Learn to distinguish between emotional and physical hunger.

Sometimes it’s difficult to distinguish between an actual physiological need for food and a psychological want. Real, physical hunger comes on gradually, giving you progressive signals that it’s time to eat – first small gurgles, then large rumbles. It can be satisfied with a variety of foods, not one specific item. It is body-based, happening out of physical need, and you’ll feel the effects: a rumbling, gnawing stomach, or light-headedness.

Emotional eating, on the other hand, comes on suddenly – you weren’t even thinking about food one minute, and the next you’re famished – and is an urgent feeling, as if you must eat now. It is emotionally based, or “above the neck,” originating in the mind and in the mouth. It is usually a craving for a specific food, not just food in general; your mouth wants to taste a cheeseburger and nothing else will satisfy. It’s accompanied by some sort of emotional discomfort and involves absentminded or automatic, hand-to-mouth eating – like when you realize you’ve eaten the entire bag of chips when you only intended to have a handful.

Lay some ground rules.

When a craving strikes, make yourself wait for twenty to thirty minutes before you indulge it. During this time, you can consider whether or not you really need what you’re craving, identify why you think you need it, and come up with acceptable alternatives. Usually after the allotted time has passed, so will the craving; if it doesn’t, allow yourself to have a little bit of whatever it is you want. Or tell yourself that you can have it only after you’ve downed two glasses of water; chances are that when you drink that much, you’ll be too full to eat, anyway.

Organize your eating schedule.

Give yourself some structure – three meals a day, plus two snacks, and stop eating two hours before bedtime. When your body is accustomed to eating on a schedule, you’re more likely to be hungry at the same times of day and eat accordingly, not just whenever the mood strikes. Having an eating schedule also makes you more likely to designate time to actually savor your food instead of wolfing it down compulsively, which can make a big difference.