Stop Counting Calories and Use the Hunger Fullness Scale Instead
Calorie counting is not the exact science we tend to believe it is. We can’t really trust the number printed on our food labels, even if the numbers are pretty accurate at time of packaging, things like chopping, cooking, and long-term storage impact the calorie count of foods. Additionally, the number of calories we absorb from food can differ based on health status, body size, and current energy levels. What can we do instead? Get familiar with the hunger fullness scale.
- This scale ranges from feelings of intense hunger to feelings of being overly full.
- Think on a scale of 1-10 how hungry you feel, 1 being dizzy and sick with hunger, 5 being feeling no hunger and feeling sated, 10 being overly full feeling sick from overeating.
- Get familiar with your feelings of hunger.
- Hunger cues involve our physical need for food including stomach growling, headache, dizziness etc. This is what we are tracking in our 1-10 hunger fullness scale.
- Appetite is our emotional interest or desire for food. When something looks or smells incredible, we get interested in eating it and have an appetite for it.
- Be present with your food and eating experiences.
- Put your phone away and set work aside while eating so you can pay attention to the physical (and mental) experiences of eating. Eat slowly and notice when you start to feel you’ve eaten enough.
- Recognize your non-hunger eating triggers.
- We often eat to socialize, pass the time, and avoid feelings of stress. While it’s part of the human experience to do these things, we want to bring awareness to them. Notice if you have a habit of eating a big snack right after work or indulging after a difficult conversation, make note of this, and perhaps explore other emotional regulation techniques.
- Eat for both satiety and satisfaction.
- Our food should bring us satiety (physical fullness, calorie needs being met), and satisfaction (feeling nourished and finding pleasure in eating). If we eat only to fuel our bodies, we are missing out on an important part of the human experience. Find balance between eating foods you know will fuel your body and eating food you love (some foods can be both!).
Do your best to find balance. Seek to find yourself at about a 5 feeling full and happy with the food you’ve eaten. If there are times when you leave a meal feeling overly full or still hungry, take note of these feelings and make adjustments moving forward. Remember, this is not about being perfect but working toward better health in the long run.
https://www.precisionnutrition.com/problem-with-calorie-counting-calories-in
https://www.precisionnutrition.com/how-to-stop-tracking-macros
