I can’t believe we need to say this out loud.

But I’ll say it again, in case you need to hear it:

No one can tell you what makes you feel full.

No nutritionist can tell you what makes you feel full. No nutrition panel can tell you what makes you feel full. Only your body can tell you what makes you feel full.

I used to work at a company where we got Greek yogurt for free. I ate soooOOOOooo much Greek yogurt and let me tell you what: without fail I was hungry within an hour. You know what actually fills me up? GRITS. Nutritionally empty, love-of-my-life grits. I don’t know why, and I don’t care.

When you’re in the throes of disordered eating, you’re always looking for that miracle food that keeps you full longer for fewer calories. I must have read a thousand of these kinds of articles over my 10 years of disordered eating, and you know what? All they ever did was make me feel worse. Because I followed all the rules, and I STILL wouldn’t feel full. I was a bottomless pit of hunger and self-loathing.

Intuitive Eating taught me that my years of calorie restriction caused my brain to think that food was scarce, making every food seem absolutely irresistible. Every fad diet felt like a famine to my body. It couldn’t predict when the next crash diet would be, so its primal solution was to seek food, find food, obsess over food, food food food.

Your body will continue asking for food until it feels sated. If you are hungry: eat. If you are still hungry: keep eating. It might take a month or two months: keep eating until your stomach says “Great, thank you. You can stop now.”

Inevitably you will feel hungry again. Eat. Don’t judge how often you are hungry, or how much you need to eat until you feel full. Keep eating. Prove to your body that you are not lost in the wilderness — your food sources are dependable.

Next time your stomach starts rumbling, instead of googling how to make it go away, tell yourself “I hear you, body. Let me go find you some snacks.”