Hunger Scale for Intuitive Eating: A Tool, Not a Rule
So you’ve heard about intuitive eating and the hunger fullness scale and you’re wondering what it’s all about. Is it the newest diet trend? Is it the same as mindful eating? Is it something you should be doing?
Intuitive eating is a concept developed and written about at length by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch. They wrote a book called Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Anti-Diet Approach which I’ve linked to on Amazon.
Intuitive eating is made up of ten principles that help guide you in breaking free from chronic dieting, making peace with food, shifting focus away from weight or body size, and developing habits that support a healthy body and mind. It deserves its own blog post for diving in deeper, but it relates to the hunger fullness scale in the following way:
Honoring hunger and respecting fullness are two of the ten principles of intuitive eating. The hunger fullness scale is a useful tool in the toolbelt of many intuitive eaters as a tangible way to process your body’s cues of hunger and fullness.
In this post, we’ll go into more detail about the hunger and fullness scale, discuss how to and how NOT to use it, identify ways it may become harmful or unhelpful, and troubleshoot a few common problems people may discover through use of the scale.
What is the hunger fullness scale?
The first thing you need to know: the hunger fullness scale is a tool, not a rule. It’s not a diet, and it’s not a way to red light / green light your eating.
Simply put, it’s a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being famished to the point of stomach pain, dizziness or other symptoms of low blood sugar and 10 being so far past full that you feel ill and about to burst. 5 is the neutral middle- not hungry and not full. You can click the image below for a Printable Hunger Fullness Scale PNG version of the graphic.
The hunger scale is something you may use by yourself to connect to your body and its cues. Or, a healthcare provider (dietitian, therapist or doctor) might use it to help you sort through nutrition related difficulties like staying nourished, feeling out of control around food, feeling confused about how much to eat, or a lack of appetite.
How do you use the hunger fullness scale?
The scale helps you connect physical or mental sensations to your digestive system. For example, it might show that getting a headache or especially irritable around 11am every day are actually symptoms of hunger. The routine of checking in with the scale can provide a reminder to eat (or to make a plan for eating soon).
Generally, you can aim to stay between a 3 to an 8 most of the time. This means you *try* not to let yourself get absolutely ravenously empty and you respect your fullness by stopping your meal once you reach a level of comfortable satisfaction.
Start with honoring hunger, not with feeling fullness
For anyone who is trying to leave dieting in the past, start with honoring your hunger. Assessing fullness is something you can practice more later, but only after you have established a rhythm of nourishing your body regularly and adequately.
Start by using the hunger scale to check in with yourself between meals or at the beginning of a meal. You can very simply ask yourself: “Where am I right now on the hunger scale?”
Develop awareness around what it feels like to get too hungry (blood sugar dropping too low) between meals. Observe patterns in your days. Approach your learning like a scientist, not a judge. Use the hunger scale as a looking glass into your body’s sensations and how they relate to your eating patterns.
You can make some notes to yourself in a journal or on your phone. Then those reflections can help you make a plan for better nourishment next time. For example, “Next time I’ll…”
Bring a snack with me to my kid’s sports game.
Store a box of granola bars in my work desk.
Prep breakfast the night before so I can eat it in the car instead of skipping it.
Pick up dinner on the way home when I unexpectedly work overtime instead of grumpily waiting another hour to eat while I cook dinner.
Not feel pressured to finish everything on my plate
Developing self-compassion
The hunger scale can also help you develop and use mantras of acceptance and self compassion when you go above the 8 or below the 3. It reminds you that even when you get uncomfortably stuffed, you can take a breath and use one of these reminders:
This is a temporary sensation that will eventually pass.
I am not good or bad based on what or how much I eat.
I am learning about how to best nourish my body. I am taking care of my body the best way I know how. This is a learning opportunity.
Or when you let yourself get too hungry, try one of these:
I am worthy of nourishment.
I do not have to do anything to earn my calories.
Making a plan for eating regularly is not optional. My body needs me to prioritize nourishment.
When to use the hunger scale?
You can check in with the hunger scale before, during and after a meal. This helps you identify patterns of how you feel around and during mealtimes. It is also helpful to check in with the scale at other times of day.
Our ultimate goal is not to always consume the perfect amount of food at meals. (This is a very black and white, unrealistic and diet-y goal.) Rather, we want to practice 1) honoring hunger and 2) feeling our fullness. These two feelings exist on a constant continuum- the hunger scale- throughout the entire day, not just around meals.
A couple ideas I like:
Check in during transitions- in the car, between work tasks, when you take stretch breaks, when you’re riding the elevator
Set reminders/alarms on your phone to check in at certain times
Check in every time you go to the bathroom. (Hopefully, this happens frequently. Hello, hydration!)
These check-ins remind you to think about when your body could use some nourishment (food or calories). For your best-functioning self, a regularly nourished body and mind are a must.
Why use the hunger scale at all?
Tuning into your body’s own cues is almost always a better metric for measuring your needs than calorie counting, following a meal plan with set amounts of food, having restricted times for eating, or other types of diets.
Knowing when to eat and how much to eat can feel like another mystery you are trying to solve. Instead, you can use the hunger fullness scale to demystify these bodily cues and help you lovingly and compassionately nourish your body.
Remember, hunger is interpreted as a threat to survival by the primitive parts of your brain. When your brain senses the beginnings of a starvation sensation, it can go into panic mode, but it’s only trying to protect you! The hunger scale is a tool for preventing that starvation-panic-hangriness from creeping in and disrupting your life.
How much time will it take to use?
Checking in with the hunger and fullness scale should not take you more than a minute or two each time. If you’re feeling confused or overwhelmed, remember that with practice, this will become second nature.
We want eating to become easy, natural, and neutral for you. We want you to enjoy food, but not put food up on a pedestal. I hope that using the hunger scale helps you assess your hunger in a simple and straightforward way so that you can make eating decisions without having to think too much about them.
When should you not rely on the hunger scale?
If you are in the midst of an eating disorder, simply implementing the hunger fullness scale is not a comprehensive enough approach to healing. You should seek the care and guidance of a therapist and dietitian to work on your recovery.
If you’re not hungry (around a 5), but you won’t have the chance to eat for the next few hours. You need to get some nourishment now, even though you’re still at a 5.
If you don’t feel any hunger cues because you are distracted, busy, anxious or nervous. You make yourself eat a little something at regular intervals.
You are having a special meal and eat past fullness. You don’t have to stop just because you reached a magic number.
You aren’t hungry, but you’re eating to celebrate or just because. For example, you show up at a friend’s house and they made yogurt parfaits. Or someone brought cupcakes to work to celebrate a birthday. You’re not below a 5, but you eat anyway.
Reminder: It is OK to eat for reasons other than hunger. Food is for celebrating and commemorating and fellowshipping and bonding and experimenting and so much more than just nourishment. Hitting a certain number on the hunger fullness scale is not a required green light to eat.
Can the hunger scale be used for weight loss?
The hunger fullness scale is a tool to help you be an Intuitive Eater. One of the hallmarks of Intuitive Eating is that it is NOT intended for body manipulation, i.e. weight loss. You will never make peace with food if you micromanage your intake based on the hopes of achieving a particular body size or shape.
Remember, if you’re new to the non-diet or intuitive eating approach to food, start by focusing on the hunger side of the scale. Use the scale as a reminder to eat regularly and adequately. Later you can become more in-tune with fullness cues. You will learn what the sensation is to eat a comfortable amount of food to feel full and satisfied.
Can it be a sneaky diet rule?
If it’s leading you towards more obsession and perfectionism, these are signs that the hunger fullness scale isn’t the best tool for you. That’s perfectly OK! My motto when it comes to any kind of advice: take what works and leave the rest.
One way to tweak the scale is to use these five categories instead of numbers:
uncomfortably hungry
comfortably hungry
Neutral
comfortably full
uncomfortably full.
If you’re getting caught up in the numerics of the scale, this takes it down a notch. Focus on the feelings of regular, comfortable hunger and fullness versus uncomfortably, painful and disruptive hunger and fullness.
If you feel any shame, guilt or frustration at yourself for eating past comfortable fullness, this mantra might be helpful:
“Every eating experience is a learning opportunity for me to grow in connection with my body. It is not pass/fail. Eating past fullness doesn’t mean I’m doing it wrong. I’m grateful to my body for all it does for me. I will show my body appreciation by nourishing it regularly and adequately.”
Just to reiterate, if you try using the hunger fullness scale and it starts to feel like a rule, you start to feel self-imposed shame, you feel panicked at hitting the numbers “just right,” or it adds confusion and mental fatigue to your day, just ditch it!
Will the hunger fullness scale help with binge eating?
A true diagnosis of BED (binge eating disorder), just like with any other eating disorder, will not be treated with the hunger fullness scale alone. If you are struggling with binge eating, the best thing to do is talk to your primary care provider about a referral to a therapist and dietitian team to help you navigate recovery.
That said, the hunger fullness scale might be a useful tool in your healing process. As I talk about at length in this post, a positive outcome from using the hunger scale is preventing the extreme 1 or 2 level hunger. This extreme hunger and its side effects like irritability, irrationality and light-headedness could all contribute to the likelihood of a binge experience. By nourishing yourself with food before you get to those extreme levels of hunger, you should help prevent out-of-control eating experiences, like a binge.
And yes, the hunger fullness scale does also help you get in tune with your fullness. It can help you land at the goldilocks “just right” level of fullness. But the reasons behind binge eating are complex, varied and unique to each person. Do not expect to control or fix your binge eating by simply using the hunger scale. It might be used as a tool in your healing and reconnecting with your internal cues, but it is not a fix in itself.
Should I use the hunger fullness scale for kids and childhood nutrition?
In general, before kids learn any differently from a diet-centered culture, they have really good hunger and fullness cues and tend to pay attention to them.
You can help connect the dots for kids when they might eat past fullness and have a stomach ache or they get cranky because they are extra hungry. You could introduce a simpler version of the scale to use with kiddos if you need some language and visual prompts to help them develop a vocabulary and understanding of their hunger and fullness.
The last thing you want to do is create diet rules or threaten them with negative consequences of eating past fullness.
If you use it to reinforce the idea of always honoring hunger and listening to our body’s cues, then it may be a useful tool. Especially if they see you using it and are curious. It could make for a good lesson on nourishment, loving our bodies and helping us understand our digestive systems.
What if I don’t feel any hunger cues?
Here are a few steps to take if hunger cues are absent:
Make sure you are not consciously or subconsciously restricting or limiting your intake. Eat scheduled meals and snacks consistently for a while (maybe a couple of weeks) and then check in again with the hunger scale and see if you can identify any hunger sensations.
Start journaling or taking notes of patterns and symptoms you feel throughout the day, even if they don’t seem related to stomach/hunger. It could be that your hunger cues are a bit more subtle or unique.
Speak to your healthcare provider or therapist about not feeling hunger cues. They can check for other underlying causes. There are so many ways that mental health and our GI systems are connected.
What if I have a hard time getting full and staying full?
Make sure you are eating some of each macronutrient (protein, fats, carbohydrates) at every meal. At snacks, aim for two of the three.
Check in with yourself- are there any restricting or dieting tendencies sneaking in? Is there a subconscious tendency to eat only a certain portion size or to avoid certain foods?
Are you drinking too much liquid with your meal? This could be a habit or it could be an old diet-technique that has stuck around. Of course, having a drink with your meal is pleasant and sometimes necessary, but if you’re feeling sensations of a full belly, yet getting hungry again less than one hour after a meal, too much liquid intake could be contributing.
Also, it’s OK to need a snack an hour or so after a meal! Our bodies are complex, our lives and calorie needs are different day by day, so the meal that normally fills you up may one day leave you hungry again soon after. Don’t overanalyze why you’re hungry again so soon, or worry you did something wrong at your meal. Just get yourself a snack and go on with your day!
TL;DR The hunger fullness scale is a way to quantify your body’s internal cues for hunger and and satiety (fullness). 1 is the extreme, famished, dizzy hunger and 10 is painfully stuffed, to the point of feeling ill. You use the scale to help you track your hunger/fullness throughout the day and at mealtimes. The purpose is to help you connect more with your body, catch early signs of hunger instead of the extreme late signs of hunger, and respect the feeling of fullness, knowing that you can always eat more later and you have unconditional permission to eat. It is a tool for intuitive eaters and promotes tuning into your internal cues for knowing when and how much to eat instead of external cues (like diets).
I designed some fun printables to go along with this topic. You can grab this colorful hunger fullness scale printable or these hunger fullness scale journal prompts.
