As Dr. Robert Lustig explains in the “The Skinny on Obesity: Hunger and Hormones – A Vicious Cycle,” the sensation of hunger has less to do with will power and more to do with the body’s biochemical processes, over which we have little control. But there are some steps we can take to get a handle on the signals our bodies are sending. Here’s what UCSF’s Center for Obesity Assessment, Study and Treatment (COAST) recommends. Are you physically hungry? Physically full? Our bodies send messages that tell us when to eat, but sometimes it can be hard to separate whether we are physically hungry or emotionally hungry. So how hungry are you? How full are you? Yes,
these are two different concepts.
There are ways in which our bodies tell us that we’ve had enough food, but when we overeat, we are often disconnected from these important signals. Only you can tell you when these signals are occurring. This is your “inner wisdom” which, in turn, will make it easier to use your “outer wisdom,” such as meal planning and being aware of caloric intake. You might ask yourself, what types of situations, feelings or thoughts might get in the way of paying attention to fullness? Some common situations might be socializing, watching TV, super-sizing your servings, not wanting to waste food or eating your favorite foods.
There are two distinct processes controlled by different parts of our brains and there are relationships between experiences of hunger decreasing as you eat, and experiences of fullness increasing. For some people, these seem to be easiest to understand along a continuous line, and for others, they seem to overlap but not be the same thing. For example, it is possible to be hungry and experience a sense of fullness in the stomach if, for example, you just drank a tall glass of water. Because it allows for flexibility, consider how your body might feel at various points, such as immediately after eating, a half-hour later, an hour later and two hours later. What are the differences at these points if you overate, ate the right amount, etc.?