Intuitive Eating Principle 2: Honor Your Hunger
By Dr. Jenny Sokolowski, Psy.D.
One of the key principles of Intuitive Eating (IE) is learning to Honor Your Hunger. This means nourishing your body with enough food and nutrients to keep it functioning and living fully. You might be surprised how many people go through the day hungry and hangry—only to wonder why they feel tired, irritable, or anxious.
In IE, we focus on recognizing and respecting the signs of biological hunger. By listening to your body’s natural signals and eating in a way that supports both your mind and body, you take an important step toward rebuilding trust in yourself and your relationship with food.
The Impact of Dieting on Hunger Cues
Your body is incredibly intelligent, more so than you might think. When you diet or restrict certain foods, your body does not interpret this as intentional weight loss; instead, it sees food scarcity. Even if you have plenty of food available, your body perceives any calorie deficit as a potential famine.
This protective mechanism triggers increased preoccupation with food. For example, imagine you’re stranded in the woods with no access to food. Your body would signal hunger to encourage you to find and consume food as quickly as possible to survive. Once food is found, the instinct might be to overeat due to fear of future scarcity.
Dieting and food restriction mimic this process. Over time, ignoring hunger cues can lead to significant challenges:
Overeating or bingeing: This is the body’s natural response to restriction.
Difficulty recognizing hunger cues: Prolonged dieting can disrupt your ability to notice when you’re truly hungry or full.
Rigid eating patterns: Diets often impose rules that ignore your body’s natural needs, which change daily.
This does not mean your body is broken. This mean your body is actually doing its job to protect and sustain you.
Practical Tips to Honor Your Hunger
Eat enough and eat often: Having regular meals and snacks throughout the day helps prevent extreme hunger. When you know another meal is coming, it’s easier to stop eating when you’re full.
Use a hunger/fullness scale: This can help you tune in to your body’s signals. Aim to stay between 3 and 7 on the scale (1 being extremely hungry, 10 being overly full). Letting hunger drop below a 3 can lead to overeating or losing touch with your body’s needs.
Step away from diets: Diets impose external rules about when and how much to eat. Building body trust requires shifting from these rules to listening to your internal signals.
Need Support?
If you’re ready to honor your hunger but find challenges like recognizing hunger cues or breaking free from diet culture, I am here to help. Reach out for more strategies or fill out the consult form on my page to see if IE counseling could support your healing journey.
