Want to join us live for our next KN Insights? RSVP for free HERE.
Hunger & Fullness Cues: Understanding What Your Body Is Trying to Tell You (and When It’s Tricking You)
Let’s be honest: if you’ve ever finished a meal and still felt… unsatisfied, you’re not alone. If you’ve ever asked, “Am I really hungry, or just bored/tired/anxious?” — yep, that’s super normal too.
For a lot of us, hunger and fullness cues have gotten a little fuzzy. Maybe it’s from years of dieting, relying on food tracking apps, skipping meals, or just being too busy to notice the early signs. This webinar was all about helping you reconnect with your body’s natural signals, so you can stop eating on autopilot and start building trust with your hunger again.
Let’s walk through it 👇
🚫 Why Traditional Dieting Doesn’t Work
Most diets teach us to follow external rules — calorie limits, macro targets, fasting windows — and ignore the actual signals coming from inside our bodies. It’s like having a fuel gauge and choosing to ignore it because an app told you “you’re not supposed to be hungry yet.”
This can mess with our natural hunger cues, spike stress hormones like cortisol, and lead to frustrating weight cycles. (Ever feel like you were “so good” all week, only to feel out of control around food later? That’s the restrict → binge cycle in action.)
Over time, chronic dieting can actually slow your metabolism and make it harder to maintain a healthy weight — especially if you’re losing lean muscle mass in the process.
🤯 So… What Are Hunger and Fullness Cues?
Your body is incredibly smart. It sends you signals all day long to help you stay energized, focused, and fueled. The problem? We’ve gotten really good at ignoring them.
Common Hunger Cues:
- Slight emptiness in your stomach
- Stomach growling
- Feeling tired, low energy, or “foggy”
- Getting snappy or irritable (“hanger” is real!)
- Headaches or shakiness if it’s been way too long
- Thinking about food or craving something specific
None of these mean anything is wrong with you. They just mean… you need fuel.
Common Fullness Cues:
- Gentle stomach stretch or pressure
- Food starts tasting less exciting
- You start eating slower or naturally pause
- The idea of more food becomes less appealing
- You push the plate away or think “I could eat more, but I probably don’t need to”
Fullness doesn’t always hit like a gong — it’s usually more of a whisper. Learning to detect it is key.
⚖️ The Hunger-Fullness Scale
This is one of my favorite tools to help clients relearn what their bodies are telling them. Here’s how it works:
1 – Ravenous: dizzy, shaky, possibly nauseous
3 – Pretty Hungry: focused on food, low energy, ready to eat soon
5 – Neutral: not hungry, not full
6–7 – Satisfied: comfortably full, food is starting to lose appeal
9–10 – Stuffed: overly full, maybe nauseous or uncomfortable
The goal? Try to eat when you’re at a 3–4, and stop around 6–7. Going all the way to 1 or 10 makes it harder to stay in balance — it’s what I call the “pendulum swing.” If you let yourself get too hungry, it’s almost impossible not to swing the other way and overeat.
✨ Tips to Reconnect with Your Cues
Getting back in tune with your body is a practice — not something you master overnight. But here are a few things you can try:
⏰ Eat at Regular Intervals
Yes, even if you’re “not hungry” in the morning. Our bodies love consistency. When you start eating more regularly, your natural cues tend to come back.
🍴 Slow Down & Eat Mindfully
Try putting your fork down between bites, or wait to load the next bite until you finish the one in your mouth. It gives your stomach time to talk to your brain.
📓 Keep a Hunger Awareness Journal
No calorie tracking required. Just jot down how you feel before, during, and after meals — tired, irritable, satisfied, full, etc. It helps you start seeing patterns and tuning into your own cues (instead of relying on your fitness tracker to tell you when to eat).
📦 Remember: Food Is Not a Moral Issue
Being hungry isn’t “bad.” Feeling full isn’t “wrong.” It’s just your body doing its job.
🧠 Emotional Eating Is Also Normal
Sometimes we eat because we’re tired. Or overwhelmed. Or sad. That’s okay. Food is allowed to be comforting — we just don’t want it to be the only tool in the toolbox.
Instead of beating yourself up, ask: what else might help me cope right now? A walk, a call to a friend, journaling, a deep breath — all valid options. But sometimes, yeah, it’s the cookie. And that’s okay too.
Rebuilding trust with your body takes time. It’s not about perfection. It’s about progress — about recognizing your hunger a little earlier, or stopping a little sooner. About adding a little more kindness and curiosity to your plate.
If this feels new or hard or a little uncomfortable — that’s okay. You’re learning. And you’re not doing it alone 💛
Questions?
You can message us in the chat here or book your free nutrition consultation with Sam Cutrona, MS, RD here. And don’t forget—our nutrition webinars happen monthly on Mondays. Sign up for our email list to be notified of the next one!