never feel full after eating: why this happens and what to do about it
If you’ve found this blog post it’s because you never feel full after eating. And it is THE WORST feeling. You finish your meal and you’re already thinking about the next one because you’re still hungry!
Today I’m going to explain why this happens and exactly what to do about it.
There are 2 main reasons why you never feel full after eating:
You’re saving up calories for later in the day
You never prioritize eating; it’s always an after thought
Never feel full after eating: Reason #1
When we want to lose weight we immediately start restricting and cutting out foods. Carbs, sugar, bread, pasta. We start thinking “how little can I eat and get away with it?” (Aka not be starving all the time).
So you make a low calorie meal and then an hour or two later you’re hungry again. So you need a snack. But you don’t want that snack to take up too many calories because you know you’re going to be hungry later…so you need to save up.
And then that becomes a pattern—you’re constantly “saving up” calories for later and you never feel full after eating.
You walk around with this constant hunger. Which means you’re distracted, irritable and constantly thinking about food. Food noise has become a big buzz word recently—well, this is a big reason why so many people struggle with it.
So what do you DO about this?
Start eating bigger meals. When I started doubling the size of my breakfast, my entire relationship with food changed.
What does a bigger meal look like? More protein. More veggies. More carbs too! Your plate or bowl should be full of food. About one third protein, half veggies and the rest carbs and a fat (if there isn’t a fat included anywhere else already).
When you eat a bigger meal like this, you won’t be hungry an hour or two later looking for snacks. You’ll be focused and engaged in whatever you’re doing rather than counting down the minutes until you can eat again. You also will end up eating less food overall—fewer snacks equals fewer calories that you’re eating.
Why? Because snacks aren’t filling and are super easy to over eat. Meals ARE filling and are lot harder to over eat, because they are filled with a lot more nutrition (aka protein and fiber).
Never feel full after eating: Reason #2
We live in a hustle culture. We wear busyness like a badge of honor. Telling someone you took a 30 minute lunch break almost makes you seem lazy. Like you’re not working hard enough.
Well, guess what? The reason so many of us struggle to lose weight and to feel good in our bodies and around food is because we never prioritize eating. Eating is something we do as an afterthought: during a lunch meeting, in the car on the way to our kid’s soccer game, at 10pm right before bed.
And what happens when we’re eating while dealing with the chaos of life is that we never have a moment to pay attention the food going in our mouth. We eat, but we don’t even realize we’ve eaten. So it’s over and then you think…wait, what? I’m still hungry.
Attention is a really big part of the eating experience. What does your food look like? Taste like? What is the temperature? What are the textures? We can’t answer any of these questions when we’re shoving a breakfast sandwich in our face on the commuter train while replying to emails on our phone.
Now I know that there are only 24 hours in a day and finding 30 minutes JUST to eat feels impossible. So let’s break it down a little bit—could you find 5 minutes just to eat? Five minutes at the beginning of the meal to give it your undivided attention. And then, grab your phone, your computer, hop in the car—do what you have to do to keep your life moving. But those five minutes of attention will have a direct impact on your enjoyment and satisfaction—which play a huge role in fullness.
Never feel full after eating? Try these 2 specific and actionable skills to start making a change.
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