Having Trouble Feeling Full? Your Vagus Nerve May Be Asking For Support

I started off this week's episode with the intent to discuss how to tell when you're satiated to stop eating.

One research study, led me to another, led me to another. Suddenly, I no longer felt like I could make the experience of satiation come across as simple. There are just so many factors that can actually affect what supports you in feeling satisfied at the end of a meal.

If you're one of those individuals who has always felt unclear as to what feeling satiated and satisfied at the end of a meal felt like there could be a lot of reasons why. You may have heard of a lot of the chemical reactions that happen in our body when it comes to hunger and fullness. Things like leptin, ghrelin, and the lesser talked about CCK, which is a key peptide involved in the feeling of satiety.

What is talked about even less when it comes to feeling satiated is how the vagus nerve plays a role here.

When you eat food, your stomach expands in response to food coming in, information is sent up to the brain from the vagus nerve and the brain rallies in response to this incoming information to support the gut. Vagus nerve fibers in the gut help to release CCK supporting you in feeling satiated and satisfied. The National Academy of Sciences states, "The ability of CCK to reduce food intake requires an intact vagus nerve. Scientists have shown in rats that removing or cutting the vagal afferent nerves blocks CCK satiety and under some circumstances increases the volume of food consumed."

You're maybe starting to see that feeling full is more complicated than feel hungry, eat, feel full, stop. If our vagus nerve isn't functioning properly, this can potentially affect our ability to feel satiated no matter what or how much food we eat. So what can cause low vagal tone? Janae Elisabeth explains that low myelination, which is the protective layer outside of the nerve, can translate to low vagal tone and low myelination "is the most common physiological effect of developmental trauma or emotional neglect.

This is where I diverge from the intuitive eating world that there may actually be something that needs to be healed emotionally and physiologically inside your body before you're able to naturally sense feeling satiated and full from eating. This is where Somatic Eating™ comes in to first support your body in feeling safe, secure, regulated, and heal from old wounds that left you feeling unseen, unheard, and unmet to increase your vagal tone to be able to feel satiated.

One way to start doing this can be through belly breathing before and after you eat.

Deep, slow belly breathing can stimulate your vagus nerve, turning on your parasympathetic nervous system or your rest and digest response in your body. Supporting your body in feeling relaxed and safe before and after you eat can help you to feel the satiation you're looking to receive from your meals.

It is not your fault if you have struggled with feeling full. Growing up in a home that potentially left you feeling unsafe and unregulated or experiencing trauma at a young age affected your body and how it functions. Instead of continuing to focus on what or how much you're eating to try to support your body in feeling full, begin to explore deep belly breathing or other vagus nerve stimulating actions like humming or singing to help you feel safe and secure before and after you eat.