How To Use The Hunger/Satiety Scale To Regulate Your Nutrition And Emotions.

Know your limit, play within it.

Dec 17, 2023

Hello beautiful human!

Happy Sundog (the day after Caturday)!

Glad to have you along on the ride of what’s coming to nearly 4 months of writing. Whoa. I found this beautiful website called Ko-Fi where, if you value my writing, you can buy me a Tea! Or, if you’ve been following my saga of “fun things that life is throwing in my lap”, contribute to Da Floof’s medical bills. He’s fine, he just needs a tooth extracted for $2000. Yeah. Three zeros after that number two.

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Cheers to the weekend,

Diana

Sunday Brunch Chat

(AKA your weekly nutrition bite)

This article was inspired by my ovaries and hormonal cycle. Before you click away, I’m not talking about female things this week, but more the side effects that many women who bleed feel (AND dudes, I know you’ve been there too):

VORACIOUS HUNGER.

I am sometimes a self-proclaimed hungry caterpillar. If you don’t know the story by Eric Carle it’s about a caterpillar who eats so much every day without being satiated. The underlying text is that he is growing into a beautiful butterfly, but the beginning humour is around how much this little dude eats every day because he’s JUST. SO. HUNGRY.

I’ve learned to notice that the sudden, inexplicable uptick in my appetite is usually a sign of the week to come. I am learning to not give in to the Pull so much, and now I’m practicing sitting in the discomfort of not relenting to the surplus of wanting to eat all the things because my hormones are out of control.

There’s a difference: the Pull is usually fleeting; whereas PMS is often incessant grumbly in the tumbly paired with my brain having no desire to abide by hunger cues.

Instead of giving in to nature and feeling even more gross in my skin after a week of over consuming, I’ve decided to incorporate the hunger/satiety scale.

It helps me lean on logic and not white-knuckles to thwart the raging screams of my insides yelling, “10 slices of pizza is a great idea!”

The Hunger/Satiety Scale

This obviously is a subjective scale, but it’s used in the context of mindful eating. Read: you don’t have your phone out, there’s no TV on; you’re just sitting, eating in silence (or with someone else), quietly enjoying your food and chewing slowly. No distractions.

I do it; it’s possible. I sit at my kitchen table and look out the window in silence. Savage.

This is a great tool to help put into perspective when you’re actually full, and when there’s still room in the tummy to add some food. As a chronic plate-cleaner, I like this because it alleviates the need to finish my food.

Here's a general breakdown of the hunger and satiety scale:

1. URGENTLY HUNGRY: Ravenously hungry, weak, lightheaded. RAGING-HANGRY *I don’t like to say starving because, really, you’re not.

2. Very Hungry: Extremely hungry, irritable, finding it hard to concentrate. HANGRY

3. Hungry: Stomach is growling, noticeable discomfort. LESS HANGRY BUT STILL UNPLEASANT

4. Slightly Hungry: Beginning to feel a little hungry, maybe thinking about food. HUNGRY BUT CAN FOCUS ON LIFE

5. Neutral: Neither hungry nor full; comfortable and satisfied.

6. Satisfied: Comfortably full, no longer hungry.

7. Full: Feeling full, but not uncomfortable.

8. Very Full: Uncomfortably full, may feel bloated. STRETCHY PANTS WOULD BE GREAT RN.

9. Stuffed: Overly full, may feel nauseous or uncomfortable. NEED TO TAKE OFF PANTS.

10. Too Far: Extremely uncomfortable. MEAT (TOFU) SWEATS.

Mindful eating benefits

The idea is to be aware of your body's signals and try to eat when you're moderately hungry and stop when you're comfortably satisfied. This approach encourages listening to your body's natural cues rather than eating based on external factors like emotions, stress, or external schedules.

It can be a useful tool for promoting a healthy relationship with food and preventing overeating or undereating, aka you’re not unbuttoning clothes due to fullness and you’re not going to rip your partner’s face off because you’re too hungry to be a human.

1. Improved Weight Management & Reduced Emotional Eating: If you use the scale honestly and try to stay between the 4-7 range, you probably don’t have to count macros. Unless you’re still weaning off of garbage food and need to practice adjusting yourself to proper protein, carbohydrate, and fat needs of your body. You’ll also probably be able to avoid things like emotional eating since you’ll be able to recognize when you’re physiologically hungry or not. (Kristeller & Wolever, 2011, Dalen et al., 2010).

2. Enhanced Digestion: Being mindful of the eating process, chewing thoroughly, and paying attention to the flavors and textures of food may promote better digestion.

3. Increased Satisfaction: Using the hunger/satiety scale helps identify true hunger or satisfaction.

4. Better Connection with Body Signals: tuning into your body's signals will improve your awareness of hunger and fullness. This can help break the cycle of mindless eating.

5. Positive Impact on Mental Health: Mindful eating is often associated with mindfulness practices, which have been linked to improvements in stress reduction, anxiety, and overall mental well-being (Kabat-Zinn, 2003).

MORE SCIENCE!

- Kristeller, J. L., & Wolever, R. Q. (2011). Mindfulness-based eating awareness training for treating binge eating disorder: The conceptual foundation. Eating Disorders, 19(1), 49-61.

- Dalen, J., Smith, B. W., Shelley, B. M., Sloan, A. L., Leahigh, L., & Begay, D. (2010). Pilot study: Mindful Eating and Living (MEAL): Weight, eating behavior, and psychological outcomes associated with a mindfulness-based intervention for people with obesity. Complementary Therapies in Medicine, 18(6), 260-264.

- Kabat-Zinn, J. (2003). Mindfulness-based interventions in context: Past, present, and future. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 10(2), 144-156.

Some Websites on The Hunger / Satiety Scale

These are only a teeny tiny fraction of where to start if you want to read more.

Center for Mindful Eating (TCME): Non-profit organization that provides resources, articles, and information on mindful eating. They offer webinars, workshops, and a variety of materials to support mindful eating practices.

Mindful.org: Comprehensive resource for mindfulness practices. It often features articles and resources related to mindful eating and living.

Harvard Health Blog: Find articles on mindful eating. You can use the search function to find specific articles related to mindful eating and nutrition.

Mayo Clinic - Mindful Eating: Articles and tips on incorporating mindfulness into your eating habits.

Psychology Today: Articles on various aspects of mental health, including mindful eating. You can use the search function to find articles and blogs written by experts in the field.

So there you have it folks. It’s by no means a perfect system. I’ve been known to willingly crest the threshold into “Uh oh, too far”, but I know the consequences of discomfort. I’ve also let things slip into level one urgency hunger and have to manage acid reflux from letting things get too empty.

It doesn’t happen often, and knowing that my body and mental state like to hover between 4 and 6 is a very valuable piece of information.

Where do you tend to hover? I invite you to take this week to think about it and notice your cues, triggers, and habits around food consumption.

Here’s to you being only a 10 in life and not in fullness.

Love you!