Emotional Hunger vs. Physical Hunger: How to Tell the Difference
Written by Isabel Vasquez RD, LDN
Connecting with hunger cues can be a challenge if you’re used to following food rules that tell you how to eat. One of the biggest questions that comes up for our clients is how to tell if their hunger is emotional or physical.
Emotional hunger happens when you want to eat in response to an emotion—pleasant or unpleasant—whereas physical hunger happens in response to a biological need to eat.
They’re both valid forms of hunger, but differentiating between the two helps you to better understand your body.
In this blog, we’ll address what emotional hunger and physical hunger are, signs of each, and four ways to tell the difference between the two.
What is Emotional Hunger?
Emotional hunger is when you get the urge to eat in response to an emotion. Most often, it’s in response to emotions like sadness, boredom, loneliness, or anxiety.
A classic depiction of emotional hunger is in rom com movies when someone eats a pint of ice cream after a breakup. Other examples include eating a meal your mom used to cook for you when you feel lonely, or snacking on the couch when you’re not physically hungry but you’re bored.
Notably, since emotional eating has gotten a bad rap, many people mistake physical hunger for emotional hunger. Sometimes, late night snacking or “eating out of boredom” can actually just be your body playing catch up after not eating enough throughout the day.
Signs of Emotional Hunger
Here are some telltale signs that you may be feeling emotional hunger:
Physical hunger is not present
If physical signs are present, they’re usually associated with emotions (e.g. chest tightness, butterflies in stomach, jitters)
Craving specific types of foods associated with comfort
Linked with heightened emotions of boredom, loneliness, anxiety, worry, or sadness
Happens even if you ate a meal recently
What is Physical Hunger?
Physical hunger is what most people think of when they think of hunger. It’s when you feel hungry in response to your body’s biological need for food. Your body is signaling to you that it needs more fuel to keep powering you through your day.
Unfortunately, many people have a complicated relationship to this feeling of hunger, particularly those who have spent years dieting. Diets teach you to ignore your hunger cues and follow arbitrary food rules. In turn, you may have become disconnected from your hunger cues.
It can take time to reconnect with your physical hunger cues if you’ve been ignoring them for a while. They may become suppressed, but with regular nourishment and mindfulness of interoceptive cues, you can start to notice and honor physical hunger again.
Signs of Physical Hunger
Many people think of a growling stomach when they think of physical hunger, but there are a lot of other signs. In fact, a growling stomach may mean you’re feeling a pretty extreme form of hunger. Signs of physical hunger include:
Difficulty concentrating
Empty feeling in your stomach
Fatigue
Rumbling stomach
Thinking about food
Irritability
Headache
How to Tell If It’s Emotional vs. Physical Hunger
Consider When You Last Ate
As we mentioned above, it can be easy to mistake physical hunger for emotional hunger if you have misconceptions about how much or how often you need to eat.
If you’re stuck in a cycle of dieting or restricting food, you may not even realize that you’re not eating enough throughout the day. This could also happen unintentionally if you skip lunch due to a busy day or don’t think to have an afternoon snack.
So, in order to differentiate between emotional and physical hunger, consider when and what you last ate. Beyond that, consider what your eating pattern was throughout the day.
If you went long stretches of time (say, more than 3–5 hours) without eating, you had light meals, or you had an especially busy day, what you’re feeling may be physical hunger, not emotional hunger.
Reflect on Emotions Present
If you think you may be emotionally hungry, it’s helpful to check in with what emotions you’re currently feeling. This can help determine if you’re having a strong emotional experience that you could be trying to cope with using food.
At a loss when it comes to naming your emotion? A feelings wheel can help.
If you notice strong emotions like boredom, stress, loneliness, disappointment, frustration, or insecurity present in the absence of physical hunger cues, then you may be feeling emotional hunger.
If an unpleasant emotion like anxiety is present, consider whether it’s linked to a bad relationship with food or something else.
If you’re anxious because the feeling of hunger is uncomfortable for you, that could be a clue that you’re actually feeling physical hunger, not emotional hunger.
Notice Physical Sensations
In addition to checking in with your emotional state, check in with your physical sensations. Notice if any physical signs of physical hunger or certain emotions are present.
Some physical sensations to look out for that signal physical hunger are a rumbling stomach, empty feeling in the stomach, headache, lightheadedness, or fatigue.
Some physical sensations that commonly accompany unpleasant emotions are tightness in the chest, a racing or pounding heart, tension in the stomach, or pounding of the head, per a 2021 study in the journal PLoS One. However, everyone is unique so your emotions may physically manifest in other ways.
Connecting with these physical sensations may give you a clue as to which type of hunger is present. This process takes a lot of interoceptive awareness—an ability to connect with your internal bodily cues. In our society, we’re often disconnected from our bodies, so don’t be discouraged if it takes time and practice to notice these sensations.
Check Your Judgments About Hunger
In order to differentiate between physical and emotional hunger, it helps to check your judgments about hunger. If you have a history of dieting or disordered eating, you may have a complicated relationship with the feeling of hunger.
So, notice if you have judgments about the thought of hunger arising. Are you quick to dismiss physical hunger as emotional hunger and shame yourself for it?
If so, show yourself compassion and know that you deserve to honor your hunger.
Emotional hunger gets an especially bad rap, but it’s absolutely okay to eat in response to emotional hunger as well. In some cases, food really is exactly what you need to get you through the emotional experience you’re having.
For example, if you’re missing home, making a meal you associate with your family may help warm your soul.
Final Thoughts
Differentiating between physical vs. emotional hunger takes time and practice, but it’s a worthwhile process. To do so, it helps to connect with physical sensations and your emotional state. It’s also important to consider whether you’ve eaten enough throughout the day.
Remember that emotional eating is not inherently bad and shaming yourself for it may make it harder to tell when you’re eating in response to emotions or actual biological hunger.
For education on how to ADD nutrition to your favorite Latine cultural dishes, make peace with food, and focus on your health without dieting, join our nutrition library for just $27/month.
If you liked this post, you may also like:
Fasting After a Binge is Harmful. Here's Why.
