Food, Feelings, and the Concept of Fullness

When we talk about "fullness" it is often equated with something bad. In actuality, fullness is a neutral response from our body in relation to something having to do with food OR feelings. I know... feelings? Yes. I promise that by the end of this blog post that will make sense to you.

We have all heard the phrase "eat when you're hungry; stop when you're full" get thrown around at some point. It's important to consider why you might be full. Is it true fullness? What pieces of fullness are at play? Let's think about what fullness is specifically....

Related to food:

Fullness is the sensation that your stomach, as a muscles, sends to your brain to say "this is as much as we can tolerate".

This can be impacted by a couple of different things physiologically:

• The volume of food that is in your stomach.

  • Ex: A very large salad may be lower in calories, but much higher in volume of food.

• The nutrition that is present in the food.

  • Ex: Something higher in fats and proteins will take longer to digest than something that is higher in carbohydrates so that sense of satiety or fullness may be more present.

• The enjoyment factor.

  • Sometimes your fullness can be influenced by the way that something tastes.

• The amount of time between instances of eating.

Related to feelings:

Lots of times, we can have feelings around fullness. Feelings of anxiety or having pre-conceived notions about what being full means can really impact the way that we perceive fullness.

For example, if I believe that when my stomach expands (as a muscle does in order to accommodate work) it is a bad thing, and I am noticing that more, that could intensify my feelings of anxiety. This creates a negative feedback loop which would then intensify the feeling of fullness.

All of this to say that when we talk about fullness it is not as simple as "I am full therefore I am done and I no longer need nutrition". It is important to consider a lot of different factors and that is why it is important to touch base with a Registered Dietitian who is skilled in talking about eating disorders, disordered eating, and intuitive eating to help you figure out what your body might be trying to say!! :)