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Your meal sizes will vary from one meal to another and from day to day.
Grasping how to tune into your body’s signals of hunger and fullness is essential, and it’s equally crucial to understand the reasons behind the fluctuations in your portion sizes. This knowledge can empower you to feel more assured in how to appropriately nourish your distinctive body.
Numerous factors can affect the amount you consume, and if you’re not conscious of these influences, you may end up eating portions that don’t align with what your body truly requires.
Increasing your awareness of why you feel the need for a larger or smaller serving can steer you towards finding the right level of nourishment that you need.
Continue reading to discover what to focus on while determining your food portions so you can enhance your ability to utilize your hunger and fullness as guides.
Reasons for Changes in Your Food Portions
Keep these points in mind as you assess your hunger and decide on your food portions.
1. Previous Meals (or Lack Thereof)
A prevalent factor that can affect your portion sizes is what you have already consumed or skipped, as well as the nutrition value of those meals.
For instance, if you’ve eaten less than intended throughout the day, it could trigger significant hunger, often resulting in larger servings. Such larger servings can frequently lead to overeating due to extreme hunger.
Furthermore, prolonged undereating followed by a binge on food due to heightened hunger can lead to spikes in blood sugar levels. This may leave you feeling less fulfilled and can perpetuate the cycle of hunger and overeating.
Conversely, if you’ve enjoyed a hearty dinner and wish to have dessert afterward, the portion of dessert will likely be smaller as you’ve had enough at dinner. Conversely, a light dinner before dessert may prompt you to indulge more in dessert as your hunger cues remain unmet.
It’s also important to reflect on the nourishment provided by the foods you’ve chosen and how balanced they were during your meals. Consuming a well-rounded Foundational Five meal will leave you feeling fuller between meals, whereas an unbalanced meal may leave you feeling hungry soon after.
2. Levels of Physical Activity
Your activity levels can also affect your food intake.
On days when you’re more active, you might find yourself needing larger food portions to fuel your activity. Focus on incorporating carbohydrates and healthy fats to give your body long-lasting energy, accompanied by protein to aid recovery of muscle tissue.
Notice when you’re more active than usual so you can adjust your servings to fit your needs.
On the flip side, if you typically have an active lifestyle and take a day to rest, you’ll likely need less nourishment, thus it’s important to observe how your hunger levels shift on quieter days.
3. External Triggers
A common aspect that can unintentionally affect your portion sizes is external triggers. These might be any elements in your surroundings encouraging you to eat or to consume a specific amount.
Certain environmental cues can be beneficial, such as keeping nourishing food options visible in your refrigerator, rather than hidden in drawers. This can encourage you to reach for more vegetables and greens when they’re readily visible.
However, some triggers may not align with the healthy habits you wish to cultivate. For instance, one participant in our Mindful Nutrition Method™ program noticed she was often snacking on chips or cookies in the afternoons due to frequently walking by the office kitchen, simply grabbing what was available.
Recognizing your eating patterns in relation to environmental influences can help you discern whether and when your surroundings are affecting your portion sizes.
4. Stress Levels
Stress can influence portion sizes in two key ways.
- Reduced Portions
Initially, stress can diminish your appetite due to the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) triggering your “fight or flight” response to cope with stress. Your brain signals the adrenal glands to release adrenaline, which elevates your heart rate and directs blood flow to vital organs and muscles, momentarily suppressing hunger (1). Once the stressful situation has passed, your SNS reverts to normal.
If you are oblivious to the fact that your hunger has been muted by stress, you may find yourself not eating enough. Although hunger signals typically guide your food decisions, it’s vital to be aware when these signals might be compromised (like during stress) and to nourish yourself appropriately regardless.
- Increased Portions
The other way stress affects portions occurs with chronic stress. If stress isn’t dealt with, the SNS remains activated, continuing to respond to the ongoing stress.
During this state, your body releases cortisol, often called the stress hormone. Unlike adrenaline, which inhibits hunger, cortisol can heighten your appetite (2). If this stress response persists, your cortisol levels may stay elevated.
Experiencing chronic stress not only makes physical hunger more likely but also heightens cravings for comforting, carbohydrate-rich, or sugary foods. Sugar triggers dopamine release — the feel-good chemical that activates pleasure centers in the brain (3).
This stress-related eating can lead you to indulge in larger servings of these foods.
5. Eating While Distracted or in a Hurry
Eating while distracted or hurrying through a meal is just that — consuming food while your attention is diverted or racing through a meal. This often manifests as eating in front of the television, at your desk, while browsing social media, or any other activity that takes your focus away from enjoying your food.
When you’re distracted or hurrying, it’s much harder to rely on your body’s hunger and fullness signals. This may result in consuming either more or less food than your body truly needs because you’re not focused on what your body is signaling.
6. Sleep Deprivation Affects Your Portions
Studies have indicated that inadequate sleep quality is linked to increased cravings for processed or sugary foods, resultant overeating throughout the day, and lower consumption of fruits and vegetables.
When you’re fatigued, aim for meals rich in protein and healthy fats to maintain your energy throughout the day!
7. Your Menstrual Cycle
<pApproximately 30 percent of premenopausal women suffer from iron deficiency (4), and if you follow a vegetarian or vegan diet or have heavy menstrual periods, you may be at an elevated risk for iron deficiency. Menstruation itself also decreases your body's iron levels (5).
Consequently, you may feel more fatigued during menstruation, which indicates that your body requires energy. Carbohydrates serve as the body’s rapid source of energy, potentially leading you to crave carb-rich foods or feeling the need for larger servings for that energy source.
Ensure to consume plenty of iron-rich foods during your menstrual cycle to cater to your body’s needs and enhance energy levels.
8. Hydration Levels
Water is crucial for every bodily function, including your metabolism. Staying well-hydrated every day aids digestion, supports a healthy metabolic rate, and much more (1)(2).
When dehydrated, you might mistake thirst for hunger. Maintaining hydration will help ensure your hunger signals are more accurate.
When you feel hungry, try drinking a glass of water, then wait 10-15 minutes before reassessing your hunger. If you’re still hungry, it may indicate real hunger; if your hunger diminishes, you might just be in need of more hydration.
Enhancing Your Ability to Determine Appropriate Portions
Determining suitable portions requires patience and practice. It demands that you connect with your body to learn what physical hunger and fullness signal feel like specifically for you, while also empowering you with the knowledge to apply that understanding in a beneficial manner. This is the support we provide to our members within the Mindful Nutrition Method™ program.
You can register here for our complimentary workshop where we present an exercise to assist you in tuning into your distinctive hunger and fullness signals and orient you through our Mindful Nutrition Method™.
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