How Can I STILL Be Hungry

Wondering why you’re still hungry all the time when your intake would rival that of a bear coming out of hibernation?

One of our community shares something which hit home recently:

“I had an appointment with my eating disorder specialist the other day. I was despairing about how even though I am well into recovery and have been consistently fuelling my body for ages, I still feel like I’m never truly satiated. I can eat and eat and still feel hungry, join in a family feast and eat everyone else under the table but still be thinking about food, or have eaten and rested all day but still wake up in the night with my stomach growling. It feels like it doesn’t make sense, and makes me worry my appetite is out of control. It really sets my disordered thinking off too about how I obviously *am* actually just a greedy person and that that’s why I need an eating disorder to keep me in line.”

Her response?

“You might not want to hear this, but it is this simple: you ARE still hungry. The reality is, if your body is still even slightly below its happy, healthy, biologically-determined range, or if it’s only just settling there, then however much you eat and eat, it will never fully be satisfied. Until you really show it that it can trust you again by letting it reach and get comfortable in its happy place, with no conditions attached, it will not leave you in peace and the eating disorder noise will not go away.”

Our community member says:

“It was a really helpful reminder that:

1. For any of us who have restricted our food, manipulated our weight, or abused exercise or other methods of “compensating” for our appetite and intake, we have a serious debt outstanding with our body. Even if we eat more in one day than we have burned off, there is still this whacking great longer-term deficit which needs to be met
2. Micromanaging, judging or second-guessing our appetites and intake during recovery and beyond will only feed into the disordered thinking and habits we are trying to break away from. We can’t keep a foot in both camps and expect the disordered thinking to magically disappear
3. Our bodies are smart, and don’t need us to lose sleep and waste mental energy on constantly trying to make our appetites make sense. Asking ourselves WHY we’re hungry is all very well, but it may serve only to distract us from actually listening to and trusting our long-neglected bodies, and responding by EATING.

Do you have a recovery experience you’d like to share? Email us at hello@wednesdayschild.co.uk