The Fullness Scale

Today I have a special holiday treat for you. I am giving you all a pdf of one of the modules I use in my Healthy Body Connection Course. This module talks about the fullness scale and how you can use this to learn to listen to what you truly need and get to your best body ever. 

I am going to teach you one of the essential tools to simplify your weight loss journey, the fullness scale. The fullness scale is a quick and easy tool to retrain your brain to listen to your body. The fullness scale will help you reconnect with your body and get you to your healthy, ideal weight by reconnecting with your body and your internal cues. If you can learn to listen to your body cues, achieving your natural and healthy body weight is the only possible outcome. 

What is the fullness scale?

The fullness scale is a quick check-in with your body to gauge whether or not you need more fuel. Think of it like the gas gauge on your car. One means you are almost empty and ten means you are full. Let’s take a closer look at the numbers. 

On the lower end of the scale, you have one. You are starving and would eat anything. On the high end, ten means you just stuffed your face at Thanksgiving dinner and need to pop open the top button of your pants. Then in the middle is five. Five means you are indifferent about food. You can take it or leave it. 

Some things to remember about the fullness scale:

• It is just data, nothing more, nothing less.
• It simply tells you where your body is in the fueling cycle.
• What you do with that information is up to you.

What is the fullness scale not?

The fullness scale is not a tool to beat yourself up. If you constantly judge your fullness, hunger,  or your actions around it, it no longer serves as a  tool to help you connect with yourself. It becomes a weapon that you use to beat yourself up. 

Some more things to know about the fullness scale: 

• It does not tell you if you are a good or bad person. You are not a bad person if you are hungry at a time when you think you shouldn’t be hungry.
• It does not tell you if you should or shouldn’t eat.

Why would you use the fullness scale?

Now that you know what the fullness scale is and isn’t, why should you use it? To answer that, let’s think back to your last diet. It probably looked something like this. You are told what to eat, when to eat, and how much to eat. So if you are extra hungry one day and have already eaten your allotted food, you are instructed to ignore your body and starve yourself.

Conversely, if you aren’t hungry, you are instructed to eat because you are owed those points or calories and you cannot carry them over into the next day. The commonality with these typical weight loss plans is that they disconnect you from your body. They disconnect you from listening to what your body needs. They don’t allow for the inevitable fluctuations of life. 

As kids, we intrinsically know when we are hungry and full. Babies turn away from the nipple or bottle when they are full. This is a skill we all had at one time, and we are capable of re-learning. The goal of the fullness scale is not to constantly think about where you are on the scale, although you might have to do that in the beginning. The goal is to make this habit so ingrained in our minds that it would seem absurd to keep eating when you are full. And when you are hungry, you can eat without guilt or shame. 

When do you use the fullness scale?

You use the fullness scale whenever you think of putting food in your mouth. Again, this is not a tool to beat or shame yourself. You simply pause to note, “How full is my tank?” Let’s look at the gas tank analogy again. Checking in with your fullness is like looking at the gas gauge before taking a trip. You don’t think the car is bad or not capable of driving because its tank is full, nor do you shame the car for being out of gas. You simply note that the gas light is on (yes, I know my husband says you shouldn’t let the car get to that point), and you fill up the tank. If you are below a five on your fullness scale, you might want to put some fuel into your body. 

How do you use the fullness scale?

You incorporate the fullness scale in your meal planning. Last week, you wrote down what you wanted to eat for the day in the morning or at night. You didn’t restrict when or how much. Simply, this is what you are going to eat. Now you are going to add on the next layer. You will note where you are on the fullness scale before you eat. You will eat as much or as little as you want, but you're only going to eat when you are hungry and you are going to stop when you are full.

To do this, you need to plan what the scale numbers mean to you ahead of time. What number means you are hungry and should eat? What number means you are full and your body doesn’t need fuel right now? 

What number means you are hungry? Well, that is going to vary from person to person. If you are eating less frequently, you may want to start when you are around a 2 or 3 - Hungry but not ravenous. If you eat many small meals, you may eat when closer to a 3 or 4. 

The same logic goes for using the fullness scale to know when to stop. If you eat less frequent meals, maybe a 7 or 8 is what you need. If you eat many small meals, perhaps you want to stop at a 6 or 7.  

And that’s the fullness scale, a simple tool to get you back in touch with what your body truly needs. Give it a try this week and see what you learn. 

Tasks for the week: 

• Decide what numbers mean to you:1= ravenous, 5 = take it or leave it, 10 = stuffed, pant buttons popping full

• I know that I am hungry and ready to eat at ___.
• I know that I am full and ready to stop eating at ___.
• Pause before you put anything in your mouth and answer, “Where am I on the fullness scale?”
• Pause during the meal and answer, “Where am I on the fullness scale?”
• Note the times when you eat when you are not hungry and record this in your meal plan. No judgment. You are simply looking for patterns.
• Note the times when you continue to eat after you are full and record this in your meal plan. I need to repeat this part because it is so important. There is no judgment. You are simply looking for patterns. 

If you are interested in 1:1 Healthy Body Coaching, I have a few spots left.

Sign up here.

~ Suz