It’s Good to Be Hungry

There is a lesson I had to learn that played a key role in how the weight finally started to come off.

It sounds simple now, but for me it was not simple at all.

I had to learn that it is good to be hungry.

For years, I lived trapped inside diet culture. One message had been planted so deeply in my mind that it took more than twenty years for me to see it clearly. I believed that keeping myself full would help me eat less and have fewer cravings.

I had been taught that eating throughout the day, every couple of hours, would keep my blood sugar steady, keep cravings under control, and help me avoid overeating. At the time, it sounded logical. I thought if I allowed myself to get hungry, I would struggle more with cravings, eat more, and keep the weight on.

Looking back now, I realize that pattern had become more than a strategy. It had become a coping mechanism.

Food was how I soothed myself through the day. It helped me feel steady when I was worried, tired, frustrated, or overwhelmed. In the same way some people turn to alcohol or cigarettes to help them get through stress, I had learned to turn to food to keep myself on an even keel.

I did not understand that at the time. I thought I was managing my hunger. But in many ways, my fear of hunger was managing me.

🌿 When Hunger Felt Dangerous

That belief became so strong in me that I feared the feeling of being hungry.

If I even got close to hunger, I could have a very real reaction. I would feel angry, emotional, uncomfortable, and my mood could drop quickly. I was not easy to be around when I felt that way.

I also struggled with the strong message of fasting in Scripture.

I would read about fasting and quietly tell myself, “That is not for me.”

I reasoned that because of my health and weight struggles, fasting would not be good for me. I thought God surely would not expect that from someone like me. So I placed fasting in a category of faith that I respected, but did not believe I could participate in.

🍞 The Conversation God Used

Then God used a simple conversation with my Mom.

Food and dieting were always near the top of my talking points. It was my struggle, my obsession, and my constant focus. I talked about food, weight, dieting, and my frustration with anyone close enough to listen.

But it was deeper than conversation. It had become my identity.

I did not simply see myself as someone who struggled with weight. I saw myself as a fat woman and a dieter. That was who I believed I was. I was lost inside that identity for years, and I now believe many of those thoughts were influenced by the enemy because they kept me bound, ashamed, afraid, and focused on myself instead of free in Christ.

One day, I was visiting my Mom, and we began that familiar conversation again. I was talking about my struggle, and she was trying to give me the best advice she could.

Then she said something that stayed with me.

She told me, “When you were little, I never gave you snacks in between your meals. I made sure you had three square meals a day. They were healthy, homemade, and filling.”

Later that day, her words kept coming back to me.

I was never heavy as a child.

That thought would not leave me alone.

I only ate three times a day, and I was never heavy.

Then another thought came quickly behind it, almost as if it wanted to shut down the truth before I could really consider it. The thought said, “Yes, but you were young then. Your metabolism was stronger. That would never work for you now. Eating less will only make things worse.”

Looking back, I believe that kind of thought was not just simple doubt. It carried fear. It carried bondage. It sounded like the same old voice that had kept me trapped for years, making me believe hunger was dangerous and that I could never be free.

But thankfully, the Lord kept drawing me back to Scripture.

📖 What Scripture Helped Me See

If fasting is a clear practice of faith in God’s Word, and if Jesus Himself fasted, then there had to be truth there.

I began to realize that I had been designed by God with the ability to go without food for periods of time. Fasting was not something strange or extreme. It was a sacred practice that Scripture had been showing me all along.

That was when I began to see that a biblical truth had been covered up by diet culture.

I want to be clear before I go further. I am not a doctor, and this is not medical advice. This is my personal testimony. Always consult your personal physician before beginning any health regimen.

For me, fasting was not about starving myself. It was not about punishing my body. It was not another diet.

Fasting became a sacred practice of setting food aside for a time so I could turn my attention toward God with prayer and Scripture.

🙏 Fasting Became a Place of Prayer

At first, hunger felt powerful because I had feared it for so long. But as I began eating less often and spending more time in God’s Word, something surprising happened.

It became easier.

The cravings and the pull toward food began to quiet. The time I would have spent reaching for food became time to reach for the Lord.

My hunger for food slowly began turning into a hunger for God. I wanted His Word. I wanted His presence. I wanted the steadiness that only He could give me.

Jesus said in Matthew 4:4, “People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

That verse became very real to me.

For years, I had tried to keep myself full, but I was still empty in places food could never reach. Food could fill my stomach, but it could not quiet my soul. It could comfort me for a moment, but it could not heal what was hurting inside me.

Jesus also said in John 6:35, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

I understand now that Jesus was speaking to the deeper hunger of the soul. He was speaking to the part of us that reaches for comfort, peace, security, love, and belonging.

For me, fasting helped reveal what I had been reaching for. It helped me see that I had been using food to soothe places that needed God’s care. It taught me that hunger did not have to control me. Hunger could become a place of prayer.

🌿 What Changed in Me

That was one of the great turning points in my wellness journey.

I no longer see hunger as something to fear. I see it as something that can remind me to pause, pray, and remember who truly sustains me.

This did not happen because I found another diet rule. It happened because God began changing the way I saw food, hunger, my body, and myself.

I had spent years believing I needed to stay full in order to stay safe and in control. But the Lord began teaching me that I could be hungry and still be okay. I could feel hunger and bring that moment to Him. I could notice the urge to eat and ask a deeper question: “What am I really reaching for right now?”

Sometimes the answer was physical hunger, and food was the right response.

But other times, I was reaching for food because I was tired, anxious, discouraged, or looking for comfort. Fasting helped me see the difference.

That awareness was part of my freedom.

🍽️ It Is Good to Be Hungry

So, to being hungry, I say this now: it is good to be hungry when that hunger draws me closer to God.

It is good to be hungry for His Word, His presence, His wisdom, His comfort, and His companionship.

Through Christ, I am finally learning what it means to be full.

This is not about making fasting another burden. It is not about turning hunger into a new rule. It is not about shaming anyone who is still struggling.

This is my testimony.

For me, fasting became one of the ways God helped loosen food’s grip on my life. He used hunger to expose what I had been leaning on. He used Scripture to show me that food is a gift, but it was never meant to become my comforter, my refuge, or my identity.

Only Christ can carry that place.

🌿 A Faithfully Well Practice

This week, consider the difference between eating from physical need and eating from fear, habit, or emotion.

Before reaching for food outside of your regular meals, pause for a moment and ask yourself, “Am I physically hungry, or am I trying to soothe something?”

Then take a few minutes to bring that honest answer before the Lord.

You can pray:

Lord, help me understand what I am really reaching for. Teach me to honor my body without being ruled by fear. Help me approach fasting with wisdom, prayer, and reverence. When hunger rises, remind me to turn my heart toward You. Fill the places in me that food was never meant to fill. Amen.

🌿 Continue Reading

If this reflection spoke to you, you may also want to read How God Helped Me Overcome Emotional Eating and Lose 100 Pounds.

In that post, I share more of my story about emotional eating, comfort, and how God began helping me heal from the inside out

Share your thoughts in the comments below. Your story may encourage someone else who is learning to walk in freedom too.

© 2025 His Words Give Life. All Rights Reserved. — Written with love by Faitheful Pen.