However, it is totally okay if you’re at a place where you judge yourself for feeling hungry. Hunger is information your body is providing you. And, when challenging the diet mindset, it’s more helpful to look at hunger as not good, not bad, but as neutral. It is remarkable that your body can communicate its need for nourishment to you. The process of healing your relationship with food and rejecting diet culture requires looking at hunger differently from a place of curiosity and see it as something that’s informative. You don’t trust your hunger because you’ve been told your whole life that your hunger, and by extension your body, is untrustworthy. Chances are good that you’ve learned to override your hunger cues throughout years of dieting and disordered eating. The message often is: If you can keep hunger at bay outside of meal times, you will supposedly eat less and loose weight. Having an appetite is wrong, but if you do have one, it needs to be at certain meal times and at certain times of day, and only in certain amounts. Hunger is seen as dangerous in diet culture when it’s outside of the parimeters when diet culture says it’s OK to eat. Read on to learn why you might be hungry after dinner and what to do about it in healing your relationship with food.Īs part of its ethos, diet culture encourages you to disconnect from your body and therefore the signals it communicates to you. How you respond to your hunger cues dinner will give you a lot of insight and be helpful if you’re feeling stuck when it comes to food and your body. The good news is that hunger after dinner is a common experience, whether you’ve been in recovery from disordered eating or you’re just starting to notice diet culture and the things that feel off in your relationship with food. “I can’t eat again, I have already had so much to eat!” “Now’s not the time to eat, it’s too late!” The voice in your head may be saying things like… But for the vast majority of people, feeling hungry after a meal, especially dinner, is frustrating, confusing, and brings up judgment. Maybe you ignore the hunger for a while only to find yourself back in the kitchen and snacking throughout the rest of the evening.ĭo any of those experiences resonate with you?įor some people, feeling hungry after a meal is no big deal. Maybe you feel angry that you “shouldn’t” be hungry again and ignore the signs. Maybe you open the fridge or pantry door and stare at the options. The dishes are mostly done and you’re considering the next thing to do.īut, you’re distracted because you’re starting to notice hunger again. You’ve finished a long day, you’ve eaten your dinner, and you’re starting to unwind.

Im constantly hungry