Feel Full | A step-by-step guide to satiety

A must read if you're often hungry...

Introduction

A couple years ago I was severely obese; 275 pounds, couldn’t walk up the stairs without feeling like I’ve just completed Mount Everest’s climb.

Then I decided to change.

I’ve lost a hundred pounds in a year. But the road hasn’t been all flat and nice. It was really hard, especially the food…

Probably like you, I really love eating. The problem was, at the time my knowledge on nutrition was quite non-existent.

Also, I was thinking that eating less was the only way to make me lose weight… In addition to that, I thought that health food has to be non-enjoyable and that I had to eat the good old boiled chicken and broccoli if I wanted to lose weight.

Easy to say that I was always fucking hungry, laying around thinking about food all the time.

However, as time passed, I started learning more and more about health and nutrition in general, which completely changed my diet. It gave me knowledge; not only to lose weight while still enjoying my food, but also to stay full and satiated throughout the day.

So let’s get into it : these are all my tricks and knowledge on how to always stay satiated even if you are a glutton like me.

(By the way if you want a letter about a step-by-step guide on how to lose weight easily and sustainably, let yourself be known in the comments.)

What you’ll learn :

1. How satiety works

2. Why do we want to feel full

3. What do we want in a satiating food.

4. Foods that causes hunger

5. The biggest Satiety trap you’re probably falling in.

6. Top 5 best satiety foods

7. My best tips so you can start feeling full today

GateKeeping :

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How satiety works

Satiety is actually a way more complicated system that we could imagine…

It has four main components that we’ll talk about which are hormonal feedback, glycemic responses, cognitive perception, sensory captors and “yourself”.

So no, eating a kilogram of salad might not be the best way to feel satiated durably during the day.

Quick disclaimer : I’ll talk in here only about the “food factor” that causes satiety. Of course, sleep, movement, stress levels and mood can have a great impact but we’ll keep our focus on food for today. As always, treat health as a complete system, not as a one-does-all type of thing.

Hormonal feedback :

The most complicated of those four but I’ll keep it concise and simple don’t worry.

When you start eating, your gut and tissues send signals to your brain. Which produce or suppress different kinds of hormones to make you feel full.

But its capacity to make you feel satiated is highly dependent of what you eat.

So hormones play a big part in your hunger levels, but it’s not the only thing. We’ll now see why.

Glycemic response :

When you saw glycemic response you might have thought that I was going to talk about insulin. You’d be right…

Yes, it is also an hormone but it’s so important for the hunger system that I had to give it its own section.

Little definition before we start, the glycemic index of a food is how fast its sugar goes into your blood. So high glycemic index foods will make your blood sugar spike very fast.

Now a quick explanation : when you eat something with a lot of sugar, it goes in your blood very fast (given the fact that most high sugar foods have high glycemic index) then, because there is a lot of sugar in your blood, your body releases insulin. You can see insulin as a helper that pushes sugar out of your blood.

But, given the fact that it needs to release a lot of insulin, your blood sugar drop. So, your brain thinks it has no more energy and triggers hunger again.

That’s one of the reason why when you eat sugary foods you feel hungry quickly later.

So the glycemic response you get from eating is a biiiig factor of how satiated you’ll feel.

Cognitive perception

That’s a fun one. It really shows how our mind can change our feel on things.

Chewing makes your brain realize that food is coming, it’s an easy way to feel fuller without eating any differently.

An easy example would be smoothies : you’d feel way fuller if you’d ate the fruits and drank a glass of water on the side. That’s because you would chew them…

So it’s harder for your brain to tell you’re eating, even though it’s the same amount of food.

Palatability, meaning the taste of the food you eat, is also a factor of cognitive perception…

Yes, if your food tastes like the most delicious meal ever made, you’ll be hungrier. If it’s really bland you’ll have eaten enough way faster.

That’s because of your brain’s reward system. You take some much pleasure in the food that it overrides normal “stop” signals.

Your environment can make you hungrier as well. If you ate while watching tv or being on your phone, your brain would be distracted. Thus making you less aware that you’re eating, so hungrier in the end.

Sensory captor

The one everybody knows about :

When you eat a certain volume of food, sensors in your stomach detects it and sends a signal to your brain telling him you ate enough.

This is the volume aspect of satiety. How much you eat not energy wise, but actually the quantity of food.

Last one is : “what you think”!

Yes, you heard me well. What you think of a food has been proven to be a big factor of satiety. If you think the food you eating is super satiating you’ll be more satiated even if it’s not a “satiating food”.

Love this one. It really shows how much of an influence our thoughts can have on us and that it’s not truly only a question of numbers, but really it matters what you think.

Why do we want to feel full

There are three main reasons why it is important to feel satiated :

1. If you want to lose weight or stay at your current weight. Pretty obvious and straight forward but, if you’re always hungry it will be hard not to eat too much and gain weight.

2. Reduction of stress : being satiated reduces the body’s level of stress, on the opposite side of side, if you’re always hungry, you’ll be in a constant state of heightened stress and awareness even if most people don’t realize it.

3. For focus reasons : even though some people got a heightened focus by fasting, here we’re talking about actually eating and being hungry after. So, most people think a lot about food when they’re hungry, pretty logic, but it distracts your brain reducing your ability to focus on tasks.

Phew… that was a lot.

Now we’ll see what actually makes a food satiating, a trap you shouldn’t fall for when thinking about satiety, the best satiating foods and finally my best tips that helped me through my weight loss journey. (Still use them today… I’m not less gluttonous than before sadly.)