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What is the hunger scale?
Thinking about levels of hunger on a scale can help us be mindful of when to eat and how to avoid overeating. Registered dietitian and certified diabetes educator Leslie Tranter explains the hunger scale from 1 to 10.
Transcript
LESLIE TRANTER: Really want to stay between a 2 and a 5 on the hunger scale. When we do that, our body is much more likely
to take in those calories and use them to do all of the things that our body does throughout the day.
The hunger scale is a great tool we can use to help us to avoid unwanted holiday weight gain. And what it also does is it helps us to better understand
how hungry we are when we sit down to a meal and then how full we are when we're done eating. A 0 is I'm so weak with hunger, I'm about to pass out.
A 1 is I'm famished. A 2 is the perfect time, according to our stomach, to start eating.
A 3 is I'm mildly hungry. A 4 on the hunger scale is I'm on my way to being satisfied,
but I'm not yet full. And a 5, according to our stomach, this is really when we should stop eating.
If we get down to a 6, this is a little bit more full than we need to be. A 7 is I'm very full.
And 8 is I'm painfully full. A 9 is I'm so stuffed. I really don't feel good. I'm having trouble breathing.
I've got to push myself away from the table. And a 10 is even worse off than that. We really want to stay between a 2 and a 5 on the hunger scale.
When we do that, our body is much more likely to take in those calories and use them to do all of the things
that our body does throughout the day, for our heart to-- to pump blood, for our lungs to breathe oxygen,
for our kidneys to filter and excrete waste. You're actually burning calories when you're-- when you're doing
those things. And so when we go from a 6 to a 10, that's when our body goes into fat storage mode.
Every once in a while, overeating, not a problem. But if we're overeating habitually, then that could lead to unwanted holiday weight gain.
So again, we want to stay between a 2 and a 5 on that hunger scale. [WHOOSH] [HEARTBEAT] [BEEPING]
weight management
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