How To Stop Eating Out Of Boredom & Tap Into Your Actual Hunger Cues"

The biological and psychological regulation of appetite and how they implicate metabolic health are hot topics in the science world right now. But they're also incredibly complex, so researchers' understanding of how the brain helps regulate hunger is still growing.

There are many biological inputs that affect appetite regulation1:

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Boredom eating—whether because you're more stressed out than normal, feeling sad, or simply enjoy the flavor and experience of your snack—can be filed firmly under the "hedonic eating" category.

And if you find yourself eating hedonistically more often than homeorhetically, you may struggle to tune in to hunger and satiety cues. This is because the three main hunger hormones that regulate our appetite—ghrelin, leptin, and insulin—are heavily affected by our diet and eating habits:

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People can become disconnected from their hunger signals for a variety of reasons—including fluctuating hormone levels, unsustainable diets (i.e., the especially restrictive kind), calorie counting, and emotional eating.

The good news? We can learn how to tune back in to our hunger cues using mindful practices that help familiarize us with the internal sensations associated with changes in our leptin and ghrelin levels:

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Vickery recommends practicing interoceptive awareness—i.e., paying attention to the physical sensations in our bodies (hunger pangs, feelings of fullness, and energy levels)—to start reconnecting with your hunger cues. "By tuning in to these cues, we can start eating in response to our hunger instead of eating based on external cues like the time of day or what's available," she adds.

While there are many different interoceptive awareness exercises you can try, keeping a hunger journal is a good place to start, Vickery shares. Every time you feel hunger pangs, take a few minutes to jot down what you're feeling physically and emotionally. Over time, you'll start to notice patterns in your hunger cues and learn how to better respond to them.

If you're having trouble tuning in, functional medicine nutritionist Brooke Scheller, DCN, CNS, recommends giving your brain a little bit of time to process hunger cues. "It takes about 15 minutes for the body to recognize food signals. Therefore, it's best to take your time and eat slowly to allow your brain to catch up with your stomach," she explains.

All that said, tuning back in to hunger cues can be challenging—even after implementing mindfulness practices. If you're looking for additional support to complement your foundational metabolic health habits (i.e., nutrient-dense diet, healthy sleep habits, physical activity, proper hydration, stress management), a high-quality targeted supplement like mbg's metabolism+ can help.

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Tuning in to our body's hunger signals is an important part of metabolic health and optimization. When we become disconnected from these internal signals, it becomes far more difficult to differentiate homeorhetic hunger from hedonistic hunger. This can lead to eating out of boredom, unconscious snacking, and other eating habits that can make us feel detached from our bodies.

If you're looking for a holistic and innovative solution to help you regulate appetite and tune in to your hunger cues, mbg's metabolism+ fits the bill: With evidence-backed ingredients like cayenne pepper, veld grape, grains of paradise, and EGCG and caffeine from green tea at efficacious doses, this targeted metabolic health supplement promotes healthy hormone levels, increases metabolic rate, reduces adipose tissue accumulation, and supports healthy body composition.* 

Looking to add more tools to your metabolism tool belt? Check out mbg's picks for the best metabolism supplements on the market to find the perfect product for your metabolic health needs.