How to Find Satisfied with Food

September 18, 2022

One of the skills I work on developing with my clients is how to find satisfied with food or sometimes I call it 80% full.  This is the point at which you have enough food to last 3 to 4 hours (or more) but you’re not stuffed.

A lot of people come to me wanting, among other issues, to lose weight.  I have my own approach when it comes to weight loss (you can read more about that here).  But in short, I approach losing weight as a permanent lifestyle change.  You want to lose it that way you’re going to keep it off.  No quick fix gimmicks, just small, realistic changes that work for you.  And one of those changes is eating to satisfied.

With a little practice, individuals can find satisfied with food to support a comfortable, healthy rate of weight loss without tracking calories, weighing food, or counting macros.

How can this possibly work?  Well, the big reason is that humans tend to overeat and if we stop overeating, we reduce calorie intake which results in weight loss.

We overeat for a lot of reasons

So why are we doing all of this overeating?  There is no shortage of reasons but here are a few.

We have a primitive brain that gives us a dopamine hit when we start eating foods that have a high density of calories (think sugary treats, fried foods, etc.).  Our reward systems tend to activate more when we eat apple pie compared to an apple, so we’ll eat a whole lot more pie than apples.

We tend to eat while distracted by other things like work, surfing the web, dinner time chatter.  We have traditions that celebrate with food, we express love with food and we may have been soothed with food when we were young.  With the high availability of food in our environment, we develop the habit of turning to food to cope with uncomfortable emotions including stress, anger, sadness, frustration, or boredom.

How do we know when we've found satisfied?

You’ll need to experiment to find what satisfied with food feels like for your but here are a few indicators that you might have reached that point.

1) Your eating starts to slow down

You notice paying less attention to your food. Getting distracted by your phone, the conversation or whatever else might be going on around you.

2) You start looking for the 'good bites'

This is a sure sign that you’ve had enough.  Your body is telling you that you’ve had enough food, but your brain is saying let’s go for those tasty bits before we can’t squeeze in any more.  As a result, you start pushing the food around your plate to fish out just the extra tasty morsels.

3) You eat quickly as you get toward the end

For some people, instead of slowing down, they find themselves, quickly popping the last few bites in their mouth simply to clean their plate without really acknowledging whether they were even hungry for them.  If you’re a member of the clean plate club and you’re not the one who loads your plate, you may be eating past satisfied.

4) You sigh

Sometimes when you’ve hit that satisfied point, you let out a sigh, like your body is saying whoah let’s take a break from all this digesting!  Often that means it’s time to just stop eating altogether.

5) You feel like you could go dancing

You are not hungry, but you’ve not eaten so much that you couldn’t go dancing and be perfectly comfortable.

6) You can forward fold

Are you into yoga?  If not, then think of this more the feeling that you could reach down and touch your toes without feeling like your food is going to come right back up!  I have to thank my coach, Cara for this one.  And yes, coaches have coaches!

7) You would not ask for seconds.

When you think you might be at satisfied, close your eyes for a moment and imagine you are at a friend’s house or sharing plates at a restaurant.  Would you ask someone to pass you more food at this point?  If not, you’re at satisfied.  I find this strategy works particularly well for the person who doesn't tend to overeat when they go out but in the privacy of their home, it's a whole other thing!

Strategies to help find satisfied

Everyone’s satisfied looks a little different and if you think you’re eating to satisfied but you’re not reaching your weight loss goals, you are probably pushing just a little bit past.  Here are a few techniques to help you find satisfied with food:

1) Eat more slowly

This provides your brain with more time to get the signal from your stomach that you’ve had enough.  Fast eaters tend to be members of the clean plate club so if that’s you, time to slow down.   Slowing down your eating can also help immensely with digestion issues!  Need help slowing down?  Here are some strategies to try:
  • Put your fork down between bites.
  • Give your food an extra few chews.  (Another one that can help with digestion.)
  • Take 3 deep breaths before you start eating to bring your attention to your food and remind yourself to slow down.
  • Place a post-it note where you eat to remind you of these things.

2) Take away distrations

You’re not going to notice that you’re satisfied if you’re not paying attention.  Surfing the web, checking social media or getting caught up in dinner conversation can all lead us to overshoot satisfied.  Try to remove as many distractions as you can from where you eat.  You can keep the family if you like ;-). 

3) Make sure you're well hydrated

In some people, (I know because I’m one of them), thirst can disguise itself as hunger.  Make sure you’re staying well hydrated during the day and maybe even consider drinking a big glass of water before you sit down to eat.  This will help you distinguish between thirsty and hungry.

4) Plan a pause

Mentally divide up your plate into two half or four quarters and then plan to take a bit of a break from eating at whatever dividing point you choose.  Perhaps it’s at halfway or three quarters. When you reach that point, put down your fork and take a 5 to 10 min break while you wait for your brain to catch up with the signals from your stomach to tell you whether you really need to eat more.

5) Eat with your non-dominant hand

Sounds strange, doesn’t it?  By eating with your non-dominant hand, your brain can’t just revert to the habitual loop you usually use when you eat – you know the one that has you looking down at your empty plate and not really recalling eating it?  Using your non-dominant hand requires you to actually pay attention which in turn causes you to notice when you’re getting full!

Different strategies will work better for different people so play with what is suggested here and see if you can find satisfied with food.

Need help putting these strategies to work?  Give health coaching a try.  Sign up for a free 30-minute consultation here.

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