Restoring Hunger and Fullness Cues 

Because of external influences from diet culture, social media/marketing, the “clean plate club”, and ignoring hunger cues, we develop the habit of ignoring both hunger and fullness.  We lose the ability over time to recognize and respect when our bodies are asking for nutrition, and when our bodies are satiated.

We are all born intuitive eaters and over time we learn to stop relying on our innate ability to recognize hunger and fullness. This behavior becomes a habit, and we rely on diets to tell us what, when, and how much to eat. 

Restoring hunger and fullness cues is not something that occurs overnight. This takes time, effort, and practice, and patience. 

Honoring Hunger 

“Keep your body biologically fed with adequate energy and carbohydrates. Otherwise, you can trigger a primal drive to overeat. Once you reach the moment of excess hunger, all intentions of moderate, conscious eating are fleeting and irrelevant. Learning to honor this first biological signal sets the stage for rebuilding trust with yourself and food.” – Intuitive Eating. 

Hunger is a biological result when our nutrient reserves are depleted. It is not “wrong”, “bad”, or “not to be trusted”. It is a signal of the internal communication systems working efficiently! 

When we ignore the hunger signal chronically, the body adapts and becomes used to the sensations that replace the traditional growling stomach. Ignoring hunger does not mean that the body no longer needs nutrition. Being underfed instead damages metabolism.

Step 1 to Honoring and Restoring Hunger: Eat Consistently. 

Establish regular meal patterns that nourish the body every 3-5 hours. 

This will teach the body that food is consistent and you likely will find after a few weeks, hunger starts to be restored and show up at more consistent intervals. 

Step 2: Checking In Pre-Meal, ½ way through your meal, and at your final bite.

• How hungry are you when you arrive at the meal? 
• This may change the amount of food you serve yourself, or the amount of food required at that one eating episode. 
• Pick a half-way point of your meal, and check in with your fullness. 
• How much more food will you require to become comfortably satisfied? 
• Use this as a guide to let you know how much more food you will eat.

When you are done eating – check in again. How full are you? Are you no longer hungry, experiencing satisfaction and fullness? If so, you likely are done with this eating episode.

Step 3: Practice, practice, practice. 

Retraining the brain and body to recognize hunger and fullness is like learning a new language. Don’t rush this, and be patient with yourself. It is helpful to remember that this may change on a meal by meal basis, and we don’t always get it “right”, or “perfectly”, and that is perfectly okay. What is important is that we are re-establishing the connection to the physical sensation of hunger and fullness and relying less on emotional state or boredom to determine food intake.