Can hunger and fullness stabilize blood sugar when you have diabetes?

Harness the power of these normal body signals to make diabetes more sustainable and eating more pleasurable!

While at a session, my client explained, “I never feel hungry.” She continued, “Morning just isn’t my thing.” As we continued to chat, I asked, “What does hunger feel like to you?” There was a long pause. “I don’t really know how to describe it,” she explained. 

NWLR is a free weight-inclusive newsletter for people with prediabetes, and diabetes who want to improve their relationship with food, make sustainable changes and stablaize blood sugar without dieting. 

This is a pretty common experience for most of my clients with diabetes who are trying to repair their relationship with food, eating, and body image. They are unaware that chronic dieting disrupts hunger and fullness signals and slows metabolism. “Specifically, it has been estimated that for each kilogram of lost weight, calorie expenditure decreases by about 20-30 kcal/d, whereas appetite increases by about 100 kcal/d above the baseline level prior to weight loss.” (Hall 2018)

When I share this with clients, something clicks. 

“So, when I diet, does my appetite increase?”  

“Yes,” I reply

Most clients ask, “So what am I supposed to do?”

Coming alongside your appetite

Improving your relationship with food, eating, and body image helps stabilize your blood sugars because you become more attuned to your hunger and fullness.  You are not suppressing your hunger but recognizing and responding to it.

Here is how this works. The image below is a hunger and fullness scale. You will notice that it is color-coded, and the greater the hunger/fullness, the taller the bars. This visually shows that the hungrier/fuller you are, the larger and more intense the feelings. 

Numbers ranging from 7 to 10 on either side of the scale represent an uncomfortable level of hunger/fullness. This can happen because you ate or didn’t eat. Tying this to blood sugar, you can see that eating more or less food than you need will cause blood sugars to go up and down like a rollercoaster. Simply put, undereating results in overeating. 

Paid subscribers to NWLR and get access to the Nutrition 101 program which is a 5-part video series explains how to nourish your body No Weight Loss Required.

Learning to recognize your hunger when you are comfortable, which are the blue numbers 4-6 on the scale, shows that you are eating in a way that is comfortable. This amount of food doesn’t create large swings in blood glucose readings. 

Numbers of 0-3 indicate slight hunger or fullness. Many weight loss programs that use hunger/fullness encourage you to undereat. Comments such as, “I’m not allowed to eat past a 4.” are one-way chronic undereating presents. Remember, the less you eat, the bigger your appetite will become. You are trying to ‘be good,’ but what happens is you return to the blood sugar roller coaster, which is frustrating. Despite what you have been told, chronically undereating is not a sustainable behavior. 

What is sustainable and a real game changer is focusing on having a comfortable/pleasant or neural eating experience. This means accepting that there will be times when under-eating is pleasant, when it is neutral, and sometimes when it is unpleasant. This is the case for all levels of eating. Learning to notice your experience at different levels of hunger and fullness is the key.

Work With Me - Via Nourish!

Individual Sessions I offer virtual appointments for clients via Nourish. I am currently licensed in the following states: AK, AZ, CA, CO, CT, FL, GA, HI, ID, IN, MA, MI, NH, NJ, NY, OK, OR, PA, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV, and WY.

This shift in focus becomes second nature.

“So I am not supposed to eat to a certain level of fullness.” A client asks.

“Correct.”

“What am I supposed to do?”

The first step is to become curious about your experience. Ask yourself, “Am I hungry?” When the answer is yes, ask a follow-up question, “On this hunger scale, how hungry am I?” Keep getting curious: “How much food would feel good in my body right now?” 

As you eat, you want to keep asking these questions because your hunger will decrease as soon as you start eating. If you keep eating, you will notice more and more fullness. If you don’t stop eating, it will become uncomfortable/unpleasant. 

This won’t help my blood sugars!

You are not alone if you fear this approach won’t help your blood sugar. It takes courage to trust yourself. However, when you are ready to take this step, I can happily report that my clients feel better and have better blood sugars. Getting in the habit of asking,

• “Am I hungry?” Yes! Okay, 

• “How hungry am I?” I’m a bit hungry.

• “How much food would feel good in my body right now?” “X” amount.

• “What could I have to help me feel good after eating?”

Once you have come alongside your hunger, you can consider how different carbohydrates impact blood sugars and how that experience will feel. The intention isn’t to have perfect blood sugar by undereating or to stop nourishing your body by only eating foods you crave. The goal is to feel good physically, i.e., have a pleasant experience after eating. 

Footnotes:

Hall, K. D., & Kahan, S. (2018). Maintenance of lost weight and long-term management of obesity. The Medical Clinics of North America, 102(1), 183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mcna.2017.08.012