Today we are talking about different factors that go into eating decisions BEYOND just our hunger and fullness cues.

(Note: I wrote a similar blog post on this topic about a year ago. If you’d like to read my previous post, here it is). 

Listening to our hunger cues is important. If we are hungry, this is a clear sign our bodies are in need of nourishment. No questions asked! We are also more likely to feel satisfied with our eating when we eat when we are reasonably hungry most of the time.

That being said, there are also other factors to take into consideration when it comes to the “when” and the “how much” of eating.

From my perspective, especially for teens and younger adults, if you ONLY eat when you are hungry, you are probably not eating enough!

Not eating enough can lead to a slowed metabolism, hormone imbalances, loss of a period, lack of energy for sports/studying/daily life, and a chaotic/obsessive relationship with food.

IF you are looking to avoid these outcomes, I recommend considering whether you are truly eating enough each day. This likely means eating beyond what hunger cues alone would lead you to eat.

What might those other factors be? That’s where today’s blog post comes in!

A comprehensive list, brainstormed by yours truly, of factors to consider BEYOND hunger and fullness when it comes to when, how often, and how much you may eat on any given day.

Different Factors in Eating Decisions Beyond Hunger & Fullness:

Activity Level:

If you are reasonably active on a regular or daily basis, you almost certainly need to eat beyond what your hunger cues alone would lead you to eat.

This is ESPECIALLY true for endurance athletes, but really anyone who exercises on a regular basis.

Exercise often mutes our hunger signals, which can lead to under-eating if we aren’t intentional to eat beyond hunger cues. Under-eating can lead to an increased risk for stress fractures and athletic amenorrhea.

Even on rest or off days we need to be sure we are eating adequately! This is generally the time period when our muscles are recovering and building back stronger (IF we are eating enough). This is why you might find yourself feeling hungrier on days you aren’t exercising. Physical hunger –> sign to eat! (Without stressing that “you aren’t exercising today and therefore ‘shouldn’t’ be feeling this ‘extra’ hunger.”)

As someone who exercises on a regular basis, I’m often eating even when I’m not necessarily hungry. Examples of this most days include an energy bite right when I wake up, breakfast (if I wait longer I would definitely be hungry, but I often eat it right after exercising/showering for practical purposes and am not usually all that hungry right then which is fine), and my evening snack. I also usually add more quantity-wise to my meals/snacks than “hunger cues alone would lead me to eat.”

Check out Elyse Kopecky’s work for more inspiration when it comes to fueling appropriately for your activity level!

Amount of Time Since You Last Ate:

As you all may know, I am a huge fan of eating regularly. For most people, I recommend eating every 2-4 hours.

If it is going on 4-5 hours and you are still not feeling hungry, it could be a good idea to eat something anyway. Sometimes our hunger cues are absent or lessened for any variety of reasons. Exercise can do this (as mentioned above), maybe we are stressed or feeling anxious, maybe our hunger cues are off due to a disordered eating past and we are working on getting them back on track, or maybe we are in need of food but just not feeling those physical sensations of hunger for whatever reason!

(Side note: hunger can manifest in ways other than a grumbling stomach or hunger pangs. If you are constantly thinking or obsessing about food, feeling tired for no apparent reason, or feeling dizzy/lightheaded, those are also signs you are likely in need of nourishment!)

I pretty much always eat something if it has been 4-5 hours and generally recommend this for clients too. That being said, there are of course the more unusual circumstances where I might not eating something in this case — maybe I had an unusually large brunch or other meal and my body really is needing a bit more time to digest and get ready to eat again. Eating is flexible! In these types of cases where my eating is a bit more unusual, I trust that my body will let me know via hunger cues when it’s time to eat again.

Practicality & Accessibility: 

Another reason to eat even when you aren’t hungry (or to eat more than you would otherwise) is for practical / food accessibility reasons!

A few examples of this from my own life…

–> I always have a snack before bed, even though I’m not usually hungry, because otherwise I would likely wake up in the middle of the night and need something to eat. Not ideal for my sleep!
–> If I have a client session and anticipate I would get hungry in the middle of the session, I will go grab a snack to quickly eat beforehand. I can’t think/be present when I am hungry!
–> When I was in college and had 4-hour-long labs, I would oftentimes have to eat a meal beforehand even when I wasn’t hungry, because we couldn’t eat anything in the lab.

Oftentimes it makes sense to eat even when we aren’t hungry because we might not have access to food later on when we would be hungry! Common scenarios include those related to jobs, travel, and school (labs, tests, class, etc) and appointments. You are not “overeating” in these scenarios. Our schedules and/or access to food don’t always perfectly line up with our hunger cues. Your body still needs the nourishment either way!

Fun, Enjoyment, & Social Gatherings:

Eating fun and tasty foods for pleasure and/or social reasons are all perfectly valid and healthy ways to enjoy food, even when you’re not physically feeling hungry! (This is what I might refer to as “fun” or “social” hunger.)

Our nutrition needs are relatively flexible, and our bodies are designed to handle a flexible amount of food intake while maintaining a stable weight. Stressing about eating anything “extra” (whatever that means anyway) will only do more harm than good!

If you NEVER allow yourself fun/tasty foods and aren’t at least somewhat flexible with this, you are setting yourself up to feel chaotic around food in general. In my opinion, it is in your best “health interest” to enjoy these foods purely for pleasure, connection, and satisfaction! (See this post on the pitfalls of trying to “eat perfectly.”)

This might look like a piece of birthday cake even after feeling quite full from dinner, a random brownie that your mom just pulled out of the oven, or enjoying some popcorn while watching TV just because!

Working on Weight Restoration:

If you are in the weight restoration phase of anorexia recovery (or working on increasing your weight for any other number of reasons), unfortunately you will likely be doing quite a bit of eating when you aren’t feeling hungry. This includes both eating at times you probably don’t feel like eating, and eating more than you would like to be eating when you do eat. I know this can be challenging and uncomfortable!

If you have been underweight/under-eating for quite some time, your hunger hormones are likely suppressed and it will take some time for you to start experiencing them more normally again. Eating regularly and getting to a healthy body weight (for you) are the best ways to get your hunger cues normalized and back online!

Check out this blog post if you are interested in some nutrition/meal/snack ideas for your weight restoration process.

Working on Getting Your Period Back:

Similar to the above point, if you are working on getting your period back, you will also likely need to be eating more than you are used to and/or feel up for hunger-wise. If you aren’t getting your period regularly, your body is in some sort of “stressed” state (for any number of reasons) and is wisely perceiving that it is not a good time to have a baby (whether or not you are interested in being pregnant), thereby decreasing your sex hormones and “shutting off” ovulation. Oftentimes, this stress is due to being undernourished — in general, or (more specifically) for the amount of exercise you are doing. Getting your period back likely will involve increasing your food intake beyond what typically feels comfortable or normal to you.

Depending on how long it has been since your last period, sometimes we might need to “overshoot” our normal body weight set points a little bit in order for our hormones to kick into gear and for ovulation to be triggered. This is, of course, highly individualized and dependent on a number of factors!

In General, Knowing Your Typical Nutrition Needs! 

With the experience of nourishing your body properly over time comes the general knowledge and intuition of roughly how much you need to eat each day to be eating enough. I’m not talking knowing a specific calorie number or anything like that — more a general sense of the number of meals/snacks that tends to work well for you, general amount of food for you to reach comfortable fullness at meals, and more nuanced signs (mentally, physically, etc.) that you might not have eaten quite enough that day.

For example, I tend to do well eating 3 solid meals and 3-4 snacks. Usually I have one of these snacks between lunch and dinner. I’m usually hungry for said snack. If I’m not hungry and there is no obvious reason why (i.e., I didn’t have an unusually large lunch or anything), I’ll probably have the afternoon snack anyway, because I know I am a pretty active person and need to eat roughly this typical amount of food to maintain my weight. That being said, there is so much flexibility and nuance when it comes to eating! I don’t “have” to force myself to have this snack, given that my body is in a good place physically and maybe this time I’d simply prefer to wait a bit until hunger strikes. (Although I wouldn’t do that on a regular basis, as then I likely wouldn’t be eating enough).

As much as many of us Type As (you know who you are! :)) may long for some sort of certainty that we are “doing it right” when it comes to eating, eating is something that is meant to be FLEXIBLE. Your body is amazingly intricate and complicated — there is plenty of margin when it comes to when and how much you eat. Our bodies don’t need our minds to be constantly obsessing about and overanalyzing this.

Eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re full. Eat when something looks simply good, or choose to not for right now.

Eat enough to nourish your body, your relationship with food, and the life you want to be living. And, sometimes, that looks like eating more than hunger cues alone would lead you to eat.