How do I recognize my feelings of satiety?

You no longer know how to recognize your feelings of satiety, you alternate between strict diets and binge eating, you no longer know how much to satiate you and you have the impression of eating too much and you are especially frustrated when you leave the table.

In this article we will recognize your feelings of satiety and relearn how to eat according to your hunger, without gaining weight.

First of all let's try to understand what satiety is.

It corresponds to a natural state of our body which indicates that we have eaten enough.
When we are children we naturally know how to eat according to our feelings just like animals elsewhere.
Many factors have made us no longer know how to listen to our feelings of satiety. But do not worry, it is quite possible to regain this state which is innate and which cannot be lost.

The feelings of satiety are much harder to feel unlike the feelings of hunger.
The signals are not easily felt (unlike hunger: gargoyles in the stomach…) so you have to pay attention to the few signals that our body emits.

How is satiety characterized?

When we are hungry and when we eat, we have a strong taste for food, we take pleasure in eating. From a moment, the pleasure decreases and we no longer enjoy the food as at the beginning. This is when we feel weary about what we eat.
This is the moment we call LA SATIETE: It's a change of pleasure.
Obviously there are other signals that can show us this state: for example when we have the impression of having the stomach full but not completely, that we can eat a little more. But at the same time, it is the moment when we have enough to eat to be able to leave the table without being frustrated. Here I am not talking about mental frustrations related to a need for food to compensate for an emotion, but frustrations that make us feel like we still need to eat to feel good.
Be careful: If you feel that your belly is too swollen and that you cannot put anything more in the belly, you have probably eaten more than you are full. If, on the contrary, you have stopped eating and you feel a little hungry it is because you have not reached your satiety.

It is important to understand that satiety is not only related to the amount of food we have eaten but also to the quality and variety of the food.
If we listen to our body, it causes us to consume the foods we need. For example if we need freshness, we will naturally eat fruits and vegetables. If we are very hungry, we are going to need energy foods like starches or sugary foods. I still specify if we listen to our body and not our head.

Our body will encourage us to eat various foods during a meal: we may feel full for one type of food and not for another. For example: we can be full of vegetables and meats but no desserts or cheeses because we need fat or carbohydrates. We have therefore reached satiety for proteins and vegetables but not for other categories of food.

Let's try to understand what happens when we eat outside of our feelings of satiety.

Let's take an example: if you eat a lot of vegetables and protein, to the point of having your stomach too full, you may feel frustrated because your body would like something energetic (a sweet food for example or a starch. ). Here the feelings of satiety will be disturbed. This is the case with overly strict diets that avoid certain categories of food.
If you listen to your body: take fewer vegetables, less protein, to save room for a sweet dessert (fruit for example) or a portion of starchy foods.
Thus, you will have a state of fullness with regard to all the foods that your body needs. Also, your stomach will not be too full, and you will feel good about your body without getting frustrated.

Let's take another example: if you stop eating before you feel full, you will experience some frustration. This frustration could turn into a lack that will prompt you to eat later. The more you eat too little relative to your satiety, the more you are likely to throw yourself on food at the next meal (s). If you often have binge eating attacks, it is linked to the fact that you do not listen enough to your feelings of hunger and satiety.

If, on the contrary, you eat more than your satiety, you will feel bad in your body with an overfilled stomach and you will need more energy to digest, which makes you tired. This will trigger a bar hit.

Let's understand that whatever happens, if we eat less or more than our satiety, we feel a malaise in our body.
To feel good, it is therefore important to listen to your body and to eat until you are full: no more and no less.

My advice for learning to listen to your satiety:

- Eat slowly: it is important to eat slowly. Indeed it is after 20 minutes that the moment of satiety is felt. The slower you eat, the more you will feel the moment of fullness. By eating too fast, satiety will not have time to appear. So eat slowly, putting your cutlery down between each bite.

- Focus on your food: nothing around.  Pay attention to what you eat: avoid any distractions like the television, computer or even the laptop. Stay in a pleasant and calm environment, it is a moment of relaxation. Savor every bite and pay attention to the tastes of the food. So you will feel satiety.

- Eat only when you are hungry : you will feel satiety much more easily. Because when you eat without being hungry, the flavor and enjoyment of food at the start of the meal will be less important than when you eat hungry.

- If you have reached satiety, do not force yourself to finish your plate. Don't feel like you have to finish your plate: you'll step out of your comfort zone. Instead of throwing away, save the leftovers to make another meal or even innovate and make another recipe with them.

- Eat your meals on dessert plates : you will put less quantity in them and this will help you not to put more food than what your body needs to achieve satiety. If you're still hungry, don't hesitate to refill yourself a small extra portion.
Little wink to my dad: who keeps repeating it to me :)

What if we cannot listen to the feelings of satiety?

If you rarely listen to your feelings of fullness, it will be difficult to listen to yourself at first. But don't worry, it's normal.

You will have to arm yourself with patience to learn to recognize this state which will prevent you from binge eating or a recurring surplus of food.

If you still have doubts or if you do not know if you have reached this level of satiety, I advise you to wait 30 minutes before consuming a food . Here, it's all the difference between real hunger and snacking (or a need to eat compulsively). Envy is related to your brain, not what your body is actually asking for.

If after 30 minutes you continue to feel any frustration and the urge to eat, you have not reached your satiety. Take something that makes you want.

Do not feel guilty if you eat more than you are full. Indeed, if it is occasional, it will not make you fat because your body will regulate itself at the next meal .  Of course, if you listen to your feelings of fullness and hunger.

For beginners: If you want to recognize that feeling of fullness.

Start by taking a bar of chocolate when you are hungry (not too hungry either). Don't worry about the calories it's an exercise you won't do every day :) Just think about how much pleasure this food gives you. 

Sit quietly in a calm environment, without a computer, without a telephone, start by taking a tile, then 2, then 3 etc… Enjoy them! Put words on every bite you take: exquisite, delicious,…. And when you feel your pleasure diminishing or even weariness (and yes it can also happen with chocolate), you have reached your satiety. Well done you finally understood.

Always stay on the same food. It is interesting to do this type of exercise on fatty and sugary foods because they are sufficiently nourishing and you will not feel any frustration on any other category of food.

I hope this article will be useful to you so that you can eat your fill and lose weight according to what your body needs.