Getting to Know Your Hunger

Written by Michelle Shelton

October 14, 2022 

As you get more comfortable truly listening to your hunger as a guide for how you nourish your body, you can start to become familiar with the nuance of how it feels in your body and how it communicates with you. In any relationship, the more safety and trust there is, the more you can really open up and understand one another. The same is true here. The more you trust your hunger and respond with kindness, the more sensitive you will become to its sensations.

In Intuitive Eating, we talk about a hunger scale ranging from 0 to 10. On the lower end is hunger, with 0 being intense, painful hunger. At the other end, a 10 is painfully full, maybe even nauseated. Typically, a comfortable range is between 3 and 7, where 3 is hungry and ready to eat, but not urgent, and 7 is comfortably full and satisfied. 

As you begin to build more intuition, start by just noticing - without any judgment. First, notice the sensations in your body. Are they pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral? You may also want to begin to notice where you feel the hunger in your body. Is it hunger pains in your stomach, light-headedness or headache, thoughts about food and eating, changes in mood, or something else?

Then notice your hunger level, estimating on a scale of 1 - 10. Don’t get over fixated on the numbers. It isn’t about achieving the “right” or “perfect” eating range. But it does serve to help you learn your patterns and to see what feels best to your body. What are the sensations you notice at the higher or lower ends of the scale? What are the sensations in the middle? What might your body be telling you about how it wants to be nourished? Are there patterns you want to change or adopt to help your body feel its best? 

Try this exercise out for a week and consider what your body is telling you. Then cultivate that intuition by continuing to notice and respond with compassion.