Recognizing Satiety

Recognizing satiety is an area of the no diet approach that many people who come to the no diet approach hoping to end compulsive overeating and bingeing struggle with. For many there is a strong feeling of just constantly eating a little or a lot more than they need at each meal. .

It is really no wonder that many of us can't recognize a satiety signal to save our souls. We were taught from childhood to ignore them. We were told to clean our plates, to eat our peas, to drink our milk, and that if we didn't eat now we shouldn't expect a snack later. So, rather predictably, the behavior became a habit, something so ingrained that we no longer even thought about it. So now, when we want to hear our satiety signals we have difficulty hearing them at all.

Many people expect the satiety signal to be a sensation they feel...either in their stomach...or to be a click in their mind that says they have had enough. Many of us will never feel that...because for some of us our signals aren't like that. In fact, for some of us it is a whole lot more subtle, and a lot easier to miss.

It makes sense, when working on the stopping when satisfied portion of the approach to spend some time focused on what you feel just prior to feeling full...which is usually well past satisfaction.

For me the cue is that the food no longer tastes as good as it once did. When I find myself searching for the flavor or the texture that was so good at the outset of the meal it is my cue that I have had enough...that I am satisfied. For me, that's the only cue there will be. There will be no sensation in my stomach, no magic click that says enough at the point of satiety. If I am not paying attention and I miss the satiety clue the next thing I will feel is the familiar sensation of being over full.