How to Heal Your Hunger Cues Post-Dieting and Restriction

Healing your relationship with food and hunger cues is one of the most beautiful and transformative journeys you can take. You might not realize just how good life can become when you stop binge eating, let go of restrictive habits, and learn to trust your body again.

Take a moment to imagine this:

• Seeing results at the gym because your body is properly nourished and thriving.

• Looking in the mirror and recognizing the strong, confident, and healthy person you’ve always wanted to be.

• Focusing at work without your thoughts constantly drifting to food.

• Feeling comfortable in your skin and finally becoming more open to intimacy with your partner.

• Enjoying meals out with friends and knowing how to balance indulgent meals without spiraling into a binge.

• Being present with your family at meals, free from the constant worry about calories, body image, or late-night cravings.

Healing your hunger cues is not just about food—it’s about reclaiming control over your life. It’s about becoming the empowered, disciplined, and self-loving person you’ve always aspired to be.

So, is it worth the effort to heal and rebuild?

HECK YES!

Nobody knows what healthy eating is — Dr. Andrew Huberman.

The good news? You can reconnect with your hunger cues, stop fearing food, and recognize signs that you’re feeding yourself enough (more energy, better skin, comfortable fullness, and your body trusting it will get food). In this edition, we’ll explore how to repair these cues after dieting and restriction through intuitive eating. We’ll also discuss the impacts of disconnection and how to get to a place where you feel confident with your food choices.

The Effects of Not Honoring and Understanding Hunger Cues

When you’re dieting, you’re told what to eat and when, but you’re taught to ignore your own body’s hunger cues and signals. Instead, you rely on others to tell you what your body needs. Over time, this makes it hard to understand or trust your hunger cues. Or maybe you’ve never learned how to listen to your body properly. As a result, your body gets confused and struggles to tell you what it really needs. This disconnection isn’t just a personal experience; it has been widely studied and documented.

The Minnesota Starvation Study demonstrated how prolonged restriction of food can lead to severe dysregulation, obsessive thoughts about food, and an increased risk of binge eating. Participants, who were initially healthy, began to obsess over food and engage in compulsive eating behaviors during the period of starvation. This study clearly supports the idea that restrictive diets can trigger harmful eating patterns and disrupt mental and physical health. For a deeper dive, explore the study here: Minnesota Starvation Study PDF.

Studies like the Dutch Hunger Winter and the Minnesota Starvation Study highlight the damaging effects of extreme food deprivation, including disrupted hunger signals and long-term health issues.

• 80% of people with eating disorders struggle with recognizing hunger cues, leading to overeating or undereating.

• Chronic dieting disturbs hunger hormones, with ghrelin (hunger hormone) increasing cravings, and leptin (fullness hormone) decreasing, making it difficult to recognize when you’re truly hungry or full.

If you ignore your hunger cues for too long, it can lead to:

• More stress and anxiety around food, because your body’s natural signals are mixed up or ignored.

• Disordered eating habits, like binge eating or extreme dieting.

• Physical problems, such as tiredness, hormone imbalances, and digestive issues from not eating properly.

Step 1: Understand How Hunger Works and Why It Gets Disrupted

If you’ve been dieting or restricting your food intake, your body’s natural signals for hunger and fullness can become confused or disrupted (physical, mental, emotional hunger). Hunger is not the feeling of starvation, and fullness is not the feeling of being stuffed. These cues exist on a spectrum that helps your body regulate energy and nourishment.

(Using a hunger scale can help you identify where you are on this spectrum—something we can explore in another edition.)

Two main hormones regulate hunger and fullness:

• Ghrelin: Known as the “hunger hormone,” it tells your brain to eat when your stomach is empty.

• Leptin: Known as the “fullness hormone,” it signals your brain to stop eating when your energy needs are met.

Dieting often throws these hormones out of balance. For example:

• Prolonged restriction can lead to low leptin levels, making it harder to feel satisfied even after eating.

• Over time, ghrelin levels may increase, leaving you constantly hungry and prone to overeating.

Step 2: Reconnect with Your Hunger Signals

Steps You Can Take Today to Reconnect with Your Hunger Cues

1. Stop Relying on Diets and External Rules

• Diets and food rules often teach you to ignore your body’s signals and instead rely on someone else’s plan to tell you what’s “right.”

• Start paying attention to your hunger instead of waiting for a specific time or food schedule. If your body is telling you it needs nourishment, listen.

(Remember, your body has the wisdom to guide you—it just needs practice to trust again.)

2. Practice Mindful Eating

• Slow down, enjoy your meals, and pay attention to how your body feels during and after eating.

• You don’t need to eat mindfully at every meal, but doing so a few times a day can help you relearn how to stop eating when you’re comfortably full.

(Think of babies: they cry when they’re hungry and stop eating when they’re full. They naturally trust these cues before external rules take over. You’re simply learning to get back to that state.)

3. Avoid Restriction and All-or-Nothing Thinking

• Over-restricting or adopting an “all-or-nothing” mindset (e.g., “I ate this, so I’ve ruined everything”) undermines your ability to trust yourself around food.

• Health doesn’t happen overnight—it’s built through consistent, small changes over time. The people you admire didn’t achieve their health goals magically; they worked at it with the right approach.

4. Eat Consistent Meals

• Regularly eating every 3-4 hours can help reset your hunger cues and stabilize energy levels, especially if you’ve been on restrictive diets.

• Consistency doesn’t mean rigidity—it’s about allowing your body to regulate naturally.

(For example, I often eat every 3-4 hours, but some days are different—and that’s completely okay. The goal is to let your body take the lead.)

3. Seek Support if Needed

Reconnecting with your hunger cues can be especially challenging if you’ve been stuck in a cycle of dieting or struggling with disordered eating for a long time. If this resonates with you, don’t hesitate to seek support from professionals or communities that can guide you.

• Professional Help: When it comes to eating disorders, general health practitioners in India often provide advice that can leave you feeling unvalidated and, in some cases, worsen the situation. Their focus is usually on quick fixes like appetite suppressants or birth control, which don’t address the root causes of eating disorders.

Seek out professionals who focus on healing, not quick fixes. They should be able to work with you on your unique needs, guiding you through the process with empathy and expertise.

• Community Support: I felt truly belonged with a group of people who were going through similar struggles, and it was incredibly empowering. The understanding and compassion found in international help groups helped me tremendously in my own healing process. It’s vital to connect with others who get it, as they can help you feel less isolated and more empowered.

(In India, access to tailored nutritional support and health solutions is still limited. That’s why I’m passionate about creating resources and programs that meet each person’s unique goals, combining the right approach with sustainable practices. If you’re looking for guidance, stay tuned—I’m working to bridge this gap with customized solutions that support healing and long-term success.).

Actionable Tip for the Week:

Start with one meal today where you practice mindful eating. Tune in to how the food feels, and allow yourself to feel hungry before you eat. Let that be the beginning of reconnecting with your hunger.

Thank you for reading!

Your journey towards healing your hunger cues is powerful. Remember, you don’t have to do it alone. If you need help, feel free to reach out or share your experience with me.

Until next time🧁