you towards eating an appropriate amount of food, but this doesn’t mean you have to follow them all the time to fuel your body adequacy. Honouring practical hunger might mean there are occasional days you end up eating more food than typical, or more food than your body ‘needs’. This is okay. This is normal. This is intuitive.

Wanting to learn more?

Al xx