Hunger Cues and Mechanical Eating
If you are in eating disorder recovery, you have likely heard of the phrase "mechanical eating". For those who may not be familiar with the phrase, I typically define it as a way for someone to nourish the body despite the absence of hunger cues and/or the desire to eat.
In a society that frequently highlights weight management tips, this process may seem a little odd. Let's be real here, the idea of this can be downright anxiety provoking for some - especially for those seeking to lose weight. It's not uncommon to see messages flooding the internet with recommendations to avoid eating if you are not hungry. The truth is, this is not a clear cut answer to the problem. What we are not taught is what to do when our hunger cues may not be present or may not be obvious to us?
Let's quickly discuss some factors that may potentially affect hunger cues:
health conditions or illness
certain medications
heightened emotions
stress
constipation
disordered patterns such as infrequently nourishing the body or tendency to skip meals
For those that may be new to identifying hunger cues, check out our Hunger and Fullness Scale below.
Learning to mechanically eat is a very important process when it comes to learning to fuel appropriately. One way we can have body attunement is to recognize when we are not experiencing physical body cues and may need to implement mechanical eating. I know the idea of this may be a challenge, but this is one way that we can show up for ourselves and honor our body.
If you are new to this process or feel like you can relate to some of the information shared above, consider the following:
Mechanical eating does not necessarily equal weight gain. In fact, eating mechanically can actually help support a healthy metabolism due to providing the body adequate fuel. Adequately fueling helps navigate cravings, promotes blood glucose stabilization and supports bowel regularity.
Aim to identify triggers that may inhibit you from experiencing body cues. Use this information to plan accordingly. Example: If you tend to be a more anxious person and have a big change coming up, you may benefit from aiming to set timers for reminders to eat. This is a way to be proactive and ensure that you are still meeting your basic self-care needs. Consider having set meal and snack times until your normal cues return. Having this consistency can help with building more consistent and predictable physical hunger cues.
Plan ahead and consider creating a go to menu. When you are not experiencing hunger cues, you may also have trouble deciding what to eat or creating a balanced meal or snack. Consider having some go to menu items to refer to for when this may occur. This will help you have peace in knowing you are adequately fueling and take away the guesswork.
If you would like help with learning how to implement this process, please consider scheduling with a registered dietitian. They are trained to help identify potential barriers and to educate you on the skills you need to implement the change.