Lesson 5
Calibrate Your ‘Fullness Metter’
Becoming An Intuitive Eater
When do you know you are full? How full you should feel to maintain a healthy life style? If I am over weight do I have a
bigger stomach than I did when I weighed less?
One of the most important aspects of maintaining a healthy life style and weight will be determined by your ability to
sense when you are full and your body is satisfied. But first let’s resolve some ‘myths’ about your stomach. The size of an
adult stomach doesn’t change. And your stomach is the same size as everyone else’s.
“Once you are an adult, your stomach pretty much remains the same size - unless you have surgery to intentionally make
it smaller. Eating less won't shrink your stomach”, says Mark Moyad, MD, director of Preventive & Alternative Medicine
at the University of Michigan Medical Center.
“But I can’t eat as much as I used to – how do you explain that?” This is a common comment from our WiO clients. The
truth is your stomach will stay about the same size. But your ‘Appetite Thermostat’ will be reset. There are sensors
around your stomach that send signals to our brain when you are full. This happens as your stomach begins to fill up and
as the sensors are stretched.
Feedback Mechanisms
Hunger and satiety - the feeling of fullness that tells you to stop eating - are complex functions regulated by numerous
feedback mechanisms in your body. One of those signals comes from your stomach wall stretching to accommodate the
meal you are eating. Nerve receptors stretch and send signals to the brain that the stomach is expanding and you can
begin to taper off and stop eating. At the same time, a hormone called ghrelin is produced when your stomach is empty.
Ghrelin will trigger hunger signals and as your stomach fills up will decrease. This is how you know when it is time to stop
eating.
Slow It Down – and Enjoy
When starting the WiO Protocol we want to teach you how to tell when you are truly full. Many people have a difficult
time determining when they are full. It takes about 20 minutes after you start eating for the message to stop eating to
form and to reach your brain, says Joanne V. Lichten, Ph.D. “If you are a speedy eater, it may serve you well to cultivate a
slower pace for dining”.
There are other benefits of eating slowly such as savoring the taste of your food, which by itself promotes mental and
emotional satiety from eating, and will improve your digestion. Dr. Lichten also suggests you can test to see if you are
full by standing up at some point during your meal and sensing how your stomach feels. If you feel comfortable but not
over-full when you stand, then you've eaten enough. When you are eating your meals we ask that after consuming half
of it, you stop stand and up go to the bathroom (if you don’t need to use the bathroom wash your hands), the point is to
take about 5 minutes to give yourself the chance to feel how full you are. This exercise is designed to slow down your
eating and to make you familiar again with the sensation of being full. By doing this you will avoid the sensation that
often occurs at the end of a meal. Has this ever happened to you? You stand up and realize from the bloated feeling in
your stomach that you've overindulged with one or fifteen too many bites?
Cholecystokinin - Tough To Say
But With WiO You Can Control It - A hormone produced by your digestive system, called cholecystokinin, signals your
brain when you've eaten. More is released in a large meal and less from a small snack. When you are dieting to lose fat,
your stomach counterbalances the reduced food intake by cutting back on the amount of this hormone it will release,
encouraging you to eat more and cheat on your diet. This reality is why many diets fail. Studies show that loading up on
highly digestive protein (WiO MRP), omega fats (Udo Oil) and fiber (MRP, veggies) will help you dodge this built-in
survival tool.
Just An Idea – Mom & Dad
If you are raising children and want to help them maintain the healthiest lifestyle and body fat this will help. WiO and
the American Dietetic Association advise not to encourage children to clean their plates. Instead, watch for signs of
fullness, such as restlessness at the table or playing with their food. Allowing your child to leave the table when they
have signaled that they have eaten enough will work in your child's favor by avoiding food aversions and overeating and
thus developing an inappropriate relationship to food.
Interesting Fact
The WiO causes your pancreas to produce more glucagon than insulin. This fact provides you with the maximum benefit
of feeling full from the foods you eat. The release of the hormone glucagon will increase the signals of feeling full by 61%
more than insulin, another fact as to why the WiO approach is to effective… and cool. (Mechano receptors of the Proximal
Stomach and Perception of Gastric Distension The American Journal of Gastroenterology (2005) 100, 1704–1710;
doi:10.1111/j.1572-0241.2005.41350.x)
Listen & You Will Hear Everything
Listen and your body will signal you that you are no longer hungry. Observe the signs that show you’re comfortably full.
As we mentioned above, pause in the middle of eating and ask yourself how the food tastes, stand and ask what your
fullness level is. The majority of dieters we have worked with are card carrying members of the “there are starving
children so clean-your-plate” club. We understand that stopping the habit to clean your plate is easier said than done.
When the WiO Protocol restores your natural cravings and you are no longer a captive, addictive cravings are much
easier to overcome. In other words – the longer you practice these techniques the easier and more effect these steps
become.
Leaving food behind can be difficult to achieve, especially for the chronic dieter. The typical diet instills a license to eat
only at designated mealtimes, which is when it’s “legal.” However, this sense of privilege only reinforces the clean-yourplate mentality. This is particularly true for our clients who have tried diets, such as Slim-Fast, Weight Watchers, Jenny
Craig ect. Naturally, most of our clients practically licked their plates clean when given the opportunity to eat a normal
meal of real food! It’s not so much that they overate; rather they ate with the spirit of being denied the foods that they
like most. In other words, they cleaned the plate because they don’t know when they will be able to indulge like that
again. They forgot to savor, enjoy, and look for the feeling of fullness. They were focused on eating ‘everything’ instead.
The spirit of cleaning-your-plate can come to surface when it comes to eating fat-free, carb-free or sugar free foods.
We’ve had a few clients eat an entire bag of our sugar-free chocolate squares with carefree abandonment because of
the entitlement factor. Because our chocolate had no sugar and virtually no carbohydrates they felt a license to eat as
much as they wanted, regardless of the way the food made them feel or if they were full.
They would rationalize that “There’s no sugar so I can eat as much as I want”. Unfortunately, sugar-free is not
necessarily calorie-free. But the calories wouldn’t even be an issue if people were respecting their fullness level. Of
course, other factors can easily condition you to polish off every crumb on your plate, including:
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Having been taught to finish everything on your plate from well-meaning parents.
Out of respect because the food is a gift or you are a guest.
Respecting economics and the value of food - thou shall not waste.
Do you have an ingrained habit of eating to completion? Out of sheer habit you finish an entire plate of food, or a whole
hamburger, how about an entire bag of chips, regardless of how hungry or full you are. This is a reliance on external
cues. You stop eating when the food is gone, regardless of the size of the initial portion. Beginning a meal (or snack) in
an overly ravenous state can be dangerous. In this state, you’re eating intensity is revved-up and it’s all too easy to
ignore listening to your body’s satiety cues. Even if you don’t clean your plate, it’s still possible that you may be
overeating, or bypassing your comfortable satiety level. With our clients who don’t clean their plates, we have
discovered that while there may still be food left on the plate, it took an uncomfortable level of fullness to get them to
stop eating. Rather than lacking in discipline or will power, the problem is the inability to recognize comfortable satiety
or to respect the feelings of fullness.
The Key To Calibrating Your Fullness Meter
Fine tuning you fullness meter, or the ability to stop eating because you have had enough to eat biologically, hinges
critically on giving yourself unconditional permission to eat (Principle Three: Make Food your Ally). How can you or any
successful dieter expect to leave food on your plate if you believe that you won’t be able to eat that particular food or
meal again? Unless you truly give yourself permission to eat again when you are hungry, or to have access to that
particular food, calibrating your fullness simply becomes a dogmatic dieting exercise without roots. It won’t take hold.
The Intuitive Eater in training learns to stop eating when he or she has had just enough to fill the stomach comfortably
without being overfull. It’s easier to stop eating at this point and leave food behind, when you know you can eat it again
later.
The Comfortable Satiety
We are surprised at how often our clients do not know what comfortable satiety feels like. Oh, it seems to be no
problem in describing with great detail how overeating or being overstuffed feels. But knowledge of what comfortable
satiety feels is often illusive, especially to the chronic dieter. If you do not know what comfortable satiety feels like, how
can you expect to achieve it? It’s like trying to find a lake in the mountains without ever being there before or knowing
where it is located. When respecting your fullness is the target, it could easily be missed if you do not know where to
look for it, especially when you have been conditioned to clean your plate. Also, if you eat when you are not hungry, it’s
hard to know when to stop out of fullness. Here are some common descriptions offered by our clients:
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A subtle feeling of stomach fullness
Feeling satisfied and content
Nothingness—neither hungry nor full
The sensation is highly individual. And while we can describe it endlessly, it’s akin to trying to tell someone what water
tastes like. We can give you a good idea - but it’s something that needs to be experienced at the ‘first hand’ personal
level, so that you know how it feels, in your body.
How To Respect Your Fullness
When you habitually clean your plate, your eating style easily goes on autopilot - you eat until completion, until the food
is gone. To break this pattern of eating, we have found it helpful to be keenly or hyper-conscious of your eating. This
means being conscious or mindful of your eating experience. While you may certainly be aware that you are engaged in
the act of eating, we find that somewhere between bites one and one hundred there is a significant level of
unconsciousness. Quite often the food is not even being tasted! Likewise, it’s all too easy to bypass comfortable satiety.
Here are some examples:
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I wasn’t aware of how much candy I would eat at the movies until suddenly, my hands were scratching at the
bottom of the empty box.
I would never consider splitting a meal when eating out until my friend asked if I would split an entree with her.
Begrudgingly, I agreed. To my surprise I was thoroughly satisfied with half an entree, knowing all too well that
had I ordered the full portion I would have eaten it all, out of sheer habit, and I save money!
Once I opened up a package of any food, I had to eat it all. I know, I’m not even tasting the food most of the
time.
Conscious Eating
The initial step away from the blind autopilot eating mode is conscious eating. It’s a phase where you neutrally observe
your eating as if under a microscope. (Your Food Anthropologist voice will be very helpful here.) We have broken this
stage into a series of steps, which begins with taking a mini time-out from eating. This will help you regroup and assess
where you are in your eating. It’s like the time-out that athletes and coaches take during a game to help improve their
play or strategy. Here’s what to do.
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Pause (stand up) in the middle of a meal or snack for a time-out.
Keep in mind that this time-out is not a commitment to stop eating. Rather, it’s a commitment to being in check
with your body and taste buds.
If you thought that by pausing, you were obligated to leave food on your plate, you’d be reluctant to go through this
step. In fact, many of our clients who initially appeared resistant to this step later admitted that they were afraid that
they would have to stop eating from that point on. During this timeout, perform these checks:
TASTE CHECK: We find that this check is usually pleasurable, which is why we like to begin with it. Ask yourself
how the food tastes. Is it worthy of your taste buds? Or are you continuing to eat just because the food is there?
SATIETY CHECK: Ask yourself what your hunger or fullness level is. Are you still hungry, do you feel unsatisfied,
or is your hunger going away and are you beginning to feel satisfied? In the beginning, this may seem like a hit-or-miss
process. Be patient, and remember, you are getting to know yourself from the inside out. Just as you would not expect
to get to know a new person after just one meeting, how could you expect to understand your satiety level in one meal
or snack? It will take time. However, the more in tune you are with your hunger level, and the more you honor your
hunger, the easier this step will be. Remember to be open to any answer. There can be considerable differences in your
fullness levels depending upon the last time you ate and what you ate. If you find you’re still hungry, then resume
eating.
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When you finish eating (whatever the amount), ask yourself where your fullness level is now
Did you reach comfortable satiety?
Did you surpass it?
By how much?
Discovering your fullness level will help you identify your Last-Bite Threshold. This is the endpoint. Imagine your level of
hunger by using this guide.
Starving
1
Very Hungry
2
Hungry
3
Slightly Hungry
4
No Sensation
5
Slightly Full
6
Satisfied
7
Slightly too Full
8
Uncomfortable
9
Painful
10
If you know that the bite of food in your mouth is your last! It may take you a long time to get to this point. The longer
you have been disconnected from your body’s sense of fullness, the longer it will take to identity this point. If you honor
your hunger, it is much easier to know fullness. If, however, you do not eat from biological hunger, how could you
expect to stop from biological fullness (or to even know what it feels like)? Please be patient with yourself. Ultimately,
you’ll find that the last-bite threshold correlates with this level of satisfaction. Remember, the hungrier you are when
you begin eating, the higher your fullness number is likely to be when you stop. But, if you start eating at a 3 or a 4,
you’ll be more apt to stop at a 6 or 7—satisfied but not overfull.
Don’t feel obligated to leave food on your plate. If you find that you have a level of resistance for this activity, it may be
from past dieting experience. You may be feeling obligated to leave food on your plate—which is a remnant of the ‘diet’
mentality. Remember, there is no commitment to leave food on your plate. The commitment, instead, is to getting to
know your satiety level and your willingness to leave food on the plate.
After you have reset your fullness meter it is not unusual to over eat at some meals, that’s perfectly normal. If you do,
don’t feel that you have undone all your hard work. Remember that just because you feel that your stomach is very full
from over eating, you haven’t ‘stretched-out’ your stomach. Make a mental note of how much food you had eaten and
use that as a visual guide so you don’t overeat in your next meal. After a while, when the newness wears off, you will
find that it’s quite easy to leave food on your plate if you feel full before the food is gone. It does require, however, a
degree of consciousness, don’t be an unconscious eater, keep checking in with yourself. But if most of the time you can
recognize your fullness, and respect it, it will make a considerable difference in your ability to maintain your natural
weight and over all health.
How To Increase Consciousness
It can be difficult to do two conscious things at once. That’s why, for example, I will lock my keys in the car. I’m usually
talking on the phone, gathering up items in the car that I need to take with me, thinking about my phone conversation,
about what I need to do and where I’m going and before I know it I’m standing outside a locked car…without my keys.
Basically, my mind is focused somewhere else. We find that to get the most out of eating, it needs to be a conscious
activity, whenever possible.
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Eat Without Distraction: Value and enjoy the eating experience when possible. For example, John struggles with
falling asleep while driving his car. To stay awake he will munch on snacks. He would find that he could eat a
whole bag of chips while driving just 30 minutes and would be surprised when his hand reached the empty
bottom. John discovered that if he ate a meal or snack at home without engaging in driving, reading or watching
T.V., he would usually eat less. In the annual meeting of The Endocrine Society’s in Toronto a study was
presented that showed how much more we tend to eat when we watch T.V., Dr. Alan Hirsch, founder and
neurologic director of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, measured potato chip
consumption in 45 subjects during five-minute periods over three weeks. Subjects ate as much as they wanted
while they viewed a monologue by Jay Leno, or while they watched a David Letterman monologue. Subjects
munched an average of 44 percent more chips while watching Letterman and 42 percent more of the snack food
while viewing Leno than when they watched no television at all.
At sessions, we ask subjects to concentrate on the sensory characteristics of the food, such as taste, smell and
texture. Researchers believe that these sensory clues, in addition to internal body changes, signal satiety, or a
sense of fullness. You will find that you will eat less not because you are trying to eat smaller amounts, but
because you can detect your fullness level much sooner and more easily when you are not distracted.
“The more attention one pays to the taste of their food, the fuller one becomes,” Dr. Hirsch said. “If distracted
when eating, one feels less full and eats more.”
Reinforce Your Conscious Decision to Stop: Many of our clients found that when they decide to stop eating,
because they’ve reached the last-bite threshold, it’s helpful to do something to make it a conscious act, such as
gently nudging the plate forward half an inch or putting their utensils or napkin on their plate. This simply
reminds them of their decision. Otherwise, it may be all too easy to innocently nibble on the remaining food,
even though you had no intention of doing so. (If you have trouble with the idea of wasting food, try putting
your leftovers away for tomorrow’s lunch or dinner).
Defend Yourself from Obligatory Eating: This usually means practicing saying, “No, thanks” I never realized the
significance of this act until I attended a very elegant restaurant on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. There was
just one waiter per table; they stood just a few feet away ready to satisfy my every wish. The moment my glass
was a quarter empty he would refill it, this all-too-eager waiter was there to offer more food or beverage. I
found it was so much easier to say “yes,” especially if I was in the middle of a conversation. It took much more
energy to say “no.” plus it was ‘cool’ to have such amazing service catering to my cravings. Similar experience
can be found on those ‘all-you-can-eat’ weeklong cruises. The same is true if you attend any function in which
there are well-meaning “food-pushers,” from the gracious host to the obnoxious relative. A special note of
caution to those of who enjoy wine by the bottle at a good restaurant: A good server will often keep your glass
full. Unless you are conscious of that, you may drink more than you intend. Remember, you are in charge of how
much to eat or drink. THE FULLNESS FACTORS “I just ate two hours ago—I honored my hunger and respected my
fullness, so how could I be hungry again so soon?”
While the ebb and tide of satiety signals may seem puzzling, it’s quite normal to have different degrees of
hunger and fullness, especially when you begin listening to your body’s eating cues. There are also several
factors that affect fullness. These factors are both biological and learned. When you have a general
understanding of some of these satiety factors, it makes it easier to trust your body and feel your fullness. The
ability to recognize comfortable satiety or fullness can ultimately determine how much food will be consumed in
a meal. The amount of food eaten in a meal is influenced by these fullness factors:
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The amount of time that has passed since the last time you ate.
The more often you eat, the less hungry you will be (that’s what the muffins are for).
This has been found to be true in nibbling studies. These are studies in which people are given several snacks or
mini-meals throughout the day. The nibblers prove consistently less hungry than those fed identical calories
divided into three larger meals. While the purpose of these studies has been to examine the metabolic effects of
snacking compared to traditional meals, the researchers have consistently noted that the nibblers were less
hungry, even though calories and fat offered were identical in both groups. Remember to only nibble on WiO
approved snacks.
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The kind of food you eat: The macronutrients; protein, carbohydrates, and fat influence subsequent food intake
by their contribution to the total amount of energy created by these foods and which hormones are triggered in
your body (insulin, glucagon, eicosanoids etc,). Other food factors such as fiber will also affect the fullness factor
because of its bulk and water-retention properties. Protein in particular seems to have a suppressive effect on
intake beyond it’s to total calories, according to several studies.
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The amount of food: Food still remaining in the stomach at the time of eating. If your stomach is empty you will
eat more than if some food is still present (from a prior snack or meal).
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Initial hunger level: If you begin a meal or snack in a famished state, you are more likely to overeat, you tend to
eat faster which will override satiety signals (your fullness meter).
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Social influence: Eating with other people can influence how much you eat. Studies have shown that;
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The more people gathered at a meal, the more people tend to eat.
Eating with others increases the duration of the meal.
Eating more on weekends is usually due to being around people.
Dieters, however, have been shown to eat less when they know someone is “watching” them. The same is true for nondieters, when they dine with a “model” eater. In one study, when the model eater refrained from eating, so too did the
non-dieter. Our clients tell us that their family and friends will have a tendency to copy or eat in similar fashion – so you
are being a great example to others as you are improving your own health. There is a tendency to ignore or be distracted
from biological signals in social settings. We have found that the key to the social is to continue making eating a
conscious activity with purposeful food choices. Clearly, there are many factors that influence how full you feel from
eating. With so many variables that exert influence on your eating, it should be no surprise, then, that the amount of
food you desire to eat can and will fluctuate. A big key is to stay tuned in and to eat consciously.
Beware of Fast Burning Foods (FBF). Simply shoving some food in your mouth like a pacifier to ease hunger pangs may
backfire, and the comforting effect may not be long-lasting. This is especially true of “FBF” food that fills up the stomach
but offers little sustenance. FBF includes such low-calorie foods as air-popped popcorn, rice cakes, puffed rice cereal,
fat-free crackers, celery sticks, and calorie-free beverages. There’s nothing inherently wrong with these foods (except in
Phase 1 of the WiO Protocol) But if you eat expecting to get full, it will often take massive quantities and you will find
yourself on the prowl for something more substantial to “top off the meal.” That’s where having a balanced snack or
meal such as the WiO muffin, which includes protein, fiber, and healthy fats, is especially helpful. If, on the other hand,
you know you will be going out for a fabulous dinner or to a party, and want just a little something to take the edge off
your hunger, half of a MRP shake, a muffin or our protein cookie will serve your purpose just fine. Ironically, many
chronic dieters shy away from the very foods that could help them feel more satisfied at meals – such as high digestible
protein, fiber, omega fats and complex carbohydrates.
If You Can’t Stop Eating
If you discover after time that you still are eating even though you are not hungry, there’s a good chance that you might
be using food as a coping mechanism. This is not always as obvious and dramatic as some magazines suggest. Go review
Lesson 7 “Don’t Feed Emotions” this section is devoted to this issue.
What If You Feel That There’s Something Missing?
If you’ve discovered what it feels like to feel comfortably full, and yet feel that something is missing, it could be the
satisfaction factor. This is so important we’ve devoted a whole principle to it in the next chapter.