Food amounts vary from meal to meal and from day to day.
Not only do you understand how to listen to your body’s hunger and fullness signals, but also why the portions you eat vary from meal to meal, so you can use that little bit of insight to feel more confident about how to best nourish your unique body.
There are many factors that influence how much you eat, and if you’re not aware of these factors, you may end up eating less than your body needs.
Being aware of why you need more or less can help you find the right amount of nutrients you need.
Read on to find out what to look out for when making food portion choices, strengthening your ability to use hunger and fullness as your guide.
Reasons for changing food intake
Keep these things in mind when checking your hunger and deciding how much to eat.
1. What you’ve already eaten (or didn’t eat)
One common factor that can affect how much you eat is what you have already eaten or not eaten and how nourishing the food you have consumed was to you.
For example, if you overeat throughout the day, whether intentionally or not, your body will feel hungry and this can lead to you eating more, which often makes you feel hungry and causes you to overeat.
Additionally, if you go without eating for an extended period of time and then feel extremely hungry and eat a large amount of food, your blood sugar can spike, resulting in a lower overall feeling of satisfaction and fullness, perpetuating the cycle.
On the other hand, if you want to enjoy dessert after a big dinner, you will likely naturally eat less dessert because you had a substantial meal at dinner. If you eat a small dinner before dessert, you will likely eat more dessert because your hunger will not be satisfied.
It’s also important to consider how nutritious the foods you choose are for you and how well you balance them during your meals. If you eat a balanced Foundational Five diet, you’ll feel full between meals, but if your diet isn’t balanced, you’ll feel hungry again sooner.
2. Activity Level
Our activity level also influences how much we eat.
On your more active days, you will find that you need more food to accommodate the level of activity you are participating in. To accommodate this, make sure you are consuming carbohydrates and healthy fats to provide your body with the sustained energy it needs, as well as protein to help rebuild muscle tissue.
If you notice that you’re being more active than usual, acknowledge this and adjust your food portions to meet your needs.
On the other hand, if you are normally very active and are taking breaks or resting, your body won’t need as many nutrients, so you should pay attention to how your hunger changes on your less active days.
3. Environmental factors
One common factor that unconsciously influences how much you eat is environmental triggers. Environmental triggers are anything in your environment that prompts you to eat something or eat a certain amount.
Some environmental triggers can be really helpful, like keeping more nutritious food options at eye level in your fridge instead of cramming them in the crisper at the bottom. Vegetables and leafy greens are at the top of your mind, reminding you to choose more.
However, some environmental factors may not support the type of eating habits you want to experience. For example, one member of our Mindful Nutrition Method™ program noticed that she often snacked on chips or cookies in the afternoon. Upon investigation, she discovered that she was always walking past the office kitchen to go to a meeting or to refill her tea, and was just grabbing a snack because it was there and available.
Paying attention to your eating habits and understanding when they may be influenced by the environment can help you identify if and when they are affecting how much you eat.
4. Stress levels
Stress affects how much you eat in two different ways.
Smaller portion
When stress first hits, your appetite may decrease as your sympathetic nervous system (SNS) puts your body into “fight or flight” mode to deal with the stressful situation. Your brain tells your adrenal glands to release adrenaline, which increases your heart rate and pumps blood to your muscles and heart, helping you take action and temporarily suppressing hunger (1). Once the stressful situation is over, your SNS returns to baseline.
If you don’t realize that stress is suppressing your hunger, you may find yourself overeating. We make food choices based on our hunger signals, but it’s important to recognize when those signals may not be working (such as stress) and make sure you’re well-nourished anyway.
Larger portion
The second way that stress affects how much you eat is when you are chronically stressed: If stress isn’t managed or reduced, the SNS continues to be stimulated and responds to that stress.
When this happens, your body releases cortisol, which is why it’s called the stress hormone. Unlike adrenaline, which suppresses hunger, cortisol increases your appetite (2). If your stress response stays “on,” your cortisol levels are likely to remain high.
If you are experiencing this chronic stress, not only are you more likely to experience physical hunger, but you are also more likely to experience comfort and cravings for carbohydrates and sugary foods.
Sugar activates the pleasure centers in your brain and releases dopamine, a chemical that makes you feel good (3).
Stress-induced overeating can lead to eating more of these foods.
5. Getting distracted or eating in a hurry
Distracted or hurried eating is exactly what it sounds like: eating while distracted or in a hurry. This is commonly done in front of the TV or at your desk, while scrolling through social media, or doing anything that takes your attention away from sitting down and enjoying your meal.
When you’re distracted or in a hurry, it’s hard to use your hunger and fullness cues to guide your food intake. Because you’re not paying attention to and in tune with your body’s signals, you end up eating more or less than your body needs.
6. Lack of sleep affects how much you eat
Research has shown that poor quality sleep can lead to increased cravings for processed and sugary foods, overeating during the day, and eating fewer fruits and vegetables.
When you’re tired, eat meals that are high in protein and fat to give you sustained energy throughout the day.
7. Your Cycle
Approximately 30% of premenopausal women are iron deficient (4). Additionally, vegetarians, vegans, and those who have heavy menstrual periods are at higher risk of iron deficiency. Additionally, menstruation alone can reduce iron levels in the body (5).
This can make you feel tired during your period, signaling to your body that it needs energy. Because carbohydrates provide your body with a quick source of energy, you may crave carbohydrate-rich foods or feel like you need more to get that energy.
Make sure you eat plenty of iron-rich foods, especially during your period, to help maintain the nutrients and energy levels your body needs.
8. Hydration Level
Water is involved in every process in your body, including your metabolism. Drinking enough water each day has many benefits, including improved digestion and supporting an efficient metabolism (1)(2).
Being dehydrated can make you feel hungry when you’re actually thirsty, so staying hydrated can help you better gauge your hunger cues.
If you feel hungry, drink a glass of water, wait 10-15 minutes, and then check your hunger cues again. If you’re still hungry, you might be feeling genuinely hungry. Once the hunger subsides, try drinking some more water to see if you’re just thirsty.
How to improve your ability to find the right dose
Finding the right amount takes patience and practice. It requires the ability to connect with your body and know what your physical hunger and fullness cues are, and the proper knowledge to use that information effectively. This is what we help our members do with our Mindful Nutrition Method™ program.
You can register here for our free workshop where we will share exercises to help you become more in tune with your unique hunger and fullness cues and introduce you to the Mindful Nutrition Method™.
source
Pharmacology of appetite suppression: implications for the treatment of obesity. Halford JC. Current drug targets. 2001;2:353–370. Stress, cortisol, and other appetite-related hormones: predicting 6-month changes in appetite and weight. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2017;25(4):713-720. doi:10.1002/oby.21790 Rada P, Avena NM, Hoebel BG. Daily high sugar intake induces repeated dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens. Neuroscience. 2005;134(3):737-744. doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2005.04.043 Camaschella, C. (2015). Iron deficiency anemia. N Engl J Med, 2015(372), 1832–1843. Blanco-Rojo, R., Toxqui, L., López-Parra, AM, Baeza-Richer, C., Pérez-Granados, AM, Arroyo-Pardo, E., & Vaquero, MP (2014). Influence of dietary, menstrual and genetic factors on iron status: a cross-sectional study in Spanish women of reproductive age. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 15(3), 4077–4087.
