Eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re full. You’ve probably heard that a million times over. It sounds simple enough. Kids do an excellent job at this, it’s second nature. But it seems that as adults we lose this innate ability to simply eat when we’re hungry and stop when we’re full.
I think this rule definitely applies if you’re at a place where your hunger cues can be trusted. And what I mean by that is you’re at a place where you haven’t been restricting calories, you eat breakfast upon waking, and you don’t go hours without something to eat. Essentially, you’re at a place where your metabolism is running like it should and your hunger and stress hormones are balanced.
But even if that’s the case, there are certainly times when you might eat something because your body needs it. Like after a workout or because your friend wants to get ice cream or because a co-worker or classmate brought in baked goods or whatever. There are times when we don’t have growling hunger pangs, but we still eat. Maybe its because it just tastes good, or maybe because our body needs it. Either way, sometimes eating when you’re not hungry is okay and even healthy.
Ideally, you should wake up and feel hunger cues within the first hour of waking. Unless you’ve eaten a larger than normal meal the night before, not being hungry upon waking likely means your appetite hormone ghrelin is out of balance.
For me, my hunger is typically strongest in the morning (if yours is too, that’s a good thing!) and I tend to get hungry quite frequently which means three meals + several snacks thorough the day. That’s normal. Eating snacks and still being hungry for meals is normal. There is absolutely no shame in hunger.
But sometimes, I’m not hungry but I still eat. The weekends are a perfect illustration of that. The apple crisp with vanilla ice cream I ate last night tasted awesome. Did I eat it because I was hungry? No. Did I eat it because I was craving it? Absolutely. I’m sometimes hungry for a nighttime snack and sometimes not, but I know my body typically needs an snack at night to make sure I’m eating enough and because I love night time snacks and suggahhh. Last night I wasn’t really hungry, but that’s okay.
I have this conversation with clients often because it’s hard to grasp it fully when we live in a society that is obsessed with eating healthy. Especially in NYC, gluten free and vegan is practically a religion. The most important thing to realize is that when you’re eating all the kale and all the chia seeds and all the quinoa and all the lentils…you will get physically full before you’ve reached your energy needs. That’s why these foods are recommend for weight loss. Because they fill you up and provide nutrients while not packing in the calories. But since the goal often is not weight loss, this feeling of fullness muddles your ability to meet your energy needs which can result in all kinds of hormonal chaos including hypothalamic amenorrhea. I’m not talking about eating until you’re uncomfortably full or force feeding yourself. There’s a difference here.
Enjoy something not 100% nutrient dense. Or eat when you’re not necessarily hunger. Or both.
Because when your metabolism is working properly and you eat nutrient dense foods 70-80% of the time to meet your nutritional needs, your body needs some less voluminous and less nutrient dense foods for crying out loud. And often times, you’re not actually hungry – you’re just eating because it tastes good. This is the satisfaction factor of food.
And that’s where you find food food freedom. Eat the cake or the chips and guac or the late night popcorn or even a mid afternoon snack of PB and banana. These foods are meant to be enjoyed without guilt or shame.
I still struggle to nourish myself adequately and I am very underweight, so thank you for this important reminder about the importance of adequate calorie/food intake. I need to check out your Nutshell Nutrition services.
yesssss! I always need 3 breakfasts (literally) to get my through until mid-morning. At times I’m not always hungry for my third…but I’ve learned that hard way that I should eat it anyway or there will be a major crash in the PM :).
YES! Thank you so much for this. Learning hungry signals is important during ED recovery, but then it can leave me overthinking my food choices. Thank you for this important reminder that I shouldn’t feel shame or guilty for eating when I’m “not hungry.” Either my mind needs the taste of a delicious food, or my body still needs the nutrients!
LOVE LOVE LOVE your blog posts and I always look forward to reading them, because they are REAL, but also so educational. Thank you and enjoy the weekend! XOXO
I honestly love everything that you post! I have referred so many people to your blog because it is one of the only healthy living blogs I know of that touts self-care over self-abuse. You are such an important voice of sense in this community!
I’m in this weird state of place where, while yes, I know how much I should be eating, I struggle with listening to my body. Some days, I am solid. I know exactly how much my body wants and I am confident in my recovery. Other days, I have to rely on counting calories because I simply don’t know.
I’m grateful for the recovery I have worked on for the past two years and where I am today, but I think it is important for me to not take that for granted. I am not 100% recovered and still ned to be careful. Thank you for weighing in, Robyn!
” . . .your body could probably use the calories and because it tastes good.”
We are all different. I am never hungry in the morning, but love one large cup of good coffee with soy milk. I think most of us get all the calories and can adjust our “taste good” preferences to whole food, plant-based choices. I am unconvinced that I should force myself to eat something at dawn. Thanks for your work and opinions; your mileage may vary.
Best,
Michael
thanks for your comment michael! stirs up interesting conversation to talk about!
If you’re not hungry in the morning though, I’d say that isn’t necessarily a good thing if it’s a pattern in your life. When I’m talked about eating something because it tastes good – I hope you read that as, we should ENJOY food. Yes, we eat for nutrition but we also eat for pleasure, and that’s okay. Here’s a great article on why we should eat upon waking with lots of research to go along with it – hope it’s helpful!
http://easacademy.org/trainer-resources/article/why-breakfast-is-the-most-important-meal-of-the-day-eas-academy
Thank you for reading!
AMEN to this! 🙂 I typically eat within like 15 minutes of waking & everyone in my family knows because I typically have a “snack breakfast” before we go out to brunch on the weekends! I also have found myself eating a smaller snack before after all your posts about this & I tend to sleep better/go to bed feeling satisfied!
ha I’m the same way, I’m like wait….you people are just going to hold out for 3 hours? can you pass me the PB then…
I am very mindful of this because my GI issues tend to confound my hunger cues. When I have a good week GI wise my hunger cues are very reliable, but when I do not, not so much.
I totally eat more than a lot of people may think I would, but I am okay with that. I want to be an example of honoring my metabolism.
yes!!
Thanks for this post! I’m starving when I first wake up and can usually only make it about 15 minutes before I MUST EAT. 🙂 I then proceed to eat a giant breakfast. I sometimes see Instagram posts or hear people talk about eating half a banana and a slice of toast for breakfast or something similar, and I feel hungry for them!
I seriously love every single post of yours. Yours is my absolute favorite blog, and I am so appreciative of the work you put into it!
thank YOU for reading ashley! I love a big breakfast too 🙂
I love your posts and your blog. I have struggled with all kinds of eating issues but currently have a hard time with counting calories and binge eating in between because I don’t let myself have what I really want. I have recently had so much success just kind of trying to model my eating after yours, eating mostly whole foods, not worrying about calories but just based on hunger but also what I know my body needs, as I am very active. What I struggle with is those days that I DO eat out and eat a little less “healthy,” or a little past the point of fullness. I guess I feel like if I do that more than maybe one time a week or less, I will for sure gain weight. What are your thoughts on this? Thank you for ur balanced approach and also your focusing on honoring God through how you treat your body.
I would love to answer that in a blog post of video, such a great question! thank you for reading and sharing annie! 🙂
Robyn, thank you for your reminder! I’m struggling with rebuilding my hunger cues and such reminders always help me with it. While hoping for the future with intuitive eating I’m living in present and trying to enjoy it as much as possible. Thank you for your support!
I love that – living in the present 🙂
Thank YOU for reading!
I constantly, constantly need to remind myself of these things. Thank you for being that voice! Reading some of your posts has set me on a far healthier track, and with far less guilt and fear. Recovery from anorexia is confusing and hard, and posts like this are like a light in the darkness. xx
it is SO hard, but through your fight you are inspiring so many other women too!
You hit it again. I often struggled with this, knowing that my body needed it or I just wanted to enjoy a treat with friends, but I would be super sensitive to whether or not I was hungry. If I wasn’t hungry it was really hard to ‘justify’ having a treat or dessert or snack with friends because I thought one extra snack would make me gain weight. Slowly, ever so slowly, by encouragement of friends, MAJORLY learning to focus my eyes on Jesus, and reading really helpful blog posts from people who know more about the body, stress, and nutrition than me has been so helpful.
thank you for sharing emily! so so glad to hear you are experiencing that freedom 🙂
I love this post and so many others! This is something I have been reminding myself of over and over the past few years and it is so brilliant and helpful to read again. I am the most hungry in the morning and eat breakfast and then pack a second breakfast for work. Sometimes I feel uncomfortable with the amount i eat but I am always reassured by your posts. They make me feel like my eating is normal (which it is). My metabolism is healthy and fast and I’m at a normal weight and I just trust when I’m hungry and enjoy kale and sugar equally.
yes! hunger is never a bad thing and nothing we should be scared of – if anything it’s awesome that we can enjoy so much good food!
I await the day my hunger cues return to normal. I await the day my mind and body work together again. I’ve learned that if I have a break at school/work and even if I do not feel hungry, I know I need to eat something. If I do not, I will most likely be starving later, and this will only cause anxiety/anger/grumpiness or rushed eating. Eating sometimes just needs to be a way of preventing discomfort in the future. This can be uncomfortable and it takes trust, but more often than not I’ve looked back and was very glad I ate even when not hungry.
it does take trust and time to cultivate that so be patient with yourself 🙂
wishing you all the best! xo
I am seriously in love with the way you think about nutrition and feeding your body. It is such a breath of fresh air compared to everyone calorie counting on Instagram and being the skinniest they can be. This is great!
I am 19 years old.I have been visiting the gym for the past 4-5months. My weight had increased from 49 to 57kg and now it’s stuck. Currently started following the 3000calories diet. Been 2 days. Will this increase my weight? Could you suggest some low volume but rich in calories food.? Also using mass gainer.
HI Ankita – email me!
im basically NEVER hungry. i drink a lot of soda, which im pretty sure is a big contributor to that. but even when i wake (98% of the time)…no hunger. i did not understand what you meant in this article by saying “I’m not talking about eating until you’re uncomfortably full or force feeding yourself. There’s a difference here.” i dont eat until im uncomfortably full, tho it was recommended to me by the RD i saw in the beginning of my ED recovery, but stopped seeing her soon after. i see an ED therapist who thinks its ok for me not to see an RD currently. but i am focing myself to eat most of the time. i read of other people in recovery being extremely hungry and binging, and i just dont get it and i wonder sometimes if forcing myself to eat is truly proper. i mean, i realize i need to eat. do you think maybe my hormones are just so out of whack that its going to take some time before i might be normally hungry?! im still restricting to a degree and often go longer before eating than i should, having no hunger cues to help remind me! but i am eating more than i had been for a few years. so im making some progress, just SLOOOOWLY. i wouldve emailed you about this as you suggested to the last commenter, but i dont see an email address. hopefully you will respond. thank you!
Hey! Thank you for your post! I really like your blog!
I have recently started Intuitive Eating and can see why many peiple says it is hard – you reeeeally need to focus on what your body reeeealy wants! And that can be hard sometimes, not to mention «unpractical» at times as well. By «unpractical» I mean: I wake up and don’t feel any hunger. Therefore I take my brekafast at school with me, but it would’ve been so much mote practical to eat at home. Bur since I try to liste to hubger cues, I do not eat at home. What can you recommend – eating before going even though I am not really hungry, or taking the food with me (which often leads to bringing food that is more practical and perhaps not what I’d really prefered).
Also, another question regarding eating when not hungry: if I ate lubch, perhaps a little bit bigger portion that others could’ve categorised as average portion, and when next meal time comes (i.e. dinner 5 hours later), do not feel hungry. Should I still not skip meals and try to eat something? Since it has been several hours since last tile I ate, even though I don’t feel fatigued or dizzy – just that the hunger feeling aren’t present?
Thank you for answering! Have a fab day!
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Because of this, these meals are recommended for those who are trying to lose weight. Because they prevent you from feeling hungry and give essential nutrients, yet they do not contain a lot of calories.