Watch as Dr. Phil explains to Kate, who refuses to have a wedding until she loses weight, that recognizing three different types of hunger can help her regain a healthy perspective on when and how much to eat.
1. Physical Hunger: "This is when your body is saying 'Hey, come on, my stomach is barbecuing my ribs here — we need food!'" Dr. Phil jokes. Physical hunger brings about physiological symptoms, and includes a range between a ted "peckish" to completely ravenous. Your stomach might growl, or if you've really gone too long without food you might get headaches, dizziness or become light-headed.
2. Mind Hunger: It's the feeling you get when you experience an emotion that you've been fixing with food. For example, if you typically eat when you're stressed at work, then the next time the boss yells at you, you might experience a twinge of hunger, urging you to stop by the vending machine on the way back to your desk. It's a physical response to an emotional need; what you're really experiencing is a trigger-induced craving.
3. Habit Hunger: This is an environment or situational hunger response. You might eat because it's "time to eat" when you walk in the door from work, or because you're in a place where you typically eat or you're doing something you have often paired with food.
Before starting each meal, Dr. Phil suggests she determine if she's physically hungry — or if she's responding to mind hunger or habit hunger, which can lead to misusing food. Dr. Phil tells Kate, "If you did nothing but separate these three things, you would be halfway home."
Dr. Phil explains how to extinguish your "fake hunger," and how to use his 20/20 Hunger and Fullness Scale in his new book, The 20/20 Diet: Turn Your Weight Loss Vision into Reality.
