How to Rebuild Trust in Your Body’s Hunger Signals

After years of dieting, calorie counting, or ignoring your hunger, it’s completely normal to feel disconnected from your body’s signals. In fact, research shows that long term dieting actually disrupts our natural ability to recognise our body’s hunger and fullness cues. 

Do you ever find yourself wondering:
Am I actually hungry, or just bored?
Why do I eat past fullness even when I try not to?
Can I really trust myself around food?

Here’s the truth: your body was designed to regulate hunger and fullness - but diet culture taught you not to trust it. The good news? You can rebuild that connection.

Here’s how to start trusting your hunger again (without guilt, fear, or restriction).

1. Understand What Real Hunger Feels Like:

Hunger isn't just a growling stomach. It can also show up as:

• Fatigue or brain fog

• Irritability 

• Low mood

• Difficulty concentrating

• Low energy

These are all signs your body is asking for nourishment (now!) - not discipline.

2. Give Yourself Permission to Eat:

This is a big one. If part of you still believes hunger is “bad” or that you need to suppress it, you'll keep ignoring your cues. You can’t respond to hunger if you don’t believe you’re allowed to eat.

Start by reminding yourself: Hunger is not the enemy. It’s a normal, healthy signal - just like needing sleep or going to the bathroom. Remember: we were born with this natural instinct (knowing whether we are hungry or full) as infants!

3. Avoid the ‘I’ll just wait a little longer’ trap:

Delaying hunger too often leads to overeating later. When your body finally gets food, it doesn’t trust that more is coming - so it holds on tighter and pushes you to eat quickly and past fullness. Not to mention, we may already be in a position where we are much more inclined to overconsume by then, due to physical and psychological impacts of not eating enough.

Instead, aim to respond to early signs of hunger when you can. Trust is built through consistency.

4. Eat Enough Throughout the Day:

Ironically, one of the best ways to reconnect with hunger is to eat regularly. Skipping meals or going long periods without food can mess with your cues and make your hunger feel chaotic or overwhelming.

Try eating every 3-5 hours with a balance of protein, carbs, and fat to help stabilise energy and appetite: if you’d like to see exactly how this looks at everyday meals and snacks, be sure to download my free guide The Ultimate Guide to Balanced Eating.

5. Practice Mindful Check-ins:

Use gentle curiosity instead of judgment. Ask yourself:

• What does hunger feel like in my body right now?

• How hungry am I, on a scale of 1 to 10?

• What would satisfy me right now - physically and emotionally?

Reflection tools like this and the Hunger Scale are concepts that I teach inside The Anti Diet Method to help you reconnect with your body’s natural cues - without food rules or guilt.

It’s okay if it feels clunky at first. Trust builds with practice, not perfection.

Let’s Rebuild Your Relationship with Food - Together.

Learning to listen to your hunger again is a powerful part of healing from diet culture. If this resonated with you, I’ve got two suggestions:

Download my Free Keeping Carbs Recipe Ebook, full of nourishing, satisfying meal ideas to support hunger and fullness naturally.

Or check out my signature series, The Anti Diet Method, my signature 21-day video series where I guide you through how to reconnect with your body, end binge-restrict cycles, and eat with trust again - no rules or calorie counting needed.