Hunger and fullness: October 2007 Archives

You've ditched your diet addiction and traded it in for learning to sense your hunger and fullness signals. So do you still need to control your portions?

Yes and no. Theoretically, hunger and fullness signals should be pretty reliable. But it's a long road to finding that sensitivity, one paved with bumps and detours.

How will portion control help? For intuitive eaters, also called normal eaters, portion awareness may work better than portion control. After all, you gave up dieting because the whole "control" approach to eating never worked for you.

It's easy to gain portion awareness. Just watch thin, normal eaters.

Watch someone who has always been thin, or someone who has been an intuitive eater for a while and is at a reasonable weight.

Notice their portion sizes.

Also notice a few other traits common to normal eaters:

1. Some are pretty picky, choosing the best bittes first, and discarding any bit of food that's less than perfect

2. They stop without finishing their food because they're satisfied

3. If they put too much on their plates, they end up leaving more on their plates

4. They slow down as they get full, and push their food around (children do that too)

As a final note, here's what not to do:

1. Don't watch anorexics, bulimics or othe rdisordered eaters to learn about portion sizes. They will confuse you.

2. Don't look to restaurant portions as a good guide, unless perhaps it's a French restaurant.

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