Are You Full of It?

How do you know when to stop eating? Cleaned off plate? Empty bag? Most people stop eating because the food is gone. This may be too much food. This causes many people to get too large. You can learn to stop before the food is gone. This can be your key to weight loss!

Our bodies know how much food we need to be at a healthier weight. It tells us through feeling full. This fullness is when a person eats enough but not too much. What does fullness feel like?

Describing fullness is like telling someone what purple looks like. There are millions of different ways to describe the color purple. Just like the color, there are millions of different ways to describe how fullness feels. Everyone feels it differently. Many kids and teens do not feel it all. They are not used to feeling it. By paying extra attention to your body, you may feel this when you are getting full:

• small tightness in your stomach

• neither hungry or full...kind of nothing!

• satisfied

• content

Feeling fullness is different from feeling overfull. Many kids and teens stop at feeling overfull. This is too much food. Feeling overfull may feel like:

• a stomach ache

• sleepy

• really tight feeling in your stomach

• clothes have trouble fitting after eating

Stopping your meal at fullness (not overfull) can help you lose weight. Try to keep track of your fullness. Use the scale below to rate your fullness. Write it down in a small notebook after every time you eat. Also, half way through a meal, practice stopping. Try to rate how full you are then too! Practice finishing your meal when you feel fullness at 5, 6, or 7 on the scale.