The Hunger Satiety Rating Scale is a tool for increasing awareness of hunger levels and identifying where you fall on the hunger-fullness spectrum. This awareness can help guide eating decisions, including whether to eat and how much.
Are you truly hungry? Are you in need of a snack or a full meal? Or, if you notice you're not hungry, consider whether something other than physical hunger—like stress, boredom, or emotion, may be prompting you to eat.
Use the scale below to check in with your body:
The ends of the hunger and satiety scale are extremes and can be described as very uncomfortable.
Starving, dizzy, irritable
This is the feeling when you haven't eaten in several hours and will eat almost anything in sight.
Full = overly stuffed
This feeling often occurs after eating more than necessary, such as during a big Thanksgiving dinner or a restaurant meal where you've gone well beyond the point of satisfaction.
Beginning signs and symptoms of hunger
When you are beginning to feel the signs of hunger symptoms hunger to feeling multiple signs and symptoms of hunger (belly rumbling, slight empty feeling in your stomach), is when it may be a good time to eat a meal or snack because your body is physically telling you that it needs nourishment.
You are also not too hungry so you can wait 15-20 minutes, if needed, to find a healthy and balanced choice.
However, with diabetes, you may need to prioritize getting blood sugar back into a safe range with a rapid-acting carb snack and rechecking in 15 min.
When you are in this 3-4 range eating speed will likely be slower which can allow you to be more mindful of your fullness cues.
It can take about 20 minutes for your brain to start recognizing fullness cues, so "pace, don't race!"
Neither Hungry nor Full
As you are eating, slow down and savor each bite so you can feel when you are comfortable, This is when hunger is gone but you're not quite satisfied.
Four to five bites later, you may find you are a 6 and are ready to be finished, no matter how much food is left on your plate.
Just-right. Comfortable and satisfied
At a 6, you will feel a slight fullness in your stomach, and it will be obvious that food is in there, but not so much that you feel bloated or heavy.
If you are living with diabetes, it's important to follow your blood sugar monitoring schedule while paying attention to your hunger and satiety cues. While you may sometimes sense when your blood sugar is too high or low, checking is always the most reliable way to know. Staying informed helps you make the best decisions about what to eat or avoid in the moment.