Being Full vs. Being Satisfied

Have you ever had the experience of finishing a meal and feeling somewhat full, but also not feeling completely satisfied with what you had?

I think this comes up fairly often, especially when people talk about having a “separate stomach” for dessert. That seems to be a way of saying that they’re full but not satisfied because they still want something sweet.

I started thinking about this when watching the most recent episode of the YouTube series “Ask Hank Anything”. The series has different people, in this case, Rachel Bison, ask Hank Green anything they want, and he’ll do his best to answer. In this episode, Rachel asked how she could feel full and still want ice cream, which got me thinking about fullness vs. satiety.

Hank also addressed that question, as well as some other food-related questions. Some had fascinating answers. For example, did you know that almost no salt and vinegar chips actually include vinegar?

If that intrigues you, check out the video, but for now, I’ll talk about being full and being satisfied.

Feeling full

Feeling full and feeling hungry are opposite sides of the same sensation, which is about how much is in your stomach. When your stomach is too empty, you start to experience symptoms of hunger – growling stomach, feeling “empty”, irritability, being unable to focus, having low energy, etc.

On the other hand, when you’ve consumed enough to fill your stomach to the point where it needs to stretch, that’s when you start to feel full. It’s your body’s way of telling you that you have enough in your stomach.

It’s not always as simple as that, of course. If you’ve gone for too long without noticing feelings of hunger or fullness, you might not be able to identify the sensations when they come up. You can also feel full from drinking a lot of water or other fluids, though that won’t help with things like not having much energy.

It doesn’t help that it can take a while for those hunger and fullness signals to get from your stomach to your brain. By the time you notice you’re full, you might even be uncomfortably full. This is why some diets recommend stopping eating before you feel full, since once your brain catches up 10-20 minutes later, then you might actually feel full.

Being satisfied

Being physically full, though, doesn’t mean that you’ll necessarily be satisfied by a meal.

This can happen a lot when people are dieting, and they force themselves to eat the foods they think they “should” eat, but it’s not what they actually want to have. By the end of the meal, they may be physically full, but they’re still thinking about the food they really wanted – and they may go ahead and have some of that food and end up overeating.

Since I make most of my own meals these days, this isn’t something I often encounter. Occasionally, though, I feel compelled to finish some leftovers, even if it’s not something I really want, especially if I’d had it a few times already. In those cases, I have to be careful to balance the meal with also having something that I really want, so that I’m satisfied overall.

You might also run into this if you’re anticipating dessert, but at the same time, you feel like you need to “clean your plate”. You could end up in a position where you’ve eaten enough of the main meal that you’re not truly hungry for dessert anymore, but you’re already thinking about it and still want it.

In cases where you’re full but not satisfied, you could try a couple of things:

• Have just a small amount of what you really want and see if that satisfies you

• Be mindful while eating the food you’re craving so you get the most enjoyment from it

• Consider if you could make adjustments in a similar situation in the future, so you can have some of what you really want while you’re still hungry

Balancing fullness and satiety

It can be hard sometimes to strike a perfect balance when eating so that you’re both full and satisfied. This is especially true if you’re going out to eat or if someone else is making your meal.

It’s also important to remember that it’s okay not to get this exactly right. You can try to learn from the experience, and even if you’re already full, if you choose to eat a little of something else, you can pay attention to it so that you fully enjoy it.