What’s Your HQ?
Using the Hunger Quotient to Time Your Meals and Snacks

In our first session together, I always ask new clients, “How hungry are you when you eat?” Some people say they are never hungry. “How could I be? I’m always eating,” they’ll joke. Or they’ll say, “Famished! I make myself wait to eat until I am starving, but I’m usually stuffed when I am done with a meal!” As basic as it is, many people, especially super-busy people, have a pretty feeble grasp of their Hunger Quotient. Maybe they just eat constantly, without thinking about it. Or they eat in such a spartan way–as if their virtue is measured by how few calories they consume–that they’re never really satisfied. So when hunger does catch up with them, the pangs are powerful enough to knock them right into the nearest Taco Bell.

Years of not-so-great eating habits have made us tone-deaf to our body’s hunger messages. Sure, we can listen to our body when it tells us we’re tired, that we’re coming down with a cold, or we’ve worked out too hard at the gym. But it’s difficult for many of my clients–even the ones who know the exchange rate for the Japanese yen or the exact floor plan of Neiman Marcus–to answer this simple question: “Right now, how hungry am I?”

That’s because most of us eat whether we are hungry or not. We eat because we think it’s time to eat, or because the food tastes good, or maybe just because it’s in front of us. The Snack Factor Diet will boost your HQ so that hunger–and only hunger–dictates your eating behavior.

Your hunger will tell you when it’s time to eat your meals and snacks. You don’t need to plan them around my schedule, or one devised by nutrition researchers in a lab somewhere. The whole point of the Snack Factor Diet is to help you find a regular eating pattern that suits your body, your metabolism, your goals, and your lifestyle. No matter what anyone tells you, there is no ideal time between meals. Everyone is unique and needs to know his or her HQ before picking up a fork.

Some people need to eat every few hours, while others should wait closer to four hours before eating between meals and snacks. I’ve got clients who are breakfast-snack-lunch-snack-dinner people, and I admit that’s the style of eating that suits me best, too. But I’ve also got breakfast-lunch-snack-snack-dinner clients, and even a few breakfast- lunch-snack-snack-snack people! In fact, just by jotting down their HQ levels, my clients usually figure out their style in a few days.