Nina Kaufmann

We live in a world full of external food rules—when to eat, how much to eat, what to eat. Count this, count that. If you’re hungry, chew a gum.
But what if your body already knew how to eat? After all, eating, and feeling hunger are essential for our survival—it wouldn’t make any sense if Nature didn’t gift us with wisdom to feel our hunger, and our fullness.

The hunger and fullness scale is a simple tool that helps you tune into your body’s natural hunger and fullness cues. Instead of relying on rigid meal schedules or diet rules, the hunger scale helps you reconnect with your internal wisdom and eat in a way that nourishes you, and feels good.
So let’s talk about hunger and fullness scale, and how it can help you honor your body’s natural wisdom.

What Is the Hunger And Fullness Scale?

Hunger and fullness scale is a tool used in intuitive eating that helps you reconnect with your body’s natural cues.
As you can see, the scale goes from 1 to 10, and the purpose of it is to help you assess how hungry or full you are.

Before using it, however, I would like to remind you that the scale is supposed to be a gentle check-in, to use with curiosity and compassion (much like everything else in our intuitive eating, soft health world). You do not need to assess your levels perfectly every time, and it’s perfectly fine if you don’t always start and stop eating at perfect levels of the scale!
If you’re still in the beginning stages of your journey, I would highly recommend using the scale with a help of a professional such as myself. Otherwise, if you’re still trapped by a dieting mindset, using the scale might turn to so called “hunger fullness diet,” which won’t necessarily lead you to a healthier relationship with food.

This is the scale I use with my clients, and it has served us pretty well over the (many) years:

Why the Hunger And Fullness Scale Is So Helpful

Consistently using the hunger and fullness scale will help you:
✔ Rebuild trust with your body
✔ Reduce overeating and undereating
✔ Support digestion and overall well-being
✔ Feel more in tune with your body’s natural hunger and fullness cues

How to Use the Hunger And Fullness Scale in Your Everyday Life

1. Check in Before Eating
Before reaching for food, take a moment to assess where you are on the hunger scale. Are you truly physically hungry, or are you eating out of boredom, stress, or habit? There’s no judgment—just curiosity.
Remember it’s not the end of the world if you end up eating out of boredom or stress, as we discuss in detail in Peace With Food.
Everyone might eat emotionally every now and then, but as intuitive eaters, emotional eating is way less appealing because food is neutral, and we learn to develop many other coping skills, which you can do to with Peace With Food.

2. Start Eating at a 3 or 4
Ideally, you want to start eating when you feel true hunger (around a 3 or 4), but before you’re starving (1 or 2). Waiting too long can lead to feeling out of control with food, making it harder to eat in a way that feels good. When you’re starving, it can be very challenging to check in mid-meal, or to really taste your food and honor food-body congruence.
I’m sure you’ve experienced this while dieting—waiting as long as possible to eat, or eating only tiny portions, and then ending up ravenous and eating everything in sight. This approach is obviously not ideal, as we want to honor our hunger in a timely manner, to respect our body’s essential need. Eating is self-care!

3. Pause Mid-Meal
Halfway through your meal, take a breath and gently check in with yourself:

• How does your stomach feel?
• Are you still enjoying the food?
• What number would you assign to your fullness level?

This small pause can help you eat more mindfully instead of rushing through your meal. Remember, it’s okay to honor your taste hunger—if you’re no longer hungry, but it’s your favorite food, it’s okay to eat some more. Satisfaction also matters!

4. Stop at a Comfortable Fullness Level
Aim to finish eating when you reach about a 6 or 7—satisfied, comfortably full but not overstuffed. It might take some trial and error, and that’s okay! As I’ve said, it’s about learning and adjusting, not getting it “perfect.”
Especially in the beginning, it might be difficult to notice when you “hit the spot,” but with time your interceptive awareness will grow. That’s the magic of intuitive eating!

However, if you’re feeling unsure, working with a professional might be the best idea—I can offer you gentle guidance based on years of professional experience. It can make all the difference!

Dealing With Common Challenges

• Emotional Eating or Physical Hunger?
  If you notice you’re eating emotionally (stress, boredom, sadness), try pausing and asking, “What do I really need right now?” “What would really calm me down?”
  Food might be part of the solution—and I always encourage my students and clients to have some food related options for coping with difficult emotions, but sometimes you’ll find out what you need is rest, connection, fun, setting boundaries and standing up for yourself or self-care.
  In Peace With Food course, I’ve made a whole section on healing from emotional eating, softly, with compassion. Learn more here.
  
  
• Fear of Wasting Food:
  Many of us have learned, while dieting or as children, to empty our plates. This mindset can be truly challenging to shift, especially when followed by years of dieting and overeating—perhaps you’ve experienced being on a diet, and then emptying the plate just because you knew it was all you can eat for the next couple of hours. Or you emptied the plate in the overeating phase, knowing a new diet starts tomorrow and you won’t “be allowed” to eat that specific food again.
  
  Now, it’s time to heal from this mindset.
  Instead of emptying your plate, you could try saving leftovers for later or serve yourself smaller portions, adding more food as you need it, instead of serving a big portion you feel pressured to eat. You don’t have to finish everything on your plate if you’re comfortably full.
  If this feels impossible, remember you can always make your journey much easier by working with me!
  
  
• Letting Go of Rules:
  As I’ve mentioned, the hunger and fullness scale isn’t a diet rule—it’s a flexible, gentle tool for awareness. Some days you might eat past a 7, and that’s normal. Everyone overeats once in a while, and I promise, nothing bad will happen if you did. As I’ve talked about in my recent TikTok, your body is resistant and can digest food. Any discomfort you might feel when you overeat is just temporary, and the next meal will be your next chance to tune in to your body’s fullness cues!
  Approaching hunger and fullness scale with self-compassion is essential for progress on your intuitive eating journey.

Conclusion

Hopefully this guide shed light on how you can use hunger and fullness scale to help you tune in with your body’s natural cues.

Important takeaways being—approach your intuitive eating journey with compassion and curiosity. It will serve you much better than any criticism ever did, I promise. And, remember that hunger and fullness scale isn’t just another dieting tool to beat yourself up with and restrict your food intake—it’s about building your interceptive awareness, rebuilding trust with your body, and coming home to yourself.

The more you practice, the easier it becomes to eat in a way that feels natural, freeing, and satisfying.

If you’re ready to deepen your connection with your body and nourish yourself in a way that feels intuitive and sustainable, I’d love to support you.
Eating should be pleasurable and easy, after all, it’s the most natural thing in the world!

Book a free discovery call today, and let’s explore how intuitive eating coaching can help you feel more at home in your body—without diets, guilt, or stress.

It’s Time to Break Free

Imagine waking up without thinking about calories, carbs, or “earning” your breakfast. Imagine feeling at peace around food, in tune with your body, and confident in your choices—without guilt or obsession.

That’s what food freedom can feel like.
And it all starts with a simple, free step:

Join the 5-Day Food Freedom Jumpstart

This free email challenge will help you:

• Identify your personal diet culture traps
• Begin rebuilding body trust
• Unlearn restrictive habits
• Reconnect with food in a peaceful, nourishing way

You’ll receive one short, empowering email each day with real tools, mindset shifts, and gentle inspiration on your healing journey!