How to stop eating when not hungry?

SoulOfRusalka

So, basically I've been recovering from an eating disorder.
And when I was >90 pounds, it was physically really hard to eat at all. Like, if I ate a banana and an apple I would feel really sick and have to lie down and I got full really easily.
So I forced myself to eat sort of mechanically and ignore when my body was telling me I was full so that I could gain some weight.
And now it's sort of a problem, because it's turned into a habit and I don't think it's healthy. I'm just trying to eat intuitively, but I've gotten into this mode of ignore-yourself-and-keep-eating.
How do I stop??

Lounmoun

If you log what you are eating then you can see when you reach your calorie goal and just stop when you reach it. Drink water if you think you need to put something else in your body after that.
If you plan your meals and log them for the whole day in advance then you could just look at it and eat what has been planned.
If you have set a healthy goal in the first place, then tell yourself that eating up to your goal is enough and you can trust it.
Good luck!

ana3067

Lounmoun wrote: »

If you log what you are eating then you can see when you reach your calorie goal and just stop when you reach it. Drink water if you think you need to put something else in your body after that.
If you plan your meals and log them for the whole day in advance then you could just look at it and eat what has been planned.
If you have set a healthy goal in the first place, then tell yourself that eating up to your goal is enough and you can trust it.
Good luck!

Basically this, although you don't even need to plan for the whole day.

Log and then eat, don't eat and then log. For me, I take my daily intake goal and divide it into 3 or 4 meals, about evenly, log what I want to eat each meal and then eat that. If I'm still hungry after that I wait a while and drink some water i fneeded, then I feel full. I eat fast thouhg, this is why I can take a while to feel full after eating.

RodaRose

Do some yoga because it helps you get in touch with your body.

segacs

Since you're in recovery from an ED, it will be harder for you to trust the physical cues from your body when it comes to food, because, as you've pointed out, your brain is misinterpreting your body's feedback and lying to you.

Are you getting any help with your ED recovery? This is something you may want to speak to a therapist or specialist about.

But in general, yeah, you may want to eat to your logged plan for a while and try to do that regardless of how you feel. Eventually your body will get more accustomed to eating proper amounts of food, and you might start to get better feedback in terms of hungry / not hungry signals.

SoulOfRusalka

Thanks so much everyone!