Getting In Touch with Hunger and Fullness Through Intuitive Eating

In today’s fast-paced world, we are often told what, when, and how much to eat. There is an abundance of information on diets, health trends, and body ideals, which can sometimes disrupt our own body's natural signals of hunger and fullness. This is where intuitive eating comes in—an approach that encourages us to reconnect with the body's internal cues and trust ourselves to make nourishing food choices.

The Importance of Hunger and Fullness Cues

Hunger and fullness cues are the body’s natural signals that guide us on when start and stop eating. Many individuals with a history of dieting may become disconnected from these signals

Hunger Cues
Hunger is our body’s way of telling us that it needs to be nourished. Hunger can manifest in a variety of ways including irritability, low energy, difficulty concentrating, or even physical sensations like dizziness or weakness.

Those who eat intuitively learn to honor their hunger, eating when they’re hungry, regardless of the clock or external rules.

Fullness Cues
Fullness is our body’s way of signaling that we’ve eaten enough to appropriately nourish ourselves.

Many of us have become accustomed to eating until we are uncomfortably full, but intuitive eating encourages us to stop when we feel satisfied. By paying attention to fullness cues, we avoid eating to an uncomfortable point where we nourish our body and feel satisfied.

How Intuitive Eating Helps You Tune Into Hunger and Fullness

1. Trusting Your Body
   By honoring hunger and fullness cues, we begin to trust our bodies to tell us what and when to eat. This shift from reliance on external rules to internal guidance can help break free from restrictive dieting habits and foster a more balanced approach to food.

2. Eating Mindfully
   By slowing down and focusing on the sensory experience of eating, we become more attuned to our body’s hunger and fullness signals. This practice helps prevent overeating, as we’re more likely to notice when we’ve had enough.

Practical Tips for Honoring Hunger and Fullness

• Check in with your body: Before eating, take a moment to assess your hunger level. Are you lightly hungry or starving? This will help you decide how much food you need.

• Eat mindfully: Slow down and pay attention to the tastes, textures, and smells of your food. Eating without distractions allows you to tune into your fullness cues more easily.

• Stop when you’re satisfied: Rather than eating until you’re full, aim to stop when you feel satisfied. This is the sweet spot where your body has enough nourishment without overloading it.

Final Thoughts

Intuitive eating is a powerful tool for reconnecting with our bodies and reclaiming our natural relationship with food. By paying attention to hunger and fullness cues, we learn to trust our bodies, eat mindfully, and make choices that honor our needs.

Ways to Measure Progress Other Than the Scale

Weight is just one measurement of many that can be taken to indicate health. Weight is not the sole indicator of health, and measuring progress solely based on the number on the scale is not only counterproductive, but can also be mentally harmful. Too often, we become fixated on our weight, foolishly believing that this number is an accurate measure of our progress and health, and react to small fluctuations in weight that really don’t mean much. Becoming fixated on the number on the scale often leads to obsessive patterns of eating and exercising that are damaging and unhealthy.  The number we see on the scale measures one thing: our weight. It doesn’t tell us how much of our weight is made up of body fat, muscle mass, or bone destiny, and doesn’t account for changes in weight due to hormone levels or water retention. Because of this, we can't accurately assess small fluctuations we see in our weight. We don’t know if a small increase on the scale is actually a weight gain, or if it can actually be attributed to muscle gain, water retention, or hormone fluctuations. Because of this, it is important not to get too fixated on the number on the scale because it is only one of many important indicators of health. Here are some other ideas for measuring progress other than the scale. 

1. Track healthy habits: there are many other ways to set, track, and achieve health goals that don’t relate to weight. For example, you can set a goal to drink more water, eat more fruit, or get in more joyful movement. You can then measure and track your progress in these goals on a weekly and monthly basis. This is a great way to take concrete steps towards measuring and tracking progress that don’t involve the number on the scale.

2. Energy levels: By using intuitive eating, we get in touch with how certain food makes our bodies feel. When we eat certain foods, we may feel sluggish and tired. Our minds feel fuzzy, and our bodies feel weak and slow. Alternatively, when we consume more foods that make our bodies feel good through gentle nutrition, we feel more energized. When our brains and bodies are given proper nourishment and fuel, our energy levels soar. Paying attention to energy levels, and how our bodies respond to different patterns of eating, can be a great way to measure progress in living a healthier lifestyle. 

3. Stress levels and mood: Mood and stress levels are another major area that are impacted by healthier lifestyle. When we are undernourished and under fueled, our neurotransmitters aren't firing optimally, which can leave us feeling irritable and low. When we begin to live a healthier lifestyle that isn’t dictated by the scale, our mood and stress levels often improve dramatically. Being aware of mood and stress can also be a great way to measure progress. 

When we are striving to live a healthier lifestyle it can be easy sometimes to get fixated on the number on the scale, and to attribute meaning to the number we see. However it is important to remember that the scale is not always accurate, and certainly does not give us an accurate picture of our overall health. It is important to focus less on the scale and more on how you feel. There are many other ways to measure progress other than the scale. The scale does not define you. 

Creating a Healthy Body Image by Practicing Body Respect

The phrase “healthy body image” is somewhat misleading. A healthy body image is not one narrowly-defined body type or size. It goes beyond your physical appearance, and it’s rooted in how you feel about yourself. A healthy body image stems from personal satisfaction with your body and comfortableness with the way you look. 

If you flip through fashion magazines, or go clothes shopping, it may be difficult to believe that a healthy body image can be independent of weight. Often it feels like every model or mannequin is uniform in size, shape, and height. Despite progress in body diversity representation, weight is still a highly stigmatized quality. 

Internal and external pressures can drive our insecurities and lead to a negative body image, where we don’t feel good in our own skin. Let’s be honest, everyone has something that they dislike about themselves, which makes it challenging to unconditionally love ourselves. Thus instantly loving yourself may not be attainable, nor may it be the solution. 

Luckily, we can focus on building respect for our bodies in order to achieve a healthy body image. Rather than ignoring perceived flaws, we accept our physical appearances and learn to properly take care of ourselves. Body respect goes hand in hand with other non-diet approaches to health. The Health At Every Size (HAES) method celebrates body diversity, and asserts that health and wellbeing do not have to begin with weight status, size, nor physical appearance. It’s best to be physically and emotionally healthy regardless of weight. Additionally, eating intuitively teaches us to listen to our bodies instead of scorning them.

Ultimately, dieting boxes us in, restricting personal relationships with food and our own bodies. It can make us feel like we are not beautiful nor seen until we look a certain way. Rather than being consumed by insecurities, body respect teaches to celebrate the qualities that make you unique. 

To create and sustain a healthy body image, here are the areas you can practice body respect:

1. Nutrition - honor your hunger cues. Eat what you want, when you want to eat it, and stop when you feel full.

2. Physical Activity - Find a method of exercising you enjoy, whether it be walking, yoga, or hiking. Exercise based on the way it makes you feel, not on the way you look. 

3. Expression - Show off your personal style and wear clothes that are comfortable to you. 

4. Appreciation - Think of all the things your body allows you to do every day. Share words of kindness and encouragement with yourself. 

Interested in finding out other ways you can personalize and actualize your methods of body respect? 
Schedule a discovery call with an intuitive eating HAES dietitian here: