The Easiest Weight Loss Technique? Listening to Fullness Cues.

A dietitian favorite, but one of the hardest concepts for people to execute on when it comes to our nutrition habits is stopping when we are full and listening to our fullness cues. Because of a range of habitual, psychological, and socio-economic factors that include how we grew up, economic status, food availability, past trauma and developed coping mechanisms, nutrition education (or lack thereof), and habit formation, stopping when we are actually full is much easier said than done. Nothing is more disappointing than when you spend the last 90 minutes cooking your family favorite meal when alas, 6 bites in, you realize you're no longer hungry. Cue eye roll and the continuation of my dinner, typically well past the point of fullness.  

Unfortunately, this is all too common for many of us. As we get older, our fullness signals have become more and more muted, oftentimes resulting in meals that leave us feeling fatigued and well past the point of comfortable fullness. Think about it - babies and small children don’t have to be taught to stop eating. It’s a biological response to the intake of food and a barrier that has not yet been conditioned to bypass.

So why are so many adults struggling with overeating? For example, as we get older, parental encouragement to finish our plates (shoutout to the Clean Plate Club kids), introduction to “good foods” and “bad foods,” and the increased intake and availability of highly processed and palatable foods have taught us that our stomachs can extend well past the point of fullness if our minds so desire. And many times, our minds do desire, even if this choice is negatively affecting our mood, energy, and weight management efforts.

The easiest weight loss technique is to listen to your fullness cues and retrain your satiety signals. We know - this technique is easier said than done, but by bringing in intentionality to each and every meal and snack time, this practice will again become like second nature. Stopping when you are full will not only allow you to avoid feeling sick and sluggish, but will help you to naturally limit excess calorie consumption experienced as a result of overeating. Excess calorie consumption = much harder to lose weight successfully. By listening to your fullness cues, you will have more flexibility to enjoy foods that may have previously been deemed as "off limits," but are highly enjoyable. At your next meal, try using the following tips to follow your fullness cues and start this practice for yourself:

Slow down your eating in a distraction-free space: Many times overeating can be influenced by how quickly we are eating our meals, which in turn can be influenced by our environment. Moreover, it takes about 20 minutes for our brain to send signals that we are actually full, which is longer than it takes most of us to finish a dinner-sized meal. Best practice is to sit down in a distraction-free space (aka resisting the urge to turn on Netflix!) and taking one bite at a time, chewing it thoroughly, and placing your utensil down in between each bite. A fun way to challenge yourself is to match the eating pace of the slowest person at the table and try to finish your meal when they do! 

Swap out your plates: Swap out your large dinner plates in preference for the smaller salad or dessert plates. This can mentally allow you to fill up and finish a full plate, with almost half the amount of food you might normally take, allowing you to stop eating when you’re full more easily. This tool can also help us reshape what we think adequate portion sizes actually look like, leading to increased satiety sensitivity and weight loss.

Implement the fullness-scale: Use a scale of 1-10 to rank how full you are at each meal by checking in with yourself periodically throughout. If a 1 is so hungry that you could eat a cow and a 10 is feeling so full you are in a literal food-coma, you want to aim to end your meal at a 7 or 8, which is a comfortably full feeling (i.e you can still go for a walk after dinner with good energy). Once you get into an 8, you approach the danger zone (a 9 or 10), meaning you are closing in on the last 2-4 more bites until you have passed the point of no return.

Use the last 3 bites rule: This is one of our favorite food rules to implement, especially when eating something delicious! When a food is highly satisfying to our taste buds, it can become that much more difficult to stop eating when full. As soon as you feel yourself at a 7-fullness ranking, mentally tell yourself you have 3 more bites left to enjoy before you call it quits and grab a doggie bag. Mentally, this helps prepare your brain for the end of the delicious meal, while also allowing you to savor each of the last 3 bites you are about to enjoy. As long as you remember to use this in time, it’s foolproof! 

Allow yourself to go back for seconds: There’s no point in honoring our fullness cues if we don’t also honor our hunger cues. You may find that when actually stopping when comfortably full, that you are also getting hungrier sooner - that’s fantastic and typically a sign of healthy digestion and a working metabolism! Allow yourself to go back for seconds whenever needed or physically signaled. Remove any expectations or guilt you feel around going back for more food. This is essential in creating trust with our mind and bodies while exploring this simple to practice weight loss technique!

Disclaimer: The information provided in this post is for informational purposes only. Any changes to your nutrition & health should be supervised by a registered dietitian or physician.