How to Get in Touch with Hunger Cues
Rediscovering how hunger presents itself in our own bodies can be a journey and take some time. For many of us, we’ve relied on the clock to tell us when to be hungry or when to eat-- and especially when NOT to eat. It’s easy to allow outside cues to tell you how to feel on the inside. We’ve been taught not to trust our own bodies and to push past when we feel hungry. This is not your fault! The messaging is incessant.
One great way of learning how to get in touch with YOUR personal hunger cues is to use a hunger scale. On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being starving, weak, or dizzy, and 10 being so full you feel ill), start to rate your level of hunger. This isn’t something you will always need to do. Just try it out for a couple of days to start to get in touch with you again. You want to start eating before you reach 1 or 2, and then assess your hunger/fullness after your meal. Recognizing early signs of your physical hunger can help intuitively guide you to eat in a way that supports your body, regardless of the clock.
Here is a breakdown of the scale:
1- starving, weak, dizzy
2- very hungry, cranky, low energy, lots of stomach growling
3- pretty hungry, stomach growling a bit
4- starting to feel a little hungry
5- neither hungry nor full; neutral
6- a little full, satisfied
7- a little more satisfied
8- full
9- stuffed
10- so full you feel ill
It’s also important to note that sometimes we get so used to ignoring our hunger that we don’t feel the physical hunger in our stomachs and instead, hunger presents itself with light-headedness, weakness, mood swings, etc. Once you start to get more in touch with your hunger (which usually means eating more or more frequently), the physical hunger/stomach growling may start to return.
And with that, I’m at about a 4 right now, which means I’m heading to the kitchen for a snack! If you have any questions about how you can use this scale personally, please feel free to DM me! #bestfeelingforever
[SOURCE: Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole & Elyse Resch 1995; Healthy Eating: Recognizing Your Hunger Signals, healthlinkbc.ca, 2019]