I got asked about what this was in a separate thread, and I thought it would be a good idea to start a new one for it since some of you might want to refer to it.

While I was getting a pedicure last week I was reading a back issue of O magazine (Oprah's mag). I found this in an inspirational article about weight loss for life. It's the Hunger Scale and you can use it to determine whether or not you should eat. Here it is:

The scale goes like this:

10: Stuffed. Approaching nausea.
9: Very uncomfortably full. Need to loosen clothing.
8: Uncomfortably full. Bloated.
7: Full. A bit uncomfortable.
6: Perfectly comfortable and satisfied.
5: Comfortable. More or less satisfied but could eat more.
4: Slightly uncomfortable. Beginning to feel signs of hunger.
3: Uncomfortably hungry. Stomach is rumbling.
2: Very uncomfortable, irritable, and unable to concentrate.
1: Weak and light-headed. Stomach acid is churning.

Greene says we should eat only when we find ourselves feeling 1, 2, 3, or 4. He instructs us to put our forks down at 5 and 6 and wait for our next scheduled meal. For those trying to lose weight, he says stop eating at 5. This is the point at which you're eating less than your body is burning.


Hope this works for you ladies. It certainly works for me... Every time!

That is so freaking good I like very very muchly!

Thank you so much!

by the way - I love your hair, it's so preeetty

That is definitely an eye opener. I can see where I went wrong while I was at school. Then I was bouncing back and forth from #2 to #8. Now I'm generally between #5 and #4.

Oh, I love this! I'm printing it off and putting in on my fridge.. and pantry... and cupboards.. and... HA! Thanks for posting!

I wonder how you would incorporate that into snacks?
I've been trying to eat: breakfast, light snack, lunch, light snack, dinner
but obviously I wouldn't be starving by the time that roles around

and on a side note, if I only ate when I was noticeably hungry I'd probably eat twice a day :/

For ppl that aren't eating very schedule-ly (eating disorder for example) then probably they won't notice. But if you start to eat about 3-4 times/ day for a while then you can easily notice when you're hungry.

Thanks for posting! This is amazing! Even without reading this, I've found myself mentally adhering to it lately..glad to know it's meant something.

I normally go to 5, I never go overboard anymore...but the thing is, people always assume I have an eating disorder because I'd say 90% of my food intake is after 3pm. It's mostly because I workout early morning normally (6am), then go back to bed for a bit. Wake up, and head straight to work, work then come home, I'm still not too hungry, so I snack, then I eat dinner around 6pm then have my last snack about 8pm. I don't think most days I get past 1000 calories, which again sounds bad but I'm just honestly NOT hungry and I fill up fast (1 bowl of grapes can fill me up for 4-5 hours).

Thing is - with snacks - if you were only eating to level 5 - you would probably find yourself at a sufficient hunger level within the 3 hours it takes for snack time to come anyway?

When I'm exercising and trying to be consistent with my eating I do get hungry - really easily! But i just eat small things til Im satisfied and still have issues making it past 1000 calories a day!

this is very interesting

thanks Fairy Sarah! what a nice compliment

I am glad to help guys!

I have been using this for 2/3 weeks now, and I must say I never drop below a 4, sometimes I get to 3 but I don't think I have often experienced a 2 or 1. I think before my weight loss challenge I was eating at 6 all the time. Now that I stop at 5, I feel so much better. It's great for any time you see something scandalous like french fries or ice cream and you want to have some. First off I tell myself "NO NO NO, eat something else you like that is healthy but wait... ARE YOU EVEN HUNGRY?" I do a little hunger scale check and low and behold I am at 5 or 6. Even if I stopped eating at 5, that slight desire to eat again goes away and after 20 minutes I am truly fine and satisfied. I think it must be the body adjusting and calming back down again. Must be something with your metabolism.

As far as fitting it in with snacks I think you would either just stick your plan (if you're on a special diet), or if you don't have a plan but think you should have a snack ask yourself...Am I hungry? What's my #? And base your decision on that.

The Intuitive Eating or Paul McKenna's "I can make you thin" uses this "trick"... and Fairy Sarah is right. You may have planned to eat one cup of rice, for example. If you truly follow it, you will end up being satisfied before you finish the one cup. So you are eating less at meal times, and you will get hungry in about 3 hours or so...and you eat again. But of course, until you are satisfied and then stop. To me, trying to eat 6 meals per day sometimes doesn't work because...it's like "ahhh snack time..but i'm not even hungry yet...but gotta eat snack. sigh...i'm going to be stuffed now" type of thing... With this intuitive eating, it's perfect.

However, we all have experienced when we eat something so fast that we don't realize how much we ate and we can't even breathe after we are DONE eating. One tip for those who would like to try this is to eat very consciously. Try to eat really slow. One tip McKenna gives is to put down your fork after each bite. Put one bite in the mouth, put down the fork, chew chew chew consciously. Then pick up the fork and back to eating again. This may seem silly but try and see how less food you eat. My portion went down so much by doing this. You eat slow, you will be able to feel satisfied while eating...because you are giving yourself time to feel the satisfaction, instead of "slurping" your food down and not giving yourself time to feel how full you truly are.

Yes the Paul McKenna stuff really works really well! I use it with the hunger scale and it works.

Today I just started the Fat Smash Diet, and so far my breakfast of banana and almonds and lunch of a huge assortment of veggies in a salad style is keeping me really full. I must admit I am shocked that I am not hungry after eating only 1/2 this salad thing I have created. I am at 5 on the scale right now, and I did in fact eat in a Paul McKenna style....lol

Have any of you tried the Fat Smash yet?

Great post. Thanks for sharing.