Welcome to episode 16 of Wellness Wednesday’s Audio Series.

I’m Nissrine, registered holistic nutritionist, mindful nutrition & wellness coach for female entrepreneurs who are looking to prioritize their health and wellbeing without fad diets and wellness trends.

I created this series to bring a fresh perspective to nutrition and wellness, one that is centered on and lead by you.

There’s a plethora of information out there and it can be really hard to know what to do and eat to feel good in your body.

It’s easy to get caught up in fad diets and wellness trends, often questioning, doubting and second guessing your decisions when it comes to the way you nourish and care for yourself.

I wholeheartedly believe that; reconnecting with your own innate wisdom to know what your body needs to thrive is the first step to a life-changing transformation and true lasting wellness; and that progress is made by taking small steps, mindfully, intentionally and consistently.

As a continuation of last week’s conversation on interoceptive awareness and how you can strengthen it to reconnect with your innate wisdom and start listening to your body, today’s episode is all about the hunger scale.

If you’ve ever struggled to get in touch with your hunger and satiety cues and/or to recognize the differences between physical biological hunger and psychological triggers of hunger, then the hunger scale is a great tool for you to work with.

The idea behind the hunger scale is that hunger and satiety exist on a spectrum where the middle point is neither hungry nor full - this usually happens when you've met all of your energy needs.

Then you have hunger to one side and fullness to the other - to varying degrees

So on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 would be starving (so feeling weak, no energy and a hollow empty feeling in your stomach. You may even be sick to your stomach and have a headache and nausea at this point because you’re over hungry. You may not even recognize this as hunger. You just feel off and like you’re not feeling well.)

On the opposite side of the scale, at 10, you would also be sick to your stomach and nauseated, but from overeating this time. So eating past the point of satiety. Past the point of fullness. Past the point of discomfort.

The ideal place to be is somewhere between a 4 and a 7.

At 6 & 7 you’re satiated, satisfied and full, but you’re feeling comfortable.

At 5, you’re still thinking about food, salivating at the mouth. Your salivary enzymes are starting to activate even without the sight or smell of food and more so with the sight and smell of food.

And at 4, you’re beginning to feel the physical sensations and to hear the sounds of hunger. You can hear your stomach gurgling.

Just to be clear though, the digestive tract gurgles all the time, as it moves food, liquid, air and gas along from the mouth to the anus in a process that is called peristalsis, the gurgling gets louder when the stomach is empty because there’s no food in there and you’re hearing the sound of the air and gas moving around.

So, that said, gurgling does not always mean hunger, and you can sometimes hear your stomach gurgling as it digests the food you ate. However, when the gurgling sounds get louder, and more persistent, like they don’t go away, they just keep going and going, and it’s been more than 3 hours since you last ate, it’s probably a good time to check in with your hunger levels.

So take a pause and ask yourself “Am I hungry?” when you hear your stomach gurgling but if you’re someone who struggles to recognize the signs of hunger in your body, I would take it a step further and pause to check in with your hunger at regular intervals throughout the day.

Connecting to your hunger and satiety may not feel intuitive at first, especially if you’ve spent a lot of time dieting, ignoring or silencing your hunger cues, or you’re someone who tends to skip meals or eat on auto-pilot because you forget to eat when you’re “too busy”, you don’t think about it and then you eat without much consideration for your hunger, you just kind of when it’s time to eat you eat. Things like that.

You may find it difficult to identify fullness or differentiate between physical and psychological hunger at first and that’s ok. There’s always a learning curve when you’re doing something new, just keep practicing until it becomes second nature.

Looking back at the hunger scale now, you’re checking in with yourself to see if you’re hungry, at regular intervals. So when is the ideal time to eat?

Like I said before, the ideal time to start eating would be around 4 or 5 on the scale when you’re starting to think about food, salivating, and your stomach is slightly gurgling.

This is likely a sign that your body needs food and your digestive enzymes are active.

As I said, before though, gurgling doesn’t automatically mean hunger, but chances are, if the gurgling is getting louder and more persistent, and 3 or 4 hours have passed since your last meal, it could be an indication that it’s time to eat.

A 4 or 5 on the hunger scale is also a comfortable level of hunger. You’re not ravenous, your blood sugar is still relatively stable and you’re able to make rational and intentional choices.

Right? You’re able to think clearly and make the right choices for your body in that moment.

If you wait too long to eat (levels 3, 2, 1 on the hunger scale), everything starts to look and sound appealing, because by that time, once you’ve reached the lower levels of the hunger scale at 3, 2 or 1, you’re distracted, you’re irritable, you’re low energy, maybe you feel dizzy, you’re completely running on empty as I mentioned before, you’re feeling weak without any energy at all and you can’t really think clearly. Right? Everything starts to look appealing just to fill the hunger gap. Even the foods you don’t enjoy become viable options to fuel your tank.

So, you may also find yourself shoveling food into your mouth faster than you can chew it. That’s because extreme hunger drives us into survival mode and we’re more likely to overeat when that happens. Because when we finally do see food, we can’t wait to get it in our bodies. Right?

Now, on the flip side, how do you know when you should stop eating?

So, again, if you’re struggling with your fullness cues, with your satiety cues and you don’t know.

Think about the hunger scale again and once you’ve reached a 6 or 7 on the hunger scale, it’s probably a good indication that it’s time to stop eating.

At 6 your full and satisfied, at 7 you’re pretty full but you’re still comfortable.

Basically, satiety is reached when your stomach expands slightly and no longer feels empty. Right? And your hormones have had time to signal your brain that you’re nourished.

This typically happens about 20 minutes into our meal, which is why it’s important to fully engage your senses and take your time eating and chewing your food properly.

To give yourself the time and space to actually digest what you’re eating, to give your body time to signal the brain that you’ve received nourishment and you’re feeling good.

Now, continuing to eat when you’re full so when you’re past a 7 on that hunger scale, so imagine 6 being satiety like I said before, 7 is full but still comfortable, if you go past that, it can be problematic.

Because, not only will it leave you feeling bloated, uncomfortable and sluggish, think about the last time you went out to a really good restaurant, and you ordered something you really loved and you couldn’t stopped eating even though you were full, and then you really wanted dessert so you had it and maybe you also dipped into the appetizers before your meal arrived so you’re really feeling full and sluggish at this point….and of course it’s ok or that to happen once in a while.

Sometimes when we go out and we want to be free to eat whatever we want and socialize and not miss out on dessert, it’s totally ok.

But if you overeat regularly, it will also affect your digestion poorly and some research indicates that it might also cause your blood sugar to surge which is never really ideal.

Alright? So this is why it’s important, if you’re someone who struggles to really listen to their body when it comes to, when to start eating, when to stop eating, who struggles to really understand your hunger and differentiate it, sort of that physical biological sensation of hunger from the non physical, so the psychological triggers of hunger, if you’re someone who has a hard time separating the two, and you don’t really know when you’re hunger and when you’re full and you don’t know how that feels in your body, the hunger scale is actually a great place to start.

You’ll want to begin using it with one meal a day. Right? You don’t want to try this for all meals until you’ve had a chance to practice and feel comfortable doing it for one meal a day. You know? You don’t want this to be a stressful exercise. ok?

Before you start eating, take a minute to assess how hungry you are. If you’re not sure what number you’re at, start by ruling out where you are not. Right?

Remember, it’s not important or even necessary for you to be able to pinpoint the exact spot on the scale. Right? This is not an exact science or a multiple choice exercise where there is only one answer.

The scale is just a tool to help you tune into the physical signs of hunger. So, aim for a range to start with and feel the physical sensations associated with that range.

So if you say to yourself ok right now, I’m at about, you know, a 4 or a 5, right, feel the sensations that are associated with that 4 or 5, right? And become familiar with them.

It may be helpful to even make note of this in your reflection journal.

I talk about the reflection journal a lot on this audio series, because it’s something I believe everyone should have, not just for hunger and satiety but for so many different things.

But start by making note of these sensations, by rating your hunger and listing the physical sensations that you are feeling with that point on that hunger scale.

As you're eating, pause and check in with yourself, when you start eating, half way through your meal and then again at the end.

Feel the physical sensation in your body as hunger dissipates and satiety begins to take over and use the scale to gauge how you feel.

So you started at a 4 or 5 but how does your body feel now, like where are you at the half way point. Are you at a 6 or are you still kind of half way between a 5 or a 6 you’re not quite satiated yet or are you at a 7 full but comfortable.

Once you start eating, you should enter the neutrality zone within a few minutes and satiety after about 20 minutes; which is why it's important to give yourself enough time to eat your meal and to chew your food properly.

Taking time to slow down, chew and savour each bite is very helpful here and will help you connect with your hunger and satiety more easily. OK?

And like I’ve mentioned already a couple of times, generally speaking, you want to keep eating until you reach a 6 or 7 on the scale, so that you’re comfortable, you’re well nourished and then you stop. Ok?

Now, if you find yourself regularly reaching for food when you’re at 6 and above on the hunger scale, so when you’re already satiated, full or comfortable but you reach for food anyway, or you frequently eat to the point of discomfort and pain, stop and reflect on some of the reasons that may be triggering you to do this.

So here are some Journal Prompts For Overeating Reflection.

I’m going to list some off for you to use in your reflection journal the next time this situation comes up.

So, think about your eating environment.
- Is your eating environment too stressful or distracting?
- Are you eating at your desk while you’re working, are you eating in an environment that stresses you out. Think about that, because that can have an impact on your ability to tune into your body.
Think about your eating habits in general.
- Have you been restricting your intake of food or certain food groups? Because what happens often is that when you do restrict and limit and avoid there comes a time when you lose control around certain foods.
Or is it that you have been ignoring or silencing window all day…
- either because you’re dieting or eating in a time restricted window or you’re just running on autopilot and you're too busy to think about eating so you just don’t hear your hunger
- or your silence it purposely and then you get to the point in the day when you’re just ravenous and you’re ready to eat everything and then you overeat because you’re more likely to overeat when you’ve been silencing or ignoring your hunger throughout the day.
Also, think about whether you’re suffering from anxiety or depression or other imbalances that actually may alter your appetite, make you less hungry throughout a period of time and then suddenly it catches up with you and you’re ravenous.
Have you been sleeping well?
- That’s a really important link that most people don’t correlate with their eating habits. But it’s really important. So if you don’t sleep well, your hunger hormones begin to be imbalanced, you’ll start to feel more hungry, you’ll start to crave more carbohydrate, sugar rich foods, and that will impact your choices throughout the day as well and how much you’re eating and so on and so forth.
And then think about whether or not you’re balancing your meals throughout the day.
- When you’re eating what are you eating?
- Are you eating well balanced meals? Are you getting all of your macronutrients, you know, your complex carbohydrates with plenty of fiber, are you getting healthy fats and good quality proteins that are leaving you feeling nourished and satiated because if you don’t balance your meals throughout the day you’re under nourishing your body and what’s going to happen is that you’re going to get to a point where your body is just going to want more nourishment, want more food because it doesn’t feel nourished enough.
- So think about these things and, because that might drive you to overeat at the end of the day for example. Which is one of the most common complaints that I hear, is that my clients get to dinner time and they’re famished, they’re ravenous and they just want to eat everything.
And like I mentioned before, are you skipping meals?
- So we talked about this before the restricting your intake, the dieting, the eating on autopilot, and part of that is also skipping meals whether it be because you’re on a diet or because you’re just not paying attention and you’re too busy and you forget to have lunch, or you don’t actually conscious, intentionally stop and take a pause to ask yourself if you’re hungry enough to eat lunch and you just power through your day and before you know it you’re famished and you’re more likely to overeat at the next meal. Alright?

Now, these are some great journal prompts that I encourage you to reflect on in your reflection journal. So if you don’t already have a reflection journal, now would be a really good time to start it.

On that note, I'd like to thank you for tuning in and remind you that if you’re looking for support with your nutrition and self-care and making it a priority, you can book a complimentary wellness consultation with me, to chat about your goals and how to get you there. At the very least, we’ll have a nice chat and you’ll get some clarity about the wellness journey ahead of you.

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If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe and share with a friend and be sure to tune in next week for another episode of Wellness Wednesday Audio Series, where I a share a short audio clip each week to inspire you to reconnect with yourself on a deeper level so you can start nourishing and caring for yourself, more mindfully and intentionally.