Understanding Food Cues

An important part of losing weight includes reexamining your relationship with food, as well as your eating habits. For many people, food cues play a role in developing unhealthy eating behaviors, like stress eating, so a thorough analysis of your personal food cues may help curb these habits. 

A food cue is trigger that causes the urge to eat. They can be triggered in a variety of ways, whether it’s specific smells, feeling certain emotions, or food advertisements. As opposed to hunger cues, which are physical signs of hunger, food cues may cause you the urge to eat, even if you’re not hungry. Understanding the difference between hunger cues and food cues is important for everyone, especially those looking to lose weight. 

Unmanaged Food Cues 

Food cues can cause the urge to eat even when you aren’t hungry. Unmanaged, this can easily turn into boredom-based or mindless eating, which can sabotage your ability to lose weight. Food cues are, quite literally, everywhere in the world, from fast food commercials to the smell of your coworker’s food. Learning how to manage them is key to your weight-loss success.

Overcoming Food Cues

Food cues are entirely external, so turning to your internal hunger cues is a great way to combat that urge to eat. If you’re not sure if you’re actually hungry or have just been triggered by a food cue, look for these signs:

• Rumbling, empty-feeling stomach
• Irritability or “hanger” 
• Light-headedness 
• Low energy
• Headache
• Difficulty focusing 

Once you identify the difference between food cues and hunger cues, it becomes easier to ignore the food cues. Being aware of your personal food cues is the first step to avoiding, ignoring, or eliminating them. Keeping a food diary that notes what, when, and why you ate may help you identify your personal food cues. 

Avoiding Overeating

In today’s society, food cues are unavoidable. There’s no way to prevent yourself from seeing, smelling, or even hearing about food, and this has made overeating an unfortunately common occurrence. 

Dealing with food cues can be difficult and frustrating at first, but awareness is key to preventing mindless overeating. When you encounter a food cue, use hunger cues to tell whether you’re really hungry. If you’re still not sure, have a glass of water and go for a short walk. Thirst can feel remarkably similar to hunger, and taking a walk gives you some mental space from the food cue, allowing you to determine if you’re hungry or not.  

Looking for more assistance losing weight? The bariatric program at Wellstar Georgia offers personalized support designed to help you overcome your food cues, as well other setbacks you might encounter during your weight-loss journey. Learn more.