Why You Can't Tell When You're Hungry: The Neuroscience Of Interoception & The Intuitive Eating Trap

Why You Can't Tell When You're Hungry: The Neuroscience Of Interoception & The Intuitive Eating Trap

It’s: 10:45

Maybe a tightness grips your chest. Perhaps a hollowness opens up lower down. It might just be a vibration, a restless energy compelling you to stand up.

Consider your immediate reaction.

Most people skip the step of checking in with their stomach. They don't scan their body for data. They look at the clock.

We outsource the answer to an external device to see if we are allowed to be hungry yet.

If the clock says it’s too early, panic sets in. The mental math begins immediately. "I had oatmeal at 8:00. That was 300 calories. I should be full. This must be boredom. Or maybe I’m just thirsty. I’ll drink a massive glass of water and trick my stomach until noon."

We push the sensation down, numb it out, and actively ignore the signal because the data on the clock doesn't match the data coming from the body.

Then 7:00 PM arrives. The work day ends, the structure vanishes, and you find yourself standing in front of the pantry inhaling food you don't even taste. You aren't sure if you're hungry then, either. You just know you can't stop.

For years, I viewed this as a discipline problem. I believed I simply liked food too much or lacked emotional fortitude.

The issue goes deeper than appetite or willpower. After years of dieting, following rules, counting points, and adhering to meal plans, the line of communication between your gut and your brain has been severed. You have trained yourself to go deaf to the call.

We need to explore why you can’t tell when you’re hungry, why "intuitive eating" feels impossible right now, and how to turn the receiver back on.

The problem: You trained your brain to mute the call

We lost the ability to perform the basic biological function of feeding ourselves through the neurological impact of chronic dieting.

When you go on a diet, you enroll in a masterclass on ignoring your body. The curriculum consists of rules designed to override internal signals.

Consider the common "tricks" we learn. "If you feel hungry, drink a glass of water and wait 20 minutes." "Chew gum so your mouth is busy." "Go for a walk to distract yourself."

We celebrate these hacks as "discipline." Your brain interprets them as a command to ignore data.

Every time your stomach growled, sending a clear, biological request for energy, and you responded with zero-calorie sparkling water or a stick of gum, you taught your brain a specific lesson. You taught it that the signal is noise. You taught it that the sensation of hunger is irrelevant to the action of eating.

Your brain eventually does what any efficient machine would do. If a specific alert light keeps flashing, and you keep putting tape over it, the system stops prioritizing that alert. It downgrades the signal.

This explains why people with a healthy relationship to food can eat two bites of a cookie and walk away. They aren't fighting a massive urge to eat the rest. They simply hear a signal you’ve stopped receiving. They hear "I'm done," and it arrives as clearly as a phone ringing.

You have successfully trained yourself to disconnect the physical sensation of an empty stomach from the conscious decision to eat. Consequently, you have also disconnected the sensation of a full stomach from the decision to stop.

You are flying a plane through a storm, but you smashed your own instrument panel ten years ago because a diet book told you the gauges were lying. Naturally, you feel out of control. You are flying blind.

Interoception (the 8th sense)

To fix this, we need to examine a concept rarely discussed in weight loss circles: Interoception.

We learn about the five exteroceptive senses, sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing, which tell us what is happening outside of us.

You also possess an eighth sense. Interoception is your brain’s ability to perceive the internal state of your body. It is the system that reports: "I have to use the bathroom." "My heart is beating fast." "I am getting hot." And, crucially: "I need fuel," or "I have had enough."

This process occurs in a specific part of the brain called the insula.

The insula acts as your body's control tower. It receives thousands of incoming messages from your organs, interprets them, and sends a report to your conscious mind.

In a healthy relationship with food, the lines of communication to the insula remain open. The stomach sends a gentle "I'm getting empty" message, the insula reads it, and you think, "Lunch sounds good."

Chronic dieting disrupts this process.

When you spend years suppressing hunger with coffee or ignoring fullness to "clean your plate," you effectively put noise-canceling headphones on your insula. You degrade the neural pathway that carries the message.

The signal still leaves your stomach, but it never arrives at the control tower. This explains how you can go all day without eating and feel "fine," only to find yourself ravenous at 5:00 PM. Your body was screaming at you at 2:00 PM, but the line was cut.

The only time you take the headphones off is when the body screams loud enough to create a panic response. You don’t just eat dinner; you inhale the kitchen. You are reacting to a five-alarm biological fire because you missed all the smoke signals that came before it.

The uncomfortable truth: Why "intuitive eating" feels like a trap

If you are on social media, you have seen the rise of the "Intuitive Eating" movement.

The premise sounds appealing: "Just listen to your body. Eat when you are hungry. Stop when you are full. Trust your inner wisdom."

It sounds like the freedom you have been desperate for. You delete the tracking apps, throw out the scales, and sit down to dinner with the intention to listen.

For many, chaos ensues. You eat the first bite, and your body doesn't say "that's enough." It demands more. You end up feeling bloated and ashamed, convinced that while normal people can listen to their bodies, you are broken and require strict rules.

Asking a chronic dieter to "listen to their body" is like asking someone to navigate a new city using a map that has been scribbled over with black sharpie for twenty years. You cannot listen to a signal that isn't transmitting.

Intuitive eating is an advanced skill that relies entirely on accurate neuroception—that clear phone line between gut and brain. If your interoception is offline because of years of suppression, relying on "body signals" can be dangerous advice.

The problem is that you are trying to rely on software (intuition) when your hardware (interoception) is currently damaged. You have to rebuild the hardware first. You have to repair the wiring before you can turn on the power. That requires a different approach than just "eating what you want."

Practical application: Tuning the receiver

We rebuild this hardware by retraining your brain to notice any sensation before we ask it to notice hunger.

I call this "Tuning the Receiver."

For the next week, practice the Non-Food Body Scan. Three times a day, set an alarm. When it goes off, stop what you are doing for thirty seconds. Don't think about food or your weight. Ask your brain to find a sensation in your body.

Can you feel the temperature of the air on your skin?

Can you feel the pressure of your feet against the floor?

Can you locate your heartbeat?

This lights up the neural pathways to the insula. You remind your brain that the body has data to share, effectively clearing the static on the line.

Once you start practicing that, move to the second tool: Identifying the Texture.

When you feel that magnetic pull toward the pantry, pause for ten seconds. You can still eat the cookie after ten seconds. But first, close your eyes and ask: "What is the texture of this feeling?"

We often confuse anxiety with hunger because they both feel like high energy in the body. They have different signatures.

Anxiety usually lives high in the body, in the chest, the throat, or the jaw. It feels fast, vibrating, and electric.

Biological hunger lives low. It’s in the abdomen. It feels slow, hollow, gnawing, or empty. It doesn't buzz; it rumbles.

Next time the urge hits, look for the location.

If the feeling is high and buzzy, eating a sandwich won’t fix it because your stomach isn't the organ asking for help. Your nervous system is.

By naming the texture, "This is high and fast", you create a tiny wedge of space between the urge and the action. In that space, you start to get your power back.

Closing: Safety in sensation

This week, be incredibly gentle with yourself. You are starting a process of physical therapy for your brain.

If you broke your leg and were in a cast for six months, you would expect your muscles to be atrophied and your balance to be shaky. You would know that you have to learn how to walk again.

You are in the same position with your hunger signals. Your interoception has been in a cast for years.

You might feel frustrated when you try to tune in and hear nothing but static. You might feel panic when you realize you don't know the difference between boredom and hunger yet. This discomfort is evidence that you are healing.

Your body has been waiting for you to pick up the phone. The biology is resilient. The pathways are still there, waiting to be reactivated.

Don’t worry about changing what you eat. Don’t worry about calories or macros. Just focus on the signal.

Do your body scans. Feel your feet on the floor. Ask yourself if the feeling is high and buzzy, or low and hollow.

Even if you still eat the cookie, simply asking the question is the victory. You are turning the volume knob up, one tiny degree at a time. Eventually, the music will come through loud and clear.

I’ll see you in the next episode.