Eating the Right Amount

Learning when you've had enough to eat is just a variation of learning to listen to those signals from your stomach when you are trying to differentiate between ‘hungry stomach' signals, and ‘head hungry' signals. Science is now showing a very complicated array of hormones from our stomach and intestines which signal the brain. As you become full, some of those signals to the brain register after about 15 or 20 minutes and hunger settles. Unfortunately, in those very few minutes before the brain lets us know our stomachs have had enough, we can surely eat an excessive amount of food!
Now, let's make it worse, and put ourselves in a social gathering where we are distracted by other people, where alcohol is involved, and the perceived expectations of the host or hostess is that we eat a lot of the food available. In order to become the boss of your own eating, before you can learn to determine for yourself when you've had enough, you must develop an acute awareness of all the ways in which you currently relinquish that authority.
Do you really know what constitutes a serving size for you? I don't, and I'm sure most other people have no real clue. How much do you really need to sustain body functions, and to have enough for tomorrow's exercise session? Visually you might have some idea, but we usually react to what is available or what is already on our plate. Are you able to tune into your hunger centre (stomach and brain) and truly stop eating when you feel satisfied? Just look at the rest of the steak available, or the dessert that has just been put on the table. A lot of us will just continue to eat, well beyond the point of satisfaction and into that "really full” feeling. Someone else has determined the servings, and we have just given into the emotional desire to have more food. Be fully aware of your body and the signals it is sending. Stop eating when you feel satisfied even if food is still on the plate! Remember that you are making a decision for yourself about how much to eat, and your own signals are the best way to help you decrease your intake; also, eat slowly so that the signals have time to reach the brain.
Take a few bites, and then stop eating. Are you still hungry? If you are, take a few more bites and stop again. Are you satisfied yet? Keep a conversation going with yourself about the level of hunger you have (remember I am talking about real stomach hunger, not the emotional head hunger that is looking at the pie, cake or ice cream).
There are varying levels of satiety. You can eat until you no longer feel the hunger signal at all, you can eat until you feel a certain level of satisfaction, or you can eat until you feel full. You can also eat beyond fullness to feeling stuffed. If you have gone that far, way too many calories have entered your body and the excess will be stored as fat. Unless you have some magical way of exercising this excess off the next day, then continual weight gain will occur.
As good as some food looks, the amount we are eating is way in excess of what we need. Think of the effects of that excess food on your body: its ability to create diabetes, osteoarthritis, heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, sleep apnea, poor self-esteem, damage to the liver, and on it goes. Was it worth it? Did you really need to go beyond the point of satisfaction to the point of fullness with the potential for development of physical and psychological illness in the future? I don't think so.
Listen to those "hunger vs. non-hunger” signals. Learn to stop when you are satisfied. Don't eat to the point of fullness.
You can do it. Just keep trying. Don't ever give up.
Dr. Doug