How Eating Disorders Disrupt Hunger and Fullness Cues
One of the most confusing and frustrating aspects of living with an eating disorder is the way it disrupts the body’s natural signals around hunger and fullness. You may find yourself unsure of when you’re hungry, unable to recognise when you’ve had enough, or feeling completely disconnected from your body’s cues. This isn’t a matter of “willpower” or “not paying attention” - it’s the direct result of how eating disorders affect both biology and psychology.
The Science Behind Hunger and Fullness
Our bodies are designed with an intricate system for regulating food intake. Two important hormones play a central role:
Ghrelin is often called the “hunger hormone.” Produced in the stomach, it signals to the brain that it’s time to eat. Ghrelin levels rise before meals and fall once we’ve eaten.
Leptin is sometimes referred to as the “satiety hormone.” It helps the brain understand when the body has had enough food, reducing appetite and signalling fullness.
In a healthy system, ghrelin and leptin work together to keep food intake and energy balance relatively stable.
But in eating disorders, this system gets disrupted. Restriction, bingeing, and purging all interfere with hormonal signals. For example:
Chronic restriction can suppress hunger cues, leading to low ghrelin levels or the body “numbing out” signals to conserve energy.
Repeated bingeing or weight suppression can alter leptin sensitivity, so the brain doesn’t register fullness accurately.
Over time, the normal “ebb and flow” of hunger and satiety gets blunted, making it harder to trust your body’s signals.
This disruption is part of why recovery can feel so hard: the very cues most people rely on to guide eating don’t work the same way in an eating disorder.
How Hunger Can Show Up
When people think about hunger, they usually imagine a rumbling tummy or an “empty” feeling in the stomach. While that’s one common signal, hunger actually presents in many ways - and eating disorders can make it harder to recognise or trust those signals.
Hunger can show up as:
Physical sensations
Stomach emptiness or rumbling
Shakiness
Lightheadedness or dizziness
Fatigue or low energy
Cognitive signs
Difficulty concentrating
Preoccupation with food/”Food noise”
Trouble making decisions
Emotional changes
Irritability (“hangry” feelings)
Mood swings
Heightened anxiety
In recovery, part of the work is relearning to notice these different cues, and understanding that hunger is not only about the stomach.
Fullness in Eating Disorders
Just like hunger, fullness cues can become unreliable in eating disorders. For some people, it may feel like they never feel full, especially after periods of restriction or bingeing. For others, even small amounts of food may feel overwhelming.
This can be due to:
Gastrointestinal slowing that happens with restriction, leading to bloating or early satiety.
Altered leptin signalling, which makes it harder for the brain to register fullness.
Psychological factors, such as fear of weight gain, body discomfort, or a food scarcity mindset, can override or distort hunger and fullness signals.
Learning to distinguish between true fullness, discomfort, and anxiety around eating is a gradual process in recovery.
Rebuilding Trust in Your Body
The good news is that hunger and fullness cues can be restored. With regular, adequate nourishment and support, the body’s hormonal systems can recalibrate. This takes time — often weeks or months — and requires consistency, patience, and sometimes guidance from a therapist, dietitian, or medical provider.
Some strategies that can help include:
Eating regularly, even when you don’t feel hungry, to help reset internal cues. See Mechanical Eating.
Keeping track of the different ways hunger shows up for you.
Practising mindfulness to tune into body sensations without judgement.
Remembering that distorted cues are not your fault - they are a symptom of the eating disorder, not a personal failing. Your body is resilient, and with time and support, those signals can return.