Intuitive Eating Principle 2: Honor Your Hunger
Whether it is the loud rumble of your stomach in a hushed classroom, or the lack of energy felt throughout the body after skipping lunch; our bodies have many ways of alerting us to our hunger. Intuitive eating is a practice that revolves around reconnecting with your body, learning to understand its cues, and making choices regarding food that make you feel good, in the absence of the influence of diet culture.
By: Krizia Crooke
Honor your hunger, or Principle 2 of the practice, speaks to how critical it is to listen to this biological signal and initiate the process of regaining trust between yourself and food.¹
Food and energy are essential to survival, and therefore, once we restrict them from our bodies, we ignite our biological drive to eat. Our bodies are not aware of when we are intentionally dieting versus when we are living in a famine. “A dieting body is a starving body”--while this sounds like hyperbole, it’s shockingly true.¹ The characteristics that the body exhibits during starvation and dieting are significant, and once we deprive it of food, the body will compensate via biological and psychological mechanisms. Restriction (or dieting) can result in increased food preoccupation, weight cycling, and binge eating.² Many individuals view this phenomenon as a lack of willpower, when, it is just our bodies telling us that it needs to refuel.
The likelihood of bingeing after a period of restriction is high, which is why you should listen to your hunger cues once they begin setting in. Essentially, honoring your hunger from its onset can reduce overeating later in the day.³
How Can A Registered Dietitian Help?
1. Getting Back In Touch With Your Hunger Cues
Using a hunger/fullness scale can help you recognize how your body indicates its level of hunger, as well as its level of fullness. The scale ranges from 1, which is characterized as ‘starving, having no energy and feeling very weak’, up to 10, which is characterized as ‘extremely stuffed and nauseous.’ This can be helpful when we have gotten out of touch with our bodies’ cues and need some assistance in trying to differentiate between those levels of hunger, which will eventually normalize, and we can then begin eating intuitively over time.
2. Helping You Develop A Meal Plan
Eating consistently throughout the day can help regulate your body’s hunger cues, as well as decrease the possibility of bingeing later in the day. Having a meal plan/schedule can reduce preoccupation with food and can also help you develop a routine until you are eventually capable of fully eating intuitively.
At BALANCE eating disorder treatment center™, our compassionate highly skilled team of clinicians is trained in diagnosing and treating the spectrum of eating disorders, including anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, compulsive overeating, and other disordered eating behaviors and body image issues. In addition to our full-time Day Treatment Program and Weeknight Intensive Outpatient Program, we offer high-quality programming, nutrition counseling with a licensed dietitian, meal support, and a variety of other groups and resources to help those seeking help for food concerns.
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This post was written by BALANCE Dietetic Intern, Krizia Crooke.
Krizia is a Dietetic Intern and graduate student at New York University where she is pursuing her Master’s Degree in Clinical Nutrition. She completed her undergraduate education at Texas Woman’s University, majoring in Nutrition and minoring in Criminal Justice. After completing her dietetic internship, Krizia plans to work in the realm of eating disorders and is passionate about incorporating the HAES approach into her practice.
References
1. Tribole, E., & Huber, H. (2021). Intuitive eating: A revolutionary anti-diet approach (4th ed.). Blackstone Publishing.
2. Barraclough EL, Hay-Smith EJC, Boucher SE, Tylka TL, Horwath CC. Learning to eat intuitively: A qualitative exploration of the experience of mid-age women. Health Psychol Open. 2019;6(1):2055102918824064. Published 2019 Feb 1. doi:10.1177/2055102918824064
3. Setnick J. The Eating Disorders Clinical Pocket Guide. Snack Time Press; 2013.