Intuitive Eating: Feeling Your Fullness
Our feeling of fullness is something that can change from day-to-day and meal-to-meal. Some days we find ourselves wolfing food down and other days we feel content on less than usual. The goal is to try and find that sweet spot of comfortable fullness.
Sometimes you’ll overshoot it and other times you won’t hit the mark - it takes a bit of practice and patience. Feeling our fullness is more chastised than hunger - you can blame diet culture for that. We’re more likely to perceive we overate, than to think we ate the right amount.
Your tummy is supposed to fill up after a meal, and feeling comfortably full is a signal you’ve eaten enough to sustain and energise you for the next few hours.
Finding comfortable fullness is easier said than done though, huh?
I remember a ‘trick’ I read in a magazine years ago was to section off some of the meal on your plate, so as not to eat it - as if this was a way to draw the line of fullness. Paradoxically, it usually means you end up eating it because you eat the rest of your meal in a state of restriction.
A better way is to learn to feel your fullness. Here’s two practices to try for yourself:
Mid-meal pause
It’s good to check in with how you’re feeling in the middle of a meal. Put down your cutlery, pause for 10 - 20 seconds and take a moment to tune in with yourself. This isn’t a commitment to stop eating, it’s just a little break to notice your hunger and fullness. You might like to check:
Am I still enjoying this as much as I did at the beginning?
What are the physical sensations I’m feeling? Pleasant, unpleasant or neutral?
Will this food end up satisfying me or do I need to find something else to eat?
Working backwards
It’s often easier to work backwards in learning where comfortable fullness is for you. After eating a main meal, check-in every twenty minutes or so over the next few hours and notice how you’re feeling. You might find that after your meal you felt a dip in your energy levels, as your tummy began to digest your food, but then shortly afterwards you should have noticed that you felt energised for the next few hours.
Self-compassion, always
If you’ve eaten past the point of comfortable fullness, know that it’s completely normal and everyone does it! Sometimes, it can even be a sign that we’ve been filling up on other dimensions of our health - like sharing a delicious home-cooked meal, trying all the foods when travelling somewhere exotic or having that dessert we love, just because.
Try not to judge yourself for how much you need to eat. Bring some self-compassion into the equation. Notice also, how the fullness sensations change within a few hours of eating. Our bodies are incredible - digestion will happen and you will feel better again soon.
This blog is not a substitute for medical, psychological, or dietetic advice, and is for informational and educational purposes only. If you or somebody you love is struggling, contact your GP, or call/text 1737 to speak to a licensed therapist.