How long until you feel full?

[Honoraryuce]

Just that. After eating a meal how long does it take before you feel full and satisfied (assuming a reasonable portion size). I'm finding it takes up to 3 hours after a meal before I stop feeling hungry. If I eat again in that time because I still feel pretty hungry then I end up feeling overly full. Surely the process of feeling full and satisfied after a well balanced meal should be faster? Is there a way to speed it up?

I'm usually well hydrated too.

I only feel full if I have over eaten. Normally I stop eating when I am no longer hungry.

If my memory from uni days serves me right it takes 20 minutes for your brain to register what your stomach has received but signals are sent from your mouth too so it's not a simple thing. 3 hours seems very excessive.
What kind of things are you eating? Are you eating enough?

...while I'm eating. But I agree with the twenty minute rule because of I stuff myself, I'm very uncomfortable about twenty minutes later.

Have you always struggled with feeling full or is it a new feeling? You sound very in tune with your body

I am trying to lose weight again so I'm probably not eating as much as my body is used to. It's currently about 1800-1900 calories a day and fairly balanced in terms of protein/whole grains/large portion of veg. It's not yet low enough calorie wise to lose, that doesn't happen until 1600 calories but I'm quite active and get pretty hungry so I'm working my way down slowly.

I used to eat v poor restrictive diet and I used to get v full and uncomfortable after what was basically always a massive bowl of pasta and cheese for dinner. Maybe I'm just struggling with really understanding when I've had enough food because I'm used to using uncomfortably stuffed full of pasta as a guide. I still want to eat until about 3 hours after meals then that seems to go away and I feel satisfied.

I wonder if not hungry is too subtle a feeling compared to feeling stuffed. I still want to eat until about 3 hours after a meal then I feel satisfied.

I want to keep eating after a meal too because food tastes nice but I choose not to because I'd end up eating too much.

Have you worked out your tdee?

I might have missed you saying it but do you drink plenty of water?

It's a spectrum imo. Ranging from 'not actively hungry anymore but could keep eating' to 'couldn't eat another bite' and everything in between.

Full means different things to different people as well, but no one can know how other people feel iyswim. So full to me just means my stomach isn't hungry/empty. Other people have to be properly 'full' as in uncomfortable or really can't eat any more. I hate that feeling and actively avoid it! People also feel 'snacky' or 'peckish' and call it hungry whereas I wouldn't.

It's taken me a long time to recognise the difference. Carbs and ultra processed foods definitely affect my hungry-but-not-really-hungry signals more.

Calculator says 2225 and I know weight loss only happens when I'm consistently around 1600. I drink lots of water. I think maybe all my signals are off or I'm terrible at interpreting them.

I have two modes I think which are feeling faint hungry and general hungry. The feeling faint hunger goes away when I eat but the other kind doesn't for a long time. I actually feel even hungrier once I've eaten sometimes. I do avoid processed carbs like bread/pasta etc as well as sugar and alcohol as they definitely give me cravings or make me eat in a disordered way.