Becoming an Intuitive Eater: Understanding Appetite Cues
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Appetite cues, also known as hunger and fullness cues, are the sensations we experience in our bodies that help to communicate when our body needs nourishment and when it’s had enough. They are regulated by a complex system of hormones and other chemical messengers. However, this internal regulatory system can also become dysregulated, making eating in response to these cues quite challenging. So, how do we eat intuitively if our appetite cues are all out of sorts?
In this post we’ll discuss:
How dieting and disordered eating contribute to appetite cue dysregulation
How to re-regulate and reconnect with appetite cues
Other possible disruptors to appetite cues and what to do if we experience any of these.
How dieting and disordered eating lead to appetite cue dysregulation
Food is essential for survival. As such, our bodies are pretty motivated to make sure we get fed. To support this, we have a complex and sophisticated appetite regulatory system, guided by those hormones and other chemical messengers I mentioned above, that tell us when we need to eat and also when we have had enough. That is, of course, provided that we listen and respond to it.
However, trying to control our food through external means (read: restrictive food rules) is a recipe for appetite cue dysregulation and body distrust. Diet culture feeds us a lot of unhelpful information about appetite cues, suggesting that they are something that cannot be trusted and must be managed or we’ll surely lose control. And so, because we come to view this very normal, natural, and helpful system as a problem, we engage in all sorts of behaviors to “tame” it. Except, usually not very effectively.
When the hunger alarm begins to sound we do whatever we can to try to press snooze, to avoid responding. We try to mask hunger cues by filling up on high fiber, low energy foods and low calorie or calorie free liquids. We replace snacks with a stick of gum. When we are hungry we tell ourselves we must be thirsty. We distract ourselves with other activities – house chores, work, whatever. We play waiting games with the clock delaying eating until the hands point to the exact “right” time to allow ourselves to eat.
This can also lead to internalizing the belief that ignoring hunger is somehow morally virtuous. We feel powerful when we are able to wait it out until the time is “right,” when we successfully skip snack, when we choose water over food.
For many, this means constantly vacillating between appetite cue extremes.
It’s true that we might be very good at starting to completely ignore subtle hunger cues. No longer noticing the early signs of hunger. But at some point the alarm sounds too loudly to ignore. Many people describe this experience like a switch being flipped where they go from not hungry to ravenous almost instantaneously.
“This just further confirms the belief that we and our bodies are certainly not to be trusted. That we need the rules. But this isn’t the result of listening to your body, rather the outcome of trying to ignore it”
When we get this hungry it can be hard to make thoughtful food decisions. Because being this low on fuel is an urgent situation for our body. We simply don’t have time to make thoughtful decisions. Instead, we are going to be driven by instinct and be drawn toward the quickest, most efficient way to get the fuel our body so desperately needs into our bloodstream and to our cells. This is where people might find themselves saying “screw it” and heading toward the vending machine and convenience store to get something energy dense and high carbohydrate (because these are going to be the most efficient foods for meeting our immediate energy needs).
And, because we are so hungry, we might overestimate the amount of food we need and eat it very quickly in an effort to alleviate the discomfort we are experiencing from the extreme hunger. Ultimately leading us to feel overly full. Perhaps shameful and guilt-ridden, too. This just further confirms the belief that we and our bodies are certainly not to be trusted. That we need the rules. But this isn’t the result of listening to your body, rather the outcome of trying to ignore it.
For others, this leads to the development and maintenance of malnutrition.
Alternatively, some folks who consistently underfuel their bodies for a prolonged period of time might report feeling Thanksgiving Day full after a few bites or half a sandwich. This is not an exaggeration, or all in their head. Prolonged, sustained restriction can result in something known as delayed gastric emptying, or gastroparesis. This is when the digestive tract becomes sluggish due to malnutrition and the body’s attempt to conserve energy. It means that food stays in the stomach longer than it should and contributes to feeling disproportionately full from the amount of food consumed. In this case, waiting for hunger to arrive and allowing fullness to be the cue to stop would surely result in continued undernutrition.
Regardless of how its experienced, appetite cue dysregulation is distressing.
These experiences can feel incredibly distressing. They worsen body distrust and disconnection. They exacerbate food worry and obsession. They increase the desire to control food and the food environment even more in an attempt to avoid the physical and psychological discomfort associated with eating.
How do you begin to regulate and restore connection with your appetite cues?
In all cases described above, a couple very common themes are that individuals are not eating regularly enough, meaning they are going too long in between eating occasions and they are not eating enough at planned eating occasions (until they overcorrect and eat beyond comfort, which, as described above, is the case for many).
The ABC’s for re-regulating and becoming re-acquainted with appetite cues are:
Adequacy: that is to eat enough. Enough is eating at least until fullness (not just to no-longer-hungry, or neutral) and, if you are experiencing a sluggish GI tract, this will often mean eating past comfortable fullness. It’s helpful, and can be important, to have support from an eating disorder dietitian to determine what it adequate for you to make sure you are getting enough.
Balance: that is making sure you are getting substantial sources of fat, carbohydrate, and protein at most eating experiences. This helps with balancing blood sugar levels and appetite hormones, to make sure that all of the body’s nutrient needs are being met. All of these nutrients serve important but different roles in our body, they all impact appetite differently, and our bodies are happiest when they are getting enough of all three. That’s not to say fiber and micronutrient rich fruits and vegetables are not part of balanced eating, they often are. But, diet plans and food rules tend to overrepresent fruits and vegetables, thereby displacing other important food groups rich in other important nutrients.
Consistency: that is to eat at predictable intervals. I often recommend eating within 2 hours of waking and at least every 3-4 hours thereafter, regardless of perceived hunger. Many people find this difficult at first because they don’t think they are hungry, but they are also so disconnected from their body’s actual cues that it’s impossible to know. Your body needs to be fed at consistent, predictable intervals to regulate appetite cues and help restore your connection to them.
This is certainly not the whole story. There’s a lot more that goes into fully understanding and appropriately responding to appetite cues, and becoming reacquainted with your intuitive eater, but the ABC’s outlined here will help to build a solid foundation to make that work more accessible to you. This is especially true if you are someone who experience difficulty perceiving appetite cues for reasons beyond disordered eating.
Interested in some 1-1 support to relearn and start trusting your appetite cues again?
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What if I’m following the ABC’s and still can’t sense into my appetite cues?
Because nothing is ever as straight-forward as it seems or as we wish it to be, we can’t talk about appetite cues without also answering this question: “What if I just can’t feel my appetite cues?”
I used to think that everyone who wanted to would eventually be able to eat in response to their hunger and fullness cues. Years of practice and learning have taught me that’s not necessarily true. At least not in the way that we generally think about appetite cues, which is, as sensations we experience primarily in our abdomen.
Dieting and disordered eating are disruptive to appetite cues. But, if you are doing all the work to heal your relationship with food and still not feeling hunger and fullness the way it is traditionally described we need to consider what might be causing this.
It could just be that it’s not been enough time. Appetite cues aren’t something that normalize within days or weeks. We are generally talking months of following the ABC’s to see this start to happen. So, if you are still new to the process, it might just be a matter of time.
But other things can disrupt appetite cues, too. Stress, fatigue, illness, medications, mental health diagnoses, surgery, and more. For example, many of my clients who experience ADHD have a difficult time sensing into appetite cues, this is even more difficult if they use medication to manage their ADHD, which has known effects on appetite. Clients who’ve undergone weight loss surgery in which their digestive tract has been permanently altered may experience permanent changes to that appetite regulatory system and as a result making sensing into appetite cues difficult.
In these cases intentional and structured eating becomes essential to making sure that nutritional needs get met. Also, increasing awareness of the other ways in which the body communicates a need for nutrition, such as low energy, irritability, headache or shakiness, and inability to focus or concentrate, can all be useful indicators to rely on.
Does this mean that these individuals can never eat intuitively? No. Because first of all, intuitive eating consists of 10 different principles, it’s not just eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full. But also, intuitive eating is equal parts intellect, instinct, and emotion. The intellect part is what allows us to recognize that it’s been several hours since we’ve eaten and understand that, even though we don’t think we feel hungry, it’s likely our body does need some nourishment.
I know, this is a lot to absorb and a lot to digest. If you are feeling unsure, overwhelmed, or even skeptical, we’d love to continue to support you on your path forward. And, we have a couple of resources to do just that.
Want to learn more about becoming re-acquainted with your intuitive eater? Join our FREE 5-part email series on Finding Food Freedom, where we walk you through step you can take to ditch diet culture and reclaim your intuitive eater.
Or, consider joining our 6-week Intuitive Eating Support Group and Book Club! It offers community, connection, and conversation on all things intuitive eating, in the company of others who “get it” and are on a similar healing journey, and is facilitated by a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor (me!). Click HERE to learn more, register, or join our waitlist. Feel free to contact us with any questions.