Why Do I Eat When I'm Not Hungry? Here's why and what to do about it.
Written by Isabel Vasquez RD, LDN
Do you often find yourself reaching for chips or chocolate after dinner even though you just ate? Ever feel full but find yourself picking at food anyway? If so, you’re not alone.
Many of our clients come to us frustrated that they’re eating ‘mindlessly’ or out of boredom rather than because they’re actually hungry.
Mindless or emotional eating can certainly be at the root of this, but eating when you’re not hungry can also be caused by going long stretches of time without food earlier in the day. Your body may be trying to compensate for the lack of energy!
Also, certain health issues or medications can dull your hunger cues, but eating enough is still essential for feeling energized and meeting your nutritional needs. This may require eating when you’re not hungry.
Keep reading to learn more about the common causes of eating when you’re not hungry, plus what to do about it.
Physical vs Emotional Hunger
Before we dive into reasons for eating when you aren’t hungry, let’s define what hunger is.
Usually when we talk about hunger, we mean physical hunger. This is a sign that your body needs more energy aka calories.
Some common hunger cues are trouble concentrating, mild fatigue, thinking about food, a feeling of emptiness in your stomach, and irritability.
Emotional hunger, on the other hand, happens when you get a hankering for food as a result of an emotion. You may not feel physically hungry, but you still want to eat.
Please know that eating when you’re not physically hungry isn’t a personal failure. It doesn’t say anything about your character or worth, so show yourself kindness if you notice judgments coming up.
Common Reasons for Eating When You’re Not Hungry
Emotional Eating
As we touched on above, one common cause of eating when you’re not hungry is emotional eating. You may feel lonely and crave cultural foods that remind you of family or feel sad and crave a tasty dessert as a pick-me-up.
You aren’t experiencing physical hunger cues, but you’re eating in response to an emotion.
Mindless Eating
Mindless eating is when you’re totally zoned out while eating. You may be distracted watching TV, scrolling on social media, or working. Unfortunately, this is super common since many of us live such busy lives and spend a lot of time on screens.
However, it can prevent you from connecting to your hunger and fullness cues. You may be so focused on whatever else you’re doing that you don’t notice signs of fullness until you’re uncomfortably full.
Unreliable Hunger Cues
Some people need to eat when they aren’t hungry because of unreliable hunger cues. With so many people taking GLP-1 agonist medications like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro, low appetite and stunted hunger cues are becoming more and more common.
You may also experience unreliable hunger cues if you’re super stressed or have a history of chronic dieting or restriction. These can lead to dull or nonexistent hunger cues, requiring that you eat even if you aren’t particularly hungry.
Binge-Restrict Cycle
The binge-restrict cycle is another reason you may find yourself eating even when you’re not hungry. This happens when your body feels deprived of energy, whether it be from intentionally restricting food or unintentionally missing a meal.
In turn, when you do eat, you may feel out of control around food or end up eating beyond comfortable fullness. This is a natural response to deprivation. Your body is simply trying to protect you by loading up on energy while it can!
Cultural Pressure to Eat
In Latine households, many of us were raised with the clean your plate mentality. You may have been taught to finish everything on your plate to prevent food waste, be respectful to whoever cooked, and accept the love your family expressed through food.
However, this cultural pressure to eat often fosters a disconnection from your body’s hunger and fullness cues. You may find yourself continuing to clean your plate as an adult, even if you’re already full.
What to Do About Eating When You’re Not Hungry
Practice Mindful Eating
Mindful eating entails paying attention to the whole experience of eating with curiosity and presence.
Rather than rushing through your meal and multi-tasking while you eat, it’s a practice of being present with your food and noticing the smells, textures, flavors, and appearance of what you’re eating.
Mindful eating has been shown to help address binge eating and emotional eating, per a 2022 study in Nutrition Research Reviews. It also helps connect with your body’s cues to reduce eating when you’re not really hungry.
Honor Your Emotional Needs
If you find yourself eating in response to emotions often, consider finding other ways to honor your emotional needs.
It may help to create a ‘toolkit’ of things you can do when you’re feeling down. Some ideas are:
Journal
Call a loved one
Go for a walk
Spend time outside
Meditate
Do a craft you enjoy
Spend time with a pet
Speak with a therapist
Note that eating in response to emotions isn’t inherently bad. We all do it from time to time. However, if it’s the primary thing you do when tough emotions arise, it may be time to explore other ways to navigate those emotions.
Challenge Food Rules
If you have a lot of food rules for yourself—like not eating past a certain time, cutting out certain types of foods, labeling certain foods as ‘bad’, or counting calories—you may be eating when you’re not hungry because of the binge-restrict cycle.
Your body may feel deprived, so when food is available—especially foods you try limiting—you’re more likely to eat beyond comfortable fullness. It’s just your body’s way of protecting you and ensuring you have the energy you need to survive.
So, we encourage our clients to adopt an ‘all foods fit’ approach to nutrition. That means you allow yourself to eat all types of foods rather than writing off certain foods as ‘bad’ and cutting them out entirely. All foods can fit in an overall healthy diet!
Understand Your Nutritional Needs
Before you write off eating when you’re not hungry as ‘overeating’, it’s important to understand your nutritional needs.
This is especially important if you’re taking medication that can dull your appetite, recovering from an eating disorder, have a history of chronic dieting, or generally struggle with low appetite.
These can all cause your hunger cues to be unreliable, so you may need to eat when you’re not hungry to meet your nutritional needs.
When to Seek Support
If you find yourself eating emotionally every week, are unsure if you’re meeting your nutritional needs, often eat mindlessly, or struggle with low appetite, you may benefit from meeting with a registered dietitian for support.
Our team of weight-inclusive, non-diet Latina registered dietitians can support you in honoring your body with gentle nutrition and building a better relationship with food. Plus, we’re in network with most major insurance providers and we’re licensed in 16 states and counting.
Verify your insurance benefits here!
Final Thoughts
If your hunger cues are dull or unreliable due to medications, stress, or an eating disorder, you may need to eat when you’re not hungry to meet your nutritional needs.
However, if you’re meeting your nutritional needs but you find yourself frequently eating mindlessly or emotionally when you’re not hungry, you may benefit from practicing mindful eating and exploring other means of coping with your emotions.
A registered dietitian can help you understand how to meet your nutritional needs and develop a better relationship with food.
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.
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