Intuitive Eating Principle 5 Feel Your Fullness

This month we’re discussing Principle of Intuitive Eating #5, Feel Your Fullness.

All the principles of Intuitive Eating are interrelated, so there is often overlap when discussing each principle, but the focus of this principle is on how we approach the decision to be done eating. When you’re coming from a lifetime of dieting, food rules or otherwise using external cues to know how much to eat, this concept can be scary or totally new.

The good news is that this is how your body was designed to make food decisions- using its own internal cues and feelings. We’re going to discuss what this means, what our eating goals are and specific tips for implementing this approach.

What does it mean?

Feeling fullness means tuning in to your body to increase awareness around which signals tell you that you are no longer hungry. It means noticing what causes you to feel comfortably full. It means pausing during your meal to assess how the food is tasting and what your current hunger level is.

What does it hinge on?

Feeling and respecting your fullness hinges on having unconditional permission to eat (Principle #3).

How can you expect to leave food on your plate when you don’t know if/when you’ll get to eat that same meal or food again? If a body is regularly experiencing a restriction-induced starvation state, it makes total sense that the body wouldn’t naturally stop at “comfortable fullness.”

Bodies that are used to restriction will automatically prioritize getting as much nourishment as possible when food is available. Therefore, your ability to stop eating when you are comfortably full (especially to do it unconsciously) may take time to develop.

Give yourself lots of grace. Remind yourself about unconditional permission to eat. If you can have this exact same meal or food at any time in the future, then there is no pressure or heightened need to eat more of it now, if eating more would make you physically uncomfortable.

What is the goal?

The goal is eating to comfortable fullness or satiety. What does it feel like to eat to “comfortable fullness?” The feeling is extremely individualized and unique to each person. Some people describe it as a subtle feeling of stomach fullness, feeling satisfied and content, or nothingness- no hunger or fullness. Remember: the feeling of being “full” is different from being “satisfied” and this is why the types of foods you eat will play a role in respecting your fullness.

Feeling satisfied is a combination of the amount of food you eat with the type of food you eat. You could eat a mountain of salad- which would eventually make you physically full or overly, uncomfortably full- but if you were craving something else, then the salad probably won’t leave you feeling satisfied.

It will likely be easier and more natural to achieve comfortable fullness when you choose foods that are both nourishing and satisfying. The bottom line is that comfortable fullness means exactly that- you are physically comfortable and you’ve nourished your body to fullness.

We’re not seeking perfection

One of the best parts about all of Intuitive Eating is that there is no failing.

Once you begin on an intuitive eating journey, that’s exactly what it is- a journey. It’s a life-long learning experience where ideally over time, you are able to eat more intuitively with less conscious thought required.

On the principle of fullness, you don’t fail if you eat until you’re uncomfortably stuffed. This is just a thing that happens sometimes. It’s natural and normal. If you start to feel panicked, guilty or shameful in a moment like this, remind yourself “this is a physical sensation and it will pass.” It’s just one eating experience to file in your mental log of eating experiences and move on. You may reflect- neutrally- about the eating experience and think through what may have led to eating past fullness. Maybe you were distracted, maybe it was one of your favorite foods and you just wanted to keep eating! Maybe it was a holiday and you were having a great experience with your family around the table. Maybe you were experiencing a particular emotion and you were using food to soothe and cope. None of these things make the experience wrong, bad or a failure!

You will not ALWAYS eat to the perfect level of comfortable fullness. Go ahead and prep yourself mentally that life will be full of eating experiences, many of which you will finish with comfortable fullness, some of which will end in uncomfortable over-fullness and some of which will leave you wanting more, maybe because the serving size was too small and having more was not an option (like at a restaurant or a catered meal). This principle is simply helping us learn how to navigate the decision of when to finish eating, from a non-diet and self-care approach.

So, how do you respect your fullness?

There are a few specific ways you can practice respecting your fullness.

1. Pause during meals to check-in. You can check in once at the beginning of the meal, once mid-meal and once at or near the end of the meal. You may use the hunger/fullness scale to do a quick assessment of where you’re at, or you may just momentarily reflect on how your stomach is feeling, how the meal is going and how the food is tasting.

2. Give yourself permission to eat all the food on your plate OR to leave food on your plate. Sometimes the amount of food served to you is the right amount for your current level of hunger/nourishment needs. Other times, you may need to go back for seconds. Alternatively, you may not need/want everything on your plate. This logically makes so much sense, yet as a culture we have a tendency to let serving sizes control our eating decisions. Respecting fullness means that you are neutral about going back for seconds and also neutral about leaving food on your plate. Your priority is nourishing yourself adequately and with satisfying foods.

3. Eat without distraction. Mindful eating is NOT a dieting technique and it’s sad that it has been co-opted as one. Eating without distraction (when possible) simply means to tune-in to the experience of eating, the taste of the food, the enjoyment of the company or the peace of solitude. Try to frequently eat without electronics- tv, tablet or phone. Eat sitting down. Even if you just have a short amount of time to set aside for a meal or snack, do it intentionally, especially in the early stages of re-learning fullness cues. The more you can be in tune and in relationship with your body and the experience of eating, the more you will be sensitive to the fullness cues and aware of your body’s needs.

4. Reinforce a conscious decision to be finished eating. Reminder: this is NOT a dieting technique or a way to eat less. Once you’ve assessed your hunger/fullness level and decided that you are finished eating, you can take a next step to signal the end of your eating experience. You might push your plate back from the edge of the table or put your silverware on your plate. You could take your plate to the sink or take your napkin out of your lap and put it on the table. As always, you can remind yourself that whenever you are next hungry, you can eat again. This represents food freedom. This is respecting your fullness AND respecting your body’s needs.

What if I’m having a hard time feeling full?

First of all, remember that regaining awareness of the subtleties of fullness cues can take time, especially if you’re coming from a history of dieting, restriction, food rules, etc. It may take a LOT of practice and intentional thought to re-learn what it feels like to feel comfortably full. It also may take your body a while to re-learn how to trust that food is not a scarcity and will be available the next time you are hungry. Give yourself time and let this be a journey, not a destination.

You may be missing the satisfaction factor. This is the next principle of intuitive eating, number 6, so we’ll be talking about it more on the blog next month. We have to mention it, though, because the two are so closely intertwined. Satisfaction ties in the components of food that go beyond the number of calories. Sure, calories nourish you and help you feel full, but your cravings, food preferences and the emotional connections you have with certain foods all factor into their satisfaction potential. If you have a history of dieting or eating lots of “diet foods,” you may be prone to neglecting the satisfaction factor of a meal. Come back next month when we discuss this more.

You may not be getting enough of certain macronutrients. The macronutrients are: protein, carbohydrate and fat. Your body requires all three. Complex carbohydrates (like those in whole grains) and fat are especially good at helping you feel full. Some foods like salads, fresh fruit, non-fat dairy or lean protein on their own may leave you feeling hungry. These foods are still to be enjoyed, definitely! We just want to pair them with some complementary foods that help round out the meal or snack. For example, with a salad, you can add some nuts or seeds or a hearty salad dressing and make sure to pair it with a complex carbohydrate like whole grain crackers or pita bread. If snacking on fruit, you can pair it with some cheese, nuts, nut butter or trail mix. At every meal, try to get all three macronutrients represented on your plate and at every snack, try to get at least two of the three. This simple approach should help make sure you are getting a decent variety of macronutrients which should help support comfortable fullness.

As always, if you are on a journey towards eating more intuitively but feeling stuck, confused or alone, we would love to partner with you and walk this path alongside you. You can read more about working with us here, get to know us (Kathleen and Nicole) here or if you’re ready to chat, schedule a free call here!

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