If you’ve ever struggled with your food and eating relationship, hunger and satiety cues may feel like challenging sensations to sit with. Physical hunger and satiety are often what we think of when the topic of hunger comes up; however we must also be cognizant of our emotional hunger and satiety and how to distinguish them from one another.
When you’ve been on the dieting / restrictive bandwagon for a long time (or even a short time), it is not unusual to try and ignore your hunger. This is because most diets traditionally set limits on how much food/calories/fats/carbs/etc you are allowed to eat. And in order to meet these (usually) unrealistic limits, you have to restrict your food intake to the point of significant and often chronic hunger. On one hand, in the dieting world, hunger equals something bad or shameful to feel because it makes you want to eat, which of course is not what is wanted when you’re trying to restrict calories and food intake. On the other hand, in some dieting circles, hunger is actually seen as a good thing because it means you’re not eating, which means you’re “doing it right” (this is a highly common perception especially within eating disorder circles).
But the thing is… you feel hunger for a reason. It’s not your body trying to sabotage you or your efforts. It’s literally your body communicating its need for energy and nutrients so it can best support & serve you. It is not doing this to be vindictive, but rather to keep you alive - and not just alive, but flourishing!
People are often scared of their hunger. And as a result, dieting and many eating disorders encourage us to ignore our hunger well past the point when we are ravenously ready to eat. Unfortunately this often results in overeating and/or binging past the point of overfullness later on because your body is in alarm mode by the time you eat something - and because your body is perceiving food scarcity, it’s telling you to eat all you can RIGHT NOW because it doesn’t know when it will get food again.This is a vicious cycle that can feel hard to break out of. It takes trust in yourself and your body to do so.
Part of the purpose of this conversation is to help you to learn how to shift from thinking of hunger and fullness as extremes so you can find your happy place with your hunger. This takes practice and patience, but with a little time, awareness and intuition you will begin to more easily observe the subtle interplay between your hunger and satiety cues, so you can know when it’s time to eat and when it’s time to stop.
Identifying your hunger
If you have a complicated relationship with hunger, then checking in with your hunger is an excellent practice to begin with. If you’ve ever followed a restrictive diet or practice in the past (or present), then it’s a pretty safe assumption that you might have mixed feelings about hunger sensations. As mentioned before, many people perceive hunger to be a negative sensation; something to feel ashamed of for experiencing (because it’s highlighting a need of your body) while others view it positively because it helps to reinforce their belief that they are “doing something right” by starving themselves.
But the reality is that hunger is entirely neutral. It isn’t good or bad… it just is. It is your body’s preferred way to communicate with you to let you know that it’s ready for a new dose of energy and nutrients. This is one way your body seeks out nourishment in order to keep you and your body happy and healthy.
Once we have reached adulthood, most humans require nourishment in some form every 3-5 hours. This is, of course, dependent on our sleep, activity levels, what we’ve previously eaten most recently and many other factors. If you find yourself thinking that you don’t notice when you feel hungry, an excellent practice to begin is to set an alarm for yourself to remind you to check in with your body and hunger 3 hours after you finish a meal or snack.
I do want to mention that hunger will feel different for each and every one of us. Some experience it as a feeling of emptiness, low energy, irritable mood, nervousness or anxiety, or other physical sensations such as shakiness, foggy thinking, a growling stomach, or a pit in your core. Sometimes it can even show up as nausea if you’ve gone a prolonged period without eating. It is a practice to learn how to notice your hunger - this is by no means an exact science. So be patient and kind with yourself as you practice getting in sync with your hunger cues.
Identifying your satiety
Now fullness, on the other hand, is the opposite of hunger - it is how your body signals you to stop eating. Contrary to what many people believe, your body DOES KNOW when it’s time to stop eating. We can thank our satiety hormones for that.
Just like how we have hormones that signal our hunger cues (e.g. ghrelin), we also have hormones that signal when we’re full (e.g. peptide YY and cholecystokinin), both of which are regulated by your hypothalamus in your brain. These hormonal messengers are sent to your brain when your body registers that satiety and nourishment needs have been reached. This is why it is so important to eat slowly and mindfully because if you eat too quickly or unconsciously, your brain has to play catch up with your body.
Resolving this disconnection can be a key game changer in building a thriving food and eating relationship with yourself. It usually takes anywhere from 15-20+ minutes for the spectrum of your satiety signals to fully set in. So if you eat too quickly or without paying much attention to your food, it can be VERY easy to eat more than you’re actually needing. This is also why I recommend you cue into your hunger signals and respond accordingly when you start getting hungry, rather than waiting until you’re ravenous - it’s VERY hard to eat at a reasonable pace when you’re ravenously hungry, and waiting until you’ve reached this point in your hunger can lead to unwanted overeating and extreme feelings of fullness. Remember - strive to be satisfied, not stuffed!
Of course, the most common physical cue of satiety is stomach expansion - this expansion also contributes to your satiety hormones being released and received. This built-in mechanism is why you don’t need to count calories. Your body already has the means to measure the volume of food consumed and nutrients being provided. So when you eat an appropriate balance of proteins, fats and carbohydrates for your bioindividual needs in a slow and steady way, you don’t have to worry that you might overeat or be unable to control yourself and your portions.
A helpful strategy for becoming better acquainted with your satiety and fullness is to experiment with how different portions feel like in your body. For example, consciously check in with yourself and your hunger when your usual plate or bowl of food is ½ empty. If you decide that you are, in fact, still noticeably hungry, continue eating until it is ¾ empty. By pausing and checking in with yourself, you are providing a nice little break for your body to give you the green or red light. By continually practicing this, you will begin to more easily and effortlessly become aware of when it’s time to stop eating without overdoing it.
identifying why you’re hungry
Now it must be noted that there are different kinds of hunger. We can have physical hunger and emotional hunger. You can think of this as the difference between hunger and appetite. We seek out food to eat because of physical hunger, yet we also choose foods because of our appetite or emotional connection to these foods. As you can probably imagine, it can often be difficult to distinguish between the two at times.
When you find yourself having trouble distinguishing whether or not you are experiencing physical or emotional hunger, refer to these characteristics to help you identify what you’re experiencing:
Physical hunger is categorized as your need for fuel and shows up as a:
Gradual onset of hunger
Need for energy/fuel
Feeling in your stomach
Desire for something tasty and satisfying
Hungry for anything (non-specific hunger)
You ate more than 2 hours ago
You feel foggy headed and unable to think or focus clearly.
You feel satisfied after you eat.
On the flip side, emotional hunger occurs when you’re in need of some love and comfort.
When you’re emotionally hungry, you will more likely notice a:
Rapid onset of hunger.
Need for comfort/relief.
Feeling of hunger in your head rather than your stomach or body.
Strong cravings for rich, salty and/or sweet foods.
Hunger for a specific food.
You ate less than 2 hours ago.
You feel emotional and/or are numb or disassociated due to your emotions.
You feel anxious after eating.
Physical and emotional hunger are two very different things. Use the above information as a helpful reference to check in with yourself as you learn how to distinguish between these two hungers.
HOW TO SHIFT EMOTIONAL EATING behaviors
If you find you struggle with eating emotionally, this is a worthwhile area to explore for yourself. This is a larger topic than we’ll be covering in this post, but if this is a challenge for you, I encourage you to initially try the following:
Thank your appetite and acknowledge the help that you’ve received over the years from this appetite. Acknowledge how this has been an attempt to take care of yourself and that you appreciate that this drive to comfort yourself through food was what you knew how to do at the time.
Next, practice questioning yourself before you eat. Ask yourself, “What am I looking for here with this food?” If your need is physical hunger, awesome - eat away! If it’s not and it is emotional hunger, ask yourself, “What would it take to satisfy this need?” Do some stream of consciousness journaling to explore what might satisfy your need.
Next, practice sitting quietly with yourself the next time you find yourself reaching for food to comfort an emotion. Feel the feelings and emotions you are experiencing and sit with them. Try to name the emotions as you feel them and notice if they are variations of happiness, anger, sadness, hurt, fear or something else.
Next, allow yourself to feel the emotions. Try to experience their flow rather than drown them out with food or distraction. Write it out in a journal, talk it out with a friend or family member, release your emotions through a physical act, such as running, screaming, or throwing something. If this feels too overwhelming, I encourage you to find a compassionate therapist who you feel comfortable confiding in so you can learn more specific methods for supporting your emotional needs.
And finally, give yourself space and permission to take care of you - because you are the most important person in your life. Pick an activity that brings you joy and DO IT! Some possible considerations could be:
Play with your pet
Garden
Take a drive
Pamper yourself with a mani/pedi
Take a bath or hot tub
Sit in a sauna
Curl up with a blanket and a good book
Pick some fresh flowers or spritz yourself with something that smells good to you.
Rewatch a favorite movie or show
Get outside and soak in the sunshine and fresh air.
Call a friend.
Listen to relaxing music.
Clean out your closet or a drawer.
Work on a word puzzle, sudoku or jigsaw puzzle.
Breathe and/or meditate.
Do some yoga
Take a nap.
Play a game with family or friends.
Have a solo dance party to your favorite music.
Get a massage.
Spend quality time with your partner or significant other.
Enjoy a hobby such as crocheting/knitting or crafting.
Go for a walk or bike ride.
These are just a few examples, but I encourage you to take the time to discover what activities you personally enjoy, and make a point to compassionately support yourself.
HOW TO SHIFT AUTOMATIC EATING BEHAVIORS
Now it is also important to acknowledge the presence of automatic eating behaviors. Automatic eating differs from physical and emotional hunger because it’s, well, automatic! It’s habitual and often occurs without much intentionality or awareness.
Automatic Eating occurs when you’re bored or unaware. When you’re automatically eating, you will more likely experience the following behaviors:
Eating without thought or awareness
Lacking physical or emotional initiation
Eating out of habit
Eating because food is available and/or in easy reach
Eating food that is offered without internal hunger cues
Eating per the clock
Eating out of obligation
Shift automatic eating behaviors may feel daunting. One of the best ways to get started is to explore your relationships with hunger and satiety more thoroughly. Below are a collection of questions that can help you do this:
Activity: Exploring Hunger
How do you know when you’re hungry? What sensations do you experience?
When you hear the word “hunger” what does it mean to you?
Are there any rules you follow or have in regards to hunger or feeling hungry?
What do you make feeling hungry mean about yourself when you get hungry?
When you get hungry, how do you usually feel emotionally about yourself?
Do you ever experience relief and/or fear when feeling hungry? If so, can you describe more about what happens for you at these times?
If you could wave a magic wand, how would you prefer your relationship with hunger to be different than it is right now?
Activity: Exploring Satiety & Fullness
How do you know when you’re satisfied from eating? What sensations do you feel?
When you hear the word “satiety” or “fullness” what comes up for you?
Are there any rules you follow or have in regards to feeling satisfied or full?
What do you make feeling satisfied/full to mean about yourself when you feel it?
When you become satisfied/full, how do you usually feel emotionally about yourself?
Do you ever experience relief and/or fear when feeling satisfied/full? If so, can you describe more about what happens for you at these times?
If you could wave a magic wand, how would you prefer your relationship with satiety and fullness to be different than it is right now?
Eating in Alignment with hunger & satiety
Fully mastering your intuitive knowing regarding your hunger and satiety is a learning process that takes practice. It takes experimentation, keen observation and non-judgmental curiosity.
There is no failure in this process. Any time you feel like you failed in your experiments - such as if you find yourself feeling guilty, ashamed or judgmental because you ended up not eating enough or eating too much - this is what I like to call Failing Forward. Sure, maybe you didn’t experience the result that you wanted at this moment, but that’s okay! You now have new data to observe and review. And with that new data you will be more capable and have more self-awareness for the next time you experiment.
That is why this is a practice. It’s no big deal if you find that you’re hungry a short time later and need to eat a snack. Or if you need to go for a walk or take some digestive bitters if you end up feeling overfull. This intentional eating and intuitive awareness will begin to feel more natural and less of a process with time and continual practice.
Part of this practice is trusting yourself and your body with knowing that food will be there later if you want more of it. This can feel like a hard thing to do when disengaging from diet culture. You are no longer depriving yourself, so there’s no need to try and eat all of the things at one time. By feeling secure in the knowledge that the foods you likely will want to eat will be there later on when you need it, it starts to become easier to calmly stop eating when you’ve reached your point of satiety.
I want to emphasize here - this is not a hunger/satiety diet. Don’t fall into the trap of trying to fit your intuitive nourishment practice into a diet structure. Reading the cues of your hunger and satiety and allowing the hunger scale to guide you is NOT a strict or rigid rule that you now have to live by.
It is not shameful to not eat enough at times, just as it’s not shameful to eat past satiety at other times. Normal and natural intuitive self-nourishment is about trusting your body to know what to do to take care of itself (i.e. you) at these times; it will all balance out in the end.
introducing the hunger scale
Using a tool like this hunger scale can be immensely helpful in your experimentation with your hunger/satiety cues. As you can see, there are different levels of hunger and satiety represented on this scale.
Below are summaries of each level to help you identify where your hunger/satiety may be at any given time:
Level 0-1 is defined as Ravenous Hunger. At this point, all control is gone. Your body is in dire FEED ME mode and no amount of willpower or intuition is going to help you regulate your eating. It’s basic biology and survival mode. Your stomach will likely feel empty (and maybe even a little or a lot nauseous) while your head might feel fuzzy, dizzy or faint. Your hunger hormones are surging at this point, which will make it quite difficult for you to stop eating before you are extremely full. Obviously, reaching this level of hunger can be problematic for appetite regulation.
Level 2 is Hangry Hunger, and is just barely less severe than primal hunger. There is still a high likelihood of binge eating at this level of hunger because your hunger hormones are still raging, they just haven’t quite reached the same crescendo as they do when you’re experiencing primal hunger. When you are overly hungry, all your brain wants to (and can) focus on is food - finding and eating it are top priorities when you’re hangry and nearly ravenous. Part of this seeking involves an increased desire for high and quick-acting carbohydrates that will give you a near immediate energy boost. If you can keep yourself from reaching this level of hunger, you will be better able to more intuitively tune in to what your body is asking for and regulate how much you truly need to eat.
Level 3 is Hungry Hunger. This is when you want to start eating, if you haven’t already by level 4. At this point your body is ready for food and fuel, but it’s not in panic mode yet. You can still eat calmly and mindfully at this stage as long as you don’t delay the eating experience for too long. Your head will probably still feel clear at this point, but your stomach is likely feeling empty and ready for filling.
Level 4 is Slightly Hungry Hunger. This is the time to start thinking about what and when to eat and is ideally when you’ll start taking the steps to get your meal or snack prepared - this might mean cooking, or ordering takeout or heating up leftovers. At this point you have a little time to workout and prepare your meal/snack, but if you wait too long than your hunger will start becoming more urgent and you’ll have less flexibility in getting your food prepared on time.
Level 5 is Neutral Hunger. At this point, you are neither hungry nor full, and you likely aren’t thinking too much about food or needing to eat because you either are not needing to eat yet or you are in the process of already eating and satisfying your hunger needs.
Level 6 is Filling Up Satiety. You’re no longer HUNGRY, but you’ve got some room for more. This can be a good place to practice stopping if, for example, you’re having a snack but know that you’ll be eating a meal relatively soon.
Level 7 is Comfortably Satisfied Satiety. Your stomach is comfortable and you have eaten enough food to feel more alert, energized and satisfied (for ideally the next 3+ hours or so).
Level 8 is Full Satiety. You’ve passed the point of satisfaction but haven’t reached overfullness yet. It’s kind of the in-between point where you might be feeling slightly overfull but not terribly so or to the point of discomfort. Now the sensations of this level can come on gradually because of the 15-20 minute window that it takes for your satiety hormones to kick in and register, so you may find that what you initially perceive to be a level 8 fullness ends up progressing to a level 9 or 10 fullness if you don’t stop eating before now.
Level 9 is Stuffed Satiety. This is when you are uncomfortably feeling stuffed and overfull. You will know it when this happens for you. This is holiday eating level fullness, when you have to unbutton your pants and let your belly expand in order to alleviate your discomfort. If you haven’t stopped eating at this point, then you will likely progress to Level 10, where you’ll end up feeling physically sick.
Level 10 is Physically Sick Fullness. This level of fullness usually results in bloating, gas, indigestion, diarrhea and/or constipation and/or vomiting due to the strain of too much food for your system to handle at one time. Ideally, we want to stop eating long before we feel this way.*
*Note regarding restrictive eating disorders: It is not uncommon for those who struggle with a restrictive eating disorder to feel physically full long before they’ve eaten enough food; this can sometimes happen after just a bite or two of food. When this is the case, it is vitally important to seek out appropriate therapy supports to help with eating distress tolerance (more on this in a future post).
The hunger scale in action
I encourage you to use this hunger scale as a way to check in with yourself so you can practice noticing your hunger and satiety throughout the day. A great way to practice this is by setting an alarm for every 2-3 hours so you can take a conscious moment to assess whether or not you’re feeling hungry.
You can also use the hunger scale during meals and eating times. Practice checking in with your hunger right before you start eating, when you’ve finished half of your meal, right after you finish eating and then once more 20-30 minutes after you’ve finished. This practice will help you to start to become more aware of the subtleties of your hunger/satiety and how to distinguish which one you’re feeling at different times.
You will likely find that this degree of awareness is not required long-term. Rather, engaging with intentional curious awareness of your hunger and satiety fluctuations for a short period of time will inevitably empower you to have better ongoing consciousness of and receptivity to your hunger and satiety cues in the future.
